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United States House Oversight Committee investigation into the Biden family

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The United States House Oversight Committee investigation into the Biden family is an ongoing investigation by the United States House of Representatives into whether US President Joe Biden is improperly involved in his family's foreign business practices, with allegations of "international influence peddling schemes", bribery, and a Justice Department cover-up. The investigation was initiated on January 11, 2023, by Republican committee chairman James Comer and includes examination of the foreign business activities of Biden's son, Hunter, and brother, James. The committee is also investigating Twitter's involvement in the Hunter Biden laptop controversy. By September 2023 the investigation had found no evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden.[1][2][3][4] House Speaker Kevin McCarthy nevertheless directed Comer to lead a formal three-committee impeachment inquiry that month.

Background

As Vice President during the Obama administration, Joe Biden brought with him significant foreign policy experience from his decades as a senator, notably relating to Ukraine, which the Obama administration encouraged to adopt economic and democratic reforms, with Biden spearheading the effort from the White House.[5][6][7][8]

In 2014, his son, Hunter, accepted a business consulting engagement with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings and was appointed to the company's board of directors.[9] His father and the State Department expressed concerns about Hunter Biden's involvement with Burisma due to its history of corruption, and potential conflicts with Obama administration policy.[10] Hunter Biden was also an international investment fund founder, notably in China.[11] His uncle James joined him to purchase an international hedge fund in 2006.[12]

Joe Biden has insisted he had no knowledge of, or investments in, his son's foreign business ventures.[13][14] A 2020 investigation led by Republican senators Ron Johnson and Chuck Grassley found no evidence of wrongdoing by Joe Biden, noting only that Hunter Biden had used his family name to develop business relationships.[15]

When Joe Biden began running for president in 2019, the Trump campaign sought to find evidence of possible financial impropriety and influence peddling among the Bidens. Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani led a team of associates that traveled to Ukraine during 2019.[16][17] The Trump campaign and its allies noted that Burisma hired Hunter Biden despite his lack of energy expertise, though he had been hired to provide board-level corporate governance and transparency consulting services, as Burisma sought to improve its reputation to seek partnerships with Western companies.[18][9]

As vice president, Joe Biden pressured the Ukrainian government to fire prosecutor general Viktor Shokin, later boasting that his effort worked.[19] Trump allies alleged Shokin was fired to protect Burisma and Hunter Biden from corruption investigations, though the vice president was acting in accordance with American, European Union and International Monetary Fund policy, as Shokin himself was seen as corrupt and had allowed an investigation into Burisma to fall dormant.[20][21][22][23]

In 2019, in what became known as the Trump–Ukraine scandal, Trump unsuccessfully attempted to pressure Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy into falsely announcing his government was investigating the Bidens; the pressure campaign resulted in Trump's first impeachment.[24]

In October 2020, the New York Post reported on a laptop once belonging to Hunter Biden that contained tens of thousands of emails and documents. The laptop included two emails to Hunter Biden that passingly mentioned Joe Biden, in relation to business matters in both Ukraine and China; neither email indicated that Joe Biden was involved in any of the business matters.[25][10] The laptop garnered significant attention from Republicans and conservative media as the Hunter Biden laptop controversy. Despite extensive scrutiny of the laptop contents by multiple parties, by September 2023 no evidence of wrongdoing by Joe Biden had surfaced.[26][27][28][29][4] Republicans promised during the 2022 midterm elections campaign to investigate the laptop and related matters, leading to the Oversight Committee investigation once they gained control of the House of Representatives in January 2023.[30]

Proceedings

Committee chairman Comer launched the investigation on January 11, 2023, with a letter to Treasury secretary Janet Yellen regarding alleged Biden family "foreign business practices and international influence peddling schemes". Comer requested Yellen provide any suspicious activity reports (SARs) that banks may have generated related to Biden family business activities. Comer also wrote several former Twitter executives to request their testimony before the committee in February.[31][32]

In early February, Comer sent letters requesting documents, records, and communications to Hunter Biden, his former business partner Eric Schwerin, and to James Biden. Abbe Lowell, a Hunter Biden attorney, rebuffed the request, responding in a letter that the committee did not have any legitimate legislative purpose and that Comer had "shamelessly maligned" his client.[33][34]

