By David Potter
Last Tuesday, Democrats on the House Oversight and Reform Committee denied a motion for a subpoena that would compel President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, to testify as a witness on electrifying the vehicle fleet belonging to the USPS.
Republicans on the Committee seek to question Hunter in relation to his business dealings with China. Representative Andy Biggs (R-AZ) sarcastically Tweeted “Hunter sold a U.S. cobalt mine to a Chinese company. Cobalt is necessary for electric car production. Hunter’s expertise is invaluable!”. Hunter was a partial owner of a business venture that was involved in the $3.8 billion purchase by a Chinese conglomerate of one of the world’s largest cobalt deposits. Hunter’s involvement in international business deals have raised questions of national security threats. President Joe Biden’s own Department of Justice has their eyes on Hunter for his taxes and for possible violations of foreign lobbying laws. The Democrat majority on this powerful Committee, at least for now, have the ability quell any Congressional investigations into Hunter.
Meanwhile, this same Committee is actively investigating the National Football League (NFL) and the Washington Commanders football team for allegations of a hostile work environment, financial irregularities, and harassment claims. As of February 4th, the NFL has sent nearly 80,000 pages of documents to the same Committee. Representative Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) personally wrote a letter to Roger Goodell, the NFL Commissioner, requesting additional documentation regarding the investigation.
“The NFL must explain why a target of its investigation was given the ability to block the release of the investigation’s findings and why the NFL instructed Ms. Wilkinson to reverse course and not provide a written report. Most importantly, the NFL must end its months-long efforts to hide the truth about misconduct at the WFT and cooperate with the Committee’s investigation. For all these reasons, we request that you fully comply with the Committee’s prior requests to produce (1) Ms. Wilkinson’s findings; (2) the 2,100 documents from the Wilkinson investigation in the NFL’s custody; and (3) the remaining documents central to Ms. Wilkinson’s investigation, which are currently held by a third-party vendor. Please produce these documents by February 14, 2022. If the NFL fails to comply, the Committee will consider alternate means of obtaining compliance.”
The Oversight Committee desires hundreds of thousands of documents pertaining to an investigation of the NFL but has shown little interest in the potential national security risk posed by many of Hunter Biden’s business dealings. After the subpoena motion denial, Biggs later Tweeted “Wow, Democrats just denied my motion to subpoena Hunter. They continue to protect him at any cost. I guess Democrats are ok with his shady business dealings.”
The NFL and its teams should be expected to maintain healthy, functional work environments, same as the other hundreds of thousands of corporations in America, but the House Oversight Committee’s job is to do more than chase prurient headlines. The allure of breaking into the nation’s sports broadcasts where politicians rarely find themselves, is strong but the Democrats should leave the NFL scandals to the courtrooms. At least until they determine the extent of Chinese influence on the White House due to Hunter’s personally documented illicit financial dealings and maybe even open the records on the dozens of sexual harassment payouts due to misdeeds by elected Members of Congress.
Despite big tech, the legacy media, and White House officials labeling Hunter Biden’s laptop as Russian disinformation in October 2020, the laptop’s existence is now irrefutable. Jack Maxey, the whistleblower who handed Hunter’s laptop to congressmen, the Washington Post, New York Times, and DailyMail.com in the spring of 2021, reveals that he intends to release 450gb of deleted material including 80,000 images and videos in the coming weeks. Fearing retaliation from the White House, the former Bannon podcast co-host has fled to Zurich, Switzerland. The original laptop leak revealed some disturbing details. “One infamous May 2017 email by Hunter’s partner James Gilliar, he suggests 10% of the equity in the deal would go to ‘the big guy’ – a phrase consistently used throughout Hunter’s communications to refer to his father. Other emails show that Joe and Hunter shared a bank account and paid each other’s bills.” The situation will likely only get worse after an additional 450gb of laptop content is released. House Democrats should consider national security over partisan politics.
Americans for Limited Government President Rick Manning said the following regarding the Committee’s decision to ignore the implications of Hunter’s actions. “Democrats on the House Oversight and Reform Committee are clearly not serious about their jobs. Choosing to investigate a private NFL disciplinary matter over investigating whether President Biden’s son has profiteered off that relationship and what he gave the Chinese in exchange for the payouts is a dereliction of duty. Obviously, if Joe Biden has personally benefited from his son’s questionable deals with enemies of the United States, it would be an impeachable offense.”
Even if the Democrats continue to stonewall this legitimate investigation, Republicans appear ready to bring forth a storm of Hunter investigations next January after they reclaim the majority in the House, assuming historical trends remain accurate at predicting a House flip. Attorney and commentator Jonathan Turley believes that Mueller set a new legal precedent with the handling of Paul Manafort’s case. “This week, I testified in the House Judiciary Committee on enhancements of FARA and was asked whether Hunter Biden could be charged under the act. The answer is clearly yes. Indeed, if the Justice Department applies the standard used in the Paul Manafort case, it would seem like such a charge is not just possible, but even probable.”
Clearly the Oversight Committee is failing to act. An issue this important should stir them into action, but it would further damage the reputation of their already failed party leader (according to approval polls). Republicans will be left to clean up the mess.
David Potter is a contributing editor for Americans for Limited Government.
