Should the Biden Family Register as Foreign Agents?

Allegations involving Hunter Biden and Iran focus attention on the Foreign Agents Registration Act, according to a new book

Iran did not come up during the presidential debate in June until Donald Trump saw fit to explicitly mention the terrorist nation. He made the point that the regime in Tehran did not have the resources to stir any mayhem thanks to the sanctions his administration put into place.

“They were broke,” Trump said. “They had no money for Hamas. They had no money for anything. No money for terror.” But suddenly, “the whole world is blowing up” under President Joe Biden, Trump told listeners. Why is that?

There are the obvious policy failures beginning with Biden’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan that gave encouragement to the aggressive inclinations of Russia and Iran. But there may be more at work than Biden’s penchant for exercising poor judgement. In fact, there is a growing body of evidence that may indicate the Biden family—including the President himself—could be skirting the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which imposes disclosure requirements on U.S. citizens who represent the interests of foreign governments.

Patrick Byrne, the former CEO of Overstock.com, and the author of a recently released book titled Danger Close: Domestic Extremist #1 Comes Clean, has gathered information in his capacity as a clandestine operator for the U.S. government that allegedly links the Biden family to the Iranian government.

In the book, Byrne describes how Hunter Biden, the second son of President Biden, “was reaching out to the Iranian government in the fall of 2021.” According to Byrne, Hunter Biden apparently offered to have his father “unfreeze” $8 billion dollars in assets for the Iranians that were frozen in a South Korean bank.

Byrne went into additional detail about the proposed arrangement during an in-person interview with Restoration News. Hunter Biden made use of the son of a minister of defense from Pakistan to serve as a “middleman” between him and the Iranians, Byrne explained. The plan called for President Biden to unfreeze the $8 billion in assets for the Iranians, and to have something in the neighborhood of $800 million funneled into an account for the Bidens, Byrne said.

What was the purpose and the endgame of all the transactions?

“If this deal could be organized, [Hunter] Biden suggested the transaction could lubricate other negotiations,” Byrne said. “The assumption here was that the Iranians took this to mean that Hunter Biden was referring to nuclear talks that began in Geneva a month or two previously,” he added.

The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or (JCPOA) is the official name of President Barack Obama’s infamous 2015 agreement involving the Iranian nuclear program, made between Iran and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council as well as the European Union.

During the interview, Byrne played tape recordings that seem to substantiate his allegations. But it’s not clear how the Pakistani middleman was careless enough to have his phone calls recorded.

(FOREIGN THREATS: The Liberal American Friends of the Communist Cuban Regime)

Hunter’s Role

Another key player here is John Moynihan, who previously headed up intelligence operations for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s money laundering investigations in New York. In a signed affidavit dated April 1, 2024, Moynihan testified to the authenticity of the tape recordings and the efforts to release Iranian funds frozen in a South Korean bank.

“One participant in the conversation did reveal the name Hunter Biden and that assistance involving him would be requested,” Moynihan said in the affidavit. “The tape also included a statement by one person that assistance through Hunter Biden would necessitate the involvement of law firms in the Washington D.C. area,” Moynihan continued. But the names of those law firms were not revealed, according to Moynihan’s testimony.

Hunter Biden has sued Byrne for defamation over allegations he solicited a bribe from Iran. (A copy of the suit is available here.)  That’s not the only problem for anyone calling attention to Hunter Biden’s relations with foreign governments.

Stephanie Lambert, the Michigan attorney who handled Moynihan’s affidavit, was arrested in a Washington, D.C. court room earlier this year following allegations she illegally sought to access voting machines from the 2020 elections. Lambert, a Trump advocate, has also represented Byrne, who has created a name for himself as an election integrity activist.

Part of a Larger Pattern?

Whatever the merits might be of Byrne’s recent allegations, the concerns raised about the Biden family’s interactions with foreign governments have a long history.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), for instance, has previously called on the Department of Justice to probe into the Biden family’s business dealings with Chinese-backed energy companies that could involve potential FARA violations.

There is also some fresh intrigue.

This past January, the New York law firm Cravath, Swain & Moore saw fit to register as a foreign agent of Burisma, the Ukrainian energy company closely tied in with Hunter Biden. Although Biden is not named in the filing, he has served on Burisma’s board.

Perhaps stricter, and tighter enforcement of the FARA law could be a topic in the next presidential debate.

(COMMENTARY: Welcome to the American Color Revolution, Comrades)