DOJ needs to treat Hunter Biden like everyone else: Rep. Jason Smith
Rep. Jason Smith, R-Mo., reacts to the IRS moving to dismiss part of the Hunter Biden lawsuit on 'America Reports.'
A top Republican investigating Hunter Biden called on the Justice Department Wednesday to treat the first son like any other American as his own committee and two others investigate him and his presidential father.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., said the charges brought against Hunter Biden in Los Angeles federal court are the same allegations that IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler flagged when they came forward to cry foul on the agency's investigation of Biden's arrears.
"If they wouldn't have come forward, that [Delaware] plea agreement… would have never been stopped because that sweetheart plea agreement was released two days before the IRS whistleblower information was released," Smith said. "And that is what blew up the entire agreement."
"There would never have been charges in California, which are the exact same charges the two IRS whistleblowers had said that they recommended years before, but the Justice Department refused to do it."
NOTORIOUS MOBSTER STUNNED BY LATEST HUNTER BIDEN ALLEGATIONS
Hunter Biden, center, and his attorneys Abbe Lowell, right, and Kevin Morris, left, leave the House Oversight and Accountability Committee markup. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Smith suggested that until recently the Justice Department has been loath to probe or prosecute Biden in a substantive way, while noting his congressional panel continues to plow ahead and summon witnesses as the first son continues to formally spurn his subpoena.
He told "America Reports" that Kevin Morris, a Biden attorney who made his name forging deals for the creators of "South Park," is scheduled to appear for a deposition on Thursday. Morris notably flanked Biden when he suddenly appeared in a House hearing last week when the first son's potential contempt citation was being discussed.
Smith claimed Morris paid millions of dollars of Biden's back taxes and was the largest buyer by-value of Biden's paintings. The Missouri lawmaker said Morris' purchases amounted to $875,000 for 11 works.
"I think the DOJ just needs to do their job. And regardless if it's the president's son or not, they need to treat him just like they would treat anyone else," he later added. "And that had not been the case, according to the IRS whistleblowers."
REPUBLICANS CRY FOUL AS HUNTER IGNORES SUBPOENA
Smith also referenced his Fox News Opinion column, where he laid out the argument that if President Biden's impeachment inquiry is invalid, as the chief executive claims, then why did he "lie" about his "complicity" with his son's business dealings.
"One prime example is on the debate stage that President Biden had with President Trump, where President Trump accused him of his son taking money from the Chinese. And he said, 'that's absolutely not true' -- We know that that is false because we've heard the IRS whistleblowers say that money had came from the Chinese to Hunter Biden," Smith said.
Smith's reaction came hours after revelations surfaced that FBI investigators "observed a white, powdery substance" on Hunter Biden's gun pouch that had been held in a Delaware police vault. Chemical analysis later determined the substance to be cocaine.
The news had come from a filing by Special Counsel David Weiss in response to a December 2023 motion-to-dismiss from Biden's team.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox