Here are Biden’s most controversial pardons, with most signed using AutoPen

Posted on June 4, 2025 by Latest Political News on Fox News

The Justice Department is reviewing the list of people that were granted pardons by former President Joe Biden, amid new concerns about his use of an AutoPen to automatically sign documents, as well as concerns about his state of mind and mental acuity in his final months in office.

TRUMP DOJ INVESTIGATING BIDEN-ERA PARDONS AMID CONCERNS OVER STATE OF MIND

Biden used his final weeks as commander-in-chief to grant clemency and pardon more than 1,500 individuals, in what his White House described as the largest single-day act of clemency by a U.S. president.

But critics blasted Biden for some of the pardons and preemptive pardons for members of his family, inner circle, and some allies, amid concerns that the Trump administration would investigate and attempt to punish their actions.

WHAT IS AN AUTOPEN? THE SIGNING DEVICE AT THE HEART OF TRUMP'S ATTACKS ON BIDEN PARDONS

Biden signed the pardon for his son, Hunter Biden, by hand. But the others appear to have been signed by AutoPen.

Here is a list of the former president’s most controversial pardons:

Former President Biden pardoned his son Hunter Biden in December 2024—after vowing to the American people for months that he would not do so.

Hunter Biden was found guilty of three felony firearm offenses stemming from Special Counsel David Weiss’ investigation. The first son was also charged with federal tax crimes regarding the failure to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes. Before his trial, Hunter Biden entered a surprise guilty plea.

Biden, in December, announced a blanket pardon that applies to any offenses against the U.S. that Hunter Biden "has committed or may have committed" from Jan. 1, 2014, to Dec. 1, 2024.

HUNTER BIDEN: A LOOK AT HOW THE SAGA SPANNING OVER SIX YEARS UNFOLDED

"From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted," Biden said. "There has been an effort to break Hunter — who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me — and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough."

Biden added, "I hope Americans will understand why a father and a president would come to this decision."

Just a day before leaving office on Jan. 20, 2025, Biden signed an Executive Grant of Clemency for his brother James Biden and his wife Sarah Jones Biden; his sister Valerie Biden Owens and her husband John T. Owens; and his brother Francis W. Biden.

The "full and unconditional" preemptive pardon for his family members covered "any nonviolent offenses against the United States which they may have committed or taken part in during the period from Jan. 1, 2014, through the date of this pardon," which was signed on Jan. 19, 2025.

The pardon appears to have been signed with AutoPen.

Members of the Biden family had fallen at the center of the congressional investigation into their business dealings.

The House of Representatives launched an impeachment inquiry against Biden, finding that Biden committed "impeachable conduct" during his time as vice president and "defrauded the United States to enrich his family."

PRESIDENT BIDEN PARDONS HIS SIBLINGS JUST MINUTES BEFORE LEAVING OFFICE

During the inquiry, congressional investigators heard testimony from James Biden, who ultimately was referred to the Justice Department for prosecution for making false statements to Congress about "key aspects" of the impeachment inquiry.

The House of Representatives found that the Biden family and its associates received more than $27 million from foreign individuals or entities since 2014.

They also alleged that the Biden family leveraged Biden’s position as vice president to obtain more than $8 million in loans from Democrat benefactors. The loans "have not been repaid and the paperwork supporting many of the loans does not exist and has not been produced to the committees."

The Republicans said the alleged conspiracy took place while Biden was serving as vice president.

Biden, on Jan. 19, 2025, pardoned Milley, after an administration marred by the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal.

Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has admitted the withdrawal where 13 U.S. troops lost their lives was a "strategic failure."

BIDEN COMMITTED ‘IMPEACHABLE CONDUCT,’ ‘DEFRAUDED UNITED STATES TO ENRICH HIS FAMILY’: HOUSE GOP REPORT

"My family and I are deeply grateful for the President’s action today," Milley said in a statement, accepting the pardon. "After forty-three years of faithful service in uniform to our Nation, protecting and defending the Constitution, I do not wish to spend whatever remaining time the Lord grants me fighting those who unjustly might seek retribution for perceived slights."

The pardon appears to have been signed with AutoPen.

Biden, also on Jan. 19, 2025, pardoned former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci. Fauci also served as Biden’s chief medical advisor and oversaw the U.S. public health response and research on the COVID-19 virus and vaccine development.

Fauci accepted the pardon in a statement shortly after Biden announced the move, claiming he was subject to "politically motivated threats of investigation and prosecution."

DR. FAUCI SAYS HE APPRECIATES PRESIDENT BIDEN'S PARDON BUT INSISTS 'NO CRIME' WAS COMMITTED

"Let me be perfectly clear: I have committed no crime and there are no possible grounds for any allegation or threat of criminal investigation or prosecution of me. The fact is, however, that the mere articulation of these baseless threats, and the potential that they will be acted upon, create immeasurable and intolerable distress for me and my family. For these reasons, I acknowledge and appreciate the action that President Biden has taken today on my behalf," Fauci said.

Fauci’s pardon also appears to have been signed with AutoPen.

Biden, also on Jan. 19, 2025, used AutoPen to sign a pardon for members of Congress who served on the House Select Committee to investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.

BIDEN PARDONS MARK MILLEY, ANTHONY FAUCI, J6 COMMITTEE MEMBERS

The pardon also covered committee staff and the police officers from the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and the U.S. Capitol Police who testified before the committee.

Where are they now? Hunter Biden’s ex-business partners praise Trump, MAGA following Biden departure

Posted on April 9, 2025 by Latest Political News on Fox News

Hunter Biden's former business partners are no longer under the same scrutiny now that investigations into whether the former president's son used his family name for financial gain are over.

Devon Archer and Jason Galanis, who both collaborated with Biden on various business ventures between 2012 and 2015, received pardons and commutations, respectively, from President Donald Trump after he took office.

Archer, who has worked over the years to gain favor with Trump's world, signaled he would be interested in working for the Trump administration were a position offered to him, according to the New York Times. "I’m full MAGA now," he told the Times. "They’re more my people."

HUNTER BIDEN'S EX-BUSINESS PARTNER REVEALS CONVERSATION WITH TRUMP THAT REPORTEDLY INCLUDES A PARDON

Archer was reportedly given the cold-shoulder by the Biden family during President Joe Biden's tenure in the Oval Office, and as he protested his innocence amid Republicans' probe into the Biden family, Archer quietly made inroads with the Trump administration.

While Archer awaits a potential job in the Trump administration, he is reportedly working on a book and documentary chronicling his experiences. Archer is also reportedly working on a business project in the crypto industry as well.

As a result of their pardons, both Archer and Galanis did not have to serve prison sentences handed down to them in relation to defrauding investors and a Native American tribal entity of tens of millions of dollars through a company for which Hunter Biden was listed as the vice chairman.

