A 2018 text message from Hunter Biden claiming he paid his father, President Joe Biden’s, bills for over a decade suggests further evidence of the corruption of the first family, Republicans in the House said.
In a text thread with Katie Dodge, his assistant, Hunter wrote that his Wells Fargo account “shut me out again.”
“Too many cooks in the kitchen,” wrote the son of the president on April 12, 2018. “Too many people changes and such. Happened ten days ago too. What do you need? I’m going to bank in a few. Need to verify identity in person.”
Dodge responded, “I need to pay AT&T.”
Hunter Biden then told Dodge to put the payment on his debit card and his “Wells Fargo credit line.”
“My dad has been using most lines on this account which I’ve through the gracious offerings of Eric [Schwerin] have paid for past 11 years,” wrote Hunter Biden.
It is unclear if Hunter allegedly shared a Wells Fargo account with his father and an AT&T account.
However, the texts show some combining of Biden’s and Hunter’s finances that has been uncovered in past reports. In 2010, Eric Schwerin, longtime business partner of Hunter Biden, said he was transferring funds from the elder Biden’s tax refund check into Hunter’s account because “he owes it to you.”
In a 2016 email from Schwerin to Hunter, it was indicated Hunter was expected to pay an AT&T bill in the total amount of $190 for “JRB.”
In a 2019 text from Hunter Biden to his daughter, Naomi, he told her his father forced him to fork over half his salary.
“I hope you all can do what I did and pay for everything for this entire family Fro (sic) 30 years. It’s really hard. But don’t worry, unlike Pop, I won’t make you give me half your salary,” wrote Hunter.
The Committee on Oversight and Accountability has released several memos to show the money flow
The Committee on Oversight and Accountability has released numerous memos to show money flowing into Hunter-like accounts from entities in China, Russia, Ukraine, Romania, and Kazakhstan when his father was vice president. However, the question is whether the elder Biden knew about it or benefited from millions of dollars brought in by his son.
House Republican Conference, Chair Republican Representative Elise Stefanik of New York, slammed Biden’s “corruption” in a statement.
“This is what corruption looks like. For seemingly the entirety of Joe Biden’s Vice Presidency, his son Hunter was selling access to his father to the highest bidder while paying off his Joe Biden’s credit card bills,” said Stefanik. “There can no longer be any doubt that Joe Biden is compromised.”
Republicans on the committee said the 2018 texts between Hunter and his assistant provide further evidence that the president had at least minimal passive understanding of his son’s business dealings, despite repeatedly claiming that he had no knowledge.
“There’s more. Much, more,” said GOP Representative Clay Higgins of Louisiana. “Joe Biden is most certainly a heavily compromised career politician, Republicans on the Oversight Committee are revealing the depths of his corruption, and everyone close to him will be burned by the inferno of his crash.”
“Bank records don’t lie,” said Republican Representative Paul Gosar of Arizona. “Follow the money: all transactions lead to the Big Guy and his money laundering shell games. Joe Biden should be impeached.”
“This is no longer just about Hunter Biden,” said Republican Representative Tim Burchett of Tennessee. “The president shared this bank account with him. More and more evidence just keeps hitting us in the mouth, and eventually, there’s got to be some justice. The American people are owed that much.”
Schwerin has been dubbed the “money guy” due to his frequent involvement in Biden family finances and is a critical player in the orbit of Hunter Biden and his father, Joe.
Kathleen Buhle, Hunter’s ex-wife, who was married to him from 1993 to 2017, revealed in a June 2022 memoir that Schwerin “managed almost every aspect of our financial life.”
Hunter also acknowledged Schwerin, who visited the vice-presidential residence and Obama White House at least 36 times, was a “close confident and counsel” to the father in a February 2014 email thread with Schwerin.
The House Oversight Committee released its third bank memo last week. It produced bank records that purported to show that Hunter and his business associates received millions from Kazakhstani and Russian oligarchs when his father was vice president.
The 19-page memo, which included redacted bank records and screenshots, says millions of payments came from Ukrainian energy company Burisma, along with Kazakhstani oligarch Kenes Rakishev, Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina, and that the then Vice-President Biden attended dinners with a representative from Burisma, Rakishev, and Baturina.
Two previous memos from the GOP-led committee tied the Biden family members to payments linked to entities in Romania and China. The committee says foreign payments to the Biden family are more than $20 million.
On Friday, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed U.S. Attorney David Weiss as special counsel in the federal investigation into Hunter Biden. Republicans immediately criticized the attorney general’s selection of Weiss, who led the prosecution in Hunter Biden’s gun and tax charges that conservatives blasted as too lax.
GOP House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer of Kentucky called Garland’s announcement “part of the Justice Department’s efforts to attempt a Biden family coverup in light of [House Oversight Republicans’] mounting evidence of President Biden’s role in his family’s schemes selling ‘the brand’ for millions of dollars to foreign nationals.”
