OPINION: This article contains commentary which may reflect the author’s opinion
According to the U.S. Secret Service (USSS), it is unable to locate years of records about communications regarding agents guarding Hunter Biden, the son of Vice President Joe Biden.
According to the congressional investigation, Hunter Biden was a Secret Service protectee between Jan. 29, 2009, and July 8, 2014, and traveled extensively during that time, including to Russia, China, and India.
Senators Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis. ), ranking members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, have requested records from the Secret Service as part of the ongoing investigation.
There are 261 heavily redacted pages (pdf) from the Secret Service pertaining to the travel, but there are no documents from 2010, 2011, or 2013.
“The USSS’s lack of communications during these years raises questions given that USSS travel records show that Hunter Biden made trips to China and other destinations around the world, including, Russia, Italy, Spain and Mexico,” Senators Grassley and Johnson wrote in January to USSS Director James Murray.
The Epoch Times obtained a letter from Murray dated Feb. 14.
Murray stated that an inquiry into the records “did not yield communications for the years 2010, 2011, or 2013.”
In response to a request for comment, neither the USSS nor a lawyer for Hunter Biden responded.
Despite recent criticisms, Secretary Murray said the Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security, “remain committed to working with Congress to meet its oversight responsibilities and be responsive to requests for information.”
The Epoch Times reported that Chris Farrell, director of investigations and research for the Judicial Watch, believes it is “highly improbable” that the USSS lost the records in question.
“I would not be surprised if there was political pressure on the service to withhold the records because it would be politically damaging to President Biden,” he stated.
In the past few years, one of the most prolific record-seeking nonprofits, Judge Watch, has also sought records related to Hunter Biden’s travels from the Secret Service, and has been successfully obtaining some of them through Freedom of Information Act requests that show the countries and territories he visited while under the agency’s protection.
Senators and Judicial Watch are now seeking records which could shed some light on the actions taken by the younger Biden during the period during which these records pertain, said Farrell.
Judicial Watch, along with Sens. Grassley and Johnson, says that Hunter Biden took advantage of his fathers position as vice president for his benefit, even conducting business at his father’s side while on trips.
“Past performance doesn’t always guarantee exact reproduction or the same details, but I think it’s reasonable, given the the pattern and practice, that we would see more of the same—lots of instances where Hunter was traveling with his father and essentially leveraging his father’s position as vice president for his own personal business benefit,” Farrell added.
The records could be the subject of a lawsuit by Judicial Watch.
Hunt Biden, the man being investigated by the U.S. attorney general for crimes relating to the government, as well as the president Biden, have denied any wrongdoing.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters in late 2021 that she would not answer questions about Hunter Biden because he is “not an employee of the federal government.”
But this isnt the only major issue Hunter Biden is facing now.
Hunter Biden’s ex-girlfriend testified to a grand jury that the president’s son instructed her to withdraw thousands of dollars from ATMs as they partied at luxurious hotels across the country while Hunter was battling drug addiction.
Zue Kestan, 28, also known as weed_slut_420 on social media, testified for five hours last Tuesday morning in a federal courtroom in Delaware. The president’s son is being investigated for suspected tax evasion.
Kestan, a garment designer, lingerie designer, and textile designer, was asked a series of questions regarding what Hunter Biden was doing during their time together and what his spending habits were like in 2018, when he confessed to learning how to cook crack at the Chateau Marmont in Beverly Hills.
A number of parties in Manhattan were attended by the pair as well as the openings of art exhibits.
She told the grand jury that Biden instructed her to withdraw ‘thousands of dollars’ from cash machines at a time.
As part of her testimony, Kestan rattled off a list of pricey five-star hotels in New York City, such as the Soho Grand and the Four Seasons, where she stayed with Biden, notes New York Post.
The actress also recalled their West Coast accommodations, including the Chateau Marmont, where they stayed for a month together.
Hunter recounts his exclusion from the legendary celebrity hangout because of ‘drug use’ in his memoir Beautiful Things, published last year.
She explained that she did not know how he came to have the money she took out at the ATM, reports the Post. She said she used the money to buy clothes and food.
Kestan is the latest in a growing number of former business partners and associates to be subpoenaed to give testimony in the Department of Justice’s secretive three-year probe into Hunter’s murky financial affairs.
After Kestan’s name was mentioned in the broader investigation, federal agents went straight to her New York City apartment to serve her with a subpoena for grand jury testimony.
The grand jury heard testimony from her immediately after Lunden Roberts, Hunter Biden’s baby mama.
Apart from having a three-year-old daughter with the president’s son, who he refuses to publicly acknowledge, Roberts worked at Rosemont Seneca, Hunter’s investment firm, for more than a year as a junior employee.
Kestan’s testimony revealed that she believes she was instrumental in helping Hunter Biden get sober because she was ‘with him at the craziest point of his life’ and persuaded him to become a painter after explaining how art was a great way to see the future instead of using drugs.
Hunter Biden is said to be the focus of this investigation.
Hunter’s various ventures were subpoenaed last month to hand over records of transactions involving the Bank of China spanning five years.
In the document, Delaware’s U.S. Attorney David Weiss offered the first real details about his probe, which was launched in late 2018 but kept under wraps until after the 2020 election, allegedly to avoid becoming a campaign issue.
CNN reports that the investigation focuses on Hunter’s business dealings in China, while Politico claims that it concerns whether or not Hunter paid all his taxes.
‘I learned yesterday for the first time that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware advised my legal counsel, also yesterday, that they are investigating my tax affairs,’ Hunter disclosed in December of 2020.
‘I take this matter very seriously but I am confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately, including with the benefit of professional tax advisors.’
Additionally, Lunden Roberts testified before the grand jury last week. In his memoir, Hunter claimed that he had ‘no recollection’ of Roberts, nor of their alleged encounter in 2018 that led to the birth of their daughter, Navy Joan.
Despite paying her mother $2.5 million in a court-ordered DNA test that proved he was her father, he hasn’t mentioned the girl’s name publicly.
Hunter, 52, was rumored to have been having an affair with Roberts, and he once hired her to work for his Washington, D.C.-based investment firm Rosemont Seneca, which is now in the crosshairs of a federal investigation.
Hunter and Roberts were said to have met when Hunter was studying crime scene investigation in graduate school and working as a stripper at a club that he frequented in DC.
Throughout his memoir, Biden claims he does not remember anything about his ‘encounter’ with Roberts.
‘I was a mess, but a mess I’ve taken responsibility for it,’ he wrote.
Legislation inspired by Hunter’s drug use in the works. In response to accusations that Biden administration will be funding the distribution of crack pipes to addicts, Sen. Joe Manchin teamed up with Republicans to introduce a bill that would ban the distribution of drug paraphernalia. Meanwhile, two Republicans are driven to introduce the ‘HUNTER Act’, which would ban the distribution of crack pipes to addicts.
While the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) denies that crack pipes are to be included in the ‘safe smoking kits’ they will fund, Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Dan Bishop of North Carolina told Fox News that the Biden administration got caught ‘red-handed.’
Health and Human Services is now considering applications from community groups to distribute $30 million as part of its Harm Reduction Grant program. In collaboration with the grant, materials will be provided to addicts to prevent the spread of disease.
President Biden’s son Hunter Biden, whose struggles with addiction inspired the Republicans’ bill this week, has been dubbed the HUNTER Act after his father’s bill.
‘I like the HUNTER Act,’ Boebert said, ‘because it was a better acronym than Stop Paying to Subsidize Biden’s Son’s Drug Addiction act. That didn’t really flow. I think tax dollars have been on the hook for Hunter’s addictions long enough.’
Source: The Republic Brief