Freshman Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), a former federal prosecutor who made his name as the lead counsel in the first Trump impeachment, bumbled into tying Joe Biden to son Hunter’s foreign business deals, contradicting Joe Biden’s years-long claims that he never discussed with Hunter his foreign business deals.
Goldman was asking the two IRS whistleblowers testifying at Wednesday’s hearing by the House Oversight Committee, Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley and Criminal Investigator Joseph Ziegler (aka Whistleblower X) about testimony by former Hunter Biden business partner Rob Walker that Joe Biden had dropped by a business lunch Hunter was having with representatives of the Chinese energy form CEFC at the Four Seasons hotel in Washington, D.C. when Biden was out of office. In doing so, Goldman proved the lie told by Joe Biden that he never spoke with Hunter about his foreign business deals.
After getting Shapley to agree that Walker testified he was “not aware that Joe Biden was ever a part of anything that he and Hunter were doing,” Goldman brought up the lunch at the Four Seasons:
Goldman: “And you testified that he said to, that Hunter told his dad, according to Rob Walker, quote, “I may be trying to start a company or try do something with these guys.” Now let me ask you something, that doesn’t sound much like Joe Biden was involved in whatever Hunter Biden was doing with the CEFC if Hunter Biden is telling him that he’s trying to do business with them, does it?”
Shapley: “No, but it does show that he said, he told his father he was trying to do business. And he was talking with his father about the business…”
Goldman: “Well, that is true, Hunter Biden does try to do business, that’s correct. So you don’t, not only have no direct evidence connecting Joe Biden to any of Hunter Biden’s business deals, you actually had proof that he wasn’t involved that he wasn’t involved. That is the proof that you had.”
YIKES: Rep. Dan Goldman was trying to prove that Joe Biden was not implicated in the IRS Whistleblowers’ allegations, but instead accidentally showed that Joe Biden did discuss foreign business dealings with his son Hunter. pic.twitter.com/6nyEhfm36G
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) July 19, 2023
Fuller exchange:
Goldman: So you not only have no direct evidence connecting Joe Biden to any of Hunter Biden’s business deal. You actually had proof that he wasn’t involved. That is the proof that you had. pic.twitter.com/GYyYhlQDDb
— Acyn (@Acyn) July 19, 2023
Direct link to full hearing cued to Goldman-Shapley exchange.
Liberal law professor Jonathan Turley caught Goldman’s error trying to defend the Bidens, “Rep. Goldman just tripped the wire on Joe Biden. In trying to grill the whistleblowers to show that there is no evidence that Joe Biden was involved, he elicited an answer that the witnesses established that Joe Biden did discuss business deals of Hunter with the Chinese……Goldman was trying to show that the witnesses did not mention a substantive role of Joe Biden, Shapley immediately noted that it did mean that he came to discuss one of the Hunter’s deals. The President continues to deny that fact……Goldman prompted a sworn statement from the investigator that Biden did indeed discuss his son’s business deals. In doing so, Goldman may have delivered one of the most damaging moments in the hearing for the Bidens…Unfortunately, time ran out. With a few more minutes along this line, Goldman could well have sealed the case for the appointment of a Special Counsel.”
…Goldman was trying to show that the witnesses did not mention a substantive role of Joe Biden, Shapley immediately noted that it did mean that he came to discuss one of the Hunter’s deals. The President continues to deny that fact. https://t.co/h3KQUfI743
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) July 19, 2023
…Unfortunately, time ran out. With a few more minutes along this line, Goldman could well have sealed the case for the appointment of a Special Counsel.
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) July 19, 2023
Excerpt from Washington Examiner article detailing the CEFC luncheon:
Shapley said that “Walker went on to describe an instance in which the former Vice President showed up at a CEFC meeting.”
Walker told the FBI, “We were at the Four Seasons and we were having lunch and he [Joe Biden] stopped in, just said hello to everybody. I don’t even think he drank water. I think Hunter Biden said, ‘I may be trying to start a company or try to do something with these guys and could you?’ And I think he [Joe Biden] was like, ‘if I’m around,’ and he’d show up.”
The FBI agent then asked, “So you definitely got the feeling that that was orchestrated by Hunter Biden to have like an appearance by his dad at that meeting just to kind of bolster your chances at making a deal work out?”
“Sure,” Walker replied.
The FBI agent then asked if there were “any times when he was in office, or did you hear Hunter Biden say that he was setting up a meeting with his dad with them while dad was still in office?”
“Yes,” Walker replied.
Shapley said that the FBI agent then “inexplicably … changed the subject.”
In August 2019, Biden swore he never spoke with Hunter or his brothers about their business (Politico excerpt):
Joe Biden pledged to erect an “absolute wall” between the presidency and his family’s business dealings and said he has never discussed business with relatives, following an event here on Wednesday.
“I have never discussed, with my son or my brother or with anyone else, anything having to do with their businesses. Period,” he said. “And what I will do is the same thing we did in our administration. There will be an absolute wall between personal and private [business interests] and the government. There wasn’t any hint of scandal at all when we were there. And I’m going to propose the same kind of strict, strict rules. That’s why I never talked with my son or my brother or anyone else — even distant family — about their business interests. Period.”
The former vice president’s comments, in response to a question from POLITICO, come amid allegations that his younger brother James and his son Hunter have sought to use his political connections to enrich themselves, and amid scrutiny of Hunter’s business dealings in China and Ukraine.
Three weeks ago Biden yelled at a reporter who asked if he was involved with Hunter’s now infamous WhatsApp shakedown message.
