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 may declare a recess at anytime. Without objection, chairman of the ways and Means Committee, mr. Jason smith of missouri, is waved on to the committee for the purpose of making an Opening Statement at questioning the witnesses in todays committee 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 that accountability matters regardless of your last name. For this hearing, Opening Statements will be limited to ten minutes for the chair and ten minutes for the Ranking Member. I now recognize myself for the purpose of making an Opening Statement. Since assuming a republican majority in january, the house Oversight Committee has made historically fast progress in our investigation into the biden family influence peddling schemes. Just six months, we have obtained thousands of pages of financial records. This includes bank records for biden Family Associates and suspicious activity reports generated by the biden and their associates dollars and foreign business transactions. What these records reveal is 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, the 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 the Vice President took office, the biden used associate companies to receive millions of dollars from Foreign Companies in china, ukraine, and romania. After Foreign Companies sent money to Business Associates companies, the bidens then received incremental payment overtime to various Different Bank accounts. These complicated Financial Transactions were used deliberately to conceal the source of funds and total amounts. No normal business operates like that. What were the bidens selling . Nothing but influence and access to the biden network. This is an influence peddling scheme to enrich the bidens. We need to know whether joe biden is compromised by these schemes, and if our National Security is threatened. During our investigation, our committee became aware through whistleblower disclosures provided to senator Chuck Grassley that the fbi had an unclassified record that details and extortion and bribery scheme involving then Vice President biden and a burisma executive. This record was generated by a confidential human source that the fbi has used over a decade. It with a burisma executive complaint that he paid joe biden 5 million in exchange for certain actions. The burisma executive told the confidential human source that he didnt pay the, quote, big guy, and quote. Directly, but that he used so many black accounts that it would take ten years to unravel. Now that sounds an awful lot like how the biden family conducts business, using multiple Bank Accounts to hide the source in total amount of the money. Today, we have to brave incredible whistleblowers who have risked their careers to come forward and provide testimony. Thank you all for being here today. I know it was not an easy decision. Their testimony about the doj, the fbi, and irs investigation of hunter biden confirms the committees findings. That there is nothing normal about the biden familys business activity. The white house and democrats would have americans believe that our investigation is based on five years of conspiracy theories. But we have facts and new evidence continues to be revealed on the first familys corruption. The bidens have put themselves first and americans. Last we will continue to follow the money trail and provide answers and accountability than americans demand and deserve. With that, i yield to the chairman of the ways and Means Committee, jason smith. Thank you, chairman comer. The ways and Means Committee is charged with ensuring that the tax code is enforced fairly. Clearly, the president only believes in making taxpayers pay their fair share if they dont share his last name. These two courageous whistleblowers, provided my committee with devastating testimony showing that the government is not treating all taxpayers equally, and the doj at the irs k preferential treatment to the president s son during a criminal investigation into his taxes. These individuals in front of us today are credible and sat for nearly 15 hours of interviews with both republican and democrat. I personally took part in the interviews with mr. Ziegler. Heres what we learned from the interviewing. The irs recommended multiple, multiple felony charges, against hunter biden fort texas since 2014 through 2019. Relating to at least 8. 3 million in income from Foreign Companies including one based including Companies Based in china, romania and ukraine. That is the amounts discovered despite the roadblocks. The department of justice engaged in a campaign to delay, divulge, and deny that investigation. They delayed investigators for years. Leading to the expiration of the statute of limitations for many of the crimes involved. They divulged key investigative details to bidens attorney and even the president transition team. And they denied investigators the ability to authenticate evidence, served warrants, question witnesses, and bring charges. This led to Hunter Bidens sweetheart agreement and now five years after the investigation started, but mere days before my committee voted to publicly release this testimony. Would americans in my congressional district, or any other congressional district, ever receive this same treatment . After raising their concerns internally at the irs, these whistleblowers were discouraged and demoralized and turned to congress as a last resort. They bravely reported wrongdoings to us and what have President Bidens allies, including Hunter Bidens lawyers, done . They have responded with a Vicious Smear Campaign to discredit these whistleblowers and discourage others from coming forward. They may have even coordinated with the white house on this effort. This is a disgrace. I urge any irs employees 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 taxpayers equally, or if the wealthy and politically connected getting 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 doesnt ever happen again. Americans should not have to accept to tears of justice in this country. One of your last name is biden, and one for everybody else. I want to thank both whistleblowers for coming forward publicly and for their testimony today. I yield to mr. Jordan. I thank the gentleman for yielding. The question is who will you believe . April 26th in front of the United States senate, the attorney general said david white is in charge of the investigation. October 7th in a meeting with gary shabbily, one of the whistleblowers, david whyte said i am not the deciding official. Who will you believe . On february 28th i wrote the attorney general asking him why there is no special counsel in the hunter biden investigation. He did not respond. Thats unusual in it of itself. They always respond when we come to them. I will begin on may 25th, again the attorney general did not respond but david whyte did. And heres what he said. June 7th, he said this, i have been granted of the midauthority over the matter including responsibility for deciding where, when, at whether to file charge charges. That is what the u. S. Attorney said on june 7th. Three weeks later, mr. Weiss broke me again. He said this. I stand by what i wrote, but i wish to expand. Wow. Already changing his story 23 days later. He said this, my charging authority is geographically limited to my home district. Wait a minute, you just told me 23 days before that you have ultimate authority. Now you change it. Then again on july 10th, mr. Weiss wrote, senator graham, and he said this. Paragraph two, the clarify i have not requested special counsel designation, rather i had discussions with departmental officials. Mr. Weiss cant get his story straight. Three different stories than a fiveweek timeframe. June 7th, hes saying i have ultimate authority and