Feds: GOP's Biden Witness Was Engaged in 'Criminal Schemes'

The man that some Republicans in Congress have described as a witness with information on alleged Biden family corruption was "engaged in multiple, serious criminal schemes," prosecutors say. An eight-count indictment from November unsealed on Monday accuses Gal Luft of working as an illegal arms dealer and an unregistered agent for China's government, USA Today reports. Luft "subverted foreign agent registration laws in the United States to seek to promote Chinese policies by acting through a former high-ranking US government official; he acted as a broker in deals for dangerous weapons and Iranian oil; and he told multiple lies about his crimes to law enforcement," Damian Williams, the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement.

Luft, a 57-year-old dual US-Israeli citizen, is a co-director of the Maryland-based Institute for the Analysis of Global Security think tank. Prosecutors say he was arrested in Cyprus in February but he skipped bail while awaiting extradition in April and is now a fugitive, the Guardian reports. In a video obtained by the New York Post last week, Luft claimed that he had been arrested to stop him testifying to the House Oversight Committee about alleged corruption involving a Chinese oil conglomerate CEFC and Hunter Biden, along with other Biden family members. He said he has "no political motive or agenda" and went on the run because he doesn't believe he will get a fair trial in New York.

Republicans investigating the Biden family earlier said their key witness had gone missing, the Wall Street Journal reports. After the indictment was unsealed, Oversight Committee chairman Rep. James Comer was among those who suggested it was politically motivated. The Justice Department "has done nothing but cover up for the Bidens," said Comer, who has called Luft a "crucial and credible witness," per the Journal. Republican Sen. Ron Johnson said he "does not trust the Department of Justice." He accused prosecutors of trying to "silence" Luft and said he should be granted immunity from prosecution so he can testify before Comer's committee. (More Hunter Biden stories.)