Republicans Suggest Possible Trump Indictment Is to Distract from Hunter Biden Allegations

Rather than attacking the merits of the impending alleged hush money case against Donald Trump, Republicans on Fox News suggested that the news of former president’s potential arrest is part of a secret plan to distract from the allegations against Hunter Biden.

“Well, it’s very odd that [the news of a possible Trump indictment] would come out just the very next day after I revealed bank records which showed that the Biden family — the president in particular — hasn’t been truthful with respect to his family receiving payments directly from the Chinese communist party,” Republican Rep. James Comer, chair of the House Oversight Committee, said on Fox’s Sunday Morning Futures. Comer is referring to a memo he released Friday alleging that Hunter Biden and two other Biden relatives received $1.3 million from one of Hunter’s connections who is linked to a Chinese energy company. While this news had been reported last year, Comer claimed that “new evidence” shows that Hallie Biden, the widow of the president’s son Beau Biden, received two payments adding up to $35,000.

More from Rolling Stone

• Trump and DeSantis Go After Each Others' Sex Life

• Ask a Lawyer: Could Trump Really Go to Jail?

• Dr. Anthony Fauci Would Like to Set the Record Straight

Comer continued, “It almost looks like it’s an effort to detract. But at the very least it’s another example of the two-tiered system of justice.”

Comer does not offer any evidence aside from the timing of the news breaking to prove that a years-long case against Trump in the Manhattan district attorney’s office is somehow a “wag the dog” situation to cover up for Hunter Biden. Fox News reported Friday that officials were preparing to arrest Trump, and the former president publicized the possibility of his arrest in a post to Truth Social on Saturday.

A spokesperson for Hunter Biden’s legal team issued a statement responding to the release of Comer’s Friday memo: “Hunter Biden, a private citizen with every right to pursue his own business endeavors, joined several business partners in seeking a joint venture with a privately-owned, legitimate energy company in China,” the spokesperson said. “As part of that joint venture, Hunter received his portion of good faith seed funds which he shared with his uncle, James Biden, and Hallie Biden, with whom he was involved at the time, and sharing expenses. The accounts so dramatically listed by Rep. Comer belonged to Hunter, his uncle and Hallie — nobody else.”

Democrats also responded to Comer’s allegations against the Bidens, telling NBC News that one of the payments to Hallie Biden that Comer cited came before Hunter Biden or his associate received the funds from the Chinese energy company. “Concealing this context paints a typically distorted picture and marks another depressing low for this investigation,” said a spokesperson for the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee. Hunter Biden has said that he and Hallie were in a romantic relationship at the time she received funds from him.

Comer was not the only Republican to suggest that Biden somehow may be using the Stormy Daniels hush money case against Trump to divert attention from his son’s finances. John Ratcliffe, who served as Director of National Intelligence under Trump, hinted that the prosecution may have ulterior motives.

“This is so incredibly disturbing,” Fox host Maria Bartiromo said while interviewing Ratcliffe. “Do you think there’s a coincidence that as soon as Comer comes out and exposes those bank records that suddenly Trump is going be indicted?”

“I don’t really believe much in coincidences,” Ratcliffe said. “And so I do think that they’re— I think that it’s important what Congressman Comer is doing, and it’s a way for the American people to find out what’s really happening, and I hope that effort continues.”

Ratcliffe also accused Democrats of being “a mix of socialists and communists who don’t like the American justice system.”

This distraction theory is just one part of Republicans’ attempts to discredit the investigation into Trump. Trump’s former vice president, Mike Pence, has maligned the case as “political prosecution” and accused prosecutors of being part of the “radical left.” Meanwhile, the former president’s supporters are calling for “civil war” and suggesting the formation of a “Patriot moat” around Mar-a-Lago to prevent law enforcement from arresting Trump.

Trump denies Daniels’ claims that they had a sexual relationship and says the case has no legal basis. But that case is just one of many investigations the former president faces. Trump is currently under investigation for removing classified government documents from the White House and for allegedly attempting to influence the 2020 election results in Georgia. The Justice Department is also pursuing a criminal probe regarding Trump’s role in Jan. 6 as well as his attempts to overturn the election.

Best of Rolling Stone

• The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign

• Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal

• The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence

Click here to read the full article.