do what i want. While charges were i want, when when i want, how i want. June 30th he says, well, actually i cant. And of course on july 10th he says, to clarify, i havent requested special counsel status but ive been talking to the folks. Three different positions and a little over a month. You know whose story has not changed . These two guys. Their testimony has been consistent throughout. Their testimony has been the same. And guess what . Two days ago, an fbi agent confirmed their testimony. Were you going to believe . The Justice Department cant get their story straight, it changed three times in 33 days, or the two guy guys . The Justice Department two weeks ago from the federal court in louisiana. The Justice Department that said moms and dads are terrorists. The Justice Department that if you are prolife catholic, you are an extremist. The Justice Department that cant get its story straight, for these two guys . Ten years, over a decade of experience for each of them, those two Guys International tax evasion cases. The 18 when it comes to investigating these letters all over the world theyve done this. And who have been consistent throughout. I think i believe these guys. I think they are the ones telling the truth. And that is fundamentally what this comes down to. So god bless you guys for the work youve done at the court you have, and for being here today. Stepping forward because you care about equal treatment under the law. That is what is at stake plain and simple. I yield back. I now yield to the Ranking Member, mr. From maryland, by his statement. Thank, you mister chairman. I thought we were here on a matter that the chairman declared a top priority there to say to find evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden, but now the majority the star witness turned out to be a fugitive from american justice. Indicted an eight federal criminal counts and an unregistered Foreign Agent for china who tried to trade chinese arms for iranian oil. After bank records, form 10 23, we can conclude that this inspector clue so style quest for something that does not exist turns our committee into a theater of the absurd, an exercise in futility and embarrassment. Now we can finally definitively say why the committees efforts have run drive time and again. Just yesterday, mister chairman, you and i got a letter from liz parnas the murder who is it really Rudy Giuliani side as giuliani and then President Trump tried to smear joe biden before the 2020 election with the very same allegation, we are still running through the political spin cycle every week in this committee. I request unanimous consent to enter the parnas record letter. In this extraordinary ten page rapper, parnas painstakingly describes the campaign orchestrated by giuliani and trump to quote, dig up dirt by the biden spread misinformation about them through various networks including govern officials, journalist, and fox news personnel. After explaining this campaign to fabricate trump charges against biden, he concluded his letter that throughout all these months of work at the campaign down by trump allies, giuliani associates, including the enormously thorough interviews which i, quote, there has never been any evidence that hunter or joe biden committed crime related to the ukrainian politics. Never during any of my communication with ukrainian officials are connections did any of them confirm or provide concrete facts linking the bidens to illegal activity. As mr. Parnas concludes, there has never been any factual evidence, only conspiracy theories, spread by people who knew exactly what they were doing. He calls on this committee to end its wild goose chase and offers to come and testify. Remember, this is mr. Giulianis guy. This is his interpreter and righthand man we spent a year out there trying to cook the books against joe biden. He offers to come testify. If anyone doubts anyone he is saying, lets bring him in as a witness. Lets hear about that crusade but they were on to smear President Biden by promoting the same baseless conspiracy spear ease that this committee serves up as moldy leftovers every day. At todays hearing we are going to hear about wrongdoing by hunter biden. Pleading guilty on two tax charges and a gun charge next week. We will hear about the back and forth among investigators, prosecutors, and a trump appointed u. S. Attorney. Over a dozen people who spent four years investigating the president son. We will hear about how they disagreed about investigative steps and what criminal charges to bring all no evidence that President Biden has involved himself in any way in the investigation into his own son. An investigation that has been overseen by trumps appointed u. S. Attorney. No matter what my gop colleagues say, i appreciate the testimony of our witnesses today, there is no evidence that hunter biden has received any kind of official favoritism in this prosecution for being to bidens son. On the contrary, there are more than 10 million americans who have filed tax pays to the exact crime that hunter biden is pleading guilty to, the vast majority of these cases are resulting in administratively or through civil settlement. Every year, at the irs and doj appoint convictions in fewer than 700 cases protects crimes of any kind. A miniscule percentage. The fact that hunter biden faced a fouryear criminal probe involving dozens of agents and prosecutors, from the irs to the fbi and the u. S. Returnees office in delaware, the doj, demonstrates in my mind at the very least that he received no special treatment, but arguably tougher treatment than the millions of people who never faced criminal investigation. If my gop colleagues think that the treatment of millions of tax or even a handful who face criminal prosecution of hunter biden is too lenient, i invite them to join us democrats in supporting the 80 billion dollars in funding for the irs that we passed in the Inflation Reduction Act last year. This money will enable the irs to make long overdue improvements to customer service, but will also enabl appointed u. S. Attorney and a rich guy exercising his Second Amendment right, but now facing criminal gun charges and charges that they would call in any other circumstance purely technical. We are about to hear testimony from two irs criminal investigators. They will describe their frustrations and disagreements with their supervisors, as well as with mr. Weiss and his team of prosecutors, would be considered junior varsity, and not up to snuff during the Trump Administration generally. We will also hear about their confusion and profound misunderstanding about mr. Weiss and how he reviewed the evidence and made the ultimate decision about charging hunter biden. A lot of the controversy here relates to agent failure to distinguish between special counsels special lawyers, but we will clear that up today. The key point, mister chairman, America Needs to understand is that the only political interference at play here is coming from donald trump at my republican colleagues. We will listen carefully to the testimony and i thank, you mister chairman. Directing the yield back. I would like to remind the members of the public that section 60 103 of the tax code makes taxpayer information confidential, except in certain circumstances. One of those extensions is the process the ways and Means Committee used to receive testimony from these whistleblowers, and report transcripts of their testimony to the full house of representatives to make that information public. These whistleblowers have gone above and beyond to submit information to congress in accordance with the law, and we are grateful to them for that. The witnesses can only testify to Tax Information that has already been released through proper procedures through the wins it ways and Mean