Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) defended President Trump’s requests to the Ukrainian president and the Chinese government to help investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.
Biden, as vice president, pushed for the firing of the then-chief prosecutor of Ukraine, who had been investigating the CEO of a company that employed his son on its board at $50,000 a month. At Biden’s urging, the chief prosecutor, Viktor Shokin was fired and the investigation was eventually closed.
Biden, during an official work trip to China in late 2013, brought his son, who had business meetings during the trip. After the trip, a Chinese private equity fund his son was forming received a Chinese business license that brought the fund into existence.
Paul told reporters Tuesday on a conference call, “I’m with most Americans that Hunter Biden making $50,000 a month doesn’t pass the smell test. It sounds really corrupt, I think most Americans are beginning to believe that.”
He continued:
In China it’s hard to tell what is a private investment in Joe Biden and his son, and what is a government investment and obviously it’d be much more worrisome if the Chinese government were involved in paying Hunter Biden for investing in his fund, but I don’t think it’s beyond the pale of consideration because so many of the companies in China … the government retains a 50% interest in a lot of so-called private entities over there, so yeah, I think we should find out if the Chinese government made an indirect or direct investment in Joe Biden’s son. I think absolutely.
Paul also dismissed suggestions that it was wrong of Trump to ask Ukraine or China to get involved in U.S. politics. He said:
Now people want to word this as ‘Oh, getting involved in our political system.’ Well political figures can be corrupt and it doesn’t meant that just because they are a political figure we don’t investigate them. And the Bidens are political figures — does that mean if you investigate them it’s a campaign contribution or something ridiculous?
“I think political figures who commit corruption will and should be investigated. And the only way you figure out the truth of this is looking back at all records – Ukrainian records and Chinese records…I am not so sure there there’s some law that’s broken by asking for [the] investigation of corrupt political officials and their families,” he said.
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