In an interview on Fox News' "Hannity" this month, Galanis thanked President Trump and lauded Republicans, such as Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, for bringing "the proof" to light about "the Biden crime family."

JONATHAN TURLEY: BIDEN DOJ BEHIND EVEN THE TIMES IN PURSUING ALLEGED HUNTER CORRUPTION

Galanis said during the interview that his "legitimate" businesses became "illegitimate" after they were aligned with the president's son. "100% of it was influence peddling," Galanis said when asked about his view of the Biden family's business practices. "I saw it firsthand."

Meanwhile, James Biden, Hunter's uncle, is not sailing so smoothly, with Republicans requesting that the Trump administration prosecute the former president's brother for lying to Congress.

James Biden allegedly denied that his brother, the former president, met in May 2017 with his son's business associate Tony Bobulinski while pursuing a deal with a Chinese-owned energy company, CEFC China Energy.

Bobulinski, a key witness during the GOP's impeachment inquiry on account of claims he was privy to unethical business dealings by the Biden family, recently lost a defamation battle in court against Fox News host Jessica Tarlov.

‘MOST DAMNING EVIDENCE’: HUNTER BIDEN'S FULL PARDON RESURFACES DECADE OF CONTROVERSIES, ‘INFLUENCE-PEDDLING’

Bobulinski was seeking $30 million in damages after Tarlov claimed during an episode of "The Five" that Bobulinski's legal fees were being paid for by a Trump-aligned political action committee.

Another notable ex-business partner of Hunter Biden, Eric Schwerin, has kept a low profile ever since Republicans on the House Oversight Committee released his testimony from the GOP's impeachment inquiry. In his testimony, Schwerin stated he was "not aware of any financial transactions or compensation" that Joe Biden received as vice president related to his family's business dealings.

Hunter Biden's "Sugar brother" and lawyer, Kevin Morris, who helped finance the first son's legal fees with a reported $6.5 million, later told associates that his generosity left him financially tapped.

According to a report by the N.Y. Post, Morris faced his own ethical issues when he was accused of spying on a movie production about President Biden called "My Son Hunter" that was being made in Serbia. The filmmaker involved with the project, filmaker Phelim McAleer, hit Morris with a bar complaint in 2022.

"He used deceit to secure such access by not disclosing he was Mr. Biden’s lawyer. Mr. Morris used his cover as a documentary filmmaker to conceal his true purpose: performing legal investigative work on behalf of his client, Mr. Hunter Biden," McAleer said in his bar complaint.

The California Bar Association declined to disbar Morris in late 2024.

Ye Jianming, a Chinese billionaire and former chairman of CEFC China Energy, one of the companies Republicans alleged Hunter Biden sought to gain favor with using his family name, has reportedly disappeared from public view, Reuters reported in 2023. While his whereabouts are unknown, according to Reuters, Jianming's name has appeared in graft trials of senior Chinese Communist Party officials and state bank executives.

Trump commutes prison sentence of Hunter Biden’s ‘fall guy’ Jason Galanis

Posted on April 1, 2025 by Latest Political News on Fox News

President Donald Trump commuted the sentence of Jason Galanis, a convicted ex-business associate of Hunter Biden, whom Trump officials described as the "fall guy" for the former first son’s business dealings.

Galanis was sentenced in 2017 to 189 months, or 14 years, in prison, after pleading guilty to securities fraud based on bonds issued by a company affiliated with a Native American tribe in South Dakota.

The funds were reportedly supposed to be used for certain projects, but were instead used for his personal finances.

HUNTER BIDEN: A LOOK AT HOW THE SAGA SPANNING OVER SIX YEARS UNFOLDED

A Trump administration official told Fox News Digital that Galanis served eight years and eight months of his sentence and had an "unblemished record while in prison." The official also said Galanis was sexually assaulted by a security guard while in prison.

The Trump official told Fox News Digital that Galanis "basically was the fall guy for Hunter Biden and Devon Archer." The official noted Galanis was "extremely cooperative" during the 2024 House impeachment inquiry into the Biden family.

"After serving eight years and eight months in prison on good behavior, the administration felt it was time for him to regain his liberty and go on into his private life," the official told Fox News Digital.

Congressional investigators interviewed Galanis while he was in prison to gather information on the Biden family’s business dealings and any "access" to then-Vice President Joe Biden.

Galanis testified that Joe Biden was considering joining the board of a joint venture created by Hunter Biden and his business associates with ties to the Chinese Communist Party after he left the vice presidency.

JOE BIDEN ALLEGEDLY CONSIDERED JOINING BOARD OF CCP-LINKED COMPANY, WITNESS TESTIFIES FROM PRISON

Galanis said Joe Biden's involvement would have brought "political access in the United States and around the world."

Galanis testified that he worked with Archer and Hunter Biden between 2012 and 2015. Their business together, he said, included the acquisition of Burnham & Co, a division of Drexel Burnham Lambert, combined with "other businesses in insurance and wealth management." Galanis testified the three "owned and acquired with total audited assets of over $17 billion."

"Our objective was to build a diversified private equity platform, which would be anchored by a globally known Wall Street brand together with a globally known political name," Galanis testified. "Our goal — that is, Hunter Biden, Devon Archer and me — was to make billions, not millions."

Galanis testified that "the entire value-add of Hunter Biden to our business was his family name and his access to his father, Vice President Joe Biden.

EXCLUSIVE: BIDEN COMMITTED ‘IMPEACHABLE CONDUCT,’ ‘DEFRAUDED UNITED STATES TO ENRICH HIS FAMILY’: HOUSE GOP REPORT

"Because of this access, I agreed to contribute equity ownership to them — Hunter and Devon — for no out-of-pocket cost from them in exchange for their ‘relationship capital,’" he told investigators.

Hunter Biden served as vice chairman of the Burnham group "and brought strategic relationships to the venture, including from Kazakhstan, Russia and China."

Meanwhile, Archer was tied to the scheme that put Galanis in prison and was convicted in 2018 for defrauding the Native American tribal entity and various investment advisory clients of tens of millions of dollars in connection with the issuance of bonds by the tribal entity and the subsequent sale of those bonds through fraudulent and deceptive means.

The president pardoned Archer in March.

TRUMP PARDONS FORMER HUNTER BIDEN BUSINESS ASSOCIATE DEVON ARCHER

"Many people have asked me to do this. They think he was treated very unfairly. And I looked at the records, studied the records. And he was a victim of a crime, as far as I'm concerned. So we're going to undo that. … Congratulations, Devon," Trump said ahead of signing the pardon.

Archer thanked Trump ahead of officially receiving the pardon Tuesday, arguing he was "the victim of a convoluted lawfare effort."

"I want to extend my deepest thanks to President Trump," Archer said in a comment to the New York Post regarding the pardon. "I am grateful to the president for recognizing that I was the victim of a convoluted lawfare effort intended to destroy and silence me.

