The House Oversight Committee said Hunter Biden's “huge financial contributions” by his friend and lawyer Kevin Morris raise “ethical and campaign finance concerns” for President Biden. This comes after the Democratic donor appeared in a transcript of an interview on Thursday's panel.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) released details of Morris' private conference Thursday night.
“Kevin Morris' massive financial support of Hunter Biden raises ethics and campaign finance concerns for President Joe Biden,” Comer said.
Comer said, “Shortly after meeting Hunter Biden at a Joe Biden campaign event in 2019, Kevin Morris took out Hunter Biden's tax liability to protect then-presidential candidate Joe Biden from political liability. I have started paying.”
“Kevin Morris has admitted to 'loaning' the president's son at least $5 million,” Comer revealed Thursday. “These 'loans' will not have to be repaid until after the next presidential election, and the 'loans' may eventually be forgiven.”
Comer said Morris “has been keeping President Biden's son financially afloat, so he has accessed the Biden White House and even talked with President Biden.”
“This follows a familiar pattern of Hunter Biden associates having access to Joe Biden himself,” Comer said. “We will conduct more interviews this month and next and continue to track the facts to understand the full scope of corruption by President Biden and his family.”
Morris told the committee on Thursday that he was introduced to Hunter Biden by Hollywood producer Lanette Phillips at a Biden campaign event in Los Angeles, California, in the winter of 2019.
Morris testified that he donated money to the Biden campaign after then-candidate Joe Biden spoke at an event.
A week after the incident, the committee said Phillips called Morris and “discussed the Hunter Biden 'entertainment' issue.”
Morris said he then went to Hunter Biden's residence in Los Angeles.
The committee said there was “no written agreement” when Morris began funding Hunter Biden in January 2020, but that an agreement was reached after Morris began funding Hunter Biden. He said he had prepared a book.
The committee said that on February 7, 2020, several months before the presidential election and during the Democratic presidential primary, Morris sent the following email to his tax accountant and Hunter Biden's advisers:[w]They are exposed to considerable personal and political risks in order to reap the benefits. ”
Morris told the committee that he paid Hunter Biden's taxes and gave the president's son at least $5 million.
The commission said Hunter Biden “sold approximately $1.5 million worth of art, half of which was purchased by Kevin Morris to reduce Hunter's debt.”
The commission said Morris also purchased two pieces of art from Hunter Biden before hiring a gallerist.
Mr. Morris' financial support for Hunter Biden includes payments to his ex-wife Kathleen Buhl and the mother of his child, Landen Roberts.
According to the committee, Morris acknowledged to the committee that the “loan” he provided to Hunter Biden would not have to be repaid until 2025, after the next presidential election, and could be forgiven.
The committee said Morris had access to the White House because he was “loaning” it to Hunter Biden. Morris told the committee that he visited the White House several times during the Biden administration. Morris was given a tour of the White House by Hunter Biden, attended a White House wedding, and attended the White House Fourth of July picnic, the committee said.
Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty to all nine federal tax charges stemming from special counsel David Weiss' investigation. Hunter's trial is scheduled to begin on June 20th.
Weiss indicted Hunter in December, alleging a “four-year conspiracy” in which the president's son failed to pay federal income taxes from January 2017 to October 2020 and also filed false tax returns.
Mr. Weiss filed the complaint in the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
The charges include three felonies and six misdemeanors. $1.4 million in unpaid taxes What has since been paid.
Weiss said in the indictment that Hunter “entered into a four-year scheme from approximately January 2017 to approximately October 15, 2017, to fail to pay at least $1.4 million in federal taxes owed for tax years 2016 through 2019. “I was involved,” he claimed. He evaded tax liability for the 2018 tax year by filing false returns in 2020 and around February 2020. ”
“In furtherance of that plan,” Weiss said, the younger Biden “extracted millions of dollars from his company, Owasco, PC, outside of the normal payroll and withholding process.” , which destroyed the payroll and withholding process.” Designed for performance. ”
The special counsel alleged that Mr. Hunter “spent millions of dollars on a lavish lifestyle rather than paying taxes” and in 2018 “stopped paying unpaid and delinquent taxes for the 2015 tax year.”
Weiss said Hunter “had the funds to pay some or all of his 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 taxes and willfully failed to pay them on time.” He claimed that he “deliberately failed to report his taxes for 2017 and 2018.” I'll be back on time. ”
Meanwhile, the committee's top Democrat, Ranking Member Jamie Raskin of Maryland, on Thursday condemned House Republicans' impeachment inquiry.
“Like other witnesses in this incredibly embarrassing 'investigation,' Kevin Morris today announced that there is no evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden, and that Joe Biden had no involvement or profit from it.” “He has categorically stated that he has not obtained any information and has not taken any official action regarding the relationship between Mr. Morris and Mr. Hunter Biden,” Raskin said. “It's hard to articulate how far this interview is from an impeachment inquiry into the president's high crimes and misdemeanors.”
