Legal experts on Wednesday called for President Biden to release corporate tax returns that account for more than $13 million in income that he and First Lady Jill Biden reported to the IRS between 2017 and 2019, in between his stints as vice president and commander in chief.
George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley said that while there’s “no evidence of wrongdoing,” the scandal over son Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings “has reached the point where the White House needs to err on the side of transparency.”
“The president’s past denials of any knowledge or involvement with his son’s business dealings now stands contradicted not only by witnesses and e-mails but also by Hunter Biden himself,” Turley wrote in an e-mail to The Post.
“Full disclosure and transparency would seem, at a minimum, warranted given the growing controversy.”
University of Minnesota law professor Richard Painter, who was chief White House ethics lawyer for then-President George W. Bush, also said that without the corporate returns, “you don’t know where the money’s coming from.”
“This exactly why it’s better to disclose — then every card is face-up on the table,” he said. “Otherwise, people have no idea what’s in there . . . and that undermines public confidence in the government.”
Former Utah US Attorney Brett Tolman said he thought the federal grand-jury probe of Hunter Biden in Delaware should be expanded to scrutinize Joe and Jill Biden’s income.
“In a white-collar investigation, the focus is on ‘sourcing’ funds,” said Tolman, who now runs the “Right on Crime” project of the Texas Public Policy Foundation. “This should be the heart of what they are doing right now. Biden would not have any way to stop a grand-jury subpoena.”
The comments came in response to a Wednesday report by The Federalist that highlighted how income from two so-called S corporations — CelticCapri Corp. and Giacoppa Corp. — comprised the vast majority of Joe and Jill Biden’s $16.7 million in earnings, respectively, between 2017 and 2019.
The only explanation to date for the corporate profits has come from a 2020 USA Today “fact check” report that said more than $15.6 million of the couple’s revenue came from speaking fees and book deals, the Federalist said.
The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment.