Other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. Next, testimony on allegations of misconduct at the justice apartment and the irs regarding the investigation of hunter biden. For the House Oversight and accountability committee. Gary shapley and Joseph Siegler test five that political interference two protocols not being allowed in the investigative process and also made a role in charges filed against hunter biden. Capitol hill. Capitol two irs to follow an investigation into the biden family. And the Oversight Committee. Now in order. I want to welcome everyone here today. Without objection, the chair we want to welcome everyone here today. Without objection, the chair may declare a recess at any time. Without objection, chairman of the ways and Means Committee, mr. Jason smith is waived onto the committee for the purpose of making an opening treatment and rationing the witness is in todays hearing i want to thank chairman smith and chairman jordan for their cooperation and working with the Oversight Committee on this investigation. This is an important joint effort that shows the American People know that accountability matters regardless of your last name. For this hearing, open students will be limited to 10 minutes for the chair and 10 minutes for the Ranking Member. I now recognize myself for the purpose of making an opening statement. Since the republican journey in january, the House Oversight committee has made historically fast progress in our investigation into the biden family influence of pedaling schemes. In just six months, we have obtained thousands of pages of financial records. This includes bank records for biden Family Associates and suspicious activity were words generated by the bidens and their Associates High dollar or foreign business transactions. Once these records reveal, it will be astonishing. The bidens created over 20 Shell Companies most of which were created when joe biden was Vice President. Bank records so far show the biden family, their Business Associates and their companies received over 10 million from foreign nationals and related companies. A lot of this money poured in while joe biden was Vice President. Despite creating Many Companies after Vice President took office, the biden family use associate companies received millions of dollars from Foreign Companies in china, ukraine, and romania. After Foreign Companies sent money to business associate companies, the bidens and received incremental payments over time to various Different Bank accounts. These complicated Financial Transactions are used deliberately to conceal the source of funds and total amounts. No normal business operates like this. What are the bidens selling connect nothing but influence and actions. This is an influence peddling scheme to enrich the bidens. We need to know whether joe biden is compromised by these schemes and other National Security is threatened. During our investigation our committee became aware that the fda had an unclassified record that detailed extortion and bribery scheme involving and Vice President biden and everest executive. This record was generated by a trusted potential human source that the bia used for over a decade. It memorializes the conversation with the executive who claimed he paid joe biden Million Dollars in exchange for certain actions. The prisma executive told the human source he did not pay the big guy directly, but that he used so many Bank Accounts it would take 10 years to unravel. So that sounds a lot like how the bidens conduct business using multiple Bank Accounts to hide the source of the money. Today we have two incredible whistleblowers who have risked their careers to come forward and provide testimony thank you for being here today. I know it was not an easy decision. Their testimony about the doj, fbi and irs investigation of hunter biden confirms the committees findings that there is nothing normal about the biden familiess activities. The white house and democrats would have americas leave our investigation is based on five years of conspiracy theories, but we have tax and new evidence continues to be uncovered revealing the first familys corruption, the bidens have them selves first and americans last. We will continue to follow the money trail and provide answers that americans demand and deserve. With that i yield to the chairman, jason smith. Thank you. The ways and Means Committee is charged with ensuring that the tax code is enforced fairly. Clearly the president only believe in making taxpayers pay their fair share if they dont share his last name. These courageous whistleblowers provided my committee with devastating testimony showing the government is not treating all taxpayers equally and the doj and the irs gave preferential treatment to the president s son during a criminal investigation into his taxes. These individuals in front of us today are incredible and sat for nearly two hours of interviews with both republicans and democrats. I personally took part in the interview with mr. Ziegler. Here is what we learned from the interview. The irs recommended multiple, the irs recommended multiple felony charges against hunter biden or tax years 2014 through 2019 relating to at least a. 3 million in incomes from Foreign Companies including one based in china, romania and ukraine. That is the only amount discovered despite the roadblocks and obstructions their investigation faced. The department of justice engaged in a campaign to delay, they bulge and and i that investigation. They did lead investigators for years leading to the expiration of the statute of limitations for many of the crimes involved. They