After securing a majority in the House of Representatives in the midterm elections, top Republicans on Thursday outlined a wide range of investigative targets focused on President Joe Biden and his family’s business dealings.
“In the 118th Congress, this committee will assess the status of Joe Biden’s relationship with his family’s foreign partners and whether he is a President compromised or affected by foreign dollars and influence,” said Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the top Republican on the House Oversight Committee. “I want to be clear: This is an investigation into Joe Biden, and that’s what the committee will focus on in the next Congress.”
At a wide-ranging press conference flanked by Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, who is expected to become chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and other Republicans on the oversight committee, Comer said Republicans have made connections between the president’s son, Hunter Biden, and the president who believe further investigation is needed. Comer said his team has spoken with multiple whistleblowers who say they participated in schemes involving the Biden family, examined Hunter Biden’s laptop and received “previously unknown transactions.”
Comer is specifically targeting more than 100 bank activity reports — known as Suspicious Activity Reports — allegedly related to the Biden family, and says the Treasury Department ignored his repeated requests when Republicans were in the minority to hand them over.
So far, Comer says he’s only seen two of those reports and renewed his request for the rest today. Such reports are not always indicative of criminal activity or wrongdoing.
As part of his investigation, Comer said, “We would love to talk to people in the Biden family, specifically Hunter and Joe Biden.”
The White House said the investigations were politically motivated and a waste of time.
“Instead of working with President Biden to address issues important to the American people, like lower costs, congressional Republicans’ top priority is to go after President Biden with politically motivated attacks filled with long-discredited conspiracy theories,” representatives of the White House counsel. office, Ian Sams, said in a statement to CNN.
“President Biden is not going to let these political attacks distract him from focusing on the priorities of the American people, and we hope congressional Republicans will join us in addressing them instead of wasting time and resources on political vendetta,” he added. Shams.
A spokeswoman for Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, Nellie Decker, said Republicans were “reinstating the same, partisan talking points” that have been around for years.
President Biden on his son Hunter: “I have a lot of confidence in my son. I love him’
“Now that former President Trump is running for office again, the top priority of House Republicans is to attack President Biden and his family in a desperate bid to restore Mr. Trump to office,” Decker said in a statement. of.
Republicans had little ability to enforce their document demands while in the minority. But once the new Congress is sworn in in January, Republicans will gain subpoena power, a more powerful enforcement mechanism to try to compel individuals and government entities to hand over information.
Private attorneys representing members of the Biden family did not respond to requests for comment.
At the heart of Comer’s investigation is an investigation into a series of suspicious activity reports that Republicans claim were filed by banks about Hunter Biden’s financial activities. In a letter to the Treasury Department on Thursday, Comer sought any such reports related to various members of the Biden family, their business associates and companies connected to Hunter Biden.
Comer is also seeking communications within the Treasury Department, the Financial Crimes Enforcement Division and the White House about these family members and related businesses and associates.
While Republicans have seized on reports of suspicious activity as evidence that Joe Biden’s son was involved in problematic activities, such reports are not conclusive and do not necessarily indicate wrongdoing. Financial institutions file millions of suspicious activity reports each year, and few lead to law enforcement investigations.
Comer sent a letter to a financial adviser, who he said was managing Hunter Biden’s finances, looking for any reports of suspicious activity, as well as financial information about Hunter Biden. It also seeks information from one of Hunter Biden’s former business partners, including communications related to the finances, taxes and debts of Hunter Biden and Joe Biden.
The letters were part of a new round Comer sent to various government agencies and individuals Thursday seeking more information to further his investigation.
He also requested from the National Archives flight logs and other documents related to Air Force Two and Marine Two during Biden’s tenure as vice president, as well as communications related to Russia, Ukraine and Hunter Biden during the vice presidency of.
From the FBI, he is seeking any document related to “foreign intelligence efforts to compromise the Biden family” and information on Timothy Thibault, a former FBI agent who Republicans have accused of politicizing the investigations. Thibault denied wrongdoing.
Another letter went to Georges Bergés, the owner of the gallery that displayed and sold Hunter Biden’s artwork. Among the documents requested were communications with the White House and Hunter Biden, discussions about the pricing of Hunter Biden’s work, and lists of those who attended Hunter Biden’s art shows and bought his work.
Federal prosecutors have been investigating Hunter Biden since 2018 and no charges have yet been filed. Asked by CNN if they knew whether the allegations presented Thursday have already been investigated by federal prosecutors, Jordan said, “We don’t know.”
Jordan also said that under his leadership, the House Judiciary Committee will look into alleged “politicization” at the FBI. Jordan and other Republican lawmakers previously argued that they had heard from FBI insiders about an anti-conservative bias fueling FBI decision-making, especially in the FBI’s Washington field office.
“I’ve been in Congress for a few years now and I’ve never seen anything like it,” Jordan said. “Fourteen (FBI) agents come to talk to us while we’re in the minority about how political this place has become.”
According to Jordan, the alleged politicization may include efforts by the FBI to suppress media coverage of the Hunter Biden story in 2020.
Many of these allegations have been circulating in GOP circles during the Biden administration – with Republicans taking over the House next year, they will have an official platform to explore these issues and fully expose them.
At least one of the FBI agents being investigated by GOP lawmakers has previously denied any wrongdoing. Whistleblowers are anonymous and have not testified at any public congressional hearings.
“The FBI has testified before Congress and responded to letters from lawmakers on numerous occasions to provide an accurate record of how we do our work,” an FBI spokesperson said in a statement to CNN.
“The men and women of the FBI are dedicated to protecting the American people from terrorism, violent crime, cyber threats and other dangers,” the spokesman said. “Simply put: we follow the facts without taking politics into account.”
