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President Joe Biden hosted a star-filled White House event to honor Kennedy Center awardees, but reporters who covered it appeared to be more interested in first son Hunter Biden, who was spotted in the back during the ceremonies.
“At a festive black-tie White House event to celebrate Kennedy Center honorees Sunday evening, the president’s son couldn’t escape scrutiny about his laptop, which ignited fierce debate over social media censorship and will likely be a focus of GOP congressional investigations,” the Washington Examiner reported. “The younger Biden was joined Sunday by his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, for the reception, which was hosted by President Joe Biden in the East Room.
“Pool reports said the president’s son was seated toward the back of the room when two reporters approached him,” the outlet continued. “One asked him about Musk publicizing details on how his newly acquired social media platform responded in the wake of the October 2020 New York Post report on documents obtained from his personal hard drive. The other asked about House Republican investigations into his business dealings.”
According to the report, Hunter Biden did not respond to either question but rather, smiled and moved on.
Fox News posted a video of the exchange:
“Pool had a chance to ask Hunter a question (he was seated near the back with Melissa Cohen). He smiled and walked away to two simultaneous questions about GOP investigations and Elon Musk maneuvers,” Mediaite reported, quoting pool reporter Geoff Earle of MailOnline.
Earle went on to post a photo of Hunter Biden mingling with guests.
Hunter Biden worked the room in black tie pic.twitter.com/SVzro7geoZ
— Geoff Earle (@GeoffEarle) December 4, 2022
“The younger Biden’s financial affairs, including millions of dollars worth of dealings and money transfers tied to countries such as Ukraine, China, and Russia, have been under federal scrutiny since 2018,” the Washington Examiner noted.
“This investigation will be a top priority,” Rep. James Comer (R-KY), who will chair the House Oversight and Reform Committee next year, said of probing Hunter Biden during a press conference last month. “This is an investigation of Joe Biden and why he lied to the American people about his knowledge and participation in his family’s international business schemes.”
However, during his primetime program Monday evening, Fox News host Jesse Watters surmised that with Hunter Biden’s presence at the gala, President Biden is signaling to Republicans that his son is essentially untouchable.
According to the Washington Post, Delaware-based U.S. Attorney David Weiss, a Trump appointee, has the authority to decide if the government will pursue charges related to Hunter Biden’s taxes and an allegedly false statement he made about past drug use on a federal firearms form he filled out to buy a handgun in the state.
“Agents determined months ago they had assembled a viable criminal case against the younger Biden. But it is ultimately up to prosecutors at the Justice Department, not agents, to decide whether to file charges in cases where prosecutors believe the evidence is strong enough to lead to a likely conviction at trial,” the Post added.
“Given the intense political interest in a criminal probe involving the son of a sitting president, Attorney General Merrick Garland has made clear that the U.S. Attorney in Delaware, David C. Weiss, who was nominated by Trump in late 2017, is supervising the case,” the paper added.
Meanwhile, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and 32 other Senate Republicans are demanding special counsel powers for the prosecutor investigating Hunter Biden.
The lawmakers say they fear Attorney General Merrick Garland or others at the Justice Department may attempt to meddle in the probe to protect President Joe Biden and his son.
“It is clear that Hunter Biden thrived off of a ‘pay to play’ culture of access to his father, then Vice President Joe Biden in exchange for financial compensation,” Cornyn and his colleagues wrote a letter to Garland.
“Given that the investigation involves the President’s son,” the letter from Cornyn says, “we believe it is important to provide U.S. Attorney Weiss with special counsel authorities and protections to allow him to investigate an appropriate scope of potentially criminal conduct, avoid the appearance of impropriety, and provide additional assurances to the American people that the Hunter Biden investigation is free from political influence.”
“There is no way of knowing the entire scope of the investigation, but evidence seems to be mounting that Hunter Biden committed numerous federal crimes, including, but not limited to, tax fraud, money laundering, and foreign-lobbying violations,” the senators added.
