During Wednesday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing on the “Oversight of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ),” U.S. Congressman Matt Gaetz (FL-01) questioned U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on how Joe and Hunter Biden leveraged foreign business deals and clandestine art sales to enrich themselves while selling power to the highest bidder. Attorney General Garland repeatedly refused to answer Rep. Gaetz’s questions.
During his questioning, Rep. Gaetz probed AG Garland on the Biden DOJ’s decisions to end President Trump’s China Initiative, which had resulted in the successful prosecutions and convictions of a Harvard Chemistry Professor who hid his ties to the Chinese Communist Party and a Chinese national who stole trade secrets from the agribusiness giant Monsanto.
Rep. Gaetz also noted during his questioning that the China Initiative had ended amidst an endless cycle of media accusations of racial profiling of Chinese nationals – and Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen noted this in his reasoning for ending the program. The Biden DOJ conveniently omits the reality that this initiative was shut down after multiple members of the Biden family, including Hunter Biden and the president himself, raked in millions of dollars from foreign business deals with the Chinese Communist Party through shell companies.
Video of Rep. Gaetz’s interaction with Attorney General Merrick Garland at the House Judiciary Committee hearing can be found HERE and below. A rough transcript can also be found immediately below:
AG GARLAND REFUSES TO ANSWER:
• Can you guarantee the people buying Hunter Biden’s “art” aren’t doing so to gain political favors from the Bidens?
• Did the Biden DOJ dissolve the Trump-era China Initiative as a result of Hunter’s Chinese business deals?
• On January 6th,… pic.twitter.com/uqiVkjgOVL
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) September 20, 2023
ROUGH TRANSCRIPT
Rep. Gaetz: I’m wondering, Mr. Attorney general. Has anybody told President Biden to knock it off? With Hunter? I mean, you guys are charging Hunter Biden on sometimes, investigating him on others. President bringing Hunter around to state dinners. Has anyone told him to knock it off?
AG Garland: Our job in the Justice Department is to pursue cases without reference to what’s happening in the outside world.
Rep. Gaetz: Just yes or no, have you done that? Is that a no?
AG Garland: No one that I know has spoken to the White House about the Hunter Biden case. Of course not.
Rep. Gaetz: I got it. So Hunter Biden is selling art to pay for a $15,000 per month rent in Malibu. How can you guarantee that the people buying that are not doing so to gain favor with the president?
AG Garland: The job of the Justice Department is the investigate criminal allegations, if we have information—
Rep. Gaetz: Are you investigating this. So one who bought Hunter Biden’s art ended up with a prestigious appointment to a federal position. Does not look weird, he’s become this immediate success in the art world? Is father as president of the United States?
AG Garland: I’m not going to comment on
Rep. Gaetz: Not going to comment, not going to investigate
AG Garland: That’s right.
Rep. Gaetz: Archer told us that he so the appearance of access to then-Vice President Biden. Are you confident that he has stopped doing that?
AG Garland: I didn’t understand the Question.
Rep. Gaetz: Hunter Biden associate Deven Archer told us that Hunter Biden sold the appearance of access to then-Vice President Biden. Are you confident he has stopped?
AG Garland: Of these matters are within the purview of Mr. Rice, I have not interviewed with them. With them.
Rep. Gaetz: Money working its way through the shell companies into the accounts of the Biden family. So the China Initiative was set up during the Trump Administration at the Department of Justice to go after the influence of the Chinese communist party, and the Biden Justice Department dissolved the China Initiative. It so, does the department have any documents that would detail the basis for why you got rid of the China initiative that President Trump had set up?
AG Garland: The attorney for the nation security division gave a long speech Which explained that. He has testified before Congress several times. We will provide you with –
Rep. Gaetz: Why was that initiative dissolved?
AG Garland: What the assistant attorney general said was that we face attacks from four nation states. North Korea, China, Russia, and Iran. We must focus our attention on the broad range of these attacks, –
Rep. Gaetz: Are you saying that North Korea has the same influence risk to the United States as the Chinese, his party? Are you trying to represent parity? Because here’s what it looks like. It looks like the Chinese gave all this money to the Bidens and then you came and got rid of the China initiative and it was successful. I saw one Rationale that you guys got rid of it because it was racial profiling. One of the people you convicted was a guy named childs labor, taking $50,000 a month to do whatever research was being done. Are you aware of the millions of dollars that moved through rob Walker’s shell companies from Chinese communist parties into Biden family bank accounts? Are you aware of that?
AG Garland: There were a lot of question that you just asked let me start with the first one about North Korea. North Korea is a dangerous kinetically and with respect to cyber.
Rep. Gaetz: But not on par with China? It makes you look unserious to suggest that.
AG Garland: May I answer the question?
Rep. Gaetz: Answer the question if you know about all the millions of dollars that
AG Garland: So you don’t want me to answer about North Korea?
Rep. Gaetz: Everyone. Let’s get on to the serious questions and serious answers. Did you know about the shell companies to rob Walker’s shell companies?
AG Garland: said repeatedly I have leave these matter to Mr. Wiess, – I have not interfered.
Rep. Gaetz: You’re looking the other way on purpose because everybody knows this is happening. People do not pay bribes do not get something in return. The China initiative resulted in the convictions of Harvard professor, someone in Monsanto, we were working against the Chinese, they paid the Bidens, and we are getting told that North Korea is the big threat. Does the FBI lose count of the number of paid informants on January 6?
AG Garland: About China.
Rep. Gaetz: Did the FBI lose count over the number of informants on January 6th? Did you lose count of the number of federal assets?
Rep. Jerry Nadler: The gentlemen’s time has expired.
Rep. Gaetz: I get an answer to the question
AG Garland: China is the most dangerous adversary the state faces and we are doing everything within our power to rebut that, to stop them come to prevent invasions, both kinetic and through cyberspace.
Rep. Gaetz: In your courtroom when you were a judge, you would tell them they were being non-responsive and you would direct them to answer the question.