First hearing

During the committee's first public hearing on February 8, Comer falsely asserted in a prepared opening statement that while Joe Biden was vice president, he had pressured Ukraine to remove its prosecutor general Viktor Shokin so as to end an investigation of Burisma, where Hunter Biden was employed and sat on its board. Comer referred to the allegation that was published in an October 2020 New York Post story but had been repeatedly debunked. During the hearing, Democratic committee member Dan Goldman challenged Comer, characterizing the allegation as "one-hundred percent false". Goldman had investigated the matter as lead counsel for Democrats during the first impeachment of Donald Trump, which involved allegations of Trump corruption relating to Ukraine.[35][36][37][38]

In his opening statement, Comer also cited the New York Post to assert Joe Biden "had spent time" with a Burisma advisor at an April 2015 dinner party in Washington D.C. The advisor, Vadym Pozharsky, had sent Hunter Biden an email thanking him for the "opportunity" to meet his father, though the email did not confirm the meeting actually occurred. Joe Biden's office denied such a meeting, or that if it did happen it was fleeting and inconsequential; guests at the dinner said Joe Biden appeared only briefly to see an old friend. Comer's opening statement asserted that the Post account showed Joe Biden had lied as a presidential candidate when he claimed he had never talked to his son about business matters.[35][39]

Prior to the hearing, many Republicans had alleged Twitter and the FBI had colluded to suppress the October 2020 New York Post story on Hunter Biden's laptop. Four former Twitter employees testified at the first committee hearing. Yoel Roth, former global head of trust and safety, testified the FBI did not tell Twitter the laptop was fake or hacked. He and former deputy general counsel James Baker denied the FBI encouraged Twitter to suppress the story. Baker, the FBI general counsel until 2018, said he had not communicated with the FBI during the episode. Republican committee member Jim Jordan insisted without evidence there had been collusion, stating, "I think you guys wanted to take it down, and I think you guys got played by the FBI".[40]

Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez inquired about a 2019 Trump tweet in which he said she and three other Democratic congresswoman of color should "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came". Former Twitter content moderation team member Anika Collier Navaroli said the tweet violated rules that explicitly banned the expression "go back to where you came from". Collier Navaroli argued to managers that the tweet should be removed, but the recommendation was denied, and instead that expression was removed from the deletion rule, allowing Trump's tweet to remain.[41]

Two Republican committee members suggested the Twitter witnesses may have committed crimes, one suggesting they might be arrested. Two Democrats on the panel suggested to Comer that the remarks constituted witness intimidation or threats; Comer declined to intervene.[40]

The hearing disclosed that in September 2019 Trump tweeted that Chrissy Teigen was "filthy mouthed"; in response, Teigen tweeted vulgarities directed at Trump. The Trump White House later asked Twitter to remove the tweet, but the request was declined. Committee Democrats suggested hypocrisy among Republicans for complaining of government influence on Twitter and suppression of free speech.[40]

Later developments

Jamie Raskin, Democratic ranking member of the Oversight Committee, disclosed in a March 2023 letter to Comer that the chairman had quietly issued sweeping subpoenas of fourteen years of banking records of Hunter Biden associates who were involved in a joint venture related to CEFC China Energy. Raskin alleged cooperation between committee Republicans and a Trump attorney to quietly drop an investigation that had been initiated by the Oversight Committee when it was controlled by Democrats into whether Trump improperly profited from his presidency. Comer professed ignorance of the Trump investigation and denied he had worked with Trump attorneys to end it.[42][43]

By May, the committee had obtained more than 150 SARs related to financial transactions involving Hunter Biden and his uncle, James. Over 3 million SARs are filed by banks each year and their mere filing does not mean that a crime has occurred. A 2020 Bank Policy Institute analysis found that about 4% of SARs elicit any follow-up from law enforcement, and only a tiny subset of those result in arrests and convictions.[44][45][46]

Comer alleged in a May interview with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo that Hunter Biden and his business associates had used limited liability companies (LLCs) as shell corporations to launder money and evade taxes.[47] The New York Times noted that LLCs are common in new business ventures.[48]

