President Donald Trump tweeted Saturday that he intends to “declassify everything,” over his own apparent concern that the Department of Justice and Attorney General William Barr withheld information about an ongoing DOJ investigation into Hunter Biden, the son of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
Hunter Biden acknowledged this week that he is under investigation over questions about his tax returns and possible unreported income from Ukrainian oil and gas firm, Burisma. As The Daily Wire noted late last week, further information seems to have emerged creating questions about Hunter Biden’s foreign dealings, including a possible entanglement in China.
“In addition to Delaware, the securities fraud unit in the Southern District of New York also scrutinized Hunter Biden’s finances, according to the person with direct knowledge of the investigation,” Politico reported. “The person said that, as of early last year, investigators in Delaware and Washington were also probing potential money laundering and Hunter Biden’s foreign ties.”
On Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported, tensions bubbled over in the White House, following news that Trump’s Attorney General William Barr knew of the investigation into Hunter Biden’s business dealings before the presidential election but did not make it public — a decision, the president felt, cost him support and may have cost him the election.
“Mr. Trump, in a meeting Friday, fumed about a Wall Street Journal report that Mr. Barr knew of an existing federal investigation into Hunter Biden before the election but worked to keep it from being publicly disclosed, a person familiar with the conversation said. In the meeting, Mr. Trump contemplated firing Mr. Barr, people familiar with the conversation said, adding that it is not clear whether Mr. Trump intends to follow through,” WSJ noted.
Saturday night, the president suggested that he may seek retribution against Hunter Biden — and possibly Barr — in a tweetstorm where he pledged to “declassify everything.”
“I have been doing this. I agree!” the president tweeted in response to a post from conservative analyst Todd Starnes, suggesting that, “At this point @realDonaldTrump should declassify everything. Everything.”
“IF Biden gets in, nothing will happen to Hunter or Joe,” Trump fumed. “Barr will do nothing, and the new group of partisan killers coming in will quickly kill it all.”
“Same thing with Durham. We caught them cold, spying, treason & more (the hard part), but ‘Justice’ took too long. Will be DOA!” he said, referring to concerns that U.S. Attorney John Durham will not be able to conclude his investigation into whether the Obama administration kickstarted a probe into connections between the Trump 2016 presidential campaign and Russian officials as a form of political retribution before Joe Biden moves into the White House.
Although it’s not clear what Trump is planning to “declassify,” The Wall Street Journal reported Saturday that the president is considering several special counsel investigations: one into Hunter Biden’s business dealings and alleged tax issues, one into claims of widespread vote fraud in the 2020 presidential election, and even a probe of Barr, himself, stemming from Barr’s comments last week that the DOJ does not suspect a national effort to upend the November elections.
If Trump appoints a special counsel, it will likely be a heavily limited investigation. The Electoral College is expected to vote to make Joe Biden president on Monday, and Congress is expected to certify that vote the first week of January after it returns from its holiday recess.