--:-- John Bickley: Welcome to Morning Wire, I'm John Bickley, editor-in-chief of The Daily Wire, and I'm joined today by my co-host Georgia Howe.
--:-- Georgia Howe: Thanks for having me, John.
--:-- John Bickley: Today, we're talking about the unprecedented pardons issued by President Biden for his family members. Joining us now is Peter Schweizer, bestselling author and president of the Government Accountability Institute. Peter, thanks for coming on.
--:-- Peter Schweizer: Thanks for having me, John.
--:-- John Bickley: So, let's dive right in. We witnessed something this week that Joe Biden repeatedly told the American people he would never do. He preemptively pardoned members of his own family, five of them. This comes after he did something else he swore he wouldn't do, pardon his own son, Hunter. So first, we hear the term unprecedented thrown around a lot, especially this last year. Is this indeed unprecedented?
--:-- Peter Schweizer: Yeah, there's no example in American history of a family member of a sitting president being pardoned, no less five members of the family, or six if you include Hunter. Also, these sort of preemptive pardons are really unprecedented as well, and those will probably be tested in court.
--:-- John Bickley: Yeah, I'd assume so. Now, we've covered the Hunter pardon at length here. In fact, we had you on to talk about it at one point. We now have five more members of the Biden family. And again, like you said, these are preemptive pardons, so different in kind. First, who exactly did he grant this blanket immunity to?
--:-- Peter Schweizer: These are essentially his siblings and their spouses and his son and his daughter. And what's significant is all six of these people are individuals that are connected to LLCs, these limited liability companies that the family had multiple listings of. And these are entities that all received money from these foreign entities.
--:-- John Bickley: That's significant. And what's also important to point out is all of the foreign deals, those involving China, Ukraine, and Russia, all started happening in early 2014. So they clearly seem to be dated and designed to cover the transfers of those foreign funds.
--:-- Peter Schweizer: Yeah, pretty revealing. Had these particular members, had their names come up in investigations or claims by members of Congress?
--:-- Peter Schweizer: Yes, in fact, they had. James Comer mentioned all of them. I think Comer actually has a new book out which is quite good by the way where he mentions all of them.
--:-- John Bickley: And I think there is a connection there. I think the fact that these are in the sites of congressional investigators is probably one of the things that prompted Joe Biden to issue this action. Let also keep in mind that this also in a way provides some protection of Joe Biden as well, because if you do believe this was an influence peddling scheme, Joe Biden was certainly involved. And by pardoning his spouses and his children, it provides a guardrail of protection for him as well. So this is self-serving, not just something beneficial to his family.
--:-- Peter Schweizer: Now, you've been documenting for years the allegations of Biden family corruption. What is some of the more compelling evidence against them?
--:-- Peter Schweizer: Well, I think the most compelling evidence is that they have collected tens of millions of dollars, some $31 million, from these foreign entities, and there's no evidence of them giving anything legitimate in return. So in the case of China, for example, we know that they got $5 million from a Chinese businessman named Mr. Zhao. There's no evidence that anything was given to him in return of a business nature.
--:-- John Bickley: People generally don't pass around $5 million without expecting something in return. So that has always been the mystery. And the fact that the Bidens have, A, denied that there was any money transference, and of course there was, and then they denied that Joe Biden was aware of this or involved, we now know that he met with several of these people, makes it very clear that they were trying to cover something up.
--:-- Peter Schweizer: What Joe Biden did specifically in return for those funds, we don't know. But that's why I think we need to have continued congressional investigation. It's not about looking in the past and trying to punish a political opponent. It's about trying to unpack exactly what was done for this money so we can deter it from happening in the future with other political figures.
--:-- John Bickley: Now, you bring up investigations. First of all, are Biden's family members now truly immune from all charges that have any connection to this? And then can Congress still investigate them? Does this block actual thorough investigations?
--:-- Peter Schweizer: Yeah, no, those are great questions. Well, it's going to be challenged in court. A lot of people question whether you can grant pardon for a crime that may or may not have been committed that you haven't been charged for. That has never been done before. And there's a lot of legal scholars that say this just simply is too broad because you could essentially, under this construct, provide blanket immunity for a murder that was not discovered until later on. And that seems overly broad.
--:-- John Bickley: As far as congressional investigations are concerned, absolutely they can continue to investigate. Jim Comer, I talked to him a couple of days ago, and he told me that he has advised the incoming Attorney General, Pam Bondi, that he believes that the Department of Justice needs to investigate this.
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: You can ask people questions. You can do a criminal investigation, even if you're not targeting the specific family member. And I think Congress needs to investigate it because, again, it's not just about what the Bidens did. One of the true things about Washington, D.C. is if people figure out a way in power to make money for their family and they're not going to be caught, they're not going to be held liable, it will be imitated.
--:-- John Bickley: So this notion of getting foreign entities to enrich your family when you a decision maker in a position to help or hurt them could become widespread. And I don't think anybody wants that.
--:-- Peter Schweitzer: Yeah, there's been a lot made of Trump coming in supposedly with retribution on his mind. But this argument that we maybe exposed to national security risks from foreign entities that might have their hands in the pockets of people that have a lot of power, I would think that argument would ultimately win the day.