Joe Biden bribery allegation

On May 3, 2023, Comer and Republican senator Chuck Grassley wrote attorney general Merrick Garland and FBI director Christopher Wray asserting they had information from a "highly credible" whistleblower of "an alleged criminal scheme involving then-Vice President Biden and a foreign national relating to the exchange of money for policy decisions". They said the whistleblower knew of a tip given to the FBI by an informant. The whistleblower was a suspended FBI agent who claimed the FBI had buried the tip.[49] Comer that day subpoenaed the FBI for a type of document from June 2020 that he said might shed light on whether the FBI and DOJ had adequately investigated the allegation or "allowed political bias to infect their decision-making process". The document, an FD-1023, is used by FBI officials to memorialize tips, which may not be verified, that they receive from informants. Comer and Grassley did not directly accuse the president of participating in a criminal scheme, though Comer said in a statement that the whistleblower information "raises concerns that then-Vice President Biden allegedly engaged in a bribery scheme with a foreign national". Committee ranking member Raskin characterized the subpoena as a "baseless partisan stunt", stating that during the 2020 presidential campaign "Rudy Giuliani and Russian agents, sanctioned by Trump's Treasury Department, were peddling disinformation aimed at interfering in the 2020 presidential election".[50][51][52] Citing longstanding confidentiality policy detailed in a 6-page letter to Comer on May 10, the FBI declined to provide the FD-1023, noting "The mere existence of such a document would establish little beyond the fact that a confidential human source provided information and the FBI recorded it. Indeed, the FBI regularly receives information from sources with significant potential biases, motivations, and knowledge, including drug traffickers, members of organized crime, or even terrorists".[53]

Days after the Comer and Grassley allegation, Comer said the purported informant had gone missing, adding, "nine of the ten people that we've identified that have very good knowledge with respect to the Bidens, they're one of three things. They're either currently in court, they're currently in jail, or they're currently missing",[54] One purported informant the committee sought to interview, Gal Luft, claimed he had told FBI and Justice Department agents in March 2019 of alleged Biden corruption but that no action had been taken. A dual US-Israeli citizen and think tank founder, Luft was arrested in Cyprus in February 2023 at the request of American authorities who sought his extradition; he was released on bail and became a fugitive. In July, the US Justice Department unsealed an indictment of Luft on eight counts related to arms trafficking, evading sanctions and in 2016 recruiting and paying a former high-ranking government official who was an advisor to president-elect Donald Trump, as an unregistered agent for Chinese interests. Comer characterized Luft as a "very credible witness on Biden family corruption" three days before the indictment. Senator Ron Johnson speculated the DOJ was pursuing Luft to silence him from divulging what he purportedly knew about the Bidens.[55][56][57]

Analysis by The Washington Post in late May noted that the letter and documents Comer and Grassley had publicly released made an allegation of an allegation of bribery. During the few weeks after the release, Fox News mentioned a "bribe" or "bribery" in the context of Biden more than 100 times, though no new information had surfaced during that time. Comer and Grassley alleged the FBI was stonewalling in providing the FD-1032 document. Sean Hannity, on whose program Comer commonly appeared, read on-air from a letter the FBI sent to him that read in part:

Releasing confidential source information could potentially jeopardize investigations and put lives at risk. The FBI remains committed to cooperating with Congress's oversight requests on this matter and others as we always have".

Hannity read only the second sentence on-air and to his studio audience, which responded with muttered disbelief as Hannity said, "Well, then hand it over". A spokesperson for the committee's Democratic minority contended that Comer was engaged in "an effort to maximize innuendo on Fox News" and "these tactics reflect Republicans’ willingness to weaponize the committee to achieve their political ends instead of engaging in responsible oversight".[58]

By late May, Comer and Wray were scheduled to meet within days, as Comer threatened to hold Wray in contempt of congress for failing to comply to the subpoena.[59] On May 31, Comer, Grassley and, separately, Raskin, spoke with Wray on the phone. That night, Comer said on Hannity that "[Grassley] and I have already seen the 1023 form. We knew what was in the 1023 form. Until we told Director Wray that, he never even admitted that the form existed". The next day, Grassley acknowledged on Fox News that he had read the document, adding, "We aren't interested in whether or not the accusations against Vice President Biden are accurate or not. We're responsible for making sure the FBI does its job, and that's what we want to know".[60] The FBI then scheduled to provide the document and a briefing to Comer and Raskin in a secure facility at the Capitol on June 5. Comer planned to continue pressing a contempt of Congress charge.[61]

