Chuck Ross writes for the Washington Free Beacon about a recent revelation involving former President Joe Biden’s brother.
James Biden hired a private investigator—a retired Secret Service agent who served on the security detail for Joe Biden—to find out whether a Chinese client suspected of bribery had an arrest warrant against him, a bombshell revelation that contradicts what the former first brother told Congress in a deposition last year.
Biden told House investigators in February 2024 he asked former Secret Service agent Dale Pupillo in 2017 to run a background check on Patrick Ho, an official with CEFC China Energy, a Chinese energy conglomerate with which Biden and his nephew Hunter Biden had a multimillion-dollar consulting contract.
Biden, who was warned he could be charged with perjury for lying in the interview, testified the background check was simply due diligence for his “own edification” prior to meeting with Hunter and Ho in Hong Kong. The background check was “not to inform or anything else,” said Biden. And asked by House Republicans whether the background check was “to try and understand whether or not there was a Federal investigation of Patrick Ho,” Biden replied: “I have no idea.”
But a new Department of Justice inspector general report casts doubt on that story. According to the report, Biden explicitly asked the private eye in November 2017 to find out whether the FBI had warrants against Ho.
“Have info on an individual,” Biden wrote the investigator on Nov. 12, 2017. “I need a background on one specific issue.”
The retired agent, who is referred to as “Retired USSS Agent-1” in the report, told the FBI on Oct. 25, 2021, Biden informed him “we have information from China that Ho may be arrested.” Biden said Ho wanted to travel to the United States for a CEFC event but was concerned he would be arrested, according to the report.
