At the same time that Department of Justice officials were using spying and corruption statutes to aggressively pursue Donald Trump’s allies based on what turned out to be rumor and innuendo, they declined to use those same laws to investigate evidence of wrongdoing involving Biden family members and one of their corrupt Chinese business partners, DOJ documents and federal court records reveal.  

In 2016-2017, the evidence shows, the FBI raided the offices and intercepted the communications of Chi Ping “Patrick” Ho, a Chinese national agents suspected of espionage even as he was negotiating business deals with former Vice President Joe Biden’s son Hunter and brother James. 

DOJ later used information obtained from the searches and wiretaps – which included conversations with the current President’s son and brother – to convict Ho of bribery and money laundering, as part of a separate corruption case involving United Nations officials. But it declined to tap into its trove of evidence – including “over 100,000 emails” – to explore the connections between Ho and the Bidens, who received millions of dollars from Ho and a Chinese intelligence front and discussed sharing office space. 

At Ho’s 2018 trial, prosecutors hid Hunter’s connection to Ho, redacting his name from court exhibits (see sidebar) while describing Ho as “the person who flies around the world paying bribes to advance the interest of the oil company [CEFC China Energy],” according to hearing transcripts.

A federal database shows the Bidens failed to register as foreign agents while engaged in activities on behalf of CEFC, a state-owned entity suspected of being a front for Chinese intelligence. Federal anti-spying laws require anyone acting as a lobbyist for a foreign power to register with the Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). 

The DOJ did not prosecute either Biden family member for potential violations of FARA for representing the interests of the Chinese. 

This stands in stark contrast to the DOJ's aggressive pursuit of alleged FARA violations involving no fewer than six Trump campaign officials. In August of 2016, shortly after receiving a tip that a low-level Trump campaign volunteer, George Papadopoulos, had allegedly been told that the Russians might have dirt on Hillary Clinton, the bureau opened FARA investigations into Papadopoulos and three other Trump associates with no clear ties to Papadopoulos: national security adviser Michael Flynn; campaign manager Paul Manafort; and campaign adviser Carter Page. The FBI subsequently investigated Manafort's deputy Rick Gates; and Trump's Mideast adviser Walid Phares under the same statute. 

As RCI has previously reported, the FBI used FARA as the basis for a wide-ranging probe that included tailing them, staking out their homes, digging through their trash, and using confidential sources to secretly record them. Only one of the six was convicted for FARA-related violations, and none was charged with any espionage or conspiracy crimes involving Russia.

“It’s 100% a double standard, and it’s absolutely corrupt to the core,” former assistant FBI director Chris Swecker told RCI. “And meanwhile, [current FBI Director] Chris Wray fiddles.”

Other veterans of the bureau say the Obama and Biden administrations have politicized and weaponized FARA.

“Starting in 2016, the Obama-Biden administration used FARA and the criminal justice system as tools to attack and eliminate the opposition,” said 27-year FBI veteran Michael Biasello, adding that many of the same officials are "back in charge and making sure those tools won’t be turned on themselves."

An FBI spokeswoman said the agency had no comment on why it did not apply the foreign lobbying law equally. The Justice Department did not return requests for comment.

Ho and Hunter: A Lucrative Relationship  

Court records and other documents show that Hunter Biden met with Ho’s boss Ye Jianming in February 2017 in Miami, where the CEFC chief offered him up to $30 million for “introductions alone,” according to emails. Ye – who had connections to both China’s Communist Party in China and its armed forces, the People’s Liberation Army – sealed the deal with a lucrative gift to Hunter: a 3.16-carat diamond worth an estimated $80,000. (Hunter never returned the large gem.)

Not long after their private dinner, CEFC began wiring millions of dollars from China to pass-through companies set up by Hunter Biden. Over the next 14 months, Hunter and Jimmy Biden (as the latter is known to family and friends) ultimately received almost $6 million from CEFC entities, according to congressional investigators, including $1 million from Ho. At the time, the FBI was tracking Ho’s and CEFC’s “bank and wire transfer records,” according to DOJ records, which indicates agents were aware of the China-based payments to the Bidens.

