The White House has made a subtle but discernible shift in its narrative regarding President Joe Biden’s previous statements regarding his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings.
On the campaign trail in 2019 and 2020, whenever he was asked about his son’s shady business deals, Joe Biden would respond forcefully: “I have never discussed, with my son or my brother or with anyone else, anything having to do with their businesses. Period.”
But on Friday, following the release of a bombshell email explicitly implicating the president in a business transaction with his son, the White House changed its tune, claiming that Joe Biden was “not in business” with Hunter.
“As we have said many times before, the President was not in business with his son. As we have also said many times before, the Justice Department makes decisions in its criminal investigations independently, & in this case, the White House has not been involved,” said a White House spokesperson, as quoted by NBC News’ Monica Alba.
WH spokesman: "As we have said many times before, the President was not in business with his son. As we have also said many times before, the Justice Department makes decisions in its criminal investigations independently, & in this case, the White House has not been involved."
— Monica Alba (@albamonica) June 23, 2023
Byron York, a columnist for the Washington Examiner, identified the nuanced but observable distinction and characterized the phrase as “very lawyerly.”
“Joe Biden was ‘not in business’ with Hunter? That’s a new formulation from the White House. Very lawyerly,” he tweeted.
Joe Biden was 'not in business' with Hunter? That's a new formulation from the White House. Very lawyerly. https://t.co/WAjGSXgHgE https://t.co/0tpI4rm4LL
— Byron York (@ByronYork) June 23, 2023
At the White House press briefing on Friday, Newsmax correspondent James Rosen asked White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre if she was continuing to stand by her own previous “reaffirmations” that the president had never discussed business interests with family members. She did not answer the question directly, but said instead: “Nothing has changed.”
Thursday during a press conference addressing allegations that the Biden administration interfered with U.S. Attorney David Weiss’ investigation of the president’s son, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Missouri) revealed the existence of IRS whistleblowers.
An IRS agent told Smith’s committee that agency investigators discovered messages from an iCloud search warrant in August 2020, but prosecutors “denied investigators’ requests to develop a strategy to investigate the messages and denied investigators’ suggestion to obtain location information to determine where the texts were sent from.”
More on this story via Conservative Brief:
One message investigators managed to obtain was sent via the WhatsApp platform from Hunter Biden to Henry Zhao on July 30, 2017. CONTINUE READING…
