Hunter Biden (screenshot)
A year-long investigation by two Republican-led Senate committees has been released, concluding that Hunter Biden's worldwide "business" deals while his father was vice president raised alarm among U.S. government officials, who flagged conflicts of interest and possible criminal activity ranging from bribery to sex trafficking.
The report found Obama administration officials "ignored clear warning signs about ethical conflicts and possible extortion risks" involving not just Hunter Biden, but the whole Biden family, reported Just the News.
One of the biggest revelations, Just the News said, was that the U.S. Treasury Department flagged payments collected overseas by Hunter Biden and business partner Devon Archer for possible illicit activities.
The report by the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Finance Committee addressed some of the concerns raised by Hunter Biden's lucrative salary from the corrupt Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma while his father was in charge of Ukraine policy for the Obama administration. And there was his trip with his father aboard Air Force Two to Beijing, where he struck a $1 billion deal with a state-owned company.
The report found Hunter Biden paid nonresident women who were nationals of Russia or other Eastern European countries and who appeared to be linked to an Eastern European prostitution or human trafficking ring.
Treasury records acquired by the committee chairmen show potential criminal activity relating to transactions among and between Hunter Biden, his family, and his associates with Ukrainian, Russian, Kazakh and Chinese nationals.
The report described "Suspicious Activity Reports" that flagged claims of Hunter Biden's involvement in millions of dollars in transactions linking Burisma, Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina and Chinese business interests tied to its communist government.
Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, told Just the News the sheer volume of suspicious activity in Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings left the vice president vulnerable to illicit influence or extortion.
"The report raises serious questions that former Vice President Biden needs to answer. There are simply too many potential conflict of interest, counterintelligence and extortion threats to ignore," he said.
Fox News reported Democrats have claimed the probe is intended to harm Joe Biden's presidential campaign.
Many of its 87 pages are about Joe Biden's management of U.S. Ukraine policy while Hunter Biden was getting paid millions by Burisma.
The arrangement, the report said, "created an immediate potential conflict of interest that would prove to be problematic for both U.S. and Ukrainian officials and would affect the implementation of Ukraine policy."
President Trump raised that issue during his July 2019 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which triggered a "whistleblower" complaint that eventually led to the Democrats' impeachment investigation.
"This is a good-government oversight investigation that relies on documents and testimony from U.S. agencies and officials, not a Russian disinformation campaign, as our Democratic colleagues have falsely stated," the report said. "What the chairmen discovered during the course of this investigation is that the Obama administration knew that Hunter Biden's position on Burisma’s board was problematic and did interfere in the efficient execution of policy with respect to Ukraine. Moreover, this investigation has illustrated the extent to which officials within the Obama administration ignored the glaring warning signs when the vice president’s son joined the board of a company owned by a corrupt Ukrainian oligarch."
The report noted George Kent, former acting deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, "raised concerns to officials in Vice President Joe Biden's office about the perception of a conflict of interest with respect to Hunter Biden's role on Burisma's board."
Kent said Hunter Biden's presence on the board was "very awkward for all U.S. officials pushing an anticorruption agenda in Ukraine."
Senior State Department official Amos Hochstein also raised concerns with Biden, as well as with Hunter Biden, that Hunter Biden's position on Burisma's board enabled Russian disinformation efforts and risked undermining U.S. policy in Ukraine.
Joe Biden is on video boasting that he threatened Ukraine's president that the U.S. would withhold $1 billion in loan guarantees if Ukraine refused to fire top prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who was investigating Burisma at the time.
The report noted Secretary of State John Kerry claimed he had "no knowledge" of Hunter Biden's position on Burisma's board. However, Kerry's stepson, Christopher Heinz, who was Hunter Biden's business partner, had emailed Kerry's chief of staff on May 13, 2014, the day after Hunter Biden joined Burisma's board, "to distance himself from that decision."
Kerry's chief of staff, David Wade, "briefed him about press inquiries specifically relating to Heinz, Hunter Biden, and Burisma" in May 2014, Fox News reported.
The report also charges that Hunter Biden, his family and others "received millions of dollars from foreign nationals with questionable backgrounds."
One was a $3.5 million wire transfer from Yelena Baturina, the wife of the former mayor of Moscow.
An account opened by Hunter Biden with Chinese businessman Gongwen Dang also funded "a $100,000 global spending spree with Joe Biden's younger brother, James, and his wife, Sara," the report said.
Democrats have insisted that concerns about Joe Biden and Hunter Biden were Russian disinformation.
But JTN said State Department records and testimony from Obama-era appointees confirmed the news outlet's "extensive reporting over the last year that State officials held serious concerns that Burisma was corrupt and had paid a $7 million bribe in 2014 to Ukrainian prosecutors while under investigation during Hunter Biden's tenure there."
"There is extensive public reporting concerning Hunter Biden's alleged involvement with prostitution services," JTN said. "Records on file with the committees do not directly confirm or refute these individual reports. However, they do confirm that Hunter Biden sent thousands of dollars to individuals who have either: 1) been involved in transactions consistent with possible human trafficking; 2) an association with the adult entertainment industry; or 3) potential association with prostitution. Some recipients of those funds are Ukrainian and Russian citizens.
"The records note that it is a documented fact that Hunter Biden has sent funds to nonresident alien women in the United States who are citizens of Russia and Ukraine and who have subsequently wired funds they have received from Hunter Biden to individuals located in Russia and Ukraine. The records also note that some of these transactions are linked to what 'appears to be an Eastern European prostitution or human trafficking ring,'" a footnote said.
JTN reported the investigation will continue partly because investigators have not been able to determine yet if the FBI, U.S. intelligence or other agencies fully investigated the concerns about the Bidens.
There isn't an accusation in the report of specific crimes on the parts of either Joe or Hunter Biden.
The post Senate report: Hunter Biden's deals raised concerns about possible bribery, sex trafficking appeared first on WND.
