The GOP-led House Oversight Committee issued subpoenas for Hunter Biden and James Biden on Wednesday, requesting that the president’s son and brother appear for depositions as a part of the committee’s investigation into the Biden family’s finances, according to a spokesperson for the committee.
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House Republicans opened an impeachment inquiry into President Biden in September, centered on whether Biden benefited from his son’s business dealings, among other issues.
The subpoenas come after Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) has raised questions about a 2018 personal check Joe Biden received from his brother James. The check obtained by the committee showed the words “loan repayment” written on the front, and documents provided to The Washington Post show that Biden transferred $200,0000 to his brother on Jan. 12, 2018.
Comer, however, has continued to dispute that the check was a loan repayment. He said in a statement on Wednesday that the committee is ready to question members of the Biden family about evidence the committee has collected about the “complicated financial transactions” made by the Bidens and their associates. Comer has claimed those transactions were “designed to conceal the source and total amount of money they received from foreign nationals and companies.”
The committee is asking James Biden to appear for an interview on Dec. 6 and Hunter Biden to appear on Dec. 13.
The Oversight Committee has spent month investigating Hunter Biden’s work as a consultant and lawyer. Investigators have obtained more than 12,000 pages of financial records and conducted interviews with individuals who worked closely with Hunter Biden in various capacities. While they have discovered new evidence and testimony that Hunter Biden tried to leverage the Biden family name, the committee has not found any evidence that Joe Biden himself benefited from his son’s business dealings, nor has the president been linked to any potential wrongdoing in the congressional probe of the Justice Department’s investigation of Hunter Biden. New House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has taken a reserved approach to the impeachment inquiry and has urged members to conduct a thorough and fair investigation with no predetermined outcome.
On Wednesday morning, before the subpoenas were announced, Hunter Biden’s lawyer Abbe Lowell sent a letter to Johnson outlining the ways in which they view the GOP-led committees have been acting in bad faith. In the 12-page letter, Lowell referenced the possible subpoenas and noted several instances where Republicans had mislead the public using some of the materials the committee had gathered.
“We write today to urge you, Mr. Speaker, to use your newly minted leadership post responsibly and ask you to think twice before joining this spectacle,” Lowell wrote, in a letter obtained by The Post. “Before you cast your lot with and cede additional authority to those who have betrayed the trust placed in their offices by the Constitution, you should consider the numerous lies, falsehoods, and fabricated illustrations by your chamber’s chairmen in the course of peddling baseless allegations of misconduct by our client or his family that now will form the basis for them abusing their power with improper demands for records and testimony.”
Comer also plans to issue a subpoena for Rob Walker, a former Hunter Biden business associate, and issued voluntarily requests to other Biden family members and business associates to appear before the committee for transcribed interviews.
Keeping up with politics is easy with The 5-Minute Fix Newsletter, in your inbox weekdays.
House Republicans opened an impeachment inquiry into President Biden in September, centered on whether Biden benefited from his son’s business dealings, among other issues.
The subpoenas come after Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) has raised questions about a 2018 personal check Joe Biden received from his brother James. The check obtained by the committee showed the words “loan repayment” written on the front, and documents provided to The Washington Post show that Biden transferred $200,0000 to his brother on Jan. 12, 2018.
Comer, however, has continued to dispute that the check was a loan repayment. He said in a statement on Wednesday that the committee is ready to question members of the Biden family about evidence the committee has collected about the “complicated financial transactions” made by the Bidens and their associates. Comer has claimed those transactions were “designed to conceal the source and total amount of money they received from foreign nationals and companies.”
The committee is asking James Biden to appear for an interview on Dec. 6 and Hunter Biden to appear on Dec. 13.
The Oversight Committee has spent month investigating Hunter Biden’s work as a consultant and lawyer. Investigators have obtained more than 12,000 pages of financial records and conducted interviews with individuals who worked closely with Hunter Biden in various capacities. While they have discovered new evidence and testimony that Hunter Biden tried to leverage the Biden family name, the committee has not found any evidence that Joe Biden himself benefited from his son’s business dealings, nor has the president been linked to any potential wrongdoing in the congressional probe of the Justice Department’s investigation of Hunter Biden. New House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has taken a reserved approach to the impeachment inquiry and has urged members to conduct a thorough and fair investigation with no predetermined outcome.
On Wednesday morning, before the subpoenas were announced, Hunter Biden’s lawyer Abbe Lowell sent a letter to Johnson outlining the ways in which they view the GOP-led committees have been acting in bad faith. In the 12-page letter, Lowell referenced the possible subpoenas and noted several instances where Republicans had mislead the public using some of the materials the committee had gathered.
“We write today to urge you, Mr. Speaker, to use your newly minted leadership post responsibly and ask you to think twice before joining this spectacle,” Lowell wrote, in a letter obtained by The Post. “Before you cast your lot with and cede additional authority to those who have betrayed the trust placed in their offices by the Constitution, you should consider the numerous lies, falsehoods, and fabricated illustrations by your chamber’s chairmen in the course of peddling baseless allegations of misconduct by our client or his family that now will form the basis for them abusing their power with improper demands for records and testimony.”
Comer also plans to issue a subpoena for Rob Walker, a former Hunter Biden business associate, and issued voluntarily requests to other Biden family members and business associates to appear before the committee for transcribed interviews.
