House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner is seeking an explanation from the White House about whether Hunter Biden has knowledge of classified intelligence briefings, after he made another appearance at the Oval Office this week to boost his father’s faltering reelection campaign.
“White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed that Hunter Biden was attending a formal White House meeting attended by the president and his staff.” Turner, R-Ohio, wrote Wednesday. To White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients.
“Immediate action is required. Please inform the committee of any official meetings Hunter Biden is participating in and whether any classified information has been disclosed,” he urged.
Hunter, 54, has been attending White House meetings since his father returned Monday from his first family vacation to Camp David. A source told The Washington Post on Tuesday that the eldest son is distrustful of White House aides.
Former White House chief of staff Ron Klain, senior adviser Anita Dunn and personal lawyer Bob Bauer were accused by the presidential family of exhausting the 81-year-old Biden during debate preparations at Biden’s vacation home last week.
Hunter believes his father is “tenacious and has a grip on the facts,” despite his poor performance in last Thursday’s debate with former President Donald Trump, 77. According to a report from the New York Times:.
The eldest son’s presence in the West Wing of the White House has unsettled security officials for years.
The Secret Service communicates internally the movements of its protected persons, and agents were stunned to hear that Hunter was heading to a highly secured situation room during Biden’s first year in office.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Hunter’s attendance was part of preparations for a speech the president is due to deliver on the Supreme Court’s immunity decision on Monday night, but Hunter stayed on until Wednesday.
Last July, Trump returned to Camp David for Independence Day celebrations and returned to the White House just hours after cocaine was discovered in a storage area outside the Situation Room.
Hunter was reportedly staying at the Executive Mansion just weeks before accepting a plea deal in June that gave him a suspended sentence for tax evasion and firearms offenses. The plea deal later fell apart and Hunter’s father became embroiled in a plot to defy congressional subpoenas to answer questions about Hunter’s lucrative business dealings overseas.
The president’s son was convicted of three firearms-related felonies in federal court on June 11, and faces an additional felony conviction in September for $1.4 million in tax evasion.
Hunter was also interviewed last year in special counsel Robert Hur’s investigation into his father, which found Biden “knowingly retained and disclosed classified material” but prosecutors dismissed the charges.
As vice president, Joe Biden exchanged emails from anonymous accounts with his son and various business associates and met and spoke by phone with multiple foreign donors in Mexico, Kazakhstan, Russia, Ukraine and China.
Those communications, and Hunter Biden’s access to classified documents stored at Biden’s Delaware mansion, are central to the ongoing House Republican impeachment inquiry into the president.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
