OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
When The New York Times, CNN and others admitted that the Hunter Biden laptop story was real it could have been because they knew more was coming.
On Thursday, CBS News reporter Catherine Herridge said that the investigation, that started as a probe into Hunter’s taxes, has become “broader than previously known.”
More witnesses have come forward to speak to the grand jury in Wilmington, Delaware and they have been asked about payments that Hunter received when he was on the board of the energy company Burisma in Ukraine, ABC News reported.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Delaware, which has been leading the investigation, is expected to hear from more witnesses in the coming weeks, sources told ABC News.
Sources say that prosecutors have not made a decision yet on whether criminal charges against Biden are warranted, and that there is debate about whether Biden’s admitted past drug abuse could serve to undermine a criminal case over his financial decision-making.
A spokesperson for the DA’s office declined to comment to ABC News, as did a spokesperson for the Justice Department.
Chris Clark, an attorney for Hunter Biden, did not respond to a request for comment. The developments in the probe were first reported by The New York Times.
Hunter Biden confirmed the existence of the investigation in December 2020, shortly after his father won the presidency. Since taking office, President Biden has repeatedly pledged to uphold the independence of the Justice Department and not interfere in its work. The tax probe is being led by U.S. Attorney Dan Weiss, a Trump appointee who remained on the job after Biden was sworn in.
“In retrospect, look, I think that it was poor judgment on my part,” Hunter Biden said to ABC News in October 2019 in reference to his business dealings and how they could affect his dad’s political career. “Is that I think that it was poor judgment because I don’t believe now, when I look back on it — I know that there was — did nothing wrong at all. However, was it poor judgment to be in the middle of something that is … a swamp in — in — in many ways? Yeah.”
This week CNN reported about the laptop and how much of an issue it is.
“You’re reporting here because this is very, very bad for the president’s son,” CNN host Brianna Keilar said.
“It’s an investigation, as you pointed out, going back to 2018,” CNN’s Senior Justice Correspondent Evan Perez said. “And right now, prosecutors in Delaware are focusing on a number of things, including whether Hunter Biden and, and some of his business associates violated laws, including tax money, laundering, laws, and foreign lobbying laws.”
“A lot of this has to do with Hunter Biden’s time working with this company called Burisma, an energy company in Ukraine,” Perez continued. “He was getting paid as much as $50,000 a month for that company during a time that Joe Biden, his father was vice president, was in charge of handling Ukraine issues for the Obama administration. And that of course raised questions of, of a conflict.”
“And so what we know is this investigation, you know, for a while, it has been going on and it seemed to not, not a lot was going on recently,” he added. “A lot of activity has picked up. We know witnesses have gone in to talk to the grand jury in Delaware. We know of witnesses who are going in to talk to investigators in the next few weeks.”
“So we know that there’s a lot of activity now picking up,” he said. “He’s not been charged. He says that, Hunter Biden says that he committed no wrongdoing. And that he says at the end of this, he believes he’ll be cleared.”
“But obviously, as you pointed out, this is a political mess for the sitting president to have his son being investigated by the Justice Department, his own Justice Department,” he concluded.
CNN finally admits the federal investigation into Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings is a "very real, very substantial investigation of potentially serious federal crimes." pic.twitter.com/lQRfknsfty
— Real Mac Report (@RealMacReport) March 30, 2022
Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig added that this is a “very real, very substantial investigation of potentially serious federal crimes.”
“There are a lot of issues that the Justice Department is looking into, including, of course, this laptop – on the right-wing – has featured a lot of stories about Hunter Biden,” CNN’s Evan Perez said. “We know the FBI has possession of it and that they believe it is his laptop.”
The Western Journal predicted four possibilities of what could happen with Hunter Biden.
- Hunter Biden could be indicted.
- Evidence that President Joe Biden benefited financially from his son’s dealings could surface.
- Evidence that Joe Biden was well aware of his son’s underhanded business dealings could come to light.
- The story has simply become too big for the establishment media to hide. They have to at least pretend to be journalists.
