Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene has caused a scandal in front of a House committee by waving obscene photos of what appears to be Hunter Biden, son of Joe Biden.
Another scandal for Marjorie Taylor Greene. The Republican, a staunch Trumpist and proponent of conspiracy theories, did not elaborate on Wednesday before a parliamentary committee devoted to Hunter Biden’s financial affairs.
The Georgia representative held up a sign that she said showed photographs of Joe Biden’s son having sex with a woman. His goal: to prove that Hunter Biden had used his company to deduct taxes from payments to prostitutes, or to demonstrate that he had violated a law that criminalizes the transportation of women across the country for the purpose of prostitution.
The staging triggered outraged reactions in the democratic camp. Representative Jamie Raskin in particular condemned a gesture “completely out of place”, “deliberately provocative, sensational and voyeuristic”, reports washington post.
Hunter Biden, the Republicans’ favorite target
Obscene photographs of Hunter Biden using drugs or having sex with prostitutes have long circulated in Republican circles.
According to revelations, the latter would from New York Post, taken from a computer left by son Biden at a computer repair shop in 2019. In addition to these shocking images, the device also contains information about Hunter Biden’s controversial activities in Ukraine and China. This complex case makes the Democratic president’s son a prime target for the American right.
On Wednesday, in front of the parliamentary commission, the elected Republicans, with the testimony of two tax officials, tried to highlight possible pressure from the Biden administration on judicial investigations aimed at the president’s son.
Alleged pressure on the investigation
Hunter Biden, 53, pleaded guilty in June to tax evasion and acquiring a firearm while a drug addict, both federal offenses. He is due in court on July 26 to ratify this deal, which will spare him an embarrassing trial in the middle of his father’s re-election campaign.
The two US tax authorities are considered by the Republicans as whistleblowers because they assure that Hunter Biden received “preferential treatment” from the federal court. One of them, Gary Shapley, asserts that the federal prosecutor in charge of the case, David Weiss, was not given the necessary freedom by the Department of Justice to conduct his investigation. Gary Shapley assures that David Weiss in particular could not make up his own mind about the accusations.
The other whistleblower, Joseph Ziegler, a veteran tax investigator, echoed the same sentiment, saying Tuesday that this prosecutor was “constantly obstructed, limited, marginalized” by Justice Department officials. The minister, Merrick Garland, had replied at the end of June that David Weiss – appointed by ex-president Donald Trump – had had “full latitude” in this file.
The hearings on Wednesday are part of Republicans’ desire to convince voters that the federal government apparatus is being hijacked by President Biden and his relatives to target his political opponents. Democrats counter that these efforts by the right are just screens serving to hide the legal disputes that are piling up for Donald Trump.
