WASHINGTON — The House Oversight Committee issued subpoenas Wednesday demanding closed-door testimony from President Biden’s son Hunter and brother James as part of the GOP impeachment inquiry into the family’s foreign business dealings.
James, 73, and Hunter, 53, regularly involved their powerful relative in their business relationships during his eight-year vice presidency and in the years that followed, including in ventures involving China and Ukraine.
“The House Oversight Committee has followed the money and built a record of evidence revealing how Joe Biden knew, was involved, and benefited from his family’s influence peddling schemes,” said committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.).
“Now, the House Oversight Committee is going to bring in members of the Biden family and their associates to question them on this record of evidence.”
The committee set a Dec. 13 date for Hunter Biden to appear for an interview and a Dec. 6 date for James Biden to appear. If either refuses to comply, the panel could recommend criminal charges for contempt of Congress.
The GOP-led committee also subpoenaed the testimony of Biden family associate Rob Walker and requested voluntary testimony from James Biden’s wife Sara, Hunter Biden’s ex-girlfriend/sister-in-law Hallie Biden and his current wife Melissa Cohen, in addition to former Biden family associate Tony Bobulinski and Hallie Biden’s sister Elizabeth Secundy.
“Unlike the many lies President Biden told the American people about his family’s business schemes, bank records don’t lie,” Comer said.
“These records reveal how the Bidens sold Joe Biden around the world to benefit the Biden family, including Joe Biden himself, to the detriment of US interests.”
Comer and House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), whose panel is part of the impeachment inquiry, wrote to Hunter Biden attorney Abbe Lowell that his testimony is needed in order to determine whether the president should be removed from office.
“The Committees are investigating whether sufficient grounds exist to draft articles of impeachment against President Biden for consideration by the full House,” Comer and Jordan wrote.
“Your client is also in a position to provide information related to whether… Joe Biden, as Vice President and/or President: (1) took any official action or effected any change in government policy because of money or other things of value provided to himself or his family, including whether he asked then-Vice President Biden to intervene in a Ukrainian investigation of a company that paid your client substantial sums of money; (2) abused his office of public trust by providing foreign interests with access to him and his office in exchange for payments to his family or him; or (3) abused his office of public trust by knowingly participating in a scheme to enrich himself or his family by giving foreign interests the impression that they would receive access to him and his office in exchange for payments to his family or him,” the letter adds.
“This deposition will allow your client to provide answers about what services he and others provided in return for the millions of dollars the Committees have identified and whether they were connected to the public office held by President Biden.”
Hunter Biden wrote in a January 2019 message retrieved from his former laptop that he had to give “half” of his income to Joe Biden and the Oversight Committee in May identified nine Biden family members who allegedly received foreign funds.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at her regular briefing Wednesday that the subpoenas were premised on “a smear campaign” and that Comer was conducting a “baseless investigation.”
“This is an investigation that has been going on for a year now and has turned up zero evidence of wrongdoing by the president because there is none,” Jean-Pierre said.
It’s possible that Hunter Biden would decline to answer many questions if he does appear due to the fact that special counsel David Weiss is expected to refile criminal charges against him over roughly $2 million in unpaid taxes on foreign income from 2014 to 2019. The first son in July walked away from a probation-only plea deal for tax fraud.
Comer recently released subpoenaed bank records showing that James Biden paid his brother $40,000 in 2017 and $200,000 in 2018 using checks labeled “loan repayment” that the Republican said directly implicated the president in benefiting from foreign dealings.
The Oversight chairman said the 2017 sum was from “laundered” China-originating funds and the 2018 payment from James’ receipt of $200,000 from a troubled US hospital provider — which the first brother had promised to connect with a Middle Eastern investor.
The White House has said there’s evidence the transfers were indeed loans, though Comer aides say the money transferred to James Biden actually came from a law firm associated with multiple Biden relatives, clouding the picture.
Representatives for Hunter Biden did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment on the subpoenas, nor did Walker.
Paul Fishman, an attorney for James Biden, said: “After a long, desperate search for any financial transaction between Jim Biden and his brother, including an unnecessary and intrusive review of Jim’s private banking records, the Committee has resorted to criticizing two loans that Jim received when his brother was no longer in public office and not even a candidate for the Presidency. Those same bank documents clearly show that Jim repaid both loans within weeks.”
Comer’s investigation has also turned up additional evidence of Joe Biden interacting with his relatives’ business partners, though Democrats have dismissed the information as merely showing the elder Biden was a caring family member.
Former Hunter Biden associate Devon Archer told the Oversight Committee on July 31 that Joe Biden was on speakerphone for roughly 20 of his son’s business meetings and that Hunter and two executives from Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings called then-Vice President Biden from Dubai in December 2015.
Comer is investigating an array of allegations, including an unproven FBI informant’s claim that Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky revealed in 2016 that he was “coerced” into paying Joe and Hunter Biden $10 million in bribes to help force out the country’s top prosecutor.
Joe Biden also dined with a rep from Burisma — which paid Hunter $1 million per year to serve on its board as his father steered US policy in Ukraine — in April 2015 in Washington.
A pair of Chinese ventures involving Hunter Biden have also come under scrutiny.
In 2013, Joe Biden met for coffee in Beijing with his son’s business partner Jonathan Li less than two weeks before he and the now-first son launched the Chinese state-backed investment fund BHR Partners, in which Hunter held a 10% stake through at least part of his dad’s term as president.
In a second Chinese business deal, with state-linked CEFC China Energy, Joe Biden allegedly met with his son and brother’s associates — and in a May 2017 email, was referred to as the “big guy” due to a potential 10% cut.
Joe Biden also was listed as a participant in an October 2017 call about the firm’s attempt to purchase US natural gas.
Hunter invoked his powerful dad in a July 2017 text message demanding that a China-based CEFC associate follow through with a business deal, writing he was “sitting here with my father.”
Within 10 days of the threat, $5.1 million flowed to Biden-linked accounts — following an initial $1 million tranche in March 2017, less than two months after Joe Biden completed his vice presidency.
The first son launched a new career as an artist shortly after his father entered the White House and reportedly has sold at least $1.3 million of his novice artworks.
The Oversight Committee is seeking information on those buyers.
One of them reportedly is Elizabeth Hirsh Naftali, who was able to score many visits to the Biden White House and a presidential appointment to a prestigious board.
