The House probe of Hunter Biden will expand to US intelligence agencies and chiefs who were almost certainly aware of his shady foreign activities while his father was vice president, House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy told The Post.
“They should come in and talk to us,” McCarthy said in an exclusive sitdown with The Post. “You’d want to ask these individuals what did they know and when.
“People can come in and talk to us and answer the questions. If that’s not the case there are times we will use the subpoena as well,” he added.
In October 2020 — just days after The Post published the first stories documenting Hunter Biden’s potentially criminal overseas business dealings found on his abandoned laptop — 51 former intelligence agency officials released a public letter denouncing the story as “disinformation pushed by Russia.”
“The arrival on the US political scene of emails purportedly belonging to Vice President Biden’s son Hunter, much of it related to his time serving on the Board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation,” the letter read just 14 days before the presidential election.
“Our experience makes us deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case,” it continued solemnly. “If we are right, this is Russia trying to influence how Americans vote in this election, and we believe strongly that Americans need to be aware of this.”
The hard drive information The Post first revealed — which the Bidens never denied — has since been accepted as fact by even the most liberal media outlets, including the New York Times and Washington Post.
Yet when The Post reached out to all 51 officials in March, most ignored the inquiry and none apologized. A few even doubled down.
“Yes, I stand by the statement made AT THE TIME. … I think sounding such a cautionary note AT THE TIME was appropriate,” said James Clapper, who served as director of National Intelligence from 2010 to 2017 when Joe Biden was veep.
John Brennan, who served as CIA director from 2013 to 2017, and Leon Panetta, CIA director from 2009 to 2011 and defense secretary from 2011 to 2013, were also signatories.
“You would want to ask these individuals first of all, ‘Would you still sign the letter today, and who asked you to sign the letter and why did you sign the letter, and what information did you have prior?’” McCarthy said. “Why did you feel comfortable — especially with your own reputations — that you would sign that letter? Was it someone from the [Biden] campaign who asked, or was it people in the intel community?
“I think these questions have to be answered. You cannot allow an intel community to utilize their name in an improper way without correcting,” McCarthy said.
Even if it is proven the intel chiefs knew of Hunter Biden’s illicit activity and did nothing, and then publicly lied about it, insiders say a public shaming, not criminal prosecution, is expected.
So far House investigators have not made contact with any of the letter signers.
The House GOP is just four votes shy of a majority in the chamber. Should Republicans retake the House — an outcome which is widely expected by both parties — McCarthy is on track to replace Rep. Nancy Pelosi as Speaker.
Even without the majority, the House Oversight Committee has been chipping away. On Thursday, GOP members of the body ripped into FBI Director Christopher Wray — demanding to know why his agency sat on the Hunter Biden laptop, which they had possession of since at least December 2019. Critics like Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisconsin) have said they have “no faith” in the FBI or Justice Department to investigate Hunter Biden.
“I am going to give [Wray] the benefit of the doubt at this moment in time,” McCarthy demurred. “We are going to ask the tough questions and if we don’t get the honest answers, there’s consequences.”
House Republicans have already vowed to subpoena Hunter Biden himself.
The Hunter Biden probe is the most high profile of a blizzard of inquiries the GOP leader is planning. Other blockbuster investigations will include the origins of coronavirus and the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
McCarthy boasts that Republicans have already sent more than 500 “preservation letters” — demands to not destroy specific data and documents — to various agencies and individuals to secure the information they need, and bristled at the suggestion the Hunter Biden probe is political. He said the investigation would proceed at full steam even if President Biden should announce he doesn’t plan to seek reelection in 2024.
“We have a responsibility of oversight,” McCarthy insisted.
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