The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed Hunter and James Biden, President Joe Biden’s son and brother, the panel announced Wednesday, setting up a highly anticipated showdown as House Republicans continue to search for whether the President committed an impeachable offense in connection to his family’s foreign business dealings – a high bar they have yet to meet.
The Republican-led panel also said it had subpoenaed a business associate of the Biden family, Rob Walker, and requested voluntary interviews with a list of individuals including Sara Biden, James’ Biden’s wife, Hallie Biden, the widow of the president’s oldest son, Beau Biden who Hunter Biden was romantically involved with, and Tony Bobulinski, another business associate of the President’s son.
Wednesday’s subpoenas are the first time the panel has directly subpoenaed members of the Biden family and come as House Republicans are focusing on a list of high-profile interviews they want to conduct before wrapping up their impeachment inquiry into the president.
But even as their endgame comes into focus, it’s unclear how long the effort will take or whether House Republicans leading the effort will be able to convince enough of their GOP colleagues that Biden himself committed any high crimes or misdemeanors, which still remains a key hurdle.
The White House, who has rejected Comer’s probe at every turn, released a memo going after the panel’s latest move to subpoena members of the Biden family, framing them as the result of Comer caving to the demands of right wing Republicans.
“With just over a week to go until House Republicans may again thrust the country into a harmful and chaotic government shutdown, the most extreme voices in their party like James Comer are trying to distract from their repeated failures to govern,” White House spokesman Ian Sams wrote.
He continued, “Instead of using the power of Congress to pursue a partisan political smear campaign against the President and his family, extreme House Republicans should do their jobs.”
Republicans have been pouring over Hunter Biden’s bank records and foreign business dealings for months and have received thousands of bank wires and documents as the result of their subpoenas to banks for information. They have said that based on the information they have received, members of the Biden family have cumulatively received over $24 million from foreign nationals over approximately five years, including from countries like China, Russia, Ukraine, Romania and Kazakhstan.
“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” House Oversight Chairman James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, said in a statement.
Recently, House Oversight Republicans released two personal checks from James and Sara to Joe Biden, which had the words “loan repayment” written on the front and occurred when Joe Biden was not in elected office.
Walker, who after receiving money from countries like China and Romania wired portions to some members of the Biden family, told the FBI in 2020, “I certainly never was thinking at any time that ah.., the V. P. was a part of anything we were doin’.”
This story has been updated with additional developments.
Read the full article here