"Like so many people, my life was devastated by the Biden family’s selfish disregard for the truth and for the peace of mind and happiness of others. The Bidens talk about justice, but they don’t mean it," he said. "I am grateful that the American people are now well aware of this reality."

Galanis and Archer testified as part of the House impeachment inquiry against Joe Biden. The House of Representatives found, after months of investigating, that Biden had engaged in "impeachable conduct." In their nearly 300-page report, House lawmakers said he had "abused his office" and "defrauded the United States to enrich his family."

BIDEN PARDONS SON HUNTER BIDEN AHEAD OF EXIT FROM OVAL OFFICE

Republicans said there is "overwhelming evidence" that Biden had participated in a "conspiracy to monetize his office of public trust to enrich his family." They alleged that the Biden family and their business associates had received tens of millions of dollars from foreign interests by "leading those interests to believe that such payments would provide them access to and influence with President Biden."

Before leaving office, President Biden announced a blanket pardon that applied to any offenses against the U.S. that Hunter Biden "has committed or may have committed" from Jan. 1, 2014 to Dec. 1, 2024.

"From the day I took office, I said I would not interfere with the Justice Department’s decision-making, and I kept my word even as I have watched my son being selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted," President Joe Biden said. "There has been an effort to break Hunter — who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me — and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough."

Biden added, "I hope Americans will understand why a father and a president would come to this decision."

Comer requests Trump DOJ prosecute James Biden for making ‘false statements’ during impeachment inquiry

Posted on January 17, 2025 by Latest Political News on Fox News

EXCLUSIVE: House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer is requesting President-elect Trump’s Justice Department investigate and prosecute President Biden’s brother, James Biden, for allegedly making false statements to Congress, Fox News Digital has learned.

Fox News Digital exclusively obtained a letter that Comer, R-Ky., sent to Trump’s nominee for attorney general, Pam Bondi, encouraging the DOJ to "hold James Biden accountable for lying to Congress to protect his brother, the soon-to-be-former President Biden."

House Republicans in June sent criminal referrals for James Biden and Hunter Biden to the Justice Department recommending they be charged with making false statements to Congress about "key aspects" of the impeachment inquiry of President Biden.

HOUSE REPUBLICANS REFER HUNTER BIDEN, JAMES BIDEN FOR CRIMINAL PROSECUTION AMID IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY

Specifically, Comer at the time said the alleged false statements implicated President Biden’s "knowledge and role in his family’s influence-peddling schemes" and that they appeared "to be a calculated effort to shield Joe Biden from the impeachment inquiry."

Comer, along with House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Ways & Means Committee Chair Jason Smith, R-Mo., led the impeachment inquiry into President Biden and found that he engaged in "impeachable conduct," "abused his office" and "defrauded the United States to enrich his family."

FLASHBACK: HUNTER BIDEN BUSINESS ASSOCIATE'S TEXT MESSAGES INDICATE MEETING WITH JOE BIDEN

Comer, in his letter to Bondi this week, pointed to Biden’s "full and unconditional pardon" for his son, Hunter Biden.

"President Biden’s latest scheme to cover his family’s grift cements his legacy as leading the most corrupt political family to attain the presidency in American history," Comer wrote to Bondi. "But it also appears incomplete. President Biden has displayed to the American people that his son is beyond accountability in a court of law for his crimes."

FLASHBACK: HUNTER BIDEN IN 2017 SENT 'BEST WISHES' FROM 'ENTIRE BIDEN FAMILY' TO CHINA FIRM CHAIRMAN, REQUESTED $10M WIRE

But Comer said he wanted to "remind incoming Department of Justice leadership of Hunter Biden’s main accomplice in his influence peddling schemes (aside from Joe Biden himself), whom the House Committees on Oversight, the Judiciary, and Ways and Means previously identified to Attorney General Merrick Garland as having misled Congress regarding Joe Biden’s participation in his family’s influence peddling and deserving of prosecution under federal law: James Biden, the President’s younger brother."

Comer reminded Bondi that he and House Republicans referred James Biden to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution, saying the president’s brother "made materially false statements to the Oversight and Judiciary Committees."

BIDEN COMMITTED ‘IMPEACHABLE CONDUCT,’ ‘DEFRAUDED UNITED STATES TO ENRICH HIS FAMILY’: HOUSE GOP REPORT

"The nature of both his and Hunter Biden’s false statements is not lost on the Committees: every instance implicates Joe Biden’s knowledge of and role in his family’s influence peddling," Comer wrote. "James Biden’s denial of Joe Biden’s meeting with James Biden, Hunter Biden, and Hunter Biden’s business associate for a Chinese transaction, Tony Bobulinski — despite evidence being placed in front of him and being given multiple opportunities to amend his response — appears to be a clumsy attempt to protect Joe Biden from the reality that Joe Biden has indeed met with his family’s business associates."

JOE BIDEN RECEIVED $40K IN 'LAUNDERED CHINA MONEY' FROM BROTHER IN 2017, COMER SAYS

Comer and House Republicans in June said James Biden "stated unequivocally during his transcribed interview that Joe Biden did not meet with Mr. Tony Bobulinski, a business associate of James and Hunter Biden, in 2017 while pursuing a deal with a Chinese entity, CEFC China Energy."

"Specifically, James Biden stated he did not attend a meeting with Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, and Tony Bobulinski on May 2, 2017 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel," Comer, Jordan and Smith said in their criminal referral to Attorney General Merrick Garland last year. "These statements were contradicted not only by Mr. Bobulinski, but Hunter Biden."

They also noted that Bobulinski "produced text messages that establish the events leading up to and immediately following his meeting with Joe Biden on May 2, 2017."

In his letter to Bondi, Comer blasted President Biden, claiming he obstructed the committee’s impeachment inquiry and that in itself was "impeachable conduct."

SPECIAL COUNSEL WEISS BLASTS BIDEN IN FINAL HUNTER PROSECUTION REPORT

"The legacy President Biden leaves behind is having led the most dishonest and corrupt administration in American history," Comer wrote.

Biden, last month, made the decision to grant his son a "Full and Unconditional Pardon" covering nearly 11 years of conduct, including conduct related to both convictions Special Counsel David Weiss obtained.

Hunter Biden was found guilty of three felony firearm offenses stemming from Weiss’ investigation. The first son was also charged with federal tax crimes regarding the failure to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes. Before his trial, Hunter Biden entered a surprise guilty plea.

Weiss released his highly anticipated report on his yearslong investigation into Hunter Biden last week and blasted Biden for having "unfairly" maligned Justice Department public servants and casting doubt on the U.S. justice system with "wrong" claims that his probe was political.

"President Biden repeatedly told—or used White House personnel to tell—the American people he would not pardon his son. That was a lie," Comer wrote to Bondi. "President Biden continues to lie, now falsely claiming ‘[n]o reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son – and that is wrong.’"