NBC News reported on June 2 that the FBI and a US attorney appointed by Trump and assigned by attorney general Bill Barr examined the bribery allegation when it was made in 2020 but could not substantiate it. Barr had assigned the US attorney, Scott Brady, to scrutinize information Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani had provided about alleged Biden activities in Ukraine.[62][63]

After meeting with FBI briefers on June 5, Comer announced he would begin contempt hearings against Wray in three days, stating "FBI officials confirmed that the unclassified FBI-generated record has not been disproven and is currently being used in an ongoing investigation". The New York Times reported that some of the materials Brady reviewed were "junk and plainly not credible", but that Brady forwarded some materials to other prosecutors.[64] Raskin said he was unaware of an ongoing investigation other than the Delaware investigation into Hunter Biden's taxes and a possible false statement, but noted Comer had access to some information that he did not. Raskin said FBI briefers said the document related to the 2020 Scott Brady examination, but that inquiry had been closed.[65] Raskin also said that the tip from the highly credible informant was a recounting of conversations with a Ukrainian energy magnate, but the informant could not vouch for the veracity of what that person had said, and that after an initial assessment the Brady investigators closed the matter in August 2020.[66][67]

Former attorney general Bill Barr contradicted Raskin, asserting the claims about Joe Biden had been forwarded to Delaware prosecutors investigating Hunter Biden. Raskin responded that Barr was being deceptive in an effort to discredit the FBI. He said the FBI told the committee "in no uncertain terms" that the initial assessment had been closed in August 2020. Raskin also asserted the FBI had received the initial tip from Giuliani; the tip led to the FBI interview with the informant regarding what the Ukrainian energy magnate had said. At the time, Giuliani and his associates were trying to find "dirt" on Joe Biden during the 2020 presidential campaign.[68][49]

The Comer committee dropped its plan to pursue a contempt charge against Wray on the evening before proceedings were scheduled to begin. Comer said Wray had agreed to allow all committee members to see the FD-1023, and to reveal details related to FBI documents containing allegations against Joe Biden.[69][70]

Media Matters and Mediaite reported that after committee Republicans had viewed the FD-1023 on June 8, some Fox News hosts claimed the document showed Joe Biden had received payments, though two of the network's correspondents had earlier reported that the document did not say that. Fox News anchor Julie Banderas said, "Let's just talk about Marjorie Taylor Greene, Nancy Mace, and Lauren Boebert describing these $5 million payments, which basically were paid to multiple Biden family members, including the current president". Media Matters published several instances of Fox News hosts and guests asserting the announcement of Trump's federal indictment had been timed to distract from alleged revelations found in the FD-1023 document.[71][72][73][74]

On June 12, Grassley asserted on the senate floor that the FD-1023 showed the confidential source cited by the FBI informant claiming to have audio recordings of the Bidens talking with the source about the alleged bribery scheme. Grassley added that "the 1023 also indicates that then-Vice President Joe Biden may have been involved in Burisma employing Hunter Biden". Senator Ron Johnson later said the source was believed to be Mykola Zlochevsky, a co-founder of Burisma Holdings. Giuliani sought Zlochevsky's assistance in 2019 to seek dirt on the Bidens, though Zlochevsky told a journalist at the time that he had never spoken with Joe Biden.[75] Zlochevsky was implicated in paying $5 million in bribes to Ukrainian officials in June 2020, but the head of Ukraine's national anti-corruption bureau said there was no Biden involvement.[76]

Multiple Republican lawmakers have acknowledged that the existence of the recordings have yet to be verified. Senator Grassley said on June 15 of the recordings: "I don't even know where they are ... Now, maybe they don't exist", while Senator Johnson said: "We don't know really if the tapes exist", and that the existence of the recordings may have been "just a bluff on the part of ... Mykola Zlochevsky ... the corrupt oligarch". Representative Comer said on June 13 of the recordings: "We don't know if they're legit or not", while Representative Jordan said on June 14: "We don't know for sure if these tapes exist".[77][78][79] Asked by Sean Hannity about Zlochevsky on June 15, Comer replied, "Unfortunately, nobody's had any contact with him for the last three years".[80]