As Hunter was meeting Ye that February, DOJ records show, the FBI renewed a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant targeting Ho. Former FBI officials say agents had a clear window into how the Chinese were attempting to cultivate the Bidens.

When Hunter formally structured the CEFC deal in May 2017, text messages found on his abandoned laptop reveal, he was worried about running afoul of two federal laws: the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act – which Ho was convicted of violating – and FARA. 

“We don’t want to have to register as foreign agents,” Hunter texted another partner in the deal, and suggested they set up a U.S. shell company towork around it. 

In the end, Hunter never registered with the Justice Department, according to a search of the FARA database. Nor did uncle Jimmy. They also did not report their activities for CEFC or any of the almost $6 million in wire payments they received, as required by law.

The texts indicate Hunter was familiar with the requirements of the law. Violations carry a maximum punishment of five years in prison. 

Hunter and his attorney did not respond to messages seeking comment. Attempts to reach James Biden were unsuccessful.

Also that May, the uncle sent his nephew a list of “key domestic contacts” they could exploit to advance the interests of their Chinese partners. Then-California Sen. Kamala Harris and then-California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom were among the powerful Democrats listed.

contained in a dossier commissioned by the Clinton campaign.

Unlike Ho, Page was never accused of criminal wrongdoing or convicted of a crime.

Subpoenaing Hunter and Jimmy Biden 

Another Trump-tied counterespionage target in the FBI’s Russiagate crusade was retired Lt. Gen. Flynn, who served in the White House asTrump’s national security adviser before resigning less than a month after taking office as a result of what he called a politically motivated vendetta by the FBI and DOJ. In 2016, the FBI opened an investigation of Flynn based on possible FARA violations. Though the case was later dropped, prosecutors charged him with making false statements. DOJ eventually had to dismiss those charges, as well.

This month Flynn filed a $50 million lawsuit claiming “malicious prosecution” by Comey, his former deputy Andrew McCabe, and his counterintelligence chief Peter Strzok, along with former Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his lead prosecutor Brandon Van Grack, an Obama donor.

The 51-page complaint filed in federal court in Tampa claims their goal was to sabotage Trump and prevent Flynn from blowing the whistle on the FBI’s illegitimately predicated Russiagate probe as Trump’s national security adviser, where he would have had access to intelligence across theagencies. Then-Vice President Biden is named in the scheme.

In a phone interview, Flynn told RealClearInvestigations the specter of his exposing the FBI’s and DOJ’s cover-up of the Bidens’ Chinese connection was “another reason for getting me out of the way.”

As former Defense Intelligence Agency director, he said he posed a direct threat to corrupt actors in the intelligence community: “There was never a national security adviser with my type of background in that key role.”

In their probe of Biden foreign influence-peddling, congressional investigators are zeroing in on the CEFC connection

Last month, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer sent letters to Hunter Biden and his uncle Jimmy seeking all of their communications with Ho and other CEFC principals.

After Hunter and his legal team missed the Feb. 22 deadline to turn over the documents, Comer threatened to issue subpoenas to compel them to comply with the order. Now he says he will give Hunter’s camp more time to respond, so if his committee has to subpoena the documents, it will have a better chance of winning in court by showing a "good-faith effort” to obtain them through cooperation.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, a senior Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has launched a parallel investigation of the Bidens’ dealings with CEFC. In letters to DOJ, he's complained about the uneven enforcement of the FARA statute when it comes to the Biden family. He said both Hunter and his uncle should have registered as foreign agents of the China-backed energy conglomerate.

“Hunter and James Biden, based on family name and political influence, were agents of CEFC,” he said in a statement, "as both had planned roles with CEFC which would ultimately benefit the communist Chinese government.”

Grassley argued that CEFC intended to alter U.S. policy and public opinion through the Bidens, and the Chinese government would have been the principal beneficiary of those actions.

“The [FARA] law must be followed and enforced without regard to party, power or position,” Grassley spokesman Taylor Foy asserted in an interview.