Comer added, "Though President Biden’s saccharine (and wholly ironic) rantings of political persecution and weaponized prosecution of Hunter Biden are specious, they are inapplicable to the non-prosecution of his brother, James Biden, who has lied to the United States Congress and has faced no accountability to date."

"I write to encourage the Department under your leadership to hold James Biden accountable for lying to Congress to protect his brother, the soon-to-be-former President Biden," Comer continued. "No one should be above the law, regardless of his last name."

FBI informant who made up Biden bribe story gets 6 years in prison

Posted on January 9, 2025 by Latest Political News on Fox News

A former FBI informant who prosecutors say fabricated a phony story of President Biden and his son Hunter Biden accepting $10 million in bribes from the Ukrainian gas company Burisma was sentenced Wednesday to six years in federal prison.

Alexander Smirnov, a dual U.S.-Israeli citizen, has been behind bars since he was arrested last February on charges of making false statements to the FBI.

The indictment came in connection with special counsel David Weiss’ investigation into Hunter Biden. Weiss later indicted Hunter on tax and gun-related charges, but President Biden granted him a sweeping pardon in December before his son was to be sentenced.

The Justice Department tacked on additional tax charges against Smirnov in November, alleging he concealed millions of dollars of income he earned between 2020 and 2022, and Smirnov pleaded guilty in December to sidestep his looming trial.

BIDEN CLAIMS HE 'MEANT WHAT I SAID' WITH PROMISE NOT TO PARDON HUNTER, HOPES IT DOESN'T SET PRECEDENT

Smirnov was accused of falsely telling his FBI handler that executives from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma had paid then-Vice President Biden and his son $5 million each around 2015. Smirnov's explosive claim in 2020 came after he expressed "bias" about Joe Biden as a presidential candidate, according to prosecutors. The indictment says investigators found Smirnov had only routine business dealings with Burisma starting in 2017 — after Biden's term as vice president.

Prosecutors noted that Smirnov's claim "set off a firestorm in Congress" when it resurfaced years later as part of the House impeachment inquiry into President Biden. The Biden administration dismissed the House impeachment effort as a "stunt."

SPECIAL COUNSEL WEISS TELLS LAWMAKERS POLITICS 'PLAYED NO PART' IN HUNTER BIDEN PROBE

Before Smirnov’s arrest, Republicans had demanded the FBI release the unredacted form documenting the unverified allegations, though they acknowledged they couldn’t confirm if they were true.

"In committing his crimes he betrayed the United States, a country that showed him nothing but generosity, including conferring on him the greatest honor it can bestow, citizenship," Weiss' team wrote in court papers. "He repaid the trust the United States placed in him to be a law-abiding naturalized citizen and, more specifically, that one of its premier law enforcement agencies placed in him to tell the truth as a confidential human source, by attempting to interfere in a Presidential election."

Prosecutors agreed to pursue no more than six years against Smirnov as part of his plea deal. In court papers, the Justice Department described Smirnov as a "liar and a tax cheat" who "betrayed the United States," adding that his bogus corruption claims against the Biden family were "among the most serious kinds of election interference one can imagine."

In seeking a lighter sentence, Smirnov's lawyers wrote that both Hunter Biden and President-elect Trump, who was charged in two since-dropped federal cases by Special Counsel Jack Smith, "have walked free and clear of any meaningful punishment."

His lawyers had asked for a four-year prison term, arguing that their client "has learned a very grave lesson," had no prior criminal record and was suffering from severe glaucoma in both eyes. Smirnov's sentencing Wednesday in Los Angeles federal court concluded the final aspects of Weiss’s probe, and the special counsel is expected to submit a report to Attorney General Merrick Garland in accordance with federal regulations. Garland can decide whether to release it to the public.

Smirnov will get credit for the time he has served behind bars since February.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Hunter Biden: A look at how the saga spanning over six years unfolded

Posted on December 9, 2024 by Latest Political News on Fox News

President Biden pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, ending a saga that has lasted for more than six years, with wide-ranging investigations by the Justice Department and both chambers of Congress related to his conduct and business dealings.

BIDEN PARDONS SON HUNTER BIDEN AHEAD OF EXIT FROM OVAL OFFICE

The charges carried up to 17 years behind bars. His sentencing was scheduled for Dec. 16.

Here’s a look back at how it all began:

The federal investigation into Hunter Biden began in 2018.

The probe was predicated, in part, by suspicious activity reports (SARs) regarding foreign transactions. Those SARs, according to sources familiar with the investigation, involved funds from "China and other foreign nations."

Fox News first reported the existence of some type of federal investigation involving Hunter Biden in October 2020, ahead of the last presidential election. It became known then that in the course of an existing money laundering investigation, the FBI had subpoenaed the laptop purportedly belonging to Hunter Biden.

Stories about the laptop were widely panned by Democrats and mainstream media outlets as Russian disinformation. At the time, then-Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe confirmed that the laptop was "not part of some Russian disinformation campaign," but that claim was rejected by Democrats and many in the media.

Social media companies like Twitter and Facebook censored and limited the circulation of stories related to Hunter Biden's laptop before the 2020 presidential election.

Only in 2022 did media outlets verify that the laptop did belong to Hunter Biden and did hold legitimate records belonging to him.

Twitter, under the new ownership of Elon Musk, released records surrounding the company's decisions to block the circulation of the Hunter Biden stories – even though he had been under federal investigation at that point for nearly two years.

Hunter Biden confirmed the investigation into his "tax affairs" in December 2020, after his father was elected president.

But Hunter Biden’s business dealings were also, simultaneously, being investigated by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., in 2019. Specifically, the senators were investigating Hunter Biden’s business dealings with Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings.

Grassley and Johnson released a report in September 2020 saying that Obama administration officials "knew" that Hunter Biden’s position on the board of Burisma was "problematic" and that it interfered "in the efficient execution of policy with respect to Ukraine."

Hunter Biden joined Burisma in April 2014 and, at the time, reportedly connected the firm with consulting firm Blue Star Strategies to help the natural gas company fight corruption charges in Ukraine. During the time Hunter Biden was on the board of the company, Joe Biden was vice president and was running U.S.-Ukraine relations and policy for the Obama administration.

Also in 2019, Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine came into the spotlight during the first impeachment of now-President-elect Donald Trump.

House Republicans wanted to call Hunter Biden to testify in the impeachment proceedings in the fall of 2019.

HUNTER BIDEN INVESTIGATORS LIMITED QUESTIONS ABOUT 'DAD,' 'BIG GUY' DESPITE FBI, IRS OBJECTIONS: WHISTLEBLOWER

Trump was acquitted in Feb. 2020 on both articles of impeachment against him — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress — after being impeached by the House of Representatives in December 2019.

