Hunter Biden sent a WhatsApp message demanding payment from a Chinese businessman while he was ‘sitting with his father’ Joe, according to explosive testimony from an IRS whistleblower.
The president’s son was staying at the guesthouse of Biden’s home in Delaware when he wrote to Communist Party official Henry Zhao on July 30, 2017, threatening him to follow his “orders.”
The allegations undermine consistent claims by the Biden family and administration that Joe was not involved in his son’s foreign business dealings.
The IRS whistleblower later said he was barred from obtaining a search warrant, even after the Justice Department learned of the message.
Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee released the latest allegations amid testimony from two IRS whistleblowers alleging the president’s son got preferential treatment in the criminal investigation.
Committee members also heard from Hunter failed to pay taxes on $8.3 million in earnings, and the Justice Department denied attempts to file suits in other states.
“I’m sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been kept.” Hunter wrote in 2017 according to testimony released by the GOP.
Hunter then said, according to the testimony, “Tell the director that I would like to fix this now before it gets out of hand, and that means now tonight.
Hunter Biden sent WhatsApp message demanding payment from Chinese businessman while ‘sitting with his dad’ Joe, IRS whistleblower claims explosive testimony
‘And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone other than you, Zhang, or the president, I’ll make sure that between the man sitting next to me and everyone he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you’ll regret not following my lead. I’m sitting here waiting for the call with my dad,” he added.
The unverified testimony came from two IRS whistleblowers as news broke this week that Hunter Biden had agreed to plead guilty to two tax offenses while dispensing with a firearms charge against him, likely to avoid a prison sentence.
Testimony revealed that US Attorney David Weiss – the Trump-era holdover who pursued the case against Hunter Biden – allegedly requested special counsel status and was denied by the Justice Department.
Weiss also reportedly attempted to bring charges against Hunter in Washington D.C. and California in the fall of 2022 and had that request denied in January 2023.
But Weiss said in a letter to lawmakers earlier this month that the DOJ granted him “ultimate authority” over when and where to bring charges.
Last Wednesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland vouched for Weiss, saying he had given him “full authority” to decide how to handle the situation. ‘And he did,” Garland said.
Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., Revealed at a press conference that two IRS employees claimed the agency was seeking felony charges against Hunter Biden for trying to evade taxes and doing false statements.
According to Smith, whistleblowers said Hunter failed to pay $2.2 million in taxes on $8.3 million in income from foreign entities in Ukraine, China and Romania.
Smith said the testimony also shows the DOJ sought to “delay the investigation long enough to reach the statute of limitations” and “disclosed the investigative team’s sensitive actions to Biden’s attorneys.”
In one example, a whistleblower’s testimony claimed the IRS was going to search a storage unit in Virginia owned by Hunter Biden, but warned his attorneys before doing so.
According to Smith, whistleblowers claimed the DOJ dragged its feet in authenticating the message. They had obtained it in August 2020 after retrieving the results of an iCloud search warrant.
Testimony revealed that US Attorney David Weiss – the Trump-era holdover who pursued the case against Hunter Biden – allegedly requested special counsel status and was denied by the Justice Department.
“The messages included material that we clearly needed to follow up on,” one whistleblower said.
In the run-up to the 2020 election, the IRS had been “preparing for a time when we might go further” by obtaining new leads in the case.
The testimony also revealed that the investigation into Hunter Biden, codenamed Sportsman, was first opened in November 2018 following an IRS investigation into an online amateur pornography platform. based abroad.
According to “whistleblower 1,” believed to be former tax agent Gary Shapley, at some point it became clear to the taxman that he needed to search Joe Biden’s guest house where Hunter had been living for some time.
“Assistant United States Attorney Lesley Wolf told us there was more than enough probable cause for the physical search warrant there, but the question was whether the juice was worth the trouble. ‘be in a hurry,’ the whistleblower said.
