Sens. Charles E. Grassley and Ron Johnson on Tuesday presented more bank records that show President Biden’s son Hunter Biden received millions of dollars from companies connected to the communist Chinese regime as recently as 2017.
The transactions, uncovered in an investigation by the two senators, raise concerns about influence peddling by the Biden family and the potential for compromising the administration’s policies toward Beijing.
“Our challenge is that the deep state does not give up its secrets easily. New evidence of Biden family influence peddling is surfacing on a regular basis – often coming from records from Hunter Biden’s laptop,” said Mr. Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican and member of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
Democrats in 2020 dismissed the evidence of questionable financial dealings involving Hunter Biden as Russian disinformation. The evidence is getting a second look after left-leaning news outlets recently acknowledged the authenticity of incriminating emails and records found on Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop computer during the 2020 presidential campaign.
The senators uncovered records of three bank transfers that show a $1 million payment to Hunter Biden’s company from a Chinese company that was embroiled in a U.S. investigation of international bribery and money laundering.
The bank records trace the $1 million from the Chinese government-linked company CEFC China Energy to Hunter Biden’s company Hudson West III in November 2017 and then to Hunter Biden’s Owasco law firm in March 2018.
The records of the wire transfers indicate the payments were made to Hunter Biden’s firm for representing Patrick Ho Chi Ping, who was the head of CEFC at the time.
The original transfer of $1 million coincides with Mr. Ho’s arrest by U.S. authorities in November 2017 on international bribery and money laundering charges.
Federal agents have not charged Hunter Biden with a crime related to these transactions, and the Justice Department has not indicated that Hunter Biden is under investigation related to CEFC.
President Biden has said he never discussed business with his son. He maintains that his public service, including as vice president from 2009 to 2017, was kept separate from his family’s business dealings.
“We may never know all the details of the Biden family foreign entanglements or the full extent to which those entanglements compromise our current president. But I’m pretty confident I know who does know – intelligence operatives in Russia, China, Iran and North Korea,” Mr. Johnson said. “Elements within U.S. intelligence agencies probably also know. They’re just not going to tell us.”
The senators previously revealed another bank transfer of $100,000 from CEFC to Owasco on Aug. 4, 2017. Hunter Biden managed and had an ownership stake in Owasco.
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Around the time of his arrest in November 2017, Ho also reportedly called President Biden’s brother James Biden, who was involved in Hunter Biden’s far-flung international business deals.
“Ho’s decision to call the Biden family around the same time he got arrested is revealing, particularly in light of the fact that the same month a million dollars just happened to be transferred to Hunter Biden’s company,” Mr. Johnson said.
Ho was ultimately convicted of bribery, money laundering and conspiracy for his role in a multimillion-dollar scheme to bribe top officials of Chad and Uganda in exchange for business advantages for CEFC. He was sentenced to three years in prison.
Mr. Johnson and Mr. Grassley, an Iowa Republican who is the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, requested information about Ho from the Justice Department in March 2021 related to court filings indicating the department had surveillance records on him.
The Justice Department would not confirm whether they had the records, the senators said.
“Unfortunately, the attorney general refuses to clarify that outrageous contradiction for Congress,” Mr. Johnson said.
The Washington Times reached out to the White House and the Justice Department for comment but did not hear back.
• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.
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