Trump was impeached after a July 2019 phone call in which he pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to launch investigations into the Biden family’s actions and business dealings in Ukraine, specifically Hunter Biden’s ventures with Burisma and Joe Biden’s successful effort to have former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin ousted.

At the same time as that call, Hunter Biden was under federal investigation, prompted by his suspicious foreign transactions.

Trump's request was regarded by Democrats as a quid pro quo because millions in U.S. military aid to Ukraine had been frozen. Democrats also said Trump was meddling in the 2020 presidential election by asking a foreign leader to look into a Democrat political opponent.

Republicans had been investigating Hunter Biden’s business dealings, specifically with regard Burisma. House Republicans, who were in the minority at the time, made several requests to subpoena Hunter Biden for testimony and documents related to the impeachment of Trump and his business dealings that fell at the center of the proceedings.

Biden has acknowledged that when he was vice president, he successfully pressured Ukraine to fire Shokin. At the time, Shokin was investigating Burisma and Hunter Biden had a highly lucrative role on the board, receiving thousands of dollars per month. The then-vice president threatened to withhold $1 billion of critical U.S. aid if Shokin were not fired.

FLASHBACK: DEMOCRATS CLASH WITH REPUBLICANS OVER PROSPECT OF CALLING HUNTER BIDEN IN IMPEACHMENT TRIAL

"I said, ‘You’re not getting the billion.' … I looked at them and said, ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money,’" Biden recalled telling then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. Biden recollected the conversation during an event for the Council on Foreign Relations in 2018.

Meanwhile, once President Biden took office, the House Oversight Committee led by Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., began investigating Hunter Biden’s business dealings and the business dealings of the Biden family. Comer ultimately found that the Biden family and its associates had received more than $27 million from foreign individuals or entities since 2014.

But it wasn’t until 2023 that whistleblowers from the IRS, Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, brought allegations of politicization in the federal probe of Hunter Biden to Congress.

The two alleged that political influence had infected prosecutorial decisions in the federal probe, which was led by Trump-appointed Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, who they said had requested to become a special counsel.

After Shapley and Ziegler testified publicly, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Weiss as special counsel to continue his investigation of the first son and, ultimately, bring federal charges against him in two separate jurisdictions — Delaware and California.

House Republicans continued to investigate allegations of politicization brought by Ziegler and Shapley, as well as findings related to the Biden family’s business dealings from Comer’s probe.

BIDEN COMMITTED ‘IMPEACHABLE CONDUCT,’ ‘DEFRAUDED UNITED STATES TO ENRICH HIS FAMILY’: HOUSE GOP REPORT

Comer, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and Ways & Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith came together and launched an impeachment inquiry against President Biden to determine whether he had any involvement in his son’s business dealings. Biden repeatedly denied having any involvement, despite evidence placing him at meetings and on phone calls with his son and his foreign business partners.

In August, House lawmakers released their final report, spanning 292 pages, saying that Biden had engaged in "impeachable conduct." They said he had "abused his office" and "defrauded the United States to enrich his family."

In the summer of 2023, Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to federal gun charges as part of a plea deal that collapsed before a federal judge in Delaware. In a stunning reversal, Hunter Biden was forced to plead not guilty and sat for a trial this year.

Before his trial for federal tax crimes, Hunter Biden pleaded guilty.

President Biden’s pardon of his son came after months of vowing to the American people that he would not do so.

But on Sunday, the president announced a blanket pardon that applies to any offenses against the U.S. that Hunter Biden "has committed or may have committed" from Jan. 1, 2014, to Dec. 1, 2024.

Biden added, "I hope Americans will understand why a father and a president would come to this decision."

Special counsel, IRS whistleblowers say don’t buy Biden ‘spin’ about Hunter Biden legal saga

Posted on December 2, 2024 by Latest Political News on Fox News

President Biden pardoned his son, Hunter Biden, late Sunday evening, sparing him from being sentenced in a pair of separate court cases in which he was found guilty of illegally purchasing a gun and failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes — convictions the president claimed were politically motivated and a "miscarriage of justice."

A review of Hunter Biden’s yearslong legal saga, however, shows another story, and those involved in the prosecutions are making sure that side of the story is told in the aftermath of the president's decision.

"There was none and never has been any evidence of vindictive or selective prosecution in this case," special prosecutor David Weiss said in a court filing following the pardoning.

Two IRS whistleblowers who sounded the alarm on Hunter Biden's tax issues also slammed the decision to pardon Hunter Biden, saying, "No amount of lies or spin can hide the simple truth that the Justice Department nearly let the President's son off the hook for multiple felonies."

"President Biden has the power to put his thumb on the scales of justice for his son, but at least he had to do it with a pardon explicitly for all the world to see rather than his political appointees doing it secretly behind the scenes. Either way it is a sad day for law abiding taxpayers to witness this special privilege for the powerful," IRS whistleblowers Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley and Special Agent Joe Ziegler said in a statement Sunday evening.

2 TIMES BIDEN SAID HE WOULD NOT PARDON SON HUNTER BIDEN

"No amount of lies or spin can hide the simple truth that the Justice Department nearly let the President's son off the hook for multiple felonies. We did our duty, told the truth, and followed the law. Anyone reading the President's excuses now should remember that Hunter Biden admitted to his tax crimes in federal court, that Hunter Biden's attorneys have targeted us for our lawful whistleblower disclosures, and that we are suing one of those attorneys for smearing us with false accusations," they continued, referring to their $20 million defamation lawsuit against Hunter Biden’s high-profile attorney Abbe Lowell in September for claiming the IRS investigators illegally leaked Hunter Biden’s private tax information.

The guilty plea, guilty verdict and the president’s pardoning caps off a yearslong legal saga for the first son and his family, with the cases stretching back to 2018 and notably featured the IRS whistleblowers who sounded the alarm on Hunter Biden’s tax issues.

Hunter Biden was found guilty in the gun case in June, with a jury of his peers determining he made a false statement in the purchase of a gun, made a false statement related to information required to be kept by a federally licensed gun dealer, and possession of a gun by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.

He has a well-documented history of drug abuse, which was most notably documented in his 2021 memoir, "Beautiful Things," which walked readers through his previous need to smoke crack cocaine every 20 minutes, how his addiction was so prolific that he referred to himself as a "crack daddy" to drug dealers, and anecdotes revolving around drug deals, such as a Washington, D.C., crack dealer Biden nicknamed "Bicycles."

In the tax case, Hunter faced another trial regarding three felony tax offenses and six misdemeanor tax offenses regarding the failure to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes. As jury selection was about to kick off in Los Angeles federal court in September, Hunter entered a surprise guilty plea.

