The US Treasury Department has formally rejected a Republican lawmaker’s bid to examine “suspicious activity reports” on first son Hunter Biden — because the request wasn’t okayed by Democrats in Congress.
“It’s unacceptable,” Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, wrote Saturday on the committee minority’s website. “The Treasury Department continues to run cover for the Biden family and possibly hide information about whether Joe Biden benefited financially from his family’s business transactions.”
Comer has been trying for months to wrangle the reports, known as SARs — anti-money laundering reports generated by banks that flag suspiciously large transactions — out of the Treasury Department.
At least 150 SARs have been filed against President Biden’s son and other Biden family members relating to their questionable foreign business deals, Comer has said.
In the past, such reports have been made available to congressional investigators of either party — but “the Biden Administration changed the rules to severely restrict Congress’ access to suspicious activity reports in the dark of night and with no explanation,” Comer wrote Saturday.
In a letter issued Friday, Treasury official Jonathan Davidson wrote that the department will only provide SARs based on “appropriate requests from committees of jurisdiction” — an unlikely prospect, as long as the House remains in Democratic hands.
The Post has reported extensively on Hunter Biden’s shady overseas business dealings, beginning with a series of exposes in October 2020 based on documents, emails and texts found on a laptop he abandoned at a computer repair shop in Delaware in 2019.