Hunter Biden’s lawyer, Kevin Morris, threatened legal scholar and television commentator Jonathan Turley with a defamation lawsuit for his criticism of alleged Biden corruption, Turley revealed Friday.
Following the initial “Laptop from Hell” report by the New York Post in 2020, the House launched an impeachment inquiry into the Biden family. Investigators revealed President Joe Biden received money from James and Hunter Biden. They also showed that nine additional Biden family members received payments from the family’s foreign business ventures, including two of Joe Biden’s grandchildren.
In addition, the inquiry also compelled Morris to verify that he purchased Hunter’s ten percent stake in a Chinese state-backed investment fund, BHR Partners, confirming Breitbart News’s exclusive in April. BHR Partners, an entity controlled by the Bank of China, has about $3 billion currently invested around the world, according to its website.
The inquiry also forced Morris to admit he loaned Hunter millions of dollars to maintain his lifestyle and pay his taxes and legal fees, actions that caused America First Legal to file a bar complaint with the State Bar of California.
Turley, an outspoken critic of the Biden family business, did not back down upon Morris’s threat of legal action. Instead, he slammed Morris in a Friday essay for his arrangement with Hunter.
“The effort in such threats is to silence or chill critics in their criticism of a wealthy, powerful public figure like Mr. Morris,” he said. Turley then highlighted Morris’s recent congressional testimony and his ownership of Hunter’s stake in BHR Painters:
[T]he transcript refers to Morris investing or assuming interest in entities associated with Hunter’s foreign partners or businesses. It is not clear what financial interest Morris assumed with regard to any real property owned by Hunter. I specifically asked Sullivan [Morris’ lawyer] about such transactions. These business interests appear to have arisen after Morris delved into his client’s finances as his counsel. His client was in obvious financial distress at the time. It is important to determine if Morris assumed interest or purchased assets due to his knowledge of Hunter’s past dealings.
Again, there is a telling exchange with Morris of his ownership of 10% of Bohai Harvest RST LLC (BHR), through his acquisition of interest in Skaneateles LLC. Those are business interests associated with Hunter Biden. Note the apparent confusion of Morris in his knowledge and claims of privilege (emphasis added):
Q Did you have a written agreement with Hunter Biden regarding the sale of Skaneateles?
A I don’t know. I don’t believe so. Or — I don’t know. Probably, yeah. Probably, it was the — I would imagine I had to — okay, yeah. The answer is yes.
Mr. Liner. You had legal counsel as well.
Mr. Morris. Correct. A lot of them.
Q Does that contract allow for Hunter Biden to purchase back BHR at a certain time point?
A That I don’t — I can’t tell you, Counsel.
Mr. Liner. Meaning you don’t know?
Mr. Morris. Meaning I don’t know.
This is an exchange after Morris was told weeks in advance that he would be asked about his payments, loans, and agreements with Hunter Biden. Yet, Morris is still not clear on what agreements he had with his client or key details on those transactions. He is not even sure if he is holding an asset (that is the subject of congressional inquiry into his client’s dealings) that he might just give back to his client at some point.
Turley’s analysis raises questions about Morris’s intent for the acquisition, as related to his ongoing personal and business relationship with the first family, along with the business partnership he now has with a Chinese Community Party-linked fund. Some question whether Morris’s newly acquired stake in BHR Partners is a form of collateral to protect himself from Hunter not repaying his debts.
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former GOP War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.
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