WASHINGTON — All of the witnesses Republicans referred to as in for depositions as a part of their impeachment inquiry towards President Joe Biden in January mentioned that they knew of no corruption on Biden’s half.
Eric Schwerin, a Biden household good friend who partnered with the president’s son Hunter Biden in enterprise and likewise did bookkeeping for the daddy, instructed lawmakers on Tuesday that he was not conscious of Joe Biden benefiting financially from his son’s work.
“Given my consciousness of his funds and the express instructions he gave to his monetary advisers, the allegation that he would interact in any improper conduct to profit himself or his household is preposterous to me,” Schwerin mentioned in a gap assertion obtained by JHB.
4 different Hunter Biden associates additionally instructed lawmakers this month that they’d by no means witnessed improper conduct by the president, nor efforts by his son to entangle him in a overseas enterprise deal.
It’s a continuation of the sample set in movement final yr by Home oversight committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.), who has struggled to show his accusations that the president enriched himself by collaborating in his son’s alleged “affect peddling” schemes.
“Now we have a constant sample of witnesses coming in and telling us that Joe Biden simply was not concerned in any of the enterprise affairs that the Republicans are speaking about,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the highest Democrat on the oversight committee, instructed JHB.
Comer mentioned Tuesday that Schwerin’s testimony truly did reveal one thing dangerous: that Schwerin, whereas he was in enterprise with Hunter Biden, offered bookkeeping companies to the elder Biden when he was vp — free of charge. (Schwerin’s involvement within the household funds has lengthy been identified.)
“This man was doing Joe Biden’s books, paying his electrical payments and depositing his paycheck and his earnings tax refund, and he by no means charged Joe Biden — that could be a present, that could be a clear ethics violation by Joe Biden,” Comer mentioned on Fox Information. “There was not a wall between Joe Biden and Hunter Biden and his schemes just like the president has all the time mentioned.”
Ethics guidelines usually forbid presents (together with discounted items or companies) to government department officers, although there are exceptions, together with for presents which can be based mostly on a private or household relationship. It’s not clear if Schwerin’s bookkeeping would qualify for an exception. The White Home declined to remark.
Nonetheless, commingled financial institution accounts and free bookkeeping are a far cry from the bribery schemes that Republicans have alleged — together with a Ukrainian quid professional quo that supposedly concerned $5 million in bribes to the daddy and son in change for official favors. Republicans have obtained hundreds of pages of Biden household financial institution data, and all they’ve revealed to date is that Joe Biden helped his son purchase a truck in 2018.
The youthful Biden entered into a number of overseas enterprise relationships throughout and after his father’s time as vp, together with a profitable contract with a Ukrainian fuel firm and an ill-fated enterprise with an organization backed by a Chinese language power agency. Hunter Biden wrote in his 2021 memoir that the 2015 demise of his brother, Beau Biden, spurred him towards high-paying jobs that fueled his crack cocaine habit till he sobered up in 2019. Republicans have mentioned that his lack of expertise within the power sector means that overseas nationals have been solely paying him to get to his father.
As for the favorable testimony from Biden associates, it’s not shocking that longtime mates would possibly defend the household from corruption allegations, however they’re doing so beneath menace of legal penalty for untruthful testimony whereas talking to lawmakers who have already got receipts. In different phrases, in the event that they lied, they may get caught and despatched to jail. So their testimony issues.
- Rob Walker instructed lawmakers final week that he began working with Hunter Biden in 2008. “In enterprise, the alternatives we pursued collectively have been different, legitimate, well-founded, and effectively inside the bounds of legit enterprise actions,” Walker mentioned in a gap assertion. “To be clear, President Biden-while in workplace or as a non-public citizen-was by no means concerned in any of the enterprise actions we pursued.”
- Mervyn Yan, an actual property marketing consultant who labored with Hunter Biden in 2017 on potential investments with the Chinese language power firm, testified that Joe Biden wasn’t concerned within the enterprise, in accordance with a supply with data of the deposition, and that he by no means anticipated the elder Biden would profit. Yan’s attorneys mentioned in a letter that their consumer was “unaware of any involvement President Biden could have had together with his son’s enterprise pursuits.”
- Kevin Morris, who grew to become mates with Hunter Biden in 2019 and lined his bills as he launched an artwork profession, mentioned that he didn’t have “any expectations of receiving something from Hunter’s father or the Biden administration in change from serving to Hunter, nor have I requested for something from President Biden or his administration.”
- George Bergès, a gallery proprietor who has bought Hunter Biden’s paintings, mentioned that there was nothing political about his relationship with the president’s son, and that he truly dropped him as a consumer final yr as a result of the political backlash had been such a headache. “After I first met him, I by no means thought ― I believe his dad hadn’t even determined to run, so I by no means thought he would run, win the nomination, after which be a sitting President,” Bergès mentioned, noting that he had donated repeatedly to Republican Donald Trump’s presidential marketing campaign.
Subsequent month lawmakers will hear from the president’s brother James Biden in addition to Hunter Biden. Republicans wish to speak to a number of different individuals, together with Tony Bobulinski, a former Hunter Biden enterprise affiliate whom the Trump marketing campaign recruited to take part in an occasion earlier than a 2020 presidential debate.
It’s unclear if Republicans have set a date for interviewing Bobulinski, but it surely’s potential that his testimony would solid Hunter Biden’s work in a special mild.
“I’ve heard Joe Biden say that he’s by no means mentioned enterprise with Hunter. That’s false,” Bobulinski mentioned on the 2020 occasion. “I’ve firsthand data about this as a result of I instantly handled the Biden household, together with Joe Biden.”