House Ways and Means Committee VShairdresser Jason Smith (R-MO) responded to Hunter Biden over his claims that his drug addiction was being used against him as part of the House investigations into the Biden family’s “influence peddling scheme.”
Smith accused Hunter Biden of using his struggles with addiction in a way opinion article he wrote last week to deflect attention from shady business deals. Smith and other House Republicans say he and his father Joe Biden were involved in.
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“Addiction is not a moral failing, nor is it a crime,” Smith said. “Hunter Biden’s repeated attempts to conceal his income from the IRS, potentially committing multiple crimes in the process, and his involvement with President Biden, are why he is under investigation by the Department of Justice. Justice and now Congress.”
Hunter Biden wrote that his “struggles and mistakes fueled” a “sustained disinformation campaign” against his father, but he did not mention questions about his tax and business affairs, besides highlighting the “sharp investigations but unsuccessful meetings of Congress. ” in him.
Smith noted a section of the younger Biden’s op-ed in which he said he was “responsible” for his “choices and mistakes” and did not view himself as a victim.
“Hunter Biden says he fully accepts the choices and mistakes he made, but has sought at every turn to escape the legal consequences of his actions,” the Ways and Means chairman said.
Smith’s op-ed and comments come as the Justice Department continues to investigate him and lawmakers try to track how millions of dollars in income allegedly moved between Biden family members and their affiliates over the last decade.
The younger Biden’s most high-profile venture involved the profitable position he took on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, in May 2014, a year before his brother died and his problems deepened of addiction, according to his memoirs. Hunter Biden noted in the op-ed that he has been sober for more than four years,
Smith blasted Hunter Biden for his numerous prosecutions of two IRS whistleblowers and for engaging in “interference with Congress’s constitutional duty to exercise oversight.”
“The American people are compassionate, but that doesn’t make them stupid,” Smith said. “They know that drug addiction has nothing to do with the Biden political machine’s years of campaigning to obstruct justice, nor the millions of dollars potentially spent. The Biden family is a product of influence peddling. That Hunter Biden says so little on these issues speaks volumes.
In early October, Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to three federal gun-related charges, months after a plea deal between him and federal prosecutors. collapsedpaving the way for a possible trial in 2024. He was initially expected to plead guilty to tax crimes to avoid a gun possession charge.
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Before her not guilty plea, U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika expunged the gun possession charge and replaced it with the three-count indictment.
David Weiss, who serves as the U.S. attorney for Delaware and was appointed by former President Donald Trump, was named special counsel to the Hunter Biden investigation shortly after the plea deal collapsed in August.
