Bill Barr OUT: AG Leaves DOJ Over Hunter Biden Investigation Cover-Up
Resigned as attorney general after a face-to-face meeting with President Donald Trump
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Bill Barr is now out as U.S. attorney general after being slammed by President Donald Trump for allowing the Department of Justice (DOJ) to keep their investigations into Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, hidden from the public.
Barr resigned as attorney general after a face-to-face meeting with President Trump on Monday.
The president had raged about the chief law enforcement officer keeping the Hunter Biden probe secret and for doing too little to investigate allegations of election fraud.
Trump announced the departure in a tweet which presented Barr's decision to step down as his own.
"Our relationship has been a very good one, he has done an outstanding job!" Trump said.
He added that Barr would leave at Christmas and "spend the holidays with his family."
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The White House published a resignation letter from Barr which hinted at tensions over Trump's claims of voter fraud – barely more than five weeks before Trump is to leave office.
The departing AG said that the two had met for talks on voter fraud allegations and said 'it is incumbent on all levels of government... to assure the integrity of elections and promote public confidence in their outcome.'
Bar's letter spoke to the importance of election integrity – even as he infuriated the president this month by failing to to endorse his unfounded allegations of widespread voter fraud in the election.
...Deputy Attorney General Jeff Rosen, an outstanding person, will become Acting Attorney General. Highly respected Richard Donoghue will be taking over the duties of Deputy Attorney General. Thank you to all! pic.twitter.com/V5sqOJT9PM
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 14, 2020
"At a time when the country is so deeply divided, it is incumbent on all levels of government, and all agencies acting within their purview, to do all we can do assure the integrity of elections and promote public confidence in their outcome," Barr wrote.
At the start of December, when Trump was pressing his fraud claims full-bore with lawsuits in battleground states, Barr gave an interview where he said agents were pursuing specific allegations of fraud but "to date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election."
The departure came the afternoon after it emerged Barr used the force of his office to instruct prosecutors investigating Hunter Biden not to take any steps that might cause the probe to be publicly revealed in the run-up to the election.
Trump publicly complained about Barr over the weekend, telling Fox News the AG "should have stepped up."
"All he had to do is say an investigation’s going on,” Trump said.
"When you affect an election, Bill Barr, frankly, did the wrong thing."
Over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump wants the appointment of a special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden – but that Barr was not interested in the idea.
Senior White House officials expressed "frustration" over Barr's handling of the Hunter Biden probe, according to the paper.
Lawyer Lin Wood, who was behind the "Kraken" lawsuits in Georgia and elsewhere, was hoping Barr would green light election fraud investigations.
"I believe Barr will announce major moves before 12/23 but does not want to stay to prosecute," he predicted.
"He has done his job & served country well.
"New AG & assistants will prosecute the massive number of cases coming."
Bill Barr is a Patriot. His letter to @realDonaldTrump was excellent. I believe Barr will announce major moves before 12/23 but does not want to stay to prosecute. He has done his job & served country well. New AG & assistants will prosecute the massive number of cases coming.
— Lin Wood (@LLinWood) December 14, 2020
It follows confirmation earlier this week that the Justice Department is investigating Hunter Biden's tax matters, including his lucrative dealings with China while his father was vice president.
This week it also emerged that the younger Biden failed to disclose the massive payout to avoid paying taxes in the United States, according to an email obtained by NBC News.
Hunter Biden was told by Eric Schwerin, then president of Rosemont Seneca Partners, that he did not disclose $400k in income from the Burisma gas company on his 2014 tax returns.
"In 2014 you joined the Burisma board and we still need to amend your 2014 returns to reflect the unreported Burisma income," says the email from Schwerin.
The email notes that Biden's 2014 income included the $400k from Burisma as well as income from Rosemont Seneca Advisors and a legal firm.
NBC News said that it obtained the email from Rudy Giuliani's attorney Robert Costello, who had access to the notorious laptop that Hunter Biden reportedly left in a Delaware repair shop.
A federal prosecutor in Delaware subpoenaed the laptop's contents as part of an ongoing probe.
Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings became a point of contention during the election after the New York Post ran reports about revelations from a discarded laptop.
Biden's campaign attacked the articles as Russian disinformation and smears - a claim that was supported by their allies in the media and Big Tech who covered-up the story.
"Not one single solitary thing was out of line," Joe Biden insisted of his son's dealings in the second presidential debate.
"My son has not made money in terms of this thing about, what are you talking about, China."
Now, it has been revealed that the tax investigation into Hunter Biden was launched in 2018, the year before the elder Biden announced his candidacy for president.
Hunter Biden confirmed the existence of the investigation last Wednesday, saying he learned about it for the first time the previous day.
"I take this matter very seriously but I am confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately, including with the benefit of professional tax advisors," he said in a statement.
It isn't clear which entities or business dealings might be tied up in the probe, though a person with knowledge of the matter said at least some of the focus was on his past work in China.
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Federal investigators served a round of subpoenas last Tuesday, including one for Hunter Biden, according to another person familiar with the investigation.
Investigators did not reach out until recently because of Justice Department practice against taking overt investigative actions in the run-up to an election, one of the people said.
President Trump lashed out at Barr over revelations that the Justice Department kept investigations into Hunter Biden a secret leading up to the election.
"Why didn't Bill Barr reveal the truth to the public, before the Election, about Hunter Biden," Trump tweeted on Saturday morning from the White House.
"Joe was lying on the debate stage that nothing was wrong, or going on - Press confirmed.
"Big disadvantage for Republicans at the polls!" he continued.
Another bombshell email from 2017 shows that Hunter Biden requested keys from a property manager for his "office mates," including his father Joe Biden and an "emissary" from a Chinese business partner with ties to the Communist Party of China.
Joe Biden has repeatedly denied any involvement in his son's foreign business dealings with China, which were this week revealed to be the target of a federal investigation.
The September 20, 2017 email requests copies of keys from an office building manager in Washington DC for Joe and Jill Biden, along with Joe's brother James Biden and "emissary" Gongweng Dong.
The email, first reported by the Daily Caller and also obtained by Fox News, describes Dong as the emissary of Ye Jianming, the disgraced former chairman of Chinese energy company CEFC.
"[P]lease have keys made available for new office mates: Joe Biden, Jill Biden, Jim Biden, Gongwen Dong (Chairman Ye CEFC emissary)," the email reads.
