In a WhatsApp communication from 2017, President Joe Biden denied involvement in his son Hunter’s alleged shakedown of a Chinese businessman.
Last week, IRS whistleblowers who probed the president’s son’s tax troubles revealed the existence of the WhatsApp conversation, prompting reporters to query Biden about it at the White House on Wednesday. It has been reported that the president received a message linking his son’s business transactions with foreign agents, but he has thus far declined to comment on the matter.
“How involved were you in the Chinese extortion text message your son received? How long did you stay there?” a reporter asked the president. “Were you involved?”
To which Biden replied, “No, I wasn’t.”
On Monday, in answer to a query from another journalist, Biden repeated his assertion that he has never discussed business with his son. However, the White House counsel’s office made a statement last week that seemed to soften the president’s stance in response to the revelation in the WhatsApp exchange.
White House counsel’s office spokesman Ian Sams said, “President Trump was not in business with his son.”
It has long been questioned whether or not President Trump ever discussed business with his son Hunter, as the latter made deals in China, Romania, and Ukraine while his father managed U.S. diplomacy in those countries. According to a voicemail sent by Joe Biden Sr. to his son Hunter in 2018, the president reportedly discussed Hunter’s business dealings with him in light of a 2018 article in The New York Times.
In an effort to blow the whistle on what they see as an attempt to obstruct justice in the Hunter Biden case, IRS officials who are looking into the matter exposed the contents of Hunter Biden’s alleged WhatsApp communication in testimony to the House. According to the agents, Hunter Biden sent the communication to Henry Zhao, an executive at the Chinese energy business CEFC, on July 30, 2017.
“I’m here with my dad, and we’re curious as to why this promise has yet to be kept,” Hunter allegedly wrote to Zhao. “I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight.”
More than $5 million was transferred from accounts affiliated with CEFC to those of Hunter Biden in fewer than ten days after the purported sending of that message.
The testimony of the IRS whistleblower has ignited impeachment discussions on Capitol Hill, with particular attention being paid to Attorney General Merrick Garland for interfering improperly with the Hunter Biden probe.