This week, former U.S. senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) went on MSNBC to issue a furious warning to everyone looking into Hunter Biden and the influence peddling scandal: “Everybody needs to back off!”
Newly released evidence from the investigation indicates that McCaskill was not the only powerful figure issuing that warning. Two whistleblowers reportedly detailed highly disturbing actions from top officials to slow walk and undermine the investigation.
Many of us have already noted the absence of certain charges in the plea deal given to Hunter Biden. In addition to the lack of any charge as an unregistered foreign agent, there is no evidence that the Justice Department seriously investigated the influence-peddling efforts of the Biden family despite allegations of millions generated from foreign sources.
Now these whistleblowers are reportedly telling Congress that they were actively frustrated in their efforts to investigate as Merrick Garland was insisting that there was no interference or limitations.
This included preventing an effort to search a guest house of President Joe Biden. IRS official Gary Shapley allegedly recalled that Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf agreed that there was “more than enough probable cause for the physical search warrant there, but the question was whether the juice was worth the squeeze.”
Wolf allegedly said that they could never get approval for the search despite the sufficiency of the evidence.
Even more disturbing is the allegation that Delaware US Attorney David Weiss sought to bring charges against the 53-year-old in both the District of Columbia and Southern California last year and was denied both times.
That directly contradicts statements made to Congress by Attorney General Garland.
Democrats and pundits have repeatedly cited the fact that Weiss was a Trump appointee and thus the light plea bargain shows that there was no case to be made. However, these sources are suggesting that Weiss tried and was rebuffed in his effort to prosecute in two different jurisdictions.
There is also an allegation that Wolf gave Hunter’s legal team a “heads-up” that investigators were moving to search his Northern Virginia storage unit and that Wolf again objected to the effort to secure a search warrant.
The only way to establish the truth of any of this would be to call Weiss, Wolf, and others to Congress.
While such efforts are routinely refused by the Justice Department, these allegations (if true) would raise both potentially criminal and impeachable questions. That is an ample basis for Congress to use its oversight authority.
I recently wrote that Garland, by his own measures, has failed as Attorney General in restoring trust in his department. However, this is far more serious than allegations of negligence. It would constitute a knowing effort to delay and obstruct efforts to investigate the Biden family — and to mislead Congress.
The evidence also creates new problems for President Biden, who has repeatedly claimed as a presidential candidate and as president that he had no knowledge of any foreign dealings of his son.
Those statements were long ago proven patently false.
The laptop includes pictures and appointments of Hunter’s foreign business associates with Joe Biden. There is also a recording of Joe Biden discussing a Times report on Dec. 12, 2018, detailing Hunter’s dealings with Ye Jianming, the head of CEFC China Energy Company. He assures his son that “I think you’re clear” after lawyers worked on the New York Times before the story ran.
There is also a recording of his uncle James assuring Hunter that he and his father were going to arrange a “safe harbor” for him as his world began to collapse.
Now, there is a new contradiction. Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) read from an alleged July 30, 2017 Whatsapp message from Hunter Biden to one of his Chinese associates, Henry Zhao, the director of Harvest Fund Management and Communist Party official. Zhao was funneling money to Hunter’s firm BHR Partners.
Hunter is quoted as writing:
“I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight. And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.”
Again, the authenticity of this message has to be established. However, there remains a striking lack of curiosity among the Democratic members who have opposed every effort to investigate these allegations.
Even the recent disclosure of a trusted FBI source alleging a possible bribery scheme with a corrupt Ukrainian official has not reduced this opposition.
The lack of curiosity of Democrats in Congress is only matched by the media. A year after the New York Post broke the laptop story, I wrote a column marveling at the success of the Bidens in pulling off one of the neatest tricks in political history. I analogized it to how Houdini used to make his 10,000-pound elephant Jennie disappear on a stage in front of a live audience.
The key to the trick is that Houdini knew the audience wanted her to disappear. Jennie never left the stage but Houdini got the audience to invest in the trick by calling volunteers to the stage.
In the same way, the media wanted the Hunter Biden scandal to disappear — they still do. They are invested in the trick.
So, the Democrats and the media will continue to insist that there is a lack of evidence while opposing efforts to establish the evidence behind these allegations. After all, if there is an elephant behind this scandal, it is an indictment of their concerted efforts for over three years.
Of course, it still remains a challenge to hide an elephant if even one audience member goes looking. Polls show that the public overwhelmingly wants to pull back the curtain and see the elephant.
