The Washington Free Beacon reports that Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) received a classified briefing about Hunter Biden’s ties to a Chinese investment firm whose affiliations might have compromised national security, and may be planning on launching an official Congressional investigation into the matter.
“Officials from the Treasury Department, Commerce Department, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence gave Grassley an ‘extensive, classified briefing,'” the WFB reports, which focused on The Aviation Industry Corporation of China, which “American national security officials and independent analysts strongly suspected” was trying to steal the plans for the U.S. military’s F-35 fighter jet.
That company partnered with an investment firm, BHR Partners, for a merger some years ago, involving “a U.S. auto company that produces technologies with military applications.” At the time, Hunter Biden sat on BHR’s board.
Hunter Biden is due to step down from that board at the end of October, according to CNN, citing concerns over how his foreign financial entanglements could affect his father, Joe Biden’s, potential presidential campaign.
But while Hunter Biden’s position on the BHR Partners board may prove problematic, it’s not what initially drew Grassley to the issue. In order for The Aviation Industry Corporation of China to aquire an American auto company, they would have had to get authorization from the Obama Administration’s Treasury Department, among other government entities.
That process, it seems, moved surprisingly fast, and Grassley wants to know if that’s because Biden — and then-Secretary of State John Kerry’s stepson, Christopher Heinz — were involved with the Chinese investment firm.
“Grassley has requested detailed information about how the deal was approved, what role White House personnel played in the decision, and whether they followed proper procedure” given that close relatives of two very prominet Obama Administration officials were in the middle of the fray.
Grassley outlined his concerns in a letter to Trump Administration Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin last month. His staff told WFB that if Grassley’s investigation turns up concerning behavior, a Senate investigation is likely to follow.
Hunter Biden’s international business dealings have come under increased scrutiny since September, when a whistleblower with some knowledge of President Donald Trump’s foreign policy dealings, came forward with accusations that Trump had used his position as president to offer Ukraine a “quid-pro-quo:” American foreign aid in return for an investigation into whether Joe Biden had used his connections as Vice President to help a Ukrainian company that employed his son avoid investigation by Ukrainian officials.
Since then, details of Hunter Biden’s other work has come to light, including his ties to BHR Partners, which not only helped facilitate potentially dangerous mergers and acquisitions of American companies, but also backed a Chinese startup that created facial-recognition software for the Communist state — software that the Chinese government now uses to identify ethnic Chinese Muslims for arrest and relocation to one of several concentration camps, where they are beaten, tortured, raped, and forced to do hard labor as part of an “indoctrination” program.
So far, it is important to note, it does not appear that Hunter Biden has done anything illegal, according to experts, but Grassley’s investigation — and others — have yet to be fully completed.