Citing Suspicious Activity Reports from the Treasury Department, the House Oversight Committee chairman claims that several more relatives of the president have benefited from business deals that Hunter Biden and members of the Biden family crafted. But it’s not clear if anything criminal or otherwise improper took place.
Ever since the new Republican-controlled House of Representatives came to power in January, the House Oversight Committee has been investigating business deals made in the past by Hunter Biden, and other relatives of the president.
The Committee’s chairman, James Comer, said in March that at least three members of Biden’s family had received payments from a business deal connected to China in 2017. An energy company, State Energy HK Limited, had sent $3 million to Hunter Biden’s business partner Rob Walker, and then that money was divvied up among several people, including Hunter Biden and the president’s brother James Biden.
Evidence has not been provided that Joe Biden, who in 2017 had just left the vice presidency, had anything to do with the deal.
Now, Comer has provided an update, after he and other lawmakers visited the Treasury Department to review financial records.
“Thousands of pages of financial records related to the Biden family, their companies, and associates’ business schemes were made available to members of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, which confirm the importance of this investigation,” Comer said in a press release Monday.
“The Biden family enterprise is centered on Joe Biden’s political career and connections, and it has generated an exorbitant amount of money for the Biden family. We’ve identified six additional members of Joe Biden’s family who may have benefited from the Biden family’s businesses that we are investigating, bringing the total number of those involved or benefiting to nine.”
The press release did not specify who the family members are, or how they benefited.
“The Oversight Committee will continue to pursue additional bank records to follow the Bidens’ tangled web of financial transactions to determine if the Biden family has been targeted by foreign actors and if there is a national security threat. We will soon provide the public with more information about what we’ve uncovered to date. The American people need transparency and accountability, and the Oversight Committee will deliver much-needed answers,” the chairman added.
Hunter Biden and the ‘Scandal’ Allegations
It’s not clear, exactly, what is being alleged. Hunter Biden and other members of the Biden family have done business over the years. But what isn’t at all clear is if anyone did anything illegal or improper. And Comer and his investigators have not yet succeeded in demonstrating that the president himself had anything to do with either the business deals or any wrongdoing that may have been connected to them.
The Committee issued new subpoenas last week, per an internal memo obtained by CNN.
Meanwhile, Democrats on the Oversight Committee claimed last week that Comer and the Republicans have held back evidence.
“It has been nearly three months since you assumed responsibility of the Committee, and in that time, I have grown increasingly alarmed by your efforts to shield information from Committee Democrats, including information collected as part of your investigation into members of the President’s family,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) wrote in a letter to Comer on April 6. “I am also troubled by your apparent public misrepresentations about certain investigative steps Committee Republicans have taken in this matter—a probe you have deemed your ‘top priority’ in the 118th Congress.”
Raskin further accused Comer of cutting the Democrats out.
“Our Committee has always adhered to the principle that equal access to information is the cornerstone of legitimate congressional oversight. This bedrock principle ensures that the Committee’s Majority and Minority can equally assess the weight of evidence and credibility of witnesses in pursuit of facts and serious legislative insight. Therefore, I am profoundly disappointed by your ongoing violations of this principle and your apparent decision to abandon the long-standing bipartisan agreement between Committee Republicans and Democrats that expressly protects the Minority’s right to equal access to information, including whistleblower information used as part of a Committee investigation.”
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Expertise and Experience: Stephen Silver is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive. He is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.
