Hunter Biden received more than $6.5 million in five separate loans over a two-year period from entertainment lawyer Kevin Morris, according to a letter sent this week to one of the congressional committees involved in the GOP impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
A copy of Morris’ letter, obtained by NBC News, details the dates, sum, and terms of the loans issued he issued to the president’s son beginning in 2021. Among the loans listed in the letter to the House Oversight Committee was one issued as recently as last month for for $1.2 million to be paid in full by 2028, and any previously accrued and unpaid interest due the following year.
The interest rate for all five loans was set at 5%, and was negotiated by separate attorneys, the letter says.
A spokesperson for the Oversight panel did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday night, nor did an attorney for Hunter Biden.
The letter comes a week after Morris, a Hollywood-based attorney who met Hunter Biden in 2019, sat for a transcribed interview with the Republican-led committee and discussed loaning the president’s son millions of dollars to pay his tax bills. Committee staff had requested copies of the loan documentation — that has not yet been received by the panel.
During nearly six hours of closed-door testimony to staff and members of the House Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways and Means committees last week, Morris provided details about how he met Hunter Biden at a fundraiser for his father’s presidential campaign in 2019. Morris said he was motivated by Hunter Biden’s struggle, not by his father’s candidacy, and discussed loans he issued in direct payments to third parties to cover rent, child support, legal fees to other attorneys, and outstanding tax liabilities for the years 2016 through 2019.
House Republicans have targeted Biden in their impeachment inquiry into the president. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., has accused Hunter Biden and other members of the president’s family of engaging in “shady business practices” but has not provided concrete evidence of wrongdoing or influence-peddling by the president.
Rob Walker is the latest known associate of the president’s son to sit for a closed-door transcribed interview with the House Oversight and Judiciary panels on Friday morning.
Walker told the committees his business pursuits with Hunter Biden were “well within the bounds of legitimate business activities” and that the president was never involved while in office or as a private citizen, according to a copy of his opening statement obtained by NBC News.
“To be clear, President Biden — while in office or as a private citizen — was never involved in any of the business activities we pursued. Any statement to the contrary is simply false,” Walker said. “Hunter made sure there was always a clear boundary between any business and his father. Always. And as his partner, I always understood and respected that boundary.”
After initially defying a congressional subpoena that requested a closed-door deposition, Hunter Biden is expected to appear for a closed-door deposition with the House Oversight and Judiciary panels on Feb. 28.
He is also facing federal charges in two separate cases. Biden was indicted in California last month on nine tax-related charges, including three felony counts, and later pleaded not guilty. He has also pleaded not guilty to a separate indictment on federal gun charges.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
