Presidential spokesperson dodges questions about Hunter Biden probe after laptop info resurfaces
Biden and his son Hunter © Getty Images / Andrew Harnik
The White House repeatedly refused on Friday to rule out the possibility that President Joe Biden could pardon his son Hunter Biden or brother James Biden if suspected financial crimes related to business dealings in China are proven in court, despite questions from multiple journalists and a growing volume of articles on the subject.
“That’s not a hypothetical I’m going to entertain,” White House communications director Kate Bedingfield told a room full of journalists after she was asked whether the president had considered a pardon for his son Hunter or brother James, both of whom are being investigated for financial impropriety regarding a business deal with Chinese energy firm CEFC China Energy.
Asked about the president’s continued insistence that there was nothing “unethical” and that Hunter Biden had made no money from “this thing about what you’re talking about, China,” Bedingfield doubled down on the elder Biden’s denial – made over a year earlier – that his son was guilty of any wrongdoing. “We absolutely stand by the president’s comment,” she said, insisting she did not have “anything to add from this podium” when the question was phrased another way.
Hunter Biden is currently being investigated by the Justice Department regarding a business deal he was involved with in China, proof of which surfaced almost two years ago on the infamous “laptop from hell” left by him at a laptop repair shop in Delaware. The younger Biden appeared to have raked in millions of dollars for a consulting role despite insisting the deal itself “fell through,” and his Chinese partner in the affair was later detained in China.
While a handful of media outlets initially reported on the content of the laptop, which included not only incriminating financial documents but also more salacious materials including images of Hunter engaged in sex acts and drug use, most major press outlets gave it a pass, either dismissing it as “Russian propaganda” without any evidence or refusing to comment on it at all. The president infamously laughed when asked about the laptop again after the election.
However, with Biden safely in the White House, mainstream outlets from the New York Times to CNN have begun to nibble at the story, acknowledging not only that the laptop belonged to Hunter Biden but that there are some serious problems with the “business deals” discussed in emails it contained.
