GOP senator: Biden family deals in China pose 'enormous blackmail' threat for president

Hunter Biden's dealings with Chinese nationals, including one who is now a convicted felon, pose an "enormous blackmail" threat to President Biden, a key Republican senator who investigated the matter warns.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., the former chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and current ranking member on the powerful Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, told the John Solomon Reports podcast on Friday that the case of Chinese businessman Patrick Ho chi-Ping illustrates the threat.

Ho, 70, was part of an investment group that worked with Hunter Biden and his business partners after Joe Biden left the vice presidency. Ho was convicted of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act for trying to bribe high-ranking officials in Chad and Uganda, and court records show he was the subject of a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant.

"This investment group, they were hoping to tap for initially $10 million. But these are individuals that had ties right into the Communist Party of China, within the People's Liberation Army. And Patrick Ho was an individual that apparently was subject to a FISA warrant, which means somebody somewhere is suspecting him being a counter-intelligence threat."

"These are the individuals that Hunter Biden is associating himself with, trying to develop an investment firm with. In the end, when Patrick Ho was indicted, the first phone call he made was to James Biden –– I've heard that he was really trying to get ahold of Hunter," Johnson added, citing evidence his investigators reviewed.

"Hunter, in the end, got paid a million dollars to represent Patrick Ho, this individual that, again, the U.S. government issued a FISA warrant done because of the counterintelligence threat that he might have posed. So it just boggled my mind with what we revealed in our report," Johnson said.

A spokesman for the White House and a lawyer for Hunter Biden did not immediately return a call seeking comment Friday.

Johnson also discussed the difficulties of getting information from federal agency bureaucracies, which he said often thwarted his Senate subpoenas and evidence requests.

"But you know, for a while, it was like pulling teeth getting information out of these –– I'll call them 'Deep State' agencies –– under President Trump," Johnson said. "I mean, President Trump, as much as he wanted this stuff made public and and unclassified, still couldn't get it done because they slow-walked our requests, ran out the clock, hoping that President Trump wouldn't get elected, and unfortunately, he was not reelected."

"So now we've got the Biden administration –– [Attorney General] Merrick Garland, [Director of National Intelligence] Avril Haines –– we're writing the letters, we'll make it public. Hopefully, public pressure will prompt them to at least provide us some information," he added. "And of course, we're also looking at the Department of Justice, the district –– the U.S. Attorneys that are apparently investigating Hunter Biden, but again, I'm not holding their breath on that investigation, either."

Johnson was referring to a letter that both he and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) sent to Garland and Haines, requesting information regarding the Chinese nationals that Hunter Biden had ties with.

Johnson described why he is worried Hunter Biden's relationship with Chinese nationals could impair his father's ability to negotiate U.S. policy with China.

"This is pretty obvious that this is a serious problem when it comes to counterintelligence threats, potential extortion, because now you've got President Biden dealing with Chinese. What all does the Communist Party of China have, in terms of information, that just might impact U.S. policy toward China if Joe Biden and Hunter Biden knows what they know, and want to make sure that they never reveal it publicly?"

"It just has enormous blackmail potential –– the type of thing the press was completely worried about with Donald Trump, it was all false. There were no connections, there was no blackmail that Russia could hold over President Trump's head," Johnson said.

"But here you've got obvious potential blackmail threats, counterintelligence threats, under the Biden administration, and the press doesn't say a word, not a peep out of them. It's amazing."