diebolds key investigative details to bidens attorney and even the president s Transition Team and they denied investigators the ability to authenticate evidence to serve warrants, question witnesses and bring charges. This led to hunter biden sweetheart agreement, announced five years after the investigation started, but mere days before my committee voted to publicly release this testimony. But americans in my Congressional District or any other received the same treatment . After raising their concerns internally at the irs committees with the words were discouraged and demoralized and turned to congress as a last resort. They bravely reported wrongdoing to us and what have the allies including Hunter Bidens lawyers done . They have responded with a vicious, a Vicious Smear Campaign to discredit these whistleblowers and discourage others from coming forward and may have even coordinated with the white house on this earth. This is a disgrace. I urge any irs employee watching today, if you know of misconduct, please come to the ways and Means Committee so we can hold accountable those who are responsible and let me be clear, there will be zero tolerance for any retaliation against whistleblowers by doj and the irs. The American People expect answers about whether the federal government is treating all tax is equally or if the wealthy and politically connected that special treatment. Our committees are working together to get to the bottom of this abuse of power and will work tirelessly to do so and to make sure it does not ever happen again. Americans should not have to accept two tiers of justice in this country. One if your last name is biden and one for everybody else. I want to thank both whistleblowers for coming forward publicly and for your testimony. I yield to mr. Jordan. Thank you. Who are you going to believe april 26th, the attorney general said david white was in charge of the investigation. October 7th in a meeting with one of the whistleblowers, david white said i am not the deciding official or who are you going to believe connect on february 28 i wrote the attorney general asking him why there is no special counsel in the hunter biden investigation. He did respond which is unusual. I wrote again on may 25th, again the attorney general did not respond, but david white did and here is what he said june 7th he said this, i have been granted ultimate authority over the matter including responsibility deciding where, when and whether to charges. That is with the u. S. Attorney said on june 7th. Three weeks later mr. White wrote me again and he said this, i stand by what i wrote, but i wish to expand. Already changing his story 23 days later and he says this, my charging authority is geographically limited to my home district wait a minute, you told me 23 days before you have ultimate authority. Now you change it. Then again on july 10th, mr. White wrote senator graham and he said this, paragraph 2 to clarify not requested special counsel designation, rather i had discussions with departmental officials. He cant get his story straight. Three different stories in a fiveweek timeframe, on june 7th he is tarzan and superman i can do what i want, file charges where i want. June 30th, actually i cant, and then of course on july 10th he says to clarify, i have not requested social counsel that is, but i have been talking to the folks at maine justice. Three different positions and a little over a month. You know his story has not changed . These guys. Their testimony has been consist throughout their testimony has been the same and guess what, two days ago and the i agent confirmed their testimony. Who are you going to believe connect the Justice Department cant get their story straight changed three times and 33 days, or these guys connect the Justice Department just two weeks ago from the federal court in louisiana, the Justice Department that said moms and dads are terrorists, the Justice Department upset if you are catholic you are an extremist, the Justice Department that cant get it story straight or these guys connect over a decade of experience for each of them, they go to guys and tax evasion cases, the 18 when it comes to investigating these matters all over the world they have done this and have been consistent throughout. I think i will believe these guys. They are the ones telling the truth and that is fundamentally what this comes down to. Thats you for the work you have done and for being here today stepping forward because you care about equal treatment under the law. That is what is at stake. I yield back. I know yield to the Ranking Member of maryland for his opening statement. Thank you. Good afternoon to the witnesses. I thought we might be here today on the matter that the chairman declared his top priority the crusade to find evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden, but the majority went as it turns out to be a fugitive from american justice, and arms traffic are indicted on a federal felony count in an unregistered Foreign Agent china who tried to trade chinese arms for running oil, so he will not be a witness for the majority any times after the report, bank records, form 1023, we can conclude that this inspector quest for something that does not exist has turned our committee into a theater of the absurd and an exercise in embarrassment and now we can finally definitively say why the committees efforts have run dry time and again. Yesterday mr. Chairman we got a letter from lev parnas, the ukrainian born American Business man who was at Rudy Giulianis side as his right knee and for a year in november 2018 to october 2019, as giuliani and trump tried to smear joe biden before the 2020 auction with the very same allegations we are still running through the medical and cycle every week in the committee. I request unanimous consent to enter the parnassus letter into the record now, in this extraordinary letter, he paints achingly describes the campaign orchestrated giuliani and trump to dig up dirt on the bidens and spread misinformation about them through various networks including government officials and fox news personnel. After explaining this campaign to fabricate corruption charges against biden, partners concludes by saying throughout these months of working with the extensive networking done by trump allie is in Giuliani Associates including enormously thorough interviews and assignments that i undertook, there has never been any evidence that hunter or joe biden committed any crimes related to ukrainian politics. Never during any of my communications with ukrainian officials or connections to burisma did any of them confirm or provide concrete acts linking up items to illegal activities. As mr. Perna concluded, there has never been any evidence, only theories spread by people who knew exactly what they were doing and that he calls on this committee to end the goose chase and offers to come and testify. Remember this is your giulianis guy. This iss interpreter and right hand man bent a year trying to cook the books against joe biden and he offers to come testify. If anyone believes what hes saying, lets bring him in and lets hear about that crusade that they were on to smear biden by promoting the same baseless conspiracy theories this committee serves up as multileftovers everyday. At todays hearing we are going to hear about wrongdoings by hunter biden who is pleading guilty on tax charges and a gun charge next week. We will hear about the backand forth among investigators, prosecutors and a trump appointed attorney over a dozen people spend four years investigating the president s son. We will hear about how they disagreed on investigative steps and what charges to bring, all normal stuff and government investigations that does not usually lead to a congressional hearing, but one thing you will not here today is any evidence of wrongdoing by President Joe Biden or his administration. Every other tried by our colleagues to concoct this scandal about biden, this one is a complete and total bust. In fact, the ongoing case is the majority and buys us to interfere with today is actually a striking illustration of the success of the american system of independent prosecutors operating under the rule of law and outside the realm of the kind of political influence my colleagues are trying to exercise today. So what happened . The son of a sitting president of the United States lost his brother and lost his way back in 2015, as too many families around the country no drug addiction is a dark and powerful affliction and like other addicts joe biden made foolish and criminal choices, including failing to pay his taxes and owning a firearm in violation of federal law and he is now being held criminally accountable for it. His investigation began under the trump administration. It was conducted by a unit attorney for delaware donald trump appointed to his office and who attorney general bar got to conduct this investigation. In december 2020, attorney general bart expressed full confidence in ways this work saying it was being handled responsibly and professionally within the department and i have seen no reason to appoint a special counsel and i have no plans to do so before i leave. Furthermore, joe biden never publicly questioned or challenged this prosecution. When began he did not decry it as a witchhunt. He placed his trust in the fairness of the american Justice System. When he became president not only did he not use his power to halt the investigation, he cut in place trumps u. S. Attorneys over seeing it even though incoming president s usually replace u. S. Attorneys with their own appointees and his attorney general eric garland major that mr. Weiss, appointed by donald trump had authority and resources to pursue the probe and charge it however and whenever he suffered in any district in the country and in the past few weeks is hunter biden accepted a guilty plea, the president and his attorney general have done nothing to interfere with the case which is overseen by a federal judge appointed by yet donald trump. Can you imagine trump saying nothing about a witchhunt . We are not trying to squash the prosecution if it were his son. Indeed, bidens scrupulous respect for the independence of the Justice Department stands in sharp contrast to trumps spectacular disrespect for the rule of law and his zero efforts in office and outside office to get prosecutors to go after him locked up his political rivals and to suspend accountability and specific criminal cases when it comes to his friends. When Michael Flynn was investigated for lying to the pi and later convicted for it about communicating with the russians or when Paul Manafort was investigated and later convicted for bank and tax fraud or when roger stone was investigated and later convicted for lying to congress, and outraged trump repeatedly denounced the department of justice for prosecuting his cronies and reportedly got william barr to pressure prosecutors to recommend more leniency in their cases. Trump also went to dr. James comey and pushed him to pledge absolute loyalty to trump and to find a way to let go. Ultimately trump used the power of the presidency to pardon all of these convicted criminals. Unlike trumps blatant abuse of the rule of law and the relationship between