House Oversight Subpoenas Hunter Biden, President’s Brother, And Ex-Business Associate

 House Republicans subpoenaed members of President Joe Biden‘s family on Wednesday, escalating an impeachment inquiry focused on rooting out corruption that may lead all the way to the White House.

The lead impeachment investigator, House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY), signed subpoenas for Biden’s son Hunter Biden, the president’s brother James Biden, and Rob Walker, a former Biden family business associate.

Copies of the subpoenas, shared by the Oversight Committee’s X account, showed they demand a deposition from each individual at dates extending from the end of this month to the middle of December.

Comer also requested additional Biden family members and their associates to appear for transcribed interviews, according to the panel, including: President Biden’s daughter-in-law Hallie Biden, her sister Elizabeth Secundy, Hunter Biden’s wife Melissa Cohen, and Hunter Biden’s former business partner Tony Bobulinski.

“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. 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,” Comer said in a statement.

“Unlike the many lies President Biden told the American people about his family’s business schemes, bank records don’t lie. These records reveal how the Bidens sold Joe Biden around to the world to benefit the Biden family, including Joe Biden himself, to the detriment of U.S. interests,” he added. “The House Oversight Committee, along with the Committees on Judiciary and Ways and Means, will continue to follow the facts and deliver the transparency and accountability that the American people demand and deserve.”

A release from the House Oversight Committee said Comer plans to send additional subpoenas and transcribed interview requests later this week. Comer recently told conservative political commentator Benny Johnson the impeachment inquiry has reached the “downhill phase,” and he aims to “wrap it up as soon as possible.”

GOP investigators have been particularly interested in the flow of millions of dollars of suspicious money transfers from foreign dealings through a complicated web of businesses and bank accounts, slowly revealed over months of investigation. Various probes into the Biden family, which got wrapped into an impeachment inquiry in September, have been bolstered by subpoenas for the financial records tied to Walker, Biden family members, and others as well as witness testimony suggesting how lucrative the Biden “brand” had become.

 

President Biden and his allies insist there is no wrongdoing by the president and claim the impeachment inquiry is tainted by politics. But they have not allayed the inquiries of House Republicans, who have expressed concerns about President Biden himself being tied to family influence-peddling schemes.

One recent area of interest has been a $200,000 check James Biden wrote to his brother Joe Biden in 2018 for a “loan repayment” from his personal account on the same day bank records show he received the same amount of money from a healthcare business. The White House rebuffed a request by Comer seeking proof of President Biden providing a loan to his sibling.

Paul Fishman, a lawyer representing James Biden, told various news outlets there was “no justification for this subpoena” and insisted that his client never involved his brother in his business dealings. Abbe Lowell, an attorney representing Hunter Biden, called the subpoenas a “political stunt” but noted that his client “is eager to have the opportunity, in a public forum and at the right time, to discuss these matters with the Committee.”

Hunter Biden is also facing a criminal investigation, into which House Republicans are taking a hard look over concerns that the Department of Justice slow-walked the process to shield the president’s son. Earlier on Wednesday, Lowell sent a letter to new House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) asking him to get Comer and other congressional investigators to lay off the Biden family, citing alleged lies about their endeavors.

Encouraging Johnson to be a “different” speaker who “restores the integrity and reputation of your chamber,” Lowell ended his letter by urging him to begin with holding Comer and other top impeachment investigators “to the facts and stopping them from continuing their partisan political games. The latest example of their hoping to do the opposite is ripe for your intervention.”

Johnson took over as speaker last month after Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) was ousted from the role. He told reporters last week that he would not “predetermine” an outcome.

“But I do believe that very soon we are coming to a point of decision on it,” Johnson said, adding that the impeachment inquiry phase is an “important step” in ensuring due process.