President was never involved in family’s dealings, brother says
James Biden tells House Republicans their impeachment inquiry is based on false assumptions.
WASHINGTON — President Biden “never had any involvement” in the business dealings of other members of his family, brother James Biden testified Wednesday in a voluntary private interview on Capitol Hill as part of House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry.
“I have had a 50-year career in a variety of business ventures. Joe Biden has never had any involvement or any direct or indirect financial interest in those activities. None,” the younger Biden said in an opening statement obtained by the Associated Press.
The interview is the latest in a series that GOP lawmakers have conducted recently as they seek to rebuild momentum for an impeachment process surrounding the family’s finances that has stalled in recent months.
Criticism over the lack of evidence directly related to the president has grown even among Republicans, some of whom have thrown cold water on allegations that Biden was involved in his family members’ supposed efforts to leverage their last name into corporate paydays.
The investigation was undercut again last week when an FBI informant was charged with fabricating his claim that the president, his son Hunter and a Ukrainian energy company were involved in a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme.
The informant’s claims had been central to the Republican effort to investigate the family. An attorney for Hunter Biden, who is expected to give a deposition next week, said the charges show the probe is “based on dishonest, uncredible allegations and witnesses.”
Both James and Hunter Biden were subpoenaed by the committee in November. Lawyers for James Biden have said that there was no justification for the subpoena because the committee had already reviewed private bank records and transactions between the two brothers. The committee found records of two loans that were made when Joe Biden was not in office or a candidate for president.
“With my appearance here today, the committees will have the information to conclude that the negative and destructive assumptions about me and my relationship with my brother, Joe, are wrong,” James Biden said in his opening statement. “There is no basis for this inquiry to continue.”
But Republicans have pushed back on the Biden family’s defense, asserting that evidence gathered over the last year paints a troubling picture of “influence peddling” in the family’s business dealings, particularly with international clients.