Show Notes
On the most recent episode of The Drill Down, investigative journalist and author Peter Schweizer says that new revelations from the investigation into Hunter Biden spell “doom and gloom” for the presidency of Joe Biden.
Schweizer, who first exposed Hunter Biden’s business dealings with Chinese businessmen connected to the CCP and to Chinese intelligence in his 2018 book, Secret Empires, notes that on page 120 of his testimony to the House Ways and Means Committee, IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley describes a second confirmation that “the big guy” referenced in Hunter Biden’s business emails as “10 [percent] held by H for the big guy” is indeed now-President Joe Biden. The reference was contained in an email thread between Hunter Biden and his business partners over the percentage stakes for each of them to be had from a deal they were negotiating with CEFC China Energy, a multibillion-dollar Chinese conglomerate founded by Ye Jianming, a Chinese Communist Party-linked business tycoon who has since disappeared in China but with whom Hunter Biden had attempted to work out numerous deals.
Biden and White House spokesmen have since 2020 denied that Joe Biden received any benefit or had any knowledge of his son’s business dealings.
The second bomb confirms earlier research by Schweizer’s organization, the Government Accountability Institute (GAI), which uncovered the existence of the mysterious AT&T cellphone that his father used from 2009 onward while he was President Barack Obama’s vice president. That phone was paid for by Hunter Biden’s Rosemont Seneca business, and Congressional committees have signaled they are looking into that and may subpoena the records of that private, unsecured phone if they haven’t already done so.
These two things are crucial, Schweizer said on his podcast, The Drill Down, because they show that Joe Biden was a beneficiary of his son’s deal-making with Chinese Communist Party-connected businesses, and that the committee will likely scrutinize the calls made to and from that cellphone.
On this podcast, Schweizer and co-host Eric Eggers cover a lot of ground related to the investigation of Hunter Biden by both the IRS for tax matters, which was known as Operation Sportsman. They detail how it was thwarted and/or slow-walked by senior officials at the IRS and in the Biden Justice department. The IRS whistleblower’s testimony joins that of other whistleblowers from both departments who have told the Republicans on the Ways and Means Committee, and on the House Government Oversight Committee, that they believe their work was throttled by higher-ups attempting to shield the president from the implications of their findings.
“They (IRS investigators) wanted to two issue search warrants to search Hunter Biden’s storage facility and his father’s home where Hunter was staying at the time,” Schweizer said. “In one case, the DOJ said ‘no, we’re not going to issue a search warrant. It’s too troublesome.’ In the other case, they actually tipped off Hunter Biden’s lawyer in advance. They said to him in advance, ‘Oh, by the way, we’re going to probably be issuing a search warrant for this facility, just a head’s up,’ Schweizer continued.
For the show, GAI researchers put together a timeline of the events leading up to Gary Shapley’s decision to come forward to Congress.
- November 2018
- The investigation into Hunter Biden—codename Sportsman—was first opened “as an offshoot of an investigation the IRS was conducting into a foreign-based amateur online pornography platform.”
- October 2019
- The FBI became aware of the Hunter Biden laptop and that it might contain evidence of a crime.
- November 2019
- The FBI verifies the authority of the Hunter Biden laptop through HB’s iCloud ID.
- December 2019
- The FBI notifies IRS that the laptop likely contained evidence of tax crimes.
- January 2020
- Gary Shapely became the supervisor of the Sportsman case as the director of the International Tax and Finance Crimes group at the IRS.
- March 6, 2020
- Shapley: “I sent a sensitive case report up through my chain of command at IRS reporting that by mid-March the IRS would be ready to seek approval for physical search warrants in California, Arkansas, New York, and Washington, D.C.”
- April 1, 2020
- Special Agent in charge drafted affidavit establishing probable cause for physical search warrants. The team also planned “15 contemporaneous interviews.”
- April 2020
- Biden becomes the presumptive Democratic nominee for President and DOJ “dragged their feet on the IRS taking these investigative steps.”
- June 2020
- DOJ delay overt investigative actions despite being well outside of the 60- to 90-day period when DOJ would historically stand down before an election.
