Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

‘That’s Facilitating A Bribe’: Byron Donalds Sounds Off On Revelations About Putin Ally Who Paid Hunter Millions

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Republican Rep. Byron Donalds of Florida said Wednesday that Hunter Biden was “facilitating a bribe” for then-Vice President Joe Biden while discussing revelations from bank records released by the House Oversight Committee.

The House Oversight Committee released bank records Wednesday showing that Hunter Biden received millions of dollars from Russian oligarch Elena Baturina, who was married to Moscow Mayor Yuri Luhzkov until his death in 2019. Baturina sent $3.5 million to a shell company affiliated with Hunter Biden in 2014, when Joe Biden served as vice president, according to Republican Rep. James Comer of Kentucky.

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“This is all payback for the millions of dollars the Biden family received because of their access to the brand, to the big guy, being Joe Biden,” Donalds told “America’s Newsroom” co-host Sandra Smith. “Hunter Biden has no business, folks, Joe Biden has no business. There were no services being delivered, except for access, and that’s what Elena Baturina basically has now, she escaped the sanctions regime.”

Then-Vice President Biden dined with Baturina in Café Milano, an Italian restaurant in Washington, D.C., in 2014, according to testimony from Devon Archer, a former business partner of Hunter Biden. Archer spoke to House Oversight Committee investigators Monday prior to surrendering to serve a prison sentence, and told them that then-Vice President Biden spoke with his son, Hunter, multiple times about their business deals.

A corporate account linked to Hunter Biden received $142,300 from Kazakh oligarch Kenes Rakishev in April 2014, according to Comer, for the intended purpose of purchasing Hunter a Porsche, according to Archer.

“We are in the process of continuing our work of now going through subpoenas for some of these financial documents so we can track the money down,” Donalds told Smith.

“The White House says Joe Biden never got a dime, I don’t believe it,” Donalds continued. “And at the end of the day, if Hunter Biden was spending money for his dad on behalf of his dad, he does not have to take a dime. That’s facilitating a bribe through the president of the United States through his son.”