During a July 5 Fox News appearance, Comer agreed with host Rachel Campos-Duffy's suggestion that Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy knows about the alleged bribes to the Bidens and was essentially extorting Biden for military aid. Comer alleged "there's no real oversight, there's no inspector general, there's no good accounting" for American support to Ukraine.[81]

Grassley publicly released the FD-1023 on July 20. The document showed Zlochevsky told the FBI informant in 2016 that he had paid the Bidens $5 million each, which the informant could not confirm. The account was contradicted by a transcript of a conversation former Giuliani associate Lev Parnas had with Zlochevsy, which had been provided to Congress in January 2020. The FBI sharply criticized the release of the document, asserting it "unnecessarily risks the safety of a confidential source".[82]

Allegation of Justice Department cover-up

On June 20, Hunter Biden agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses, which some Republicans characterized as a "sweetheart deal" and an example of an alleged "two-tiered justice system" that goes easy on Democrats. Legal experts said charges are rarely brought under circumstances such as Biden's.[83][44][84][85] Two days later, the House Ways and Means Committee released depositions from two IRS investigators who worked on the Biden case and who alleged Justice Department interference in the investigation by "slow-walking investigative steps". One investigator said that he had begun raising concerns about "irregularities" in how the Biden investigation was being conducted beginning in the summer of 2020 — when Trump was president and Bill Barr was attorney general. He alleged the Delaware US attorney leading the investigation, David Weiss, had in March 2020 requested the Justice Department grant him special counsel status but that his request was denied. In a July 10 letter to senator Lindsey Graham, Weiss denied he had requested special counsel status, explaining he had discussed with DOJ officials being given "special attorney" status that would allow him to file charges in any DOJ district; he wrote that he was assured he would be granted such authority if it became necessary and that he had "never been denied the authority to bring charges in any jurisdiction".[86] The IRS investigator asserted other irregularities persisted into the Biden administration. On the day the depositions were released, Comer released a statement asserting "Now we know that Biden's Justice Department has been actively engaged in a cover-up to protect the Bidens from facing justice". Attorney general Merrick Garland the next day forcefully rejected allegations of political considerations in the Biden case.[87][88][89] The Weiss letter to Graham supported Garland's earlier congressional testimony that the prosecutor had been given full authority over his investigation; some Republicans had asserted that the IRS investigator allegations showed Garland had lied to congress and should be impeached.[90][91] One of the IRS investigators, Gary Shapley, told congressional investigators that he had witnessed Weiss say in a meeting of senior FBI and IRS investigators that he was "not the deciding person on whether charges are filed," though a high-ranking FBI agent who also attended that meeting later told congressional investigators that Weiss did not make such a comment.[92]

After the Luft indictment was unsealed on July 10, senior Republicans dismissed the significance of the charges and said they hoped to interview him anyway. They alleged federal law enforcement had been engaged in a vast conspiracy to protect Biden for years, including by orchestrating the Luft indictment to silence him. The indictment had been made under seal on November 1, 2022.[93] In a July 12 letter to Comer, committee Democrats Raskin and Goldman wrote of their concerns that "the committee has been manipulated by an apparent con man". They called for an investigation into whether Luft had attempted to launder "unfounded and potentially false allegations through Congress" and "it appears as if Mr. Luft sought 'whistleblower' status to shield himself from prosecution".[94]

As House Republicans sought closed-door interviews with Weiss and others, on July 24 the Justice Department proposed Weiss provide public testimony to dispute what it saw as misrepresentations about his investigation.[95]

Raskin sent Comer an 11-page letter on July 28 alleging Republicans were "concealing key evidence" that disproves their allegations against the Bidens. Specifically, the committee had released "key takeaways" from a recent deposition of a former FBI supervisory agent, asserting it supported the testimony of the two IRS whistleblowers, rather than releasing the full transcript. Raskin wrote that the transcript discredited the testimony by showing the investigation of Hunter Biden followed procedure and was free of political considerations. Raskin also chastised Comer for alleging Joe Biden had laundered money through his granddaughter's bank account.[96]

May 2023 report

On May 10, 2023, Comer released a report of interim findings and held a press conference with other Republican members of the committee. The report did not find any evidence of wrongdoing by Biden. The