GOP, anticipating Congress win, aims at Hunter Biden

WASHINGTON — Intelligence officials had gathered to brief select members of Congress on future threats to U.S. elections when the No. 3 House Republican, Elise Stefanik of New York, tried to move the discussion to a new topic: Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Stefanik, who serves on the House Intelligence Committee, asked the officials during the April 1 briefing whether they had any evidence of Russian involvement in the release of Biden’s laptop to the news media in the fall of 2020 — a possibility floated by high-ranking former government officials in the weeks before the presidential election. Intelligence officials told Stefanik the question would be better answered by law enforcement.

Stefanik’s query was shared with The Associated Press by a person who spoke on the condition of anonymity about the classified meeting.

As Republicans prepare for a possible return to power amid rising hopes of winning the House and the Senate in the November elections, they are laying the groundwork to make Hunter Biden and his business dealings a central target of their investigative and oversight efforts.

Republican lawmakers and staff have discussed analyzing specific messages and financial transactions found on the laptop and have also discussed issuing congressional subpoenas to foreign entities involved in paying Biden, according to people familiar with the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The conversations have been in the early stages but have included talks of bringing on Republican lawyers and former Justice Department officials to help lead the investigations, the people said.

The White House in turn is preparing to defend President Joe Biden from any allegations of wrongdoing and make the case that Republicans are driven by opportunism.

Hunter Biden’s taxes and foreign business work are already under federal investigation, with a grand jury in Delaware hearing testimony in recent months.

While he never held a position on the presidential campaign or in the White House, Hunter Biden’s membership on the board of a Ukrainian energy company and his efforts to strike deals in China have long raised questions about whether he traded on his father’s public service.

Joe Biden has said he’s never spoken to his son about his foreign business. The White House declined to comment and a lawyer for Hunter Biden did not respond to an email.

Republican leaders see Hunter Biden as a unifying force that can bring together different factions of the GOP. Some members of the hardline House Freedom Caucus have said the first order of business for a Republican majority should be an impeachment trial of Joe Biden in retaliation for the two impeachments of Trump.

There’s also increasing discussion among Republicans about urging the Justice Department to appoint a special counsel, said people familiar with the matter.

“Hunter Biden’s fair game because I believe Hunter Biden is a national security risk,” said Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, who is in line to take over the House Oversight Committee if Republicans win the House. “Hopefully, when I get the gavel, we’ll take it a step further.”

In preparation, Comer’s oversight staff has already begun to make document requests and archived information related to the president’s son.

The New York Post first reported in October 2020 that it had received from Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, a copy of a hard drive of a laptop that Hunter Biden had dropped off 18 months earlier at a Delaware computer repair shop and never retrieved.

Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee now want to probe the origins of a widely shared letter from 50 former intelligence officials released a week after the New York Post story. The letter claimed the laptop carried “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation” and suggested that “the Russians are involved in the Hunter Biden email issue.”

No evidence has emerged since of any Russian connections to the laptop or the emails. A declassified U.S. intelligence assessment of the 2020 election alleged that Russian leader Vladimir Putin authorized multiple efforts in support of Trump.

Giuliani’s attorney, Robert Costello, called allegations that the Russians were behind the laptop “absurd.” In a statement, Stefanik said “any alleged attempt by the intelligence agencies or intelligence community leadership to portray the facts surrounding Hunter Biden’s laptop as misinformation needs to be investigated and prosecuted.”