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The White House has now changed it’s tune on how closely tied Joe Biden was with his son’s business dealings after a new IRS whistleblower has come forward revealing that a bank account linked to Hunter Biden received $5.1 million in August 2017, shortly after his threatening message to a Chinese associate in which he claimed “sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled”.
On Aug. 4, 2017, Chinese firm CEFC Infrastructure Investment wired $100,000 to Hunter Biden’s law firm Owasco, according to a 2020 report published by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Days later, on Aug. 8, 2017, that same firm sent $5 million to Hudson West III, a firm Hunter Biden opened with Chinese associates.
The transactions came within 10 days of messages uncovered last week by the House Ways and Means Committee. IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley Jr., shared with the committee that during these messages, Hunter blasted his business partner Henry Zhao for not fulfilling his “commitment”, claimed “I am sitting here with my father” and that he “would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight”.
Hunter also made it clear that if Zhao didn’t follow his directions, he would regret it.
“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,” Hunter Biden added in his messages to Zhao. “I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.”
According to a 2020 Senate report, beginning on Aug. 14, 2017, Hunter Biden initated a string of 20 wire transactions from Owasco to Lion Hall Group, a consulting firm linked to President Biden’s brother James Biden and his wife Sara. Through Aug. 3, 2018, Hunter received a total of $1.4 million.
On Friday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked by Newsmax correspondent James Rosen about IRS Whistleblower Gary Shapley latest revelations. Jean-Pierre dodged the question but commented that “nothing has changed” and referred questions to White House Spokesman James Kirby.
Kirby earlier released a statement about the new allegations and claimed that “As we have said many times before, the President was not in business with his son. As we have also said many times before, the Justice Department makes decisions in its criminal investigations independently, & in this case, the White House has not been involved.”
They haven’t said it many times before, though. The previous narrative was that “I have never discussed, with my son or my brother or with anyone else, anything having to do with their businesses. Period.”, which is what Joe Biden claimed during the campaign trail from 2019-2020.
When Rosen asked Kirby about these new revelations, in which Rosen read almost the entire message to Kirby, Kirby responded with “No and I’m not gonna comment further on this”. When Rosen attempted to follow up, he cut him off, saying “James… let me save you some breath.”
“I am not gonna address this issue from this podium. I am not gonna do it,” he added before storming out of the room.