You are using an older browser version. Please use a supported version for the best MSN experience.
Previous Next

Hunter Biden's Alleged Rent Payments Spark Wave of Conspiracy Theories

Newsweek 1/17/2023 Nick Mordowanec
Republican Representative Jim Jordan, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, is pictured asking questions during the first public hearings held by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence as part of the impeachment inquiry into former U.S. President Donald Trump, on November 13, 2019. Jordan and Republicans have vowed to investigate Hunter Biden and his father's administration, notably for newly discovered classified documents found at two locations and potential ties to illegal activity. © SAUL LOEB/POOL/AFP via Getty Images Republican Representative Jim Jordan, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, is pictured asking questions during the first public hearings held by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence as part of the impeachment inquiry into former U.S. President Donald Trump, on November 13, 2019. Jordan and Republicans have vowed to investigate Hunter Biden and his father's administration, notably for newly discovered classified documents found at two locations and potential ties to illegal activity.

Some conservatives are speculating that classified documents recently discovered in President Joe Biden's Delaware home contain information revealing enormous monthly rent payments to Hunter Biden's benefit.

A second batch of classified documents "locked" inside the garage of the president's home in Wilmington has led to blowback from both Republicans and Democrats following an original batch of documents found at a Pennsylvania office prior to the midterms that were swiftly passed on to the National Archives.

On Monday, Fox News host Tucker Carlson discussed the alleged ties between a background check form for Hunter Biden and his intention of renting property in California. The background check form, which circulated on social media, shows a monthly rental cost of $49,910 for an undisclosed property.

Another Twitter user questioned why Joe Biden's 2017 tax returns did not declare the approximate $50,000 in rent payments listed under Hunter Biden's name, per that background check.

Kentucky Representative James Comer, chair of the House Oversight Committee, confirmed in a letter to White House counsel that the address on Hunter Biden's driver's license is the same as the residence where the classified documents were discovered.

"In light of the Biden family's suspicious business schemes with foreign adversaries, Americans need to know who visited the President's Wilmington residence and had access to the classified documents Joe Biden stashed in his garage for years," Comer told Newsweek. "According to reports, Hunter Biden has indicated the Delaware residence was a personal asset and his residence as recently as 2018. We need to know if Hunter Biden's shady business partners located in China and Russia had access to these classified documents."

Hunter Biden's Alleged Rent Payments Spark Backlash: What To Know
What to watch next
UP NEXT
UP NEXT

"President Biden promised the American people to have the most transparent administration in history, but refuses to be transparent when it matters most," he added. "Oversight Republicans will continue to push for answers and hold this administration accountable."

Carlson, who credited Twitter user and self-described "MAGA" supporter @jj_talking for posting Hunter Biden's background check, wondered "how a disgraced drug addict with no job skills" had this much financial capital.

"This is the very same home where Joe Biden has spent a third of his presidency...Did Hunter Biden actually buy his father's home in Delaware? Was he making rent payments to live there?" Carlson asked.

"Does that amount that he was paying refer to another property? It was a big amount," he said. "On the form, Hunter Biden's claiming he's paying nearly $50,000 a month in housing costs. Where did that money come from?"

On Tuesday, former President Donald Trump called the alleged connection between the documents and Hunter Biden's rent payments "one of the greatest political and money laundering Scams of all time."

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo that Congress has an independent, constitutional obligation to oversee all aspects of the Justice Department, including special counsels.

McCarthy wondered why Donald Trump's Mar-A-Lago property was "raided" while President Biden's home was not.

"His [office] wasn't just locked, it was pad-locked...How many years has this vice president who's been in office over 40 years had these documents; who's been in and out of there?" McCarthy said, adding that he's tired of the "hypocrisy" and "this Justice Department."

Republican Representative Jim Jordan, now chair of the House Judiciary Committee, sent letters Tuesday to multiple Biden administration officials "renewing outstanding requests for communications and documents," as described by the GOP House Judiciary Twitter account.

"Why was President Trump's home raided but not President Biden's?" Jordan tweeted Tuesday. "Why did the FBI take pictures of President Trump's so-called classified documents but not President Biden's? Americans are tired of the double standard."

Arizona Representative Paul Gosar referred to the discovered documents as "theft" by the president, "as well as the corruption of taking Ukrainian bribes thinly disguised as 'rent' payments."

Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has already announced her intentions to impeach the president, has called on Biden to resign.

"Resign now bc we're going to show the world the depth of your corruption & how you've abused your power," Greene tweeted on Tuesday.

Attorney Andrew Lieb told Newsweek that while Biden's classified documents are part of "perhaps the worst political mess Biden could have conjured up given that it has resurrected Trump in politics," he deems it "a non-issue" in criminal respect.

"As we all learned during the Trump era, a sitting president cannot be indicted or criminally prosecuted based upon a DOJ Opinion from 1973," Lieb said. "That said, Trump and the House Republicans are going to make such a mess of this that it will consume the rest of Biden's term with investigations and, potentially, impeachment."

Jay Oliver, a political commentator and anchor on Long Island News Radio, told Newsweek that Comer's request for information, related to whether Hunter Biden had any access to either batch of classified documents, may ultimately shed light on the current speculation.

"The committee is concerned and rightfully so that those classified documents were stored at the same location where Hunter resided, while he was engaging in international business deals with adversaries of the United States," Oliver said.

Update 01/17/23, 5:22 p.m. ET: This story was updated with comment from James Comer.

Related Articles

Start your unlimited Newsweek trial

Go to MSN Home
AdChoices
AdChoices

Microsoft Store Offers - Sponsored

image beaconimage beaconimage beacon