Hunter Biden admitted in court Wednesday that he received over half a million dollars from a Chinese government-backed company, despite his father, President Joe Biden, repeatedly claiming that none of the Bidens have ever “made money from China.”
Hunter appeared before federal court Judge Maryellen Noreika, where he pleaded not guilty to two misdemeanor counts of willful failure to pay federal income taxes, Fox News reported.
A plea deal, which would have allowed him to avoid jail time for both the two misdemeanors and a separate felony gun charge, fell apart after Noreika wouldn’t sign off on the deal.
During the three-hour court appearance, Hunter was questioned about his foreign business dealings in both Ukraine and China. When asked about specific payments, he confirmed having received $664,000 from the CEFC Energy company.
CEFC was China’s largest private energy company until 2020, when the company went bankrupt, according to the New York Post.
“I started a company [in 2017] called Hudson West, your Honor, and my partner was associated with a Chinese energy company called CEFC,” Hunter said, according to court transcripts obtained by Fox.
“Who was your partner?” Judge Noreika asked.
“I don’t know how to spell his name, Yi Jianming is the chairman of that company,” the president’s son replied.
The Post obtained a June 2017 email from Hunter Biden to “Chairman Ye,” in which he offered him “best wishes from the entire Biden family as well as my partners.”
Yi was taken into custody by Chinese authorities in 2018 and hasn’t been seen since, according to the Post.
Noreika continued her line of questioning about the payments, asking Hunter: “$664,000 from a Chinese infrastructure investment company — is that one of the companies we’ve already talked about?”
“I believe so, yes, Your Honor,” Hunter answered. “I believe CEFC.”
Hunter Biden’s admission of the payments consequently contradicts statements made by his father, who has claimed on multiple occasions that neither he nor his son ever profited from China.
“I have never discussed, with my son or my brother or with anyone else, anything having to do with their businesses. Period,” Joe Biden said in August 2019, Politico reported at the time. “… I never talked with my son or my brother or anyone else — even distant family — about their business interests.”
Biden added during an October 2020 debate with then-President Donald Trump: “My son has not made money in terms of this thing about – what are you talking about — China.”
“The only guy who made money from China is this guy,” Biden said, pointing at Trump. “He’s the only one. Nobody else has made money from China.”
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.