House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) argued Thursday that the unsealing of an indictment against a key informant in the Hunter Biden investigation only buttresses Republicans’ case against the first son.
Democrats have needled the GOP over the indictment of Gal Luft on eight counts — including acting as an unregistered foreign agent of Beijing — by suggesting Republicans got taken by a fugitive out to save himself by leveling wild accusations against the first family.
“It wouldn’t undermine that case because if you extrapolate that even further, the Justice Department went after him,” McCarthy told reporters. “Well, Hunter Biden received more money from the same foreign CEFC company than this informant did.
“So it would only make the case stronger that the government didn’t look at the Hunter Biden [situation].”
McCarthy’s assertion echoes that of House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) who highlighted the first son’s dealings with the Chinese energy conglomerate after the Luft indictment was unsealed in the Southern District of New York Monday.
“One of the charges they levied against him was not being a registered foreign agent, which is the main thing that we’ve said the Bidens were all along, unregistered foreign agents,” Comer told Fox News that evening.
Two Democrats on the Oversight Committee penned a letter to Comer Wednesday, calling for the panel to “initiate an investigation into whether the Committee may have been unwittingly duped by Mr. Luft in furtherance of the [Chinese Communist Party’s] interests.”
Luft alleged that there was evidence of Hunter Biden’s overseas business in China compromising his father. He says he brought his accusations to the FBI during an interview in Brussels in March 2019, but nothing ever came of it.
Luft was arrested in Cyprus this past February but fled prior to his extradition and his whereabouts are currently unknown.
The charges against Luft include arms trafficking, brokering sales of Iranian oil in violation of US sanctions, and making false statements to investigators about those activities at the Brussels meeting.
Comer insists he still wants to hear from Luft as a witness in his panel’s investigation of the Bidens’ global influence-peddling.
“Why from the American point of view, is justice being different for the Biden family than any other American out there?” McCarthy asked.
He pointed to the indictment of Luft and also referenced the 37-count indictment against former President Donald Trump for hoarding classified documents, while a similar probe of President Biden’s orbit grinds on with no charges announced.
Hunter Biden reached an agreement last month with federal investigators that allowed him to plead guilty to misdemeanor counts of willful failure to pay his income taxes in 2017 and 2018, according to court documents.
The 53-year-old will also enter a pretrial diversion agreement for a felony charge of possessing a firearm while addicted to illicit drugs.
Hunter Biden is due to appear in Wilmington, Del., federal court July 26 for a plea hearing.
Two IRS whistleblowers involved in the investigation against the first son are due to publicly testify for the first time before the House Oversight Committee next week.
