Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

Marc Thiessen Questions How Hunter Biden’s Russian Benefactor Escaped Crippling American Sanctions

Former George W. Bush administration speechwriter Marc Thiessen questioned during a Wednesday Fox News appearance how a Russian oligarch who paid one of Hunter Biden’s companies $3.5 million escaped sanctions.

The House Oversight Committee released bank records Wednesday showing that Hunter Biden received millions of dollars from Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina, who was married to Moscow Mayor Yuri Luhzkov until his death in 2019. “What’s really interesting is this payment from supposedly the wife of the former mayor of, widow of the former mayor of Moscow,” Theissen told Fox News host Sandra Smith.

WATCH:

Baturina sent $3.5 million to a shell company Hunter Biden owned in 2014 when Joe Biden served as vice president, and then dined with the then-vice president at Café Milano in Washington D.C.

“She apparently started transferring money after the first invasion of Ukraine, gave Hunter Biden $3.5 million after dinners with Joe and Hunter Biden and Devon Archer and then avoided being sanctioned under the sanctions after the 2022 invasion,” Theissen told Smith.

“This is the wealthiest woman in Russia, former wife of the mayor of Moscow, Putin ally, involved in organized crime, yet somehow she’s not sanctioned by the Biden administration when they are imposing sanctions on Russian oligarchs? How did that happen?” Theissen asked.

Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, launching a massive attack across the latter country. The United States has sent over $100 billion in aid to Ukraine, and announced in January they would send 31 M1 Abrams main battle tanks after a December announcement that a battery of MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missiles would be provided.

“Hunter Biden created a web of shell companies that’s very hard to untangle. But look, if you are doing legitimate business for somebody, providing a legitimate service in exchange for a fee, then the only records should be I send you an invoice, you send a payment directly to me and I can account for the money,” Theissen said. “Why would you create a web of companies to launder the money through if it’s all legitimate and you’re not trying to cover anything up? This is clearly money laundering that’s taking place and they are trying to make it hard for the press to dig through this and find this out.”