TRUMP PREVIOUSLY PREDICTED BIDEN WOULD PARDON SON HUNTER

BIDEN PARDONS SON HUNTER BIDEN AHEAD OF EXIT FROM OVAL OFFICE

The tax case investigation originally kicked off in 2018, when the U.S. attorney in Delaware opened a probe into Hunter Biden’s finances. The first son initially notified the public that he was under investigation one month after his dad won the presidential election over President-elect Donald Trump in 2020.

"I learned yesterday for the first time that the U.S. attorney’s office in Delaware advised my legal counsel, also yesterday, that they are investigating my tax affairs," Hunter Biden said in a statement released in December of 2020. "I take this matter very seriously, but I am confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately, including with the benefit of professional tax advisers."

After President Biden took control of the Oval Office, his administration retained David Weiss, a Trump-appointed Republican charged with overseeing the investigation into Hunter Biden in his capacity as U.S. attorney for Delaware. The Biden administration had gutted all Senate-confirmed U.S. attorneys under the Trump administration, except for two individuals: Weiss, and Special Counsel John Durham, who investigated the origins of the Russia probe surrounding the 2016 election.

KJP SAYS PRESIDENT BIDEN STILL HAS NO PLANS TO PARDON HUNTER BIDEN FOR TAX FRAUD, GUN CHARGES

Last year, Hunter Biden was in the midst of hashing out a plea agreement to two misdemeanor tax counts of willful failure to pay federal income tax, as well as a pretrial diversion agreement regarding a separate felony charge of possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance. The plea agreement unraveled in Delaware court, however, and heightened his legal woes.

Weeks later, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Weiss as special counsel, broadening the scope of the investigation into Hunter Biden. With the plea deal officially at an impasse, Weiss subsequently charged Hunter Biden in September of last year for the gun charges, and brought forth the nine tax-related charges against Hunter Biden in December of 2023 in California court.

"The appointment of Mr. Weiss reinforces for the American people the department’s commitment to both independence and accountability in particularly sensitive matters," Garland said in the announcement of Weiss as special prosecutor. "I am confident that Mr. Weiss will carry out his responsibility in an evenhanded and urgent manner and in accordance with the highest traditions of this department."

Simultaneous to the investigations into Hunter Biden’s tax dealings and gun purchase scrutiny, IRS whistleblowers sounded the alarm that they gathered evidence Hunter Biden had allegedly committed "felony and misdemeanor tax charges." The whistleblowers were identified as IRS Special Agent Joseph Ziegler and his supervisor Gary Shapley.

HUNTER BIDEN FOUND GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS IN GUN TRIAL

The whistleblowers told Congress last year that prosecutorial decisions made throughout the federal investigation into the president’s son were allegedly impacted by politics, claiming the Justice Department and IRS handled its probe of Hunter Biden’s finances with kid gloves.

Ziegler said he felt the investigation into Hunter Biden was "handcuffed" and that the DOJ and Weiss slow-walked the investigation, while underscoring that he is a Democrat and worked to remove any personal political bias.

"I'm a Democrat. In the last presidential election, I actually did not vote," Ziegler told CBS News last year. "I thought it would be irresponsible of me to do so because I didn't wanna show bias one way or the other."

The whistleblowers said the tax discrepancies stretched back to 2014 and related to Hunter Biden’s employment with Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian natural gas firm. Fox Digital first reported in 2020 that Hunter Biden did not report "approximately $400,000" in income he collected from his position on the board of Burisma Holdings when he joined in 2014.

Weiss' charges against Hunter Biden ultimately only focused on his failure to pay taxes between 2016 and 2020. However, the president's pardon of his son shields him from prosecution for offenses between 2014 and 2024.

After the whistleblowers' attorney sent a letter to lawmakers in April of last year indicating they wished to "make a protected whistleblower disclosures to Congress" over claims the Biden admin was allegedly mishandling the matter, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., subpoenaed the FBI to turn over materials related to a "criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Joe Biden and a foreign national."

JOE BIDEN MET WITH AT LEAST 14 OF HUNTER’S BUSINESS ASSOCIATES WHILE VICE PRESIDENT

Comer did ultimately receive documents related to President Biden’s alleged "criminal scheme," known as the FD-1023 document, but slammed the materials as essentially useless as they were reportedly overwhelmingly redacted.

Meanwhile, the House Ways and Means Committee interviewed the IRS whistleblowers and released transcripts of their interviews last year showing claims the Biden administration slow-walked the investigation and claiming the DOJ refused to appoint Weiss special counsel status. The DOJ denied the claims.

Shapley claimed the agency obtained a message from WhatsApp dated July 30, 2017, from Hunter Biden to Henry Zhao, CEO of Harvest Fund Management, where the president's son allegedly threatened his business associate by leveraging his father’s political clout.

"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," Hunter Biden allegedly wrote. The message was sent after Biden’s term as vice president under the Obama administration, and before he was elected president in 2020.

"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," the message continues. "I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father."

HUNTER BIDEN FACES NEW INDICTMENT IN CALIFORNIA

The White House has repeatedly denied the president had any business dealings with his son.

As the investigations and whistleblower claims mounted, House Republicans opened an impeachment inquiry into Biden, with the House Oversight Committee, House Judiciary Committee and House Ways and Means Committee releasing a lengthy report in August that Biden engaged in "impeachable conduct" and "defrauded the United States to enrich his family."

Republicans said there was "overwhelming evidence" that Biden participated in a "conspiracy to monetize his office of public trust to enrich his family" to the tune of more than $27 million from foreign individuals or entities since 2014.

The inquiry has fizzled in recent months, as the presidential election took center stage on the national level.

Biden declared in his statement Sunday evening that the prosecution of Hunter was a "miscarriage of justice," apparently bolstering his reasoning for the pardon after he said at least twice he would not pardon his son.

"It is clear that Hunter was treated differently. The charges in his cases came about only after several of my political opponents in Congress instigated them to attack me and oppose my election. Then, a carefully negotiated plea deal, agreed to by the Department of Justice, unraveled in the court room – with a number of my political opponents in Congress taking credit for bringing political pressure on the process. Had the plea deal held, it would have been a fair, reasonable resolution of Hunter’s cases," he continued.

"I believe in the justice system, but as I have wrestled with this, I also believe raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice – and once I made this decision this weekend, there was no sense in delaying it further. I hope Americans will understand why a father and a President would come to this decision."

Similar to his dad, Hunter Biden released a statement Sunday arguing the investigations and prosecutions were politically motivated.

"I have admitted and taken responsibility for my mistakes during the darkest days of my addiction — mistakes that have been exploited to publicly humiliate and shame me and my family for political sport," Hunter Biden said in a statement to Fox News. "Despite all of this, I have maintained my sobriety for more than five years because of my deep faith and the unwavering love and support of my family and friends."

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and Weiss's office for comment, but did not immediately receive a reply.

Fox News Digital's Brooke Singman, Greg Wehner, and Charles Creitz contributed to this report.

