OPINION:
Last week an enterprising reporter at the New York Post asked White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki what a $3.5 million payment to Hunter Biden from the wife of Moscow’s former mayor was for.
“I’m not familiar with that claim. It doesn’t sound like it’s backed up by a lot of evidence. If you have evidence or specifics, I’m happy to discuss it further,” Ms. Psaki replied.
Not familiar with the claim?
Last year, an 87-page report from the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in conjunction with the Treasury Department detailed how Russian billionaire Yelena Baturina, the wife of the former mayor of Moscow sent a $3.5 million wire transfer to Hunter Biden’s company on Valentine’s Day in 2014. It gave no details on what the payment was for.
The Senate report also described how the former Obama-Biden administration ignored “glaring warning signs” when Hunter joined the board of a Ukrainian energy company owned by a corrupt oligarch, which paid him “as much as $50,000 per month.” The Burisma board seat “created an immediate potential conflict of interest” because then-Vice President Biden was involved in U.S. policy toward Ukraine, the report said.
Ms. Psaki claimed she was “not familiar with the [Senate] report at all,” and then preceded to answer other unrelated questions.
Clearly, the White House would like to pretend there’s no conflict of interest with the Biden family’s foreign dealings and the Joe Biden presidency, but so many questions remain unanswered.
And our enterprising media, with the exception of the New York Post, are refusing to press them on it.
Last year, Tony Bobulinski, a former business associate of Hunter Biden, detailed how he met with Joe Biden, his brother Jim and son Hunter regarding a lucrative financial deal with a Chinese energy company in 2017.
Mr. Bobulinski provided a tape recording, texts, emails and business records as evidence the Biden family used President Biden’s stature and power to enrich themselves. He claimed the president knew all about his son’s foreign money-making schemes and concluded “Joe Biden and the Biden family are compromised.”
In addition to Mr. Bobulinksi’s first-hand account, the New York Post obtained Hunter Biden’s laptop, where emails confirmed the Biden family enriched themselves by leveraging Joe Biden’s position to obtain profitable foreign business deals.
In emails obtained New York Post, Hunter Biden introduced his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, to a top executive at a Ukrainian energy firm less than a year before the elder Biden pressured government officials in Ukraine into firing a prosecutor who was investigating the company.
The revelations from the Post and Mr. Bobulinski confirmed that President Biden lied on the campaign trail, when he told the American people he never discussed or knew anything about his son’s foreign business deals.
Moreover, there’s an ongoing federal probe into Hunter Biden’s “tax affairs,” prompted by his overseas business dealings. The U.S. attorney for Delaware is overseeing the investigation, and attorney general Merrick Garland said in his confirmation hearings that the probe was “proceeding discreetly.”
It’s curious how no details of the probe have leaked to the press — probably because our media have no curiosity to seek them out.
When there’s smoke, there’s usually fire. Ms. Psaki’s dismissive response to the $3.5 million payment doesn’t mean it didn’t take place or shouldn’t be investigated. Generally, when people tell you to look away it’s because they’ve got something to hide.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.