Hunter Biden Lawyer Claims Leaked WhatsApp Threats of Dad’s Wrath Are ‘Complete Fakes’: ‘One-sided, Untested, And Slanted Information’

AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File

Abbe Lowell, an attorney representing Hunter Biden addressed a scathing letter to House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) on Friday claiming that the explosive claims of Internal Revenue Service whistleblowers are false and a threatening WhatsApp message allegedly sent by Biden was fabricated.

Last Thursday, Smith held a press conference at which he made public a text message allegedly sent by Biden to Henry Zhao, a foreign national and business associate, that invoked the power of his father Joe Biden. It read:

I am sitting here with my father and would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand and now means tonight. And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.

According to Lowell, however, the message is a fake.

“In short, the images you circulated online are complete fakes. Many media articles confirm that data purported to have come from Mr. Biden’s devices has been altered or manipulated,” he wrote (PDF). “You, or someone else, did that again. All of the misstatements about this communication and your use of a false text are good examples of how providing one-sided, untested, and slanted information leads to improper conclusions.”

As evidence, Lowell noted that Biden’s profile picture in the messages was from 2022, five years after message was allegedly sent.

On Twitter, J.P. Freire, the communications director for the Republican members of the Ways and Means Committee scoffed at Lowell.

“Amazing. The White House and Hunter’s attorneys have been disputing the authenticity of a damning text shared with Ways & Means in whistleblower testimony — not by disputing the text discovered by investigators, but by complaining … it was mocked up as an image?” tweeted Freire before deeming it a “goofy move.”

Amazing.

The White House and Hunter’s attorneys have been disputing the authenticity of a damning text shared with Ways & Means in whistleblower testimony — not by disputing the text discovered by investigators, but by complaining … it was mocked up as an image?

Goofy move.

— J.P. Freire (@JPFreire) June 30, 2023

The letter also takes aim at the IRS whistleblowers touted by congressional Republicans who have alleged impropriety in the investigation into Biden.

“Releasing the transcripts of and exhibits from interviews of self-styled IRS ‘whistleblowers’ who may be claiming that title in an attempt to evade their own misconduct was an obvious ploy to feed the misinformation campaign to harm our client, Hunter Biden, as a vehicle to attack his father,” argued Lowell. “It is no secret these interviews were orchestrated recitations of mischaracterized and incomplete ‘facts’ by disgruntled agents who believed they knew better than the federal prosecutors who had all the evidence as they conducted their five-year investigation of Mr. Biden.”

He concluded:

Chairman Smith, it is easy when a committee does not operate with fairness and thoroughness and an adherence to rules and procedures to forward a false political narrative. You have done that, and it appears that you (joined now by other Republican chairs who have also been shown to shoot first—sometimes at their own feet—and aim second) will continue to do that. We can only hope that the specious methods you are using, some of which are laid out in this letter, will inform the public of the right way things should be done.

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