Hunter Biden’s lawyer declared last Thursday that the first son ‘did not share’ his business or his profits with his father, marking another notable shift in the narrative responding to allegations linking President Biden to his son’s shady business dealings.
Abbe Lowell, who has been aggressively defending Hunter, said he can ‘categorically’ declare that Biden was not involved in Hunter’s previous business dealings and did not profit from any of them.
‘I can tell you that Hunter did not share his business with his dad,’ Lowell told CNN on Thursday. ‘I can tell you that he did not share money from his businesses with his dad. And as the evidence out there, his dad, like all good parents, tried to help Hunter when Hunter needed that help.’
House Republicans who are investigating the Biden family have accused the White House of shifting its narrative in denying that Biden was involved with his son’s businesses. In 2019, Biden emphatically denied ever discussing business matters with his son, despite Hunter’s longtime business partner, Eric Schwerin, handling the elder Biden’s finances throughout the entirety of the Obama administration.
Then- Vice President Biden also met with over a dozen of Hunter’s foreign business partners, as previously reported by Fox News Digital.
‘First of all, I have never discussed with my son or my brother or anyone else anything having to do with their business, period,’ Biden said in August 2019. ‘There wasn’t any hint of scandal at all when we were there. It was the same kind of strict, strict rules. That’s why I never talk with my son or my brother or anyone else, even distant family about their business interest, period.’
‘I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings,’ a frustrated Biden told Fox News reporter Peter Doocy a month later. ‘You should be looking at Trump. Trump’s doing this because he knows I’ll beat him like a drum. … Everybody’s looked at it and said there’s nothing there. Ask the right question.’
‘I don’t discuss business with my son,’ Biden said again the next month in October 2019.
The narrative, however, took a drastic turn in June when the White House began saying Biden was not ‘in business’ with his son during his vice presidency.
‘As we have said many times before, the president was not in business with his son,’ White House counsel’s office spokesman Ian Sams said in a June 29 statement.
‘The answer remains the same,’ White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said during a July 24 briefing. ‘The president was never in business with his son. I just don’t have anything else to add.’
House Republican Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer and Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith wrote a letter to White House Counsel Stuart Delery in July seeking clarity on the shifting message, but their July 27 deadline was ignored.
Additionally, Hunter’s lawyer’s claims last week about Hunter not sharing profits with his father do not appear to hold up when looking at Hunter’s text messages and emails from his abandoned laptop, according to previous Fox News Digital reports.
In a January 2019 text message, Hunter expressed frustration with his daughter, Naomi, and revealed that his dad forced him to fork over half his salary.
‘I hope you all can do what I did and pay for everything for this entire family Fro (sic) 30 years. It’s really hard. But don’t worry unlike Pop I won’t make you give me half your salary,’ Hunter wrote.
In a 2018 WhatsApp message with his uncle, Hunter fumed about now-first lady Jill Biden and called her a ‘f—ing moron’ after she shot down a proposal about him teaching and said he needed to get sober first, or he would not be able to support his family.
‘I suooorted [sic] my GM [sic] family including some of the costs you should have used your salary to lay [sic] for- for the last 24 years,’ Hunter said.
In another text message exchange from 2018, Hunter claimed to have paid his father’s bills for more than a decade, which received backlash from House Republicans.
‘Too many cooks in the kitchen,’ he wrote on April 12, 2018. ‘Too many profile changes and such. Happened 10 days ago too. What do you need? I’m going to bank in a few. Need to verify identity in person.’
‘I need to pay AT&T,’ Hunter’s assistant Katie Dodge responded.
Hunter then instructed Dodge to put the payment on both his debit card and his ‘Wells Fargo credit line.’
‘My dad has been using most lines on this account which I’ve through the gracious offerings of Eric [Schwerin] have paid for past 11 years,’ Hunter wrote.
It is not clear whether Hunter was claiming to have a shared AT&T account or a shared Wells Fargo account with his father. The White House declined to clarify when previously reached by Fox News Digital.
A 2010 email from Schwerin, Hunter’s longtime business partner, said he was transferring funds from Biden’s tax refund check into Hunter’s account because ‘he owes it to you.’
House Democrats acknowledged Wednesday that Schwerin, the former president of Hunter’s Rosemont Seneca Advisors, handled Biden’s finances for the duration of his vice presidency.
A 2016 email from Schwerin to Hunter indicated that Hunter was expected to pay an AT&T bill in the amount of $190 for ‘JRB.’
One of the most infamous emails from Hunter’s abandoned laptop was the email that refers to the elder Biden as the ‘big guy’ and says, ’10 held by H for the big guy?’ which is shorthand for 10% held by Hunter Biden for his father. Hunter’s former business partner Tony Bobulinski previously confirmed ‘big guy’ was a reference to now-President Biden.
The 2017 email about the equity split proposition for the joint venture with CEFC, a CCP-linked energy company, was sent by business associate James Gilliar, who also infamously told Bobulinski on WhatsApp, in May 2017 not to ‘mention Joe being involved, it’s only when u [sic] are face to face, I know u [sic] know that but they are paranoid.’
‘OK they should be paranoid about things,’ Bobulinski said.
‘For real,’ Gilliar said.
The House Oversight Committee recently included a few of these examples as their ‘evidence’ that Biden was involved with Hunter’s business dealings and that he profited, including testimony from a pair of whistleblowers.
One of the whistleblowers, who claimed Justice Department, FBI and IRS officials interfered with the investigation into Hunter Biden, said earlier in the summer that Hunter invoked his father to pressure a Chinese business partner while discussing deals. IRS Criminal Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley oversaw the IRS probe into the president’s son and said the agency obtained a July 2017 WhatsApp message from Hunter to Harvest Fund Management CEO Henry Zhao showing Hunter alleging he was with his father to pressure Zhao to pay him $10M.
‘I am sitting here with my father, and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled,’ Hunter wrote in the WhatsApp message to Zhao, according to the documents. ‘Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight,’ Hunter wrote.
Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s, R-Calif., announced an impeachment inquiry last week for Biden, prompting the White House to release a 14-page memo pushing back on Republican claims and calling on media outlets to increase scrutiny.
‘After nearly 9 months of investigating, House Republicans haven’t been able to turn up any evidence of the President doing anything wrong. But House Republicans led by Marjorie Taylor Greene are nonetheless opening a baseless impeachment inquiry of President Biden — despite many House Republicans openly admitting there is no evidence on which to support it,’ White House spokesperson Ian Sams wrote last week.
‘Impeachment is grave, rare, and historic. The Constitution requires ‘treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors,’’ Sams continued. ‘But House Republicans are publicly stating they have uncovered none of these things.’
The White House and Hunter’s attorney did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman and Brandon Gillespie contributed to this report.
Jessica Chasmar is a digital writer on the politics team for Fox News and Fox Business. Story tips can be sent to Jessica.Chasmar@fox.com.