Lawmakers say newly released documents show Hunter Biden lied to Congress

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House lawmakers on Wednesday made public a slew of emails, phone records and other documents provided by IRS whistleblowers that they say show President Biden’s son Hunter Biden “repeatedly lied to Congress” when he gave closed-door testimony in February about his father’s involvement in his lucrative foreign business deals.

The House Ways and Means Committee voted along party lines in a closed-door session to release the documents. They show, among other things, that Hunter Biden was in close contact with a Chinese energy company official who wired him $5 million after he threatened the wrath of his father.

The documents also suggest Hunter Biden sought to conceal business activities related to his position on the board of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company that sought help from then-Vice President Biden in shaking off a corruption probe.

In an April 2014 email, Hunter Biden instructed business associate Devon Archer to buy a burner phone “from a 7/11 or the CVS … and I’ll do the same.”

In the same email, Hunter Biden told Archer that Burisma needed to start paying him a $25,000 retainer each month in addition to his $1 million annual salary as a board member. Such a contract, he said, must be signed before Vice President Biden’s visit to Kyiv later that month. Hunter Biden referred to his father as “my guy” in the email.

“The announcement of my guy’s upcoming travels should be characterized as part of our advice and thinking — but what he will say and do is out of our hands,” Hunter Biden wrote to Archer. “In other words it could be a really good thing or it could end up creating too great an expectation. We need to temper expectations regarding that visit.”

Three House committees are investigating President Biden’s involvement in business deals involving his family and associates that netted more than $20 million from China, Ukraine, Russia and other countries. Lawmakers deposed Hunter Biden in February, and he denied his father had anything to do with his business operation. President Biden has also staunchly denied participating in his son’s deals.

Documents released Thursday conflict with Hunter Biden’s testimony distancing his father from the deals.

In his February testimony, the president’s son told lawmakers that a threatening WhatsApp message invoking Mr. Biden sent to CEFC energy company official Raymond Zhao in 2017 was sent in error and that Mr. Zhao “had no understanding or even remotely knew” what he was talking about.

Phone records show Hunter Biden sent the message to Mr. Zhao and that the two had been communicating about a business deal for several months on the same phone number.

“These documents make clear that Hunter Biden was using his father’s name to shake down a Chinese businessman — and it worked. And when confronted by Congressional investigators about it, he lied,” said Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, Missouri Republican.

Additional documents conflict with Hunter Biden’s testimony that he was not the corporate secretary of Rosemont Seneca Bohai, a shell company established with Archer, and his claim that he was not affiliated with or in control of the company’s associated bank accounts.

Millions of dollars in payments from foreign entities were funneled into Rosemont Seneca Bohai, including much of a $3.5 million wire from Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina. She sent the payment in February 2014, a day after Rosemont Seneca Bohai was opened.

A few weeks later, Hunter Biden arranged for Ms. Baturina to have dinner with the vice president at a restaurant in Washington.

In newly released documents, Hunter Biden identified himself as “the duly elected, qualified and acting Secretary of Rosemont Seneca Bohai, LLC.” Additional documents show Hunter Biden as the beneficial owner of a bank account in the name of Rosemont Seneca Bohai.

Through his attorneys, Hunter Biden has denied receiving $3.5 million from Ms. Baturina, who, at the time of the payment, was married to the mayor of Moscow.

The committee also released email records, provided by the IRS whistleblowers, that show Hunter Biden was involved in helping resolve a revoked U.S. visa for Nikolay Zlochevsky, also known as Mykola, the CEO of Burisma Holdings. Mr. Zlochevsky wanted to travel to Mexico, but the country had a policy of denying entry to travelers with a revoked U.S. visa.

In an email authored by Archer, later convicted in an unrelated securities fraud case, he wrote to a Burisma executive that “Hunter is checking” with the U.S. Consulate in Mexico “to see if he can provide cover to [Mr. Zlochevsky] on the visa” to travel to Mexico. “Considering we are having dinner with the Foreign Ministry Thursday night, we think we have a good shot of smoothing things out.”

Democrats on the panel voted in unison against releasing the material.

The ranking member, Rep. Richard Neal of Massachusetts, said most of the documents “are largely personal in nature and have nothing to do with the president.”

He accused Republicans of having an “obsession with a private citizen who never held public office” and urged lawmakers “to recognize this and get back to the work we were elected to do.”

The committee released the documents a day after an appeals court denied a request by Hunter Biden’s attorneys to delay his trial on federal gun charges set to begin on June 3. Then on Wednesday, a federal trial on separate tax fraud charges was delayed until September.

Hunter Biden’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment on the newly released documents.