The White House press office has barred The New York Post from attending President Bidens only daytime public event on Monday.
This comes as federal prosecutors near a decision on criminally charging first son Hunter Biden for tax fraud and other crimes. The Post has closely covered the Presidents ties to his relatives foreign dealings and first reported in October 2020 on files from Hunters abandoned laptop that link Joe Biden to ventures in China and Ukraine.
Biden, who falsely characterized The Posts reporting as Russian disinformation, appeared with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to discuss airline policies in the White House-adjacent Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
The Post has the fifth-largest news website by U.S. readership or fourth when excluding aggregator MSN. It is the nations second-most-read newspaper online, and as of last year, The Post had the fifth-largest print circulation.
In a Monday email, however, White House staff said: We are unable to accommodate your credential request to attend the Investing in Airline Accountability Remarks on 5/8. The remarks will be live-streamed and can be viewed at WH.gov. Thank you for understanding. We will let you know if a credential becomes available.
The email does not claim that the exclusion is due to space limitations an excuse used until recently to justify the press offices mysterious prescreening of reporters let into significant presidential events, which under past administrations were open to all journalists on White House grounds.
In June 2022, 73 journalists representing nearly two-thirds of White House briefing room seats signed a letter demanding the end of the mysterious prescreening process for events. But the unprecedented access restrictions remained in place, and press officers refused to explain the selection criteria even to the White House Correspondents Association leaders.
Meanwhile, Hunter Biden's criminal investigation appears to be nearing its end. His legal team met with Justice Department lawyers on April 26 in Washington in what could be a final step before a charging decision. President Biden attracted attention by attending church in Washington Sunday with his younger brother James Biden, who partnered with Hunter on various international dealings.
On Friday, the President declined to take reporter questions by falsely claiming he would host a major news conference that afternoon two days after House Republicans subpoenaed the FBI for a file that a whistleblower said alleged that Joe Biden took bribes. Instead, Biden sat for a Friday night interview with MSNBC host Stephanie Ruhle, who gently approached investigations of the first familys business dealings.
While theres no ties to you, your own son could be charged by your Department of Justice how will that impact your presidency? Ruhle asked. Biden replied, It will not because he has done nothing wrong. And Im proud of him.
There are extensive ties between President Biden and his sons business dealings and congressional Republicans have subpoenaed bank records of Biden family associates and reviewed bank Suspicious Activity Reports to track the flow of funds. Hunter and James Biden allegedly involved their powerful relative in many business relationships.
In 2013, Hunter co-founded with Chinese state entities BHR Partners, registered 12 days after he joined then-VP Biden aboard Air Force Two for an official trip to Beijing, the Wall Street Journal reported. Hunter introduced his dad to BHR CEO Jonathan Li during the journey to Chinas capital, and Joe Biden later wrote college recommendation letters for Lis children. Hunters 10% stake in the firm, which says it manages nearly $2.2 billion in assets, remains unclear.
Hunter and James Biden received at least $4.8 million in 2017 and 2018 from CEFC China Energy in a different Chinese venture. Joe Biden was referred to as the big guy in a May 2017 email that said he was due a 10% cut, and an October 2017 email from first son Hunter Bidens laptop identifies Joe Biden as a participant in a call about CEFCs attempt to purchase U.S. natural gas.
In 2015, Joe Biden hosted his sons Mexican business associates at the Vice Presidents residence in Washington. In 2016, Hunter Biden emailed one of them, Miguel Aleman Magnani apparently while en route to Mexico aboard Air Force Two with another business associate complaining that he hadnt received reciprocal business favors.
At April 16, 2015, dinner at DCs Cafe Milano, then-VP Biden joined his son and a small group, including Vadym Pozharskyi of Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma which paid Hunter up to $1 million per year to serve on its board a three-person Kazakhstani delegation and Russian billionaire Yelena Baturina and her husband, former Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov.
Baturina allegedly paid $3.5 million to a firm associated with Hunter Biden in February 2014 as she sought U.S. property investments. Baturina and another Russian billionaire seeking U.S. property investments with Hunter Biden have avoided President Bidens sanctions against Russias business elite over the more than one-year war in Ukraine.
The familys overlapping political and business dealings began before Bidens eight-year vice presidency. In 2006, when Biden was the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, James Biden openly boasted about selling influence on his brother as he and Hunter Biden sought to take over a hedge fund based in New York, according to the book The Bidens: Inside the First Familys Fifty-Year Rise to Power by Politico reporter Ben Schreckinger.
Dont worry about investors, James Biden allegedly told a corporate executive. Weve got people all around the world who want to invest in Joe Biden Weve got investors lined up in a line of 747s ?lled with cash.
After his father assumed the presidency, Hunter Biden launched an art career seeking as much as $500,000 for his novice works. The House Oversight Committee demands that Hunters Manhattan art dealer Georges Berges hand over a list of buyers.
The White House did not respond to questions from The Post about the exclusion from Mondays presidential event. At least two other journalists were initially barred, but the press office relented and let one of them in. In addition to prescreening reporters allow into Bidens events which critics say sets a troubling precedent for press access the White House moved Friday to close a longstanding legal loophole that prevented authorities from stripping reporters of press badges and unveiled a formal process to do so.
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