Republican Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz repeatedly pressed Assistant Attorney General for National Security Matthew Olsen on Hunter Biden during a Thursday hearing.
Gaetz pressed Olsen on whether the president’s son’s business dealings are a threat to national security, accusing the Attorney General’s office of taking no action in investigating possible criminal activity by the president’s son.
“Is Hunter Biden a national security threat?” the representative asked.
“That’s not a question that would come before me,” Olsen said.
“You’re the head of the National Security division, so it seems sort of on the nose,” Gaetz pressed.
Olsen claimed it is not his job to label any individual or American citizen as a national security threat. Gaetz suggested that Hunter Biden would be a national security threat if Bidens were “compromised,” to which Olsen said his division investigates these matters in open court.
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Gaetz then questioned Olsen on the whereabouts of Biden’s laptop, which had been abandoned in a Delaware repair shop in 2019. The computer contained a cache of files and emails detailing his overseas business dealings with a Ukrainian energy company, Burisma, and a Chinese energy company, CEFC China Energy. (RELATED: Matt Gaetz Confront FBI Official On Whereabouts Of Hunter Biden’s Laptop, Enters It Into Congressional Record)
“Speak to this, where’s the laptop? Do you know where Hunter Biden’s laptop is?” the representative asked.
“I’m not going to talk about any potential, ongoing investigations as I sit here,” Olsen replied.
“Do you know where it is? You come here and tell us you follow the facts and the law but you can’t even follow a laptop that you’ve had for three years,” Gaetz said.
Olsen repeated that the division discusses such matters in open court. Gaetz argued the National Security division refuses to investigate any “derogatory” detail about the president’s son.
Republican Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley wrote a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland Monday after “highly credible” whistleblowers allegedly told him the FBI downplayed Biden’s alleged “criminal financial and related activity” before the 2020 presidential election. Former FBI agent Timothy Thibault allegedly “ordered closed” an “avenue of additional derogatory Hunter Biden reporting.”
“But you aren’t speaking about, you know who is speaking about it,” Gaetz said of these reports. “The whistleblowers from the FBI who’ve gone to Senator [Chuck] Grassley and said that you guys purposely take any information that is derogatory about Hunter Biden and you go and rathole it so that you never have to speak about it in any circumstance.”
Olsen refused to answer if he is aware of Patrick Ho, who was arrested by FBI agents for his plot to bribe African leaders millions of dollars to advance the Chinese government’s interests. He and his boss, Ye Jianming, had entered into a business partnership with Biden and his uncle, James Biden.
“Don’t you see that that degrades the country’s belief in you guys when you have whistleblowers saying that you’re purposely ratholing this information and then you come here and say you won’t talk about it,” Gaetz said.
“You know why you don’t speak about it? Because it’s about Hunter Biden,” he continued. “You guys have no problem leaking about other stuff, right? You guys have no problem tagging parents at school board meetings as a national security threat, but when all of the facts and all of the logic regarding the corruption of Hunter Biden, you don’t want to speak to that at all.”
Gaetz asked if the division had communicated with Tony Bobulinski, a former business partner of the Biden family, who confirmed the authenticity of an email discussing a business deal between Biden and CEFC energy company. The email had initially been labeled as Russian disinformation by Democrats. Olsen refused to discuss these claims or answer if this case is a national security matter.
“It’s pretty easy to see that Hunter Biden is compromised,” Gaetz said. “I think every American knows that’s a threat to national security. I think we’re watching a crime spree in progress that Hunter Biden is orchestrating and one has to wonder, what are the Chinese getting for the tens of millions of dollars that they’re cutting the Biden family on?”
“You know what? Winter is coming, we’re gonna be in the majority, and then you’re gonna have to answer these questions for the country,” he concluded.
The Justice Department (DOJ) investigation into Biden’s dealings has neared a “critical juncture,” according to a CNN report. The agency has shifted more focus to his alleged tax violations and the 2018 gun crime.
