Hunter Biden's lawyer says WhatsApp message allegedly showing shakedown of Chinese business partner is 'not real'

An attorney for Hunter Biden says a screenshot that purports to show a message from Biden to his Chinese business partner in which he refers to his father is “not real and contains a myriad of issues," NBC News reported.

Attorney Abbe Lowell made the statement in a letter he sent to chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO). The screenshot is at the center of intense scrutiny in the wake of statements made by an IRS whistleblower who claimed the Biden administration interfered in investigations into Hunter Biden's tax issues.

"IRS Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley told the committee under oath that, as an investigator for the IRS, he obtained messages Hunter Biden sent on the WhatsApp platform, including one in 2017 that he read demanding payment from a Chinese businessman named Henry Zhao," NBC News stated.

"In the message, Shapley said, Biden appeared to suggest that he was sitting with his father, then the former vice president, saying, 'I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction.'"

Lowell claims the screenshots, which were tweeted by Smith, “both include a photo of Mr. Biden not from 2017 but from the White House Easter Egg roll in April 2022 (long after the purported message was sent); both images portray the message in a blue bubble, when WhatsApp messages are in green; one image super-imposed the Chinese flag for the contact ID, when surely that was not how a text or contact was kept; and one purports to be a screenshot with the '. . .' of someone composing a text (as in Apple’s iMessage) when that does not happen on WhatsApp.”

Read the full report at NBC News.