President Biden’s pardon of son Hunter a political gift for Trump going forward

Posted on December 2, 2024 by Latest Political News on Fox News

Legal and political analysts are characterizing President Biden's stunning "full and unconditional pardon" of his son Hunter as an early holiday gift for President-elect Donald Trump.

"He's essentially endorsing Trump's long-held opinion that the Department of Justice is politicized and isn't acting impartially," longtime Republican strategist and communicator Ryan Williams said of the move by Biden.

In absolving his son ahead of twin sentencings on separate gun and tax convictions later this month, the president argued that the Justice Department's handling of the cases against Hunter Biden was politicized.

DID TRUMP PREDICT BIDEN PARDON OF HIS SON HUNTER?

Biden said in a statement Sunday night that his son, who is a recovering addict, was "treated differently" because of who his father is.

"No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son — and that is wrong," the president said in the statement. "There has been an effort to break Hunter — who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me — and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough."

TRUMP STATEMENT ON BIDEN'S MOVE TO PARDON HIS SON

Biden, in his statement, appeared to be pointing to the way the case was handled by David Weiss. He is the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney from Delaware who originally investigated Hunter Biden and was later appointed as a special counsel during the Biden administration by Attorney General Merrick Garland.

While an impeachment inquiry by House Republicans that looked into the president and his son's business relationships fizzled, Trump, during the presidential campaign, hinted at continuing to investigate the younger Biden in his second term in the White House.

However, Trump will not be able to undo the pardon when he takes office. Additionally, the pardon's sweeping nature means the next Trump Justice Department would not be able to reopen the criminal probe against Hunter Biden.

However, Trump gains something arguably more valuable - political cover.

Trump was heavily criticized during his first term for using pardons to protect political aides and allies - including longtime fixer Roger Stone and 2016 campaign chairman Paul Manafort - and relatives, including his daughter's father-in-law, whom the president-elect named as his second term ambassador to France.

Biden's pardon of his son now gives Trump a powerful rebuttal.

"Biden has endorsed this idea that the Department of Justice acts in a political way, and he's thrown out long-held precedent when it comes to pardons," Williams told Fox News. "He's blowing up an institution and procedures, which is what Democrats have long criticized Trump for. They don't have any moral authority to say that Trump is undermining institutions and changing long-held procedures. That's what Joe Biden just did with this pardon."

The president-elect will be under pressure as he takes office next month to pardon many of those convicted of crimes in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters aiming to upend congressional certification of Biden's 2020 election victory. Many of those convicted are still in prison.

HUNTER BIDEN SAYS HIS MISTAKES WERE EXPLOITED BY REPUBLICANS

Fox News legal editor Kerri Kupec Urbahn said that "Joe Biden has lowered the bar so much here in offering this pardon to Hunter Biden, that I think Donald Trump will be able to pardon a whole host of people including Jan. 6 [defendants]."

Trump, in a statement following Biden's move, raised expectations that he should issue pardons for some of those Jan. 6 convicts.

"Does the Pardon given by Joe to Hunter include the J-6 Hostages, who have now been imprisoned for years?" Trump wrote in a social media post Sunday night. "Such an abuse and miscarriage of Justice!"

Biden's pardon came 24 hours after Trump announced he would nominate loyalist Kash Patel as FBI director. Patel, a controversial pick, has long amplified Trump's unproven claims the 2020 election was stolen and long vowed to clean house at the FBI.

The move by Biden may help Trump as he works to push the nomination of Patel and Pam Bondi - a former Florida attorney general and another Trump loyalist who the president-elect named as his second pick for attorney general - through the Senate.

Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, a leading Trump ally in the Senate, argued in a social media post that "Democrats can spare us the lectures about the rule of law when, say, President Trump nominates Pam Bondi and Kash Patel to clean up this corruption."

The Hunter Biden pardon may convince Republican senators who may have serious reservations regarding the Patel and Bondi picks to now back Trump.

"I do think it makes it more likely that some of these more traditional Republican senators will be p****d off enough to help Trump confirm some of his more controversial nominees," a Republican who works on Capitol Hill told Fox News, as he noted that "it's the most sweeping pardon since Richard Nixon" a half a century ago.

Hunter Biden’s criminal tax trial begins with jury selection in California

Posted on September 5, 2024 by Latest Political News on Fox News

Jury selection in Hunter Biden’s criminal tax trial stemming from special counsel David Weiss’ yearslong investigation into the first son begins Thursday in California.

United States District Court for the Central District of California Judge Mark Scarsi is presiding over the trial.

Biden’s tax trial was set to begin in June, but his attorneys requested it be delayed to September, and Scarsi approved that request.

HOUSE REPUBLICANS REFER HUNTER BIDEN, JAMES BIDEN FOR CRIMINAL PROSECUTION AMID IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY

Weiss charged Hunter Biden with three felonies and six misdemeanors concerning $1.4 million in owed taxes that have since been paid. Weiss alleged a "four-year scheme" when the president’s son did not pay his federal income taxes while also filing false tax reports.

Biden pleaded not guilty.

In the indictment, Weiss alleged that Biden "engaged in a four-year scheme to not pay at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019, from in or about January 2017 through in or about October 15, 2020, and to evade the assessment of taxes for tax year 2018 when he filed false returns in or about February 2020."

Weiss said that, in "furtherance of that scheme," Biden "subverted the payroll and tax withholding process of his own company, Owasco, PC by withdrawing millions" from the company "outside of the payroll and tax withholding process that it was designed to perform."

HUNTER BIDEN TAX TRIAL POSTPONED TO SEPTEMBER

The special counsel alleged that Biden "spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle rather than paying his tax bills," and that in 2018, he "stopped paying his outstanding and overdue taxes for tax year 2015."

Weiss alleged that Biden "willfully failed to pay his 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 taxes on time, despite having access to funds to pay some or all of these taxes," and that he "willfully failed to file his 2017 and 2018 tax returns on time."

This is the second time Biden is on trial this year stemming from charges out of Weiss' investigation.

Biden was found guilty on all counts in Delaware after Weiss charged him with making a false statement during the purchase of a firearm; making a false statement related to information required to be kept by a licensed firearm dealer; and one count of possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.

A date has not yet been set for sentencing for those charges. With all counts combined, the total maximum prison time for the charges could be up to 25 years. Each count carries a maximum fine of $250,000 and three years of supervised release.

President Biden has vowed not to pardon his son.

Jury selection in California is expected to take place Thursday and Friday. Weiss and Biden's defense attorneys are expected to deliver their opening arguments the following Monday.

Biden committed ‘impeachable conduct,’ ‘defrauded United States to enrich his family’: House GOP report

Posted on August 19, 2024 by Latest Political News on Fox News

President Biden engaged in "impeachable conduct," House Republicans found in their months-long impeachment inquiry, declaring in their highly anticipated report that he "abused his office" and "defrauded the United States to enrich his family."

Fox News Digital obtained a copy of the 292-page report prepared by the House Oversight Committee, House Judiciary Committee and House Ways and Means Committee. Those panels have been leading the impeachment inquiry against Biden.

"The Committees have accumulated evidence demonstrating that President Biden has engaged in impeachable conduct," the report, which lays out evidence gathered to date, says.

HOUSE REPUBLICANS REFER HUNTER BIDEN, JAMES BIDEN FOR CRIMINAL PROSECUTION AMID IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY

Republicans said there is "overwhelming evidence" that Biden participated in a "conspiracy to monetize his office of public trust to enrich his family." They alleged that the Biden family and their business associates received tens of millions of dollars from foreign interests by "leading those interests to believe that such payments would provide them access to and influence with President Biden."

The committees said the Biden family and its associates received more than $27 million from foreign individuals or entities since 2014.

The Republicans said the conspiracy took place while Biden was serving as vice president.

HUNTER DEMANDED $10M FROM CHINESE ENERGY FIRM BECAUSE 'BIDENS ARE THE BEST,' HAVE 'CONNECTIONS'

"As Vice President, President Biden actively participated in his conspiracy by, among other things, attending dinners with his family’s foreign business partners and speaking to them by phone, often when being placed on speakerphone by Hunter Biden," the report states.

Republicans referenced in the report a 2014 dinner that Biden attended for his son, Hunter, with Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina. After the dinner, Baturina wired $3.5 million to Hunter Biden’s firm, Rosemont Seneca Thornton.

Fox News Digital had previously reported that Biden attended dinners with Hunter Biden’s business associates, including Baturina, in Washington, D.C., at Café Milano in Georgetown in both 2014 and 2015. Biden also met with Jonathan Li of BHR in China in 2013.

Fox News Digital also previously reported that Biden met with the chair of Chinese energy firm CEFC, Ye Jianming, in 2017.

"Based on the totality of evidence, it is inconceivable that President Biden did not understand that he was taking part in an effort to enrich his family by abusing his office of public trust," the report states.

FLASHBACK: HUNTER BIDEN IN 2017 SENT 'BEST WISHES' FROM 'ENTIRE BIDEN FAMILY' TO CHINA FIRM CHAIRMAN, REQUESTED $10M WIRE

Republicans also said the Biden family "went to great lengths to conceal this conspiracy."

"Foreign money was transmitted to the Biden family through complicated financial transactions," the report states. "The Biden family laundered funds through intermediate entities and broke up large transactions into numerous smaller transactions."

Republicans said Hunter Biden and his business associates leveraged Joe Biden’s position as vice president to garner "favorable outcomes in foreign business dealings and legal proceedings."

"Several witnesses testified that Hunter Biden invoked his father in business dealings with Romanian, Chinese, Kazakhstani, and Ukrainian companies, resulting in millions of dollars flowing to the Biden family," the report states.

DEVON ARCHER: HUNTER BIDEN, BURISMA EXECS ‘CALLED DC’ TO GET UKRAINIAN PROSECUTOR FIRED

"President Biden’s participation in this conspiracy to enrich his family constitutes as impeachable conduct," they said. "By monetizing the Vice Presidency for his family’s benefit, he abused his office of public trust, placing the welfare of his family ahead of the welfare of the United States."

Republicans added, "He also put foreign interests ahead of the interests of the American people."

Meanwhile, Republicans in their report also said Biden used his official position to "conceal his mishandling of classified information as a private citizen."

"During his tenure as Vice President, Joe Biden removed highly sensitive classified documents from the White House, despite having no authority to do so," the report states.

FLASHBACK: HUNTER BIDEN BUSINESS ASSOCIATE'S TEXT MESSAGES INDICATE MEETING WITH JOE BIDEN

Special Counsel Robert Hur investigated Biden’s improper retention of classified records for months but did not recommend charges against the president. The records included classified documents about military and foreign policy in Afghanistan, among other records related to national security that implicated "sensitive intelligence sources and methods."

But Hur earlier this year described Biden as a "sympathetic, well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory" and said it "would be difficult to convince a jury they should convict him."

The report also shifts to allegations from IRS whistleblowers, who said federal investigators allowed the statute of limitations to expire on Hunter Biden’s alleged tax crimes.

"The Justice Department prevented line attorneys from conducting key interviews and pursuing important lines of inquiry," the report states. "The special treatment for Hunter Biden, which only ceased at the onset of congressional attention on the Department’s investigation, may be a basis for impeachment, as the distortion of an official investigation was a basis in the prospective impeachment of President Nixon in 1974."

BIDEN MET WITH CHAIR OF CHINESE ENERGY FIRM HUNTER DID BUSINESS WITH IN 2017, EX-ASSOCIATE TESTIFIES

The report adds, "In certain circumstances the President may be impeached for the actions of subordinate officials."

"The totality of the corrupt conduct uncovered by the Committees is egregious," the report states. "President Joe Biden conspired to commit influence peddling and grift. In doing so, he abused his office and, by repeatedly lying about his abuse of office, has defrauded the United States to enrich his family."

Republicans argue that "not one of these transactions would have occurred, but for Joe Biden’s official position in the United States government."

JOE BIDEN RECEIVED $40K IN 'LAUNDERED CHINA MONEY' FROM BROTHER IN 2017, COMER SAYS

"This pattern of conduct ensured his family – who provided no legitimate services – lived a lavish lifestyle. The evidence uncovered in the Committees’ impeachment inquiry reflects a family selling the ‘Biden brand’ around the world with President Biden – the ‘big guy’ – swooping in to seal the deal on speaker phones or in private dinners," the report states. "It shows a concerted effort to conceal President Biden’s involvement in the family’s influence peddling scheme."

House Republicans pointed to the Constitution, saying the remedy for a president’s "flagrant abuse of office is clear: impeachment by the House of Representatives and removal by the Senate."

"Despite the cheapening of the impeachment power by Democrats in recent years, the House’s decision to pursue articles of impeachment must not be made lightly," the report states. "As such, this report endeavors to present the evidence gathered to date so that all Members of the House may assess the extent of President Biden’s corruption."

House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry report comes weeks after Biden suspended his re-election campaign amid pressure from within the Democratic Party after the first presidential debate in June against former President Trump.

House Republicans have been leading the impeachment inquiry since mid-2023. The full House of Representatives formalized the inquiry in December 2023.

In June, House Republicans sent criminal referrals to the Justice Department recommending Hunter Biden and James Biden, the president's brother, be charged with making false statements to Congress about "key aspects" of the impeachment inquiry.

Hunter Biden was found guilty on federal gun charges in Delaware earlier this year, stemming from charges brought against him by Special Counsel David Weiss. His trial on federal tax charges is set to begin in California in September.