Republican congressmen say they are ready to subpoena Hunter Biden and question him on his purported nefarious dealings abroad as well as the extent of the current US president's involvement if the GOP regains a majority in Congress, the New York Post reported on Saturday.
“We will subpoena Hunter Biden,” said House GOP conference chair Elise Stefanik. “It should concern every American that they did this for the Biden family’s financial gain, which came at the cost of our national security.”
She added that “the American people absolutely deserve answers.” Stefanik referred to speculation that President Joe Biden could also have been involved in his son’s dealings, as the “big guy,” mentioned in the emails, was said to be his cover name.
“That’s one of the critical questions — perhaps the most critical question,” she noted. “There is no greater ethical concern or frankly conspiracy … whether this president is compromised because of his illegal ties to his family members.”
While legal experts stress that it might be challenging to prosecute Hunter Biden, as even if he did find himself before Congress, he would likely invoke the 5th amendment, Stefanik claimed that “the subpoenas will rain down if they do not turn over documents and answer our questions.”
A “Senate report found that a firm linked to Hunter Biden got $3.5 million from a Russian billionaire who has yet to face US sanctions for Putin’s genocide in Ukraine. Why were they left off Joe Biden’s sanction list?” Stefanik asked.
Last week, Republican Senators Ron Johnson and Rand Paul said they plan to investigate the Biden family if the GOP takes over Congress after the midterm elections. In addition, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., has written letters to White House press secretary Jen Psaki, chief of staff Ronald Klain, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, as well as multiple former US intelligence officials, and others, demanding that they preserve all Hunter Biden-related records.
In October 2020, the New York Post published a series of materials based on correspondence allegedly found on Hunter Biden's laptop found in a Delaware repair shop. The owner of the workshop made a copy of the hard drive, which was given to Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York and personal lawyer of then US President Donald Trump. The laptop was reportedly later seized by the FBI.
The emails showed that Hunter Biden, employed by Ukrainian company Burisma between 2014 and 2019, organized a meeting with Joe Biden on behalf of the firm's management.
Some of the documents, according to the reports, indicate the Bidens were abusing their authority to make beneficial deals with a wealthy Communist Party-linked Chinese tycoon. In an email in May 2017 from partner James Gilliar, it appears that Hunter was reportedly getting a 20 percent stake in the venture, with another 10 percent owned by the “big guy.” According to Hunter Biden's former business partner Tony Bobulinski, the “big guy” refers to Joe Biden, who, according to one of the emails, rejected the deal.
Hunter Biden has, so far, denied all accusations and the US president has said he wasn’t aware of his son’s dealings.
A month before the presidential race, all these reports were dubbed as a "Russian disinformation” campaign, with some major outlets saying the leaked information did not prove the allegations and did not warrant a potential tax fraud and money laundering investigation.
While the story received sporadic coverage in mass media, the two major social media platforms took measures to limit it even more. Twitter and Facebook users were not allowed to post or share the New York Post story with other users, with Twitter even banning the newspaper's account in the crucial days leading up to the election.
Meanwhile, around half of those who voted for the current US president did not know about the laptop story, according to a survey conducted by The Media Research Centre. The poll also showed that around 10 percent would have changed their vote if they had known about the leaked emails, which could have altered the outcome of the presidential election, which Biden won by a 4.4 percent margin over Trump.
After The New York Times acknowledged the authenticity of the emails on March 17, some Republican lawmakers also called for US mainstream media outlets and Big Tech companies to be prosecuted for hushing up the laptop story.