Former first lady Michelle Obama was spotted having dinner with Kathleen Biden — the ex-wife of the embattled Hunter Biden — at a trendy Washington, D.C., restaurant on Wednesday evening, according to a report.
The Hill says Obama and Biden dinner together at Brasserie Liberté, a recently-opened Georgetown eatery that serves modern French destination with an “American twist.”
“A tipster tells ITK that Obama was sporting a camel coat paired with a black button-down shirt and jeans. The high-profile pair, along with four other companions, spent roughly three hours” at the restaurant, writes “In the Know” columnist Judy Kurtz.
Their purported meeting comes as Senate Republicans continue calls for Hunter Biden, former Vice President Joe Biden’s youngest son, to testify in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump.
The young Biden faces allegations of corruption over his business dealings in Ukraine, China, and other corruption-plagued countries. Reports suggest Hunter was paid roughly $83,000 per month to serve on the board of directors of Ukrainian energy giant Burisma Holdings — despite having no experience in the industry — while his father oversaw U.S. policy toward Ukraine as vice president. Such allegations, among others, prompting President Donald Trump to ask Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to look into the Bidens during a July 25 telephone call.
The suggestion prompted a CIA analyst to file a “whistleblower” complaint alleging that the president sought to exchange roughly $400 million in U.S. security assistance to Ukraine in exchange for investigations into the Biden family. Both world leaders have repeatedly denied any pressure was applied and the White House released a transcript of their call as evidence that no wrongdoing occurred. The suspected “whistleblower” — Eric Ciaramella — worked in both the Obama and Trump administrations as a member of the National Security Council (NSC), and reportedly relied on second-hand information to fill out the complaint.
Last month, a top aide to Zelensky confirmed that the eastern European country never felt U.S. military aid was connected to any probes into the Bidens or others.
“We never had that feeling,” Andriy Yermak told TIME magazine when asked about whether Ukraine felt pressure from the president to probe into the Bidens in exchange for aid. “We had a clear understanding that the aid has been frozen. We honestly said, ‘Okay, that’s bad, what’s going on here.’ We were told that they would figure it out. And after a certain amount of time the aid was unfrozen. We did not have the feeling that this aid was connected to any one specific issue.”
On Thursday, President Trump’s legal team and Republican Senators will begin their second day of questions as part of the upper chamber’s impeachment trial.