House Republicans subpoenaed President Joe Biden’s son Hunter and his brother James in an ongoing inquiry into the family’s financial dealings and whether any wrongdoing would justify impeachment.
The subpoenas were issued Wednesday by House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer of Kentucky, who is leading an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden along with House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan of Ohio and House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith of Missouri.
“Congress has a constitutional duty to conduct oversight to determine whether our nation’s elected leaders have used public office to enrich themselves or their families, and more importantly, whether those public officials may be compromised by their family’s foreign business dealings,” Smith said in a statement. “Subpoenaing key members of the Biden family influence peddling operation is the next logical step in this investigation.”
The subpoenas are the latest sign that the Republican-controlled House under the leadership of new Speaker Mike Johnson is moving into a more aggressive phase, ratcheting up tensions with the White House and allies of President Biden.
The subpoenas order Hunter Biden to appear before the House Oversight panel on Dec. 13 and James Biden to appear on Dec. 6. Comer also issued a subpoena for John “Rob” Walker, an associate of the Bidens, to appear on Nov. 29.
Republicans haven’t produced evidence to substantiate their most explosive allegations that Joe Biden knew about any of his family members’ business dealings, many of which took place while he was a private citizen, or that he accepted bribes or used his power while in office to perform corrupt acts.
‘Political Stunt’
Hunter Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said the subpoena is “another political stunt aimed at distracting from the glaring failure of Representative Comer and his MAGA allies to prove a single one of their wild and now discredited conspiracies.”
“Hunter is eager to have the opportunity, in a public forum and at the right time, to discuss these matters with the committee,” Lowell said.
Paul Fishman, a lawyer for James Biden, said the committee had conducted “a long, desperate search for any financial transaction between Jim Biden and his brother” that had turned up very little.
“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,” Fishman said in a statement. “Those same bank documents clearly show that Jim repaid both loans within weeks.”
White House spokesman Ian Sams said the subpoenas are the latest example of Comer caving to the demands of extreme Republicans to damage President Biden heading into next year’s election.
‘Smear Campaign’
“Extreme House Republicans won’t let the truth get in the way of abusing their power to conduct a smear campaign,” Sams said in a statement.
The Oversight committee said in a statement that it has obtained financial records showing that the Bidens had set up more than 20 shell companies “in a concerted effort to hide payments from foreign adversaries.”
The committee in the statement accused the Bidens of concealing the source and amounts of money received from foreign nationals and companies.
(Updates with comment from James Biden lawyer starting in the eighth paragraph.)
