Scalise: No Sweetheart Deals

Press Release

On a federal judge's concerns about Hunter Biden's plea deal:

"Good to be with all of you this morning, and I think it was a bombshell but it was also a signal from the judge -- and I applaud the judge -- that there's something that stinks in this plea agreement. And I think there are a lot of questions. At some point these people -- that were working for the federal government -- cut the sweetheart deal with Hunter Biden. You know, [The] Wall Street Journal had a really good opinion piece yesterday that pointed out [that] anyone else in America that did what Hunter [Biden] did would go to jail. And yet here you have this blanket immunity and the judge actually was concerned about that. You know, "How am I going to sign it in agreement that literally lets him off the hook for things that he had done in the past, when we don't even know if the investigation is over?'

You know, what we've been doing in the House and [House Ways and Means Committee Chairman] Smith's committee, [House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman] Comer's committee, and [House Judiciary Committee Chairman] Jordan's committee combined last week with those whistleblowers that came forward and brought more riveting evidence. They talked about some even deeper crimes that they were trying to look into and they were told to stand down by their superiors.

Everywhere you turn, Hunter [Biden] was getting sweetheart deals, sweetheart treatment that nobody else in America would get. Now there's obviously this big question -- and Jonathan Turley has raised this a lot -- about whether he should have been registered as a foreign agent. He's getting millions of dollars that we documented from foreign countries. Ukraine. He was getting money from Chinese companies to be an energy expert, even in America, and yet wasn't registered as a foreign agent. Others have gone to jail for that.

There are even more questions. Our committees are not going to stop working. You showed that clip from [House Ways and Means Committee Chairman] Smith. You know, this bizarre twist just two days ago, where [House Ways and Means Committee Chairman] Smith's attorneys filed some information with the judge and then somebody from the other counsel -- from Hunter Biden's law firm -- called and basically got it pulled down. Then the judge said, "Hold on a second, were you misrepresenting yourself?' That hasn't even really been answered adequately. A bizarre turn of events there.

It just seems like over and over again, I think the judge got sick and tired of seeing all this special treatment and said, "Let's go back to square one.'"

On the indefinite immunity offered in Hunter's "sweetheart deal":

"Yeah, that was section 14 and 15 of the plea agreement and the judge looked at that and said, "Hold on, you're telling us that you can't turn over information to Congress, we're still trying to get more information.' And the Justice Department, the [Federal Bureau of Investigations] are saying, "We can't give it to you because there's an ongoing investigation.'

And the judge said, "Well, if there's an ongoing investigation, how can you give him immunity for things that happen when you're still looking into it? So, I'm not going to sign off on this.' And again, I applaud the judge because nobody in America would get that kind of sweetheart deal. He shouldn't just because his last name is Biden."

On collusion within to Department of Justice:

"Right, and it keeps pointing back to people like [U.S. Attorney David] Weiss and -- if it's not them -- they need to start talking about who it is because we're not done with this investigation. And it's not just about Hunter Biden. We obviously have seen all these references to "the Big Guy.' There [are] still more bank accounts. We're trying to get that.

We're seeing the Administration trying to block. The White House is trying to block. You just saw days ago -- and this is significant, by the way, you know -- for years, including during the campaign, [President] Biden kept saying he never talked with his family about their business dealings. We've got the video -- over and over -- of [President] Biden himself saying that and then just a couple of days ago, [White House Press Secretary] Karine Jean-Pierre change[d] that and [said], "He never was in business with his family.'

That's a major change. The White House still hasn't explained that.

And what about all those times that [President] Biden chided other people, including during the campaign by saying, "I never talked to anybody in my family about business dealings.' It seems pretty clear that that's no longer the case, because there's evidence of him talking about business dealings, talking to people at Burisma. So, that's another change that the White House hasn't adequately explained."

On House GOP investigations:

"Thanks and I think we were at one of those diners in Pennsylvania and we said that we would be digging to find the facts and getting the facts to the American people. Takes time sometimes, but look at what we've done by spending the time, not trying to shortcut things, not trying to cut corners. It takes months and months -- and by the way, all that time -- we've had the Administration trying to block this. They don't want to give us this information and yet we've gotten a lot already. We still have more to come. There's more information we're going to keep fighting to get and the American people really need to see all of this."

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