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Ron Johnson’s unanswered corruption questions from 2020 loom large over Joe Biden

The unknowns: Did the president benefit in any way from his son’s overseas business deals, what did he know and when did he know it?

Published: April 1, 2022 9:19pm

Updated: April 2, 2022 12:25am

Back before the 2020 election, when Democrats and their allies in the corporate media were still claiming the Hunter Biden story was a conspiracy theory or Russian disinformation, GOP Sen. Ron Johnson released an open letter to America posing questions to then-candidate Joe Biden.

Like most Biden scandals at the time, it mostly got ignored or ridiculed. But the questions were rooted in facts and evidence gathered over two years by investigators on Johnson’s Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.

Now nearly two years later, a funny thing has happened. The giants of the corporate media – the New York Times, Washington Post and CNN among them – have abruptly reversed course and acknowledged Hunter Biden’s foreign business pursuits raise legal issues and that content on his laptop left behind in a Delaware repair shop in 2019 was authentic all along.

And now Johnson’s unanswered questions posed in August 2020 loom larger than ever as a federal grand jury in Delaware investigates Hunter Biden for his Ukraine and China business deals, taxes, foreign lobbying and other issues, and some Democrats reportedly brace for a possible indictment.

You can read the full letter here:

Hunter Biden has acknowledged he is under investigation, but denies any illegal conduct.

Here are Johnson’s questions to now-President Biden, Hunter's father, from his August 2020 letter, with a few updates driven by Just the News own original reporting the past two years:

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  1. Why did you meet with Devon Archer, your son’s now-convicted business partner, at the White House on April 16, 2014? What was discussed?  Did you discuss anything related to Ukraine, Hunter Biden or Burisma?
  2. Were you aware that Devon Archer joined the board of Burisma six days later?
  3. In April 2014, you gave a speech in Kiev calling for Ukraine to expand its natural gas production, Burisma’s core business. In private emails, Hunter Biden and Archer took credit for the language in the speech. Why did you make the request and did your son or his business partner have anything to do with it? (NEW)
  4. Were you aware that Burisma’s owner, Mykoloa Zlochevsky, was generally viewed as a corrupt oligarch and that his London bank account containing $23 million had been seized by British officials only15 days before Hunter Biden joined the board of a company he owned?
  5. Was Hunter Biden aware that British officials had seized Zlochevsky’s bank account?
  6. When did you first become aware of Zlochevsky and Burisma’s reputations for corruption?
  7. Do you believe Zlochevsky and Burisma are corrupt?
  8. Were you aware in April 2014 that Hunter Biden joined the board of Burisma? When did you first become aware that Hunter Biden joined the board of Burisma? When did you become aware of how much Hunter Biden was being compensated by Burisma?
  9. Why do you believe Burisma recruited and paid Archer and your son to be on its board?
  10. What skills or knowledge do you believe Hunter Biden possesses that qualified him to be on Burisma’s board and receive $50,000 to $166,000 per month for his and his partner’s services?
  11. When did you learn your son had not paid taxes on some of his overseas work, including on monies received from Burisma?
  12. When did you first learn your son was facing a federal investigation?
  13. State Department officials have testified your son’s work for Burisma while you oversaw [as vice president] Ukraine policy created the appearance of a conflict of interest and they further wrote in a classified email in 2016 that the conflict had undercut U.S. anticorruption efforts in Ukraine. How do you respond to those criticisms? (NEW)
  14. What exactly had Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin done that caused you to threaten to withhold $1 billion in desperately needed aid from Ukraine if President Poroshenko didn’t fire him?
  15. What do you know about Hunter Biden’s business dealings in China?
  16. A 2017 series of memos referred to a Chinese business deal your son was involved in that reserved 10% equity for the “big guy.” What did you know about it and were you that “big guy?” (NEW)
  17. What if anything do you know about your son's dealings with Russian oligarch Elena Baturina?
  18. Did you ever meet with any of Hunter Biden's foreign business partners from China, Russia or Ukraine, including but not limited to Burisma's Vadym Pozharskyi or Baturina or her Moscow mayor husband?
  19. What do you know about financial benefits your brothers and sister-in-law have obtained because of their relationship to you?
  20. Emails on your son’s laptop now in the hands of the FBI refer to shared accounts or bills between you and him. Did your son ever give your any money, gift or financial benefit from his business dealings? (NEW)

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