The FBI has refused to either confirm or deny the existence of any ongoing investigations concerning Hunter Biden, the son of former Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, The Federalist reported on 8 October, citing an exclusively obtained bureau letter written in response to a 24 September request by Republican Congressman Jim Jordan, the ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee.
Why FBI Unlikely to React Before the Election
On 24 September, Jordan sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray asking what investigative steps – if any – the intelligence agency had taken in response to the GOP report detailing misconduct and suspicious financial transactions involving Hunter Biden, his family, and his associates.
Nevertheless, the FBI has yet to respond to Jordan's questions concerning potential inquiries into:
· Hunter Biden receiving millions of dollars from foreign nationals with questionable background and funding individuals "involved in human trafficking and organised prostitution";
· Hunter's Chinese transactions "involv[ing] potential criminal activity";
· a bribe allegedly paid by Ukrainian gas firm Burisma's owner to the country's officials to stop investigations against him while Hunter served on the company's board.
🚨 #BREAKING: @Jim_Jordan sends new letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray demanding answers as to whether the FBI is investigating Hunter Biden's foreign dealings. pic.twitter.com/3MuhlTOrWP
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) September 24, 2020
Although Republican congressmen are urging the FBI to look into the Bidens' potential misconduct, there is little if any chance of the Senate pressuring Wray into launching a formal investigation before the November election, believes George Eliason, a Donbass-based American investigative journalist.
"The last thing the Senate will do is make any move that looks partisan or trying to influence the election", Eliason stresses. "After the election it is possible, if Biden loses. On the chance of a Biden win, the investigation will be mute".
GOP Report Sheds Light on Hunter Biden's Gains
The GOP report indicates that Hunter Biden's financial gains from foreign sources substantially increased during his father's tenure as US vice president and after, citing a potential conflict of interest.
Referring to Treasury records, the document also alleges "potential criminal activity relating to transactions among and between Hunter Biden, his family, and his associates with Ukrainian, Russian, Kazakh and Chinese nationals".
Several days before the release of the committee's findings, Just the News reported that the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), a bureau of the US Treasury Department, had "flagged several foreign transactions to Hunter Biden-connected businesses as 'suspicious' during the end of the Obama administration and the beginning of the Trump administration". These findings were highlighted in the agency's Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) which, according to the media outlet, "is [per se] not evidence of wrongdoing, but it is usually a starting point for investigation".
In addition to receiving $4 million in “questionable financial transactions” with foreign financiers, Hunter Biden was spotted sending funds to individuals "linked to what ‘appears to be an Eastern European prostitution or human trafficking ring'", the GOP report reads.
Republican investigators specifically turned the spotlight on Hunter Biden's role in the Ukrainian gas firm Burisma when his father served as the Obama administration’s "public face" of its policy towards the Eastern European state. In May 2014, Hunter joined the firm's board of directors, despite having no experience in energy, and was paid as much as $50,000 per month.
"The Bidens were in the front seat [of the Obama administration's Ukraine politics] the entire time", Eliason recollects. "Joe Biden’s support for the Ukrainian diaspora and fulfilling their wants in Ukraine has been unwavering. The fact that Ukraine became a cash cow for his family that early makes it very clear".
Thus, in December 2014, the owner of Burisma, Mykola Zlochevsky, reportedly gave a $7 million bribe to Ukrainian officials to have the case against him closed and his $23-million assets in the UK unfrozen while Hunter Biden was on Burisma's board. According to the GOP document, the case was reported to the FBI by a DOJ official at the US Embassy in Kiev in 2015, but no action seemingly followed. While US State Department officials considered Zlochevsky "corrupt" at the time, then Vice President Biden avoided denouncing the Ukrainian oligarch, the document says.
More Facts May Emerge After 2020 Campaign
While the FBI keeps silent, the US left-leaning mainstream media have downplayed the study, saying that it does not show whether Hunter Biden's actions influenced US government policy in any way.
CBS News, in particular, has drawn attention to the fact that "the report does not assert that the former vice president pushed for the firing of a Ukrainian prosecutor in order to protect Burisma, a central claim made by President Trump and his allies". For its part, the Biden campaign denounced the GOP research as a political attack amid the 2020 presidential campaign.
"The MSM has been firmly behind Biden and has to step back further than is now possible with credibility", says Eliason referring to the mainstream media's previous efforts to bury the anti-Biden sexual harassment allegations put forward by Tara Reade, a former staff assistant in Biden's US Senate office. "As far as not affecting US policy, it’s a fogging ploy to relieve Biden from any culpability in crimes the evidence is very strong pointing to his involvement".
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian probe into the alleged Biden-Poroshenko tapes, concerning the ouster of then Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin - who was investigating Burisma Holdings - in exchange for a $1 billion loan, is still ongoing, the journalist emphasises.
Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova confirmed in mid-September that the tapes are being examined: "We are waiting for the results of the research. We will react only where it is prescribed by law ... Ukraine does not interfere in the affairs of other states. We remain in the field of criminal justice", she stated on Savik Shuster's YouTube podcast on 12 September.
Eliason believes that more facts concerning the Bidens may surface when the presidential campaign is over, as it will no longer be seen as an attempt to interfere in the elections. Furthermore, in case Biden loses and Trump takes office, the situation "would be cut and dry", which would help US investigators to eventually sort things out.
