Probe of Biden family finances expands
WASHINGTON — House Republicans are stepping up their investigation into the financial dealings of President Joe Biden’s family, demanding the president’s son, brother and an associate turn over banking, travel and other documents and communications.
Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer said the scrutiny is aimed at the president’s involvement in his family’s international and domestic business transactions, including associates “who peddled influence to generate millions of dollars for the Biden family.”
Hunter Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, responded in a letter that such requests have no valid legislative purpose, and that congressional Republicans’ investigations into the private affairs of the son of a sitting president and other family members “are at their most limited.”
The White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Lowell offered to sit down with Comer, as well as the top Oversight Democrat, Jamie Raskin, “to see whether Mr. Biden has information that may inform some legitimate legislative purpose and be helpful to the Committee.”
Comer describes Hunter Biden and James Biden, the president’s brother, as “key witnesses in our investigation” into what he says were attempts by Biden family members to sell access around the world, “including individuals who were connected to the Chinese Communist Party.”
Comer also is requesting material from Eric Schwerin, who he says the committee has identified as a close personal and professional associate of Hunter Biden who communicated with him and others “regarding relevant companies, investments, and transactions.”
The demands come a day after Comer’s committee held a hearing into claims that Twitter Inc., worked with U.S. intelligence officials to suppress an unflattering 2020 news story on Hunter Biden’s laptop. No direct evidence for that was produced during the hearing.
In the letter to Hunter Biden, Comer said the Biden family’s “financial conduct raises significant ethics and national security concerns.”
Last month, the U.S. Treasury Department refused to provide House Republicans
any suspicious activity reports it may have on foreign banking and other business transactions by Hunter Biden and other members of President Biden’s family.
In a separate letter to James Biden, Comer writes that his committee “is investigating President Biden’s connections to certain international and domestic business transactions and practices, including family members who peddled influence to generate millions of dollars for the Biden family.”
He said his committee has reviewed documents “implicating you as a central figure in these transactions.” The letters specifically demand the three men produce material to the committee by Feb. 22, including documentation of international or domestic travel with any government agency.
Lowell suggests Comer and Republicans already have predetermined the outcome of their investigation.
“Peddling your own inaccurate and baseless conclusions under the guise of a real investigation, turns the Committee into ‘Wonderland’ and you into the Queen of Hearts shouting, ‘sentence first, verdict afterwards,” Lowell wrote.