Hunter Biden testified Wednesday that he was “high out of [his] mind” when he sent a threatening message to a Chinese official claiming his father was in the room with him, Republican Texas Rep. Pat Fallon said.
The president’s son testified before the House Oversight Committee as part of House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into his father, President Joe Biden. The closed-door deposition took place after the younger Biden initially defied a subpoena in January, prompting House Republican leaders to begin contempt of Congress proceedings.
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) whistleblower Gary Shapley testified in May about a July 30, 2017, WhatsApp message Hunter Biden sent to his Chinese business associate Raymond Zhao.
“I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled,” the message reads. “Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight. And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.”
The president’s son testified Wednesday that he was “high out [his] mind” when he sent the message and denied that his father was in the room at the time.
Hunter Biden attorney Abbe Lowell claimed in June that screenshots of the message were “not real and contain myriad of issues.”
“He claims, ‘I’m not sure if that’s authentic,’ this is what he said … ‘I’m not sure if this is accurate or not but if it is, I was high out of my mind,'” Fallon told Daily Caller editorial director Vince Coglianese during a Wednesday radio interview.
“So he hid behind his drug addiction for one of the most incriminating messages on record?” Coglianese asked. (RELATED: ‘Somebody Is Lying Here’: Nancy Mace Sheds Light On Hunter Biden’s ‘Defiant And Dishonest’ Testimony)
“One hundred percent, yes,” the congressman replied. “And he did also say, he absolutely was not with his father at all.”
Biden also denied that he called his father in 2015 to relieve pressure on Burisma — where he was serving on the board at the time — when he and his then-business partner Devon Archer were in Dubai. Fallon said Congress could check Hunter’s phone records to find out if he lied under oath to Congress, though he also noted that the president’s son had claimed multiple times not to recall certain details, a tactic Fallon characterized as an attempt to avoid questions without perjuring himself.
Fallon said Biden admitted that he called his father in the presence of business associates around “twenty to thirty times,” which which he said was not often over the course of ten years. He also testified that he only received money from Chinese associates as a loan.