--:-- John Bickley: You've mentioned maybe that these preemptive pardons might just collapse legally. Is there any other way to override or work around a presidential pardon of this nature?
--:-- Peter Schweizer: Well, some people like Professor Alan Dershowitz, Professor Emeritus of Law at Harvard, has said that this actually creates problems for the Biden family. These pardons do because now when you are asked questions by a congressional committee or by Department of Justice lawyers, you cannot plead the Fifth Amendment because, of course, the Fifth Amendment prevents you from self-incrimination.
--:-- John Bickley: Now, you bring up Pam Bondi. Judging by the cabinet picks so far from Trump, what's the sense you get about the priority he's laid out of weeding out government corruption? Do you feel that they're fully invested in this project?
--:-- Peter Schweizer: I think that's going to be the central question, John, going forward, because you have these large institutions, the Department of Defense, for example, or the CIA. These are entities that there's a reason people call them the deep state because they're deeply embedded within those bureaucracies.
--:-- John Bickley: So you're going to have somebody who is confirmed as the SECDEF or as the CIA director who's going to be having to deal with bureaucracies that are trying to counteract what you're doing. It's very hard to fight that kind of trench warfare at the same time as you're carrying out policies to deal with, say, the threat from China or the threat from Russia.
--:-- Peter Schweizer: So that is going to be the defining issue. But I think it is the battle that has to be fought because it comes down to the question of are we actually governed by the people we elect that we have chosen to represent us or are government decisions being made by unelected bureaucrats? And are those unelected bureaucrats involved at some level in corruption?
--:-- John Bickley: And I think the history of our country demonstrates that absolutely they are. So to me, this is the marquee issue. And it's a reflection of this broader concern that I have of what I call the globalization of corruption. When we think of corruption, we think of the, you know, the guy who's got a paving business back in some congressional district who wants some highway federal highway dollars steered his way by the congressman.
--:-- Peter Schweizer: What we're talking about is foreign governments in some cases those that are hostile to the United States, giving money to our elected officials and getting something in return. So this is not just rank and file corruption, which is bad enough. This is globalized corruption, and it's only going to get worse, not better, unless we actually do something about it.
--:-- John Bickley: What do you expect to see in the coming weeks and months from the White House and the Republican-led Congress related to Biden family corruption and other sorts of government-level corruption issues?
--:-- Peter Schweizer: Well, I think on Capitol Hill, the House Oversight Committee, Jim Comer, I think has done an excellent job. He's fact-based, he's driven, and he's prepared to name names, which is the key in the investigation.
--:-- John Bickley: So I expect a lot of activities in the House of Representatives. And I think in the Department of Justice in the next several weeks, you're going to see a series of reviews done by senior attorneys at DOJ under Pam Bondi making decisions about some of the very controversial things that have happened with regard to, say, Tony Fauci, who apparently lied before congressional committees.
--:-- Peter Schweizer: What is the legal standard for lying before Congress? Did he cross that line? And is there a reason to open an investigation and to bring him in to ask him questions about that?
--:-- John Bickley: So I think there's going to be a little bit of quiet before the storm, because, again, when you're dealing with these legal matters, you want to make sure that you are crossing all the T's and dotting the I's, because what gets you into trouble is when you don't do the prep work.
--:-- Peter Schweizer: And Bondi certainly has a reputation for doing her prep work. I think there's no arguing she's someone who comes prepared.
--:-- John Bickley: Final question. What do you expect from the Biden family going forward? Will they withdraw from public life or try to stay politically relevant?
--:-- Peter Schweizer: Well, I think one of the unanswered questions about the Biden family, and again, if you look at the pardons that were issued to Hunter Biden and the family, they run up specifically through December of last year.
--:-- John Bickley: So any crimes that would have been committed in 2024 would be covered as well. And you wonder, well, what does that mean? Well, that could be the Hunter Biden art deals that were very controversial.
--:-- Peter Schweizer: But I also think it's worth looking at this period when Joe Biden had that disastrous debate performance with Donald Trump and he spent about four or five weeks refusing to get out of the race and Hunter Biden moved into the White House.
--:-- John Bickley: I believe I don't have evidence to confirm this. I believe that the Biden family negotiated financial deals to secure his exit from that race. Whether that crosses the legal line and is illegal, I don't know.
--:-- Peter Schweizer: But I think that is worth looking into as well. It certainly fits their pattern of monetizing things. It certainly makes sense that Hunter Biden was at the center of it. That's where a lot of this money would flow through.
--:-- John Bickley: And that would, of course, raise questions about what they might be doing in the post-presidential years and the money they might be living off of in this case.
--:-- Peter Schweizer: Intriguing questions. And hopefully we do get some answers and Congress does pursue what I think the American people deserve to know has actually happened here.
--:-- John Bickley: Peter, thank you so much for joining us. It's always a pleasure.
--:-- Peter Schweizer: Thanks, John.
--:-- John Bickley: That was bestselling author and GAI President Peter Schweitzer. And this has been a weekend edition of Morning Wire.
