White House press secretary Jen Psaki dodged questions on Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings at a Tuesday press briefing.
Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked if President Joe Biden would support the appointment of a special counsel to investigate his son’s business dealings.
“The president has never had a conversation with the Department of Justice about any investigations into any member of his family,” Psaki said. “He said that during the campaign, and he will continue to abide by that. So, I’d point you to the Department of Justice for any additional steps they would take. They would make those decisions independently.”
Doocy then asked if the Department of Justice (DOJ) was concerned about not being able to make investigative decisions independently since the White House chief of staff Ron Klain has said the president is “confident” Hunter did not break the law. (RELATED: ‘We’re Done Here’: Psaki Hits Back At Reporter Pressing Her On Hunter Biden’s Business Dealings With Russian Oligarch)
“Well, that’s something the president has said and certainly something we would echo. But in the same answer to that question, Peter, during an interview this week on ABC, Ron Klain also said the Justice Department is independent and they will make their own decisions,” Psaki responded.
The Fox News correspondent asked whether the president’s claims that he had not spoken to Hunter about his business dealings overseas were still valid, to which Psaki replied they were.
A grand jury in Delaware is in the midst of investigating possible tax violations, money laundering and foreign lobbying overseas with reports linking the younger Biden to Ukrainian oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky, the owner of Ukrainian state-owned energy company Burisma Holdings. The president’s son has held a position on Burisma’s board of directors from 2014 to 2019.
The New York Times and Washington Post both recently confirmed the validity of Hunter Biden’s missing laptop, which he abandoned at a Delaware repair shop in 2019 and supposedly contained thousands of emails and records about his business dealings. The Post detailed his business with Chinese energy company CEFC China Energy, whose founder, Ye Jianming paid his firm $4.8 million in wire payments to him and his uncle, James Biden.
During a 2020 presidential debate, then-candidate Biden said his son did not make money from Chinese energy companies and that “nothing was unethical” about his son’s business dealings. White House communications director Kate Bedinfield stood by the president’s previous remarks Thursday.
Emails suggested that Biden met with a top Burisma executive Vadym Pozharsky in 2015 before he pressured former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to fire a prosecutor reportedly investigating the energy company in return for a $1 billion guarantee.
