Republican Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) and Rep. James Comer (R-KY), the top Republican on the oversight committee, told Breitbart News they plan to probe into the Biden family business “as a matter of national security,” after Hunter was recently spotted selling his artwork for a more than 100 percent higher price than previously.
“We already know Hunter Biden made millions off of his corrupt business dealings with the Chinese Communist Party,” Stefanik and Comer said in a joint statement. “We must know how far Hunter Biden’s corruption goes as a matter of national security.”
“One thing is clear, the facts are revealing that Joe Biden is compromised,” the statement continued. “In the new majority, House Republicans will use our subpoena power to expose how deep Hunter Biden and the entire Biden family’s corruption goes and hold this Administration accountable.”
Comer told Breitbart News in November he is 95 percent sure the artwork has been sold to Chinese investors, which could compromise Hunter’s father, President Joe Biden, due to the conflicts of interest, such as influence peddling.
In this Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2013 file photo, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, left, waves as he walks out of Air Force Two with his granddaughter Finnegan Biden and son Hunter Biden at the airport in Beijing, China. (Ng Han Guan, Pool/AP)
“We are 95% sure that that artwork went to China,” Comer stated. “We don’t know where exactly that went to in China, but we’re going to try to find out when we get subpoena power.”
Hunter has reportedly sold five paintings worth $75,000 each to anonymous buyers. Hunter’s art dealer, Bergès, has previously hosted art shows in the United States for Hunter while boasting strong ties within the Chinese art market, a worrisome fact due to the Biden family’s business schemes in Communist China.
Joe Biden’s potential conflict of interest is not the only issue that Comer is investigating. Comer’s committee is also investigating Hunter for money laundering, one of nine potential violations. Money laundering in the art world was identified as a major issue by a bipartisan Senate investigation last year.
CNN Business reported:
The Senate report details how a pair of Russian oligarchs with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin allegedly seized on the secrecy of the art industry to evade sanctions by making more than $18 million in high-value art purchases.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” investigators for the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations told reporters on a call. The art world is considered to be the largest legal unregulated industry in the United States, according to the Senate investigation.
…
The Rotenberg example and many other investigation details highlight the fact that, unlike selling stock or making routine bank transfers, art sales through auction houses are not subject to anti-money laundering provisions in the Bank Secrecy Act. When art is sold, according to the report, sellers are not required to confirm the identity of the buyer nor to make sure the artwork isn’t being used to launder dirty money.
“Secrecy, anonymity, and a lack of regulation create an environment ripe for laundering money and evading sanctions,” a 2020 Senate subcommittee report found.
Former White House press secretary Jen Psaki has defended Hunter’s art scheme with “anonymous” art buyers as “reasonable,” claiming Hunter “is not involved in the sale or discussions about the sale of his art,” and that Hunter will not be “informed” of “who is purchasing his art.”
Hunter’s art dealer has also claimed he would abide by ethical standards and not sell Hunter’s artwork to anyone who seems suspicious.
“This is an absurd solution,” Breitbart News senior contributor and Profiles in Corruption author Peter Schweizer told Breitbart News. “The only way to address these issues is with greater transparency–not less,” he continued. “Their proposed solution is greater secrecy, not transparency. And they are essentially saying, ‘Trust us.’ Joe and Hunter Biden’s track record on such matters gives us no reason to trust them.”
In 2018 and 2020, Breitbart Senior Contributor and Government Accountability Institute President Peter Schweizer published Secret Empires and Profiles in Corruption. Each book hit #1 on the New York Times bestseller list and exposed how Hunter Biden and Joe Biden flew aboard Air Force Two in 2013 to China before Hunter’s firm inked a $1.5 billion deal with a subsidiary of the Chinese government’s Bank of China less than two weeks after the trip. Schweizer’s work also uncovered the Biden family’s other vast and lucrative foreign deals and cronyism.
Breitbart Political Editor Emma-Jo Morris’s investigative work at the New York Post on the Hunter Biden “laptop from hell” also captured international headlines when she, along with Miranda Devine, revealed that Joe Biden was intimately involved in Hunter’s businesses, appearing to even have a 10 percent stake in a company the scion formed with officials at the highest levels of the Chinese Communist Party.
In this composite photograph Peter Schweizer is seen alongside his book “Secret Empires.” (Nicole Myhre Photography, Amazon)
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
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