A new Democratic talking point dismissing a Wednesday House Oversight Committee memo about the Biden family’s foreign business dealings has led to the resurfacing of past texts sent by Hunter Biden suggesting he had to fork over half his salary to his dad, President Biden.
Following the memo’s release, which produced bank records purporting to show that Hunter and his business associates received millions in payments from Russian and Kazakhstani oligarchs when his father was vice president, Democrats pushing back on the investigation have clung to the fact that the records showed no direct payments to Biden.
One former Biden White House official, Kate Berner, took to social media to tout a statement from Politico in its analysis of the memo, which noted that “the memo … doesn’t show a direct payment to Joe Biden.”
“Now might be a good time to remember Hunter Biden has complained about Joe Biden forcing Hunter to give him half his salary,” Abigail Marone, communications director for Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., tweeted in response to Berner.
Marone included a screenshot of texts Hunter sent to his daughter, Naomi, in 2019 that were recovered from his infamous laptop.
“I hope you all can do what I did and pay for everything for this entire family Fro (sic) 30 years. It’s really hard. But don’t worry unlike Pop I won’t make you give me half your salary,” Hunter wrote. According to The New York Post, who reported on the texts last year, “Pop” is Biden.
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The committee’s 19-page memo, which provides screenshots of redacted bank records, says millions in payments came from Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings, as well as Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina and Kazakhstani oligarch Kenes Rakishev, and that then-Vice President Biden attended dinners with Baturina, Rakishev and a representative from Burisma.
“Then-Vice President Biden met — in person, for significant periods of time — with those individuals or their representatives,” the memo states. “Then-Vice President Biden joined approximately 20 phone calls on speakerphone with Hunter Biden’s foreign business associates and attended dinners with foreign oligarchs who paid huge sums of money to Hunter Biden. Joe Biden, ‘the brand,’ was the only product the Bidens sold.”
The “Third Bank Records Memorandum” follows two previous memos from the Republican-led committee tying Biden family members to payments linked to entities in China and Romania. The committee says the foreign payments to the Biden family now add up to over $20 million.
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The third bank memo, the result of subpoenas of several banks not belonging to members of the Biden family, specifically discusses three of the many firms founded by Hunter Biden: Rosemont Seneca Partners, LLC; Rosemont Seneca Thornton, LLC; and Rosemont Seneca Bohai, LLC.
The committee provided screenshots of bank records they say demonstrate that Baturina, the widow of former Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, wired $3.5 million to Rosemont Seneca Thornton on Feb. 14, 2014. Hunter Biden’s longtime business partner Devon Archer confirmed the payment during his interview last week.
Then, a total of $2,752,711 was transferred to Rosemont Seneca Bohai, which Hunter co-owned with Archer.
Fox News’ Jessica Chasmar and Brooke Singman contributed to this report.