Top House Republicans are pressing Attorney General Merrick Garland on whether the Justice Department shielded Hunter Biden during the corruption trial of one of his Chinese associates.
House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) and House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-KY) wrote a letter to Garland on Tuesday requesting information on the DOJ’s prosecution of Chi Ping “Patrick” Ho, a Chinese businessman who was sentenced in 2019 to three years in prison for bribing officials in Uganda and Chad for the benefit of CEFC China Energy. In their letter, they said that the available evidence indicated that DOJ prosecutors purposely kept Hunter out of the investigation despite his ties to Ho and CEFC.
“Information obtained by the Committees indicate that prosecutors sought to keep the Biden name out of Mr. Ho’s trial. First, as the Oversight Committee previously noted, prosecutors in Mr. Ho’s case seemingly redacted Hunter Biden’s name from evidence used at trial,” the Republicans wrote.
At Ho’s trial, Vuk Jeremic, the former president of the United Nations General Assembly, testified that he worked as a consultant for CEFC, which was headed by Chinese businessman Ye Jianming. Jeremic said he worked to link the company to prominent businessmen and politicians.
“During the trial, a prosecutor requested that the judge redact from an email between Ho and Jeremic that DOJ intended to introduce into evidence the name of ‘an individual that Mr. Jeremic was willing to bring to a dinner with the chairman Mr. Ye,’” the letter said.
The judge agreed to exclude the name of the individual Jeremic wanted to bring for dinner with Ye because including it “could introduce a political dimension to this case that [prosecutors] don’t think is worth dealing with,” according to the Republicans letter.
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Jordan and Comer said that the evidence indicated that the redacted name was Hunter, who was linked to both Ho and CEFC in the years leading up to the trial.
“In the years immediately preceding Mr. Ho’s trial and during his trial, Hunter Biden was closely connected to both Mr. Ho and CEFC. Mr. Biden’s business relationship with CEFC is lengthy and well-documented, and resulted in Mr. Biden receiving millions of dollars without providing an identifiable product or service,” the letter said. “Additionally, Mr. Ho paid Hunter Biden $1 million to serve as his legal counsel, though it is not clear what work Mr. Biden actually performed—especially since Mr. Biden is not a licensed attorney in New York.”
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The lawmakers want the DOJ to provide the unredacted email between Ho and Jeremic as well as the contents of Ho’s iPad, which was seized during the investigation.
The letter to Garland is part of House Republicans investigation into the Biden family’s business dealings abroad and impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. The president has denied ever discussing business with Hunter, a claim that has come under increasing scrutiny as the corruption probe continues.