DOJ needs to treat Hunter Biden like everyone else: Rep. Jason Smith
Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., reacts to the IRS moving to dismiss part of the Hunter Biden lawsuit on 'America Reports.'
The House Oversight Committee said Hunter Biden’s friend and lawyer Kevin Morris’ "massive financial support" raises "ethical and campaign finance concerns" for President Biden, after the Democrat donor appeared for a transcribed interview before the panel Thursday.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., shared details of Morris’ closed-door interview Thursday evening.
"Kevin Morris’s massive financial support to Hunter Biden raises ethical and campaign finance concerns for President Joe Biden," Comer said.
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Comer explained that "shortly after meeting Hunter Biden at a Joe Biden campaign event in 2019, Kevin Morris began paying Hunter Biden’s tax liability to insulate then-presidential candidate Joe Biden from political liability."
"Kevin Morris admitted he has ‘loaned’ the president’s son at least $5 million," Comer revealed Thursday. "These ‘loans’ don’t have to be repaid until after the next presidential election and the ‘loans’ may ultimately be forgiven."
Comer said that since Morris "has kept President Biden’s son financially afloat, he’s had access to the Biden White House and has spoken to President Biden."
Hunter Biden, center, and his attorneys Abbe Lowell, right, and Kevin Morris, left, arrive for the House Oversight and Accountability Committee markup titled "Resolution Recommending That The House Of Representatives Find Robert Hunter Biden In Contempt Of Congress," in Rayburn Building on Wednesday, January 10, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
"This follows a familiar pattern where Hunter Biden’s associates have access to Joe Biden himself," Comer said. "As we continue more interviews this month and the next, we will continue to follow the facts to understand the full scope of President Biden and his family’s corruption."
Morris told the committee Thursday that he was introduced to Hunter Biden by Hollywood producer Lanette Philips at a Biden campaign event in the winter of 2019 in Los Angeles, California.
Morris testified that he donated money to the Biden campaign, after then-candidate Joe Biden spoke at the event.
A week following the event, the committee said Phillips called Morris,and they "discussed Hunter Biden’s ‘entertainment’ issue."
Morris said he then went to Hunter Biden’s residence in Los Angeles.
The committee said that when Morris began giving money to Hunter Biden in January 2020, there was "no written agreement," but that they prepared an agreement after Morris gave Hunter Biden money.
Hunter Biden, center, and his attorneys Abbe Lowell, right, and Kevin Morris, left, leave the House Oversight and Accountability Committee markup titled "Resolution Recommending That The House Of Representatives Find Robert Hunter Biden In Contempt Of Congress," in Rayburn Building on Wednesday, January 10, 2024. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
The committee said that on Feb. 7, 2020, months before the presidential election and during the Democratic presidential primary, Morris emailed tax accountants and Hunter Biden’s advisors saying: "[w]e are under considerable risk personally and politically to get the returns in."
Morris told the committee that he paid Hunter Biden’s taxes, giving the president’s son at least $5 million.
The committee said that Hunter Biden sold "roughly $1.5 million dollars of art, and half of it was purchased by Kevin Morris to reduce the money Hunter owed him."
The committee said Morris also bought two art pieces from Hunter Biden before he had a gallerist.
Morris’s financial support to Hunter Biden includes payments to his ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, and the mother of his child, Lunden Roberts.
Morris admitted to the committee that the "loans" he provided to Hunter Biden do not have to be repaid until 2025, after the next presidential election, and could be forgiven, the committee said.
But a source familiar with Morris' testimony said Morris told the committee that he has never gifted Hunter Biden money and believes that he will, ultimately, be repaid by the president's son.
Meanwhile, the committee said that because of his "lending" to Hunter Biden, Morris had access to the White House. Morris told the committee that he went to the White House several times during the Biden administration. The committee said Morris was given a tour of the White House by Hunter Biden, attended a wedding at the White House, and attended the White House’s Fourth of July picnic.
Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., arrives for the House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing titled "Unsuitable Litigation: Oversight of Third-Party Litigation Funding" in Rayburn Building on Wednesday, September 13, 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to all nine federal tax charges stemming from Special Counsel David Weiss' investigation. Hunter's trial is scheduled to begin on June 20.
Weiss charged Hunter in December, alleging a "four-year scheme" when the president's son did not pay his federal income taxes from January 2017 to October 2020 while also filing false tax reports.
Weiss filed the charges in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.
The charges break down to three felonies and six misdemeanors concerning $1.4 million in owed taxes that have since been paid.
In the indictment, Weiss alleged that Hunter "engaged in a four-year scheme to not pay at least $1.4 million in self-assessed federal taxes he owed for tax years 2016 through 2019, from in or about January 2017 through in or about October 15, 2020, and to evade the assessment of taxes for tax year 2018 when he filed false returns in or about February 2020."
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Weiss said that, in "furtherance of that scheme," the younger Biden "subverted the payroll and tax withholding process of his own company, Owasco, PC by withdrawing millions" from the company "outside of the payroll and tax withholding process that it was designed to perform."
The special counsel alleged that Hunter "spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle rather than paying his tax bills," and that in 2018, he "stopped paying his outstanding and overdue taxes for tax year 2015."
Weiss alleged that Hunter "willfully failed to pay his 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 taxes on time, despite having access to funds to pay some or all of these taxes," and that he "willfully failed to file his 2017 and 2018 tax returns on time."
U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD). (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
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Meanwhile, the top Democrat on the committee, Ranking Member Jamie Raskin, D-Md., on Thursday slammed the House GOP impeachment inquiry.
"Just like every other witness in this colossal embarrassment of an ‘investigation,’ Kevin Morris affirmed today that he has no evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden and that Joe Biden was not involved in, did not profit from, and took no official actions in relation to Morris and Hunter Biden’s relationship," Raskin said. "It is hard to articulate how far removed this interview is from an impeachment inquiry for presidential high crimes and misdemeanors."
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