- August 2020
- IRS investigation team obtains the WhatsApp message where Hunter Biden Henry Zhao with retaliation from his father if he does not do what Hunter wants.
- “Nevertheless, prosecutors denied investigators’ requests to develop a strategy to look into the messages and denied investigators’ suggestion to obtain location information to see where the texts were sent from.”
- The IRS team wanted to search the guest house at the Biden’s Delaware residence, where Hunter stayed for a time.
- September 3, 2020
- Assistant US Attorney Lesley Wolf told the team “there was more than enough probable cause for the physical search warrant there, but the question was whether the juice was worth the squeeze.”
- She claimed that optics were the driving factor in the decision of whether or not to execute a warrant and claims that there is no way that a search would even be approved.
- Further, the prosecutors even wanted to remove Hunter Biden’s name from electronic search warrants, orders, and document requests.
- Assistant US Attorney Wolf stated that “a search warrant for the emails for Blue Star Strategies was being sat on by OEO” and indicated that “it would likely not get approved.” According to Shapley, this was a significant blow to the Foreign Agents Registration Act piece of the investigation.”
- September 4, 2020
- “Deputy Attorney General Donoghue issued a cease and desist of all overt investigative activities due to the coming election.”
- September 21, 2020
- “FBI tried to dictate that [the FBI investigative team] only do five of the planned interviews so FBI management could reevaluate if they wanted to continue assisting.”
- Special agent (unnamed) thought it was inappropriate for them to dictate how an IRS investigation should proceed.
- Later that day, Shapley claims he learned that the FBI case agent in Delaware was new and worried about backlash from sensitive interviews, let alone a search warrant on the former Vice President’s house.
- October 22, 2020
- Shapley had tried to secure access to the Hunter Biden laptop in the FBI’s possession. Assistant US Attorney (AUSA) Wolf said that “for a variety of reasons,” prosecutors decided to keep the laptop from the investigators. Shapley claims that this decision is “unprecedented.”
- AUSA Wolf relayed to investigative team that United States Attorney Weiss (Delaware) agreed that probable cause existed for the Biden guest house search warrant. However, Wolf stated that they would not allow a physical search warrant on Hunter Biden.
- December 8, 2020
- The team’s planned day of action, where the investigation would move to its next steps, including documents requests and twelve interviews across the country. This did not include a search warrant because it had been rejected by the DOJ. This date was chosen because of the contested election.
- December 3, 2020
- Meeting at the US attorney’s office in Delaware to plan for the day of action. At this meeting AUSA Wolf said that she did not want to ask questions about the “big guy” or “dad” in the Hunter Biden messages because there was “no specific of criminality in that line of questioning.”
- Hunter Biden assigned Secret Service Protection
- Plan was put in place for SS to be notified at 8am on the day of action that agents would be coming to talk to Hunter.
- December 7, 2020
- On the night before the day of action, Shapley learned that FBI headquarters had notified Secret Service headquarters and Biden’s transition team of the planned actions. This gave them the “opportunity to obstruct the approach to witnesses.”
- December 8, 2020
- Hunter’s attorneys contacted the investigation team and stated his intention not to meet with them.
- The investigative team had a successful meeting with Rob Walker in Arkansas, where he admitted that Hunter had orchestrated “chance” meetings between his dad and business partners to cement deals. In addition, he heard Hunter Biden set up meetings with his father while he was still in office.
- December 14, 2020
- Shapley and his special agent called State Attorney Weiss and he agreed that Hunter Biden’s storage unit in Northern Virginia could be searched if it wasn’t accessed for 30 days.
- Right after the call, AUSA Wolf reached out directly to Hunter Biden’s attorney and told him about the storage unit, ruining the investigative team’s chance to collect unmanipulated evidence. This is the second warrant interrupted by career officials.
Given that even the mainstream press is jumping onto the story after Hunter Biden’s plea deal was made public last week, Eggers and Schweizer close by wondering whether the dam is finally beginning to break.
“My prediction and my belief are that we are going to see the establishment of the Democratic Party begin to turn on Joe Biden, recognizing that because of his age, but also because of these scandals, he does not have the capacity to win in 2024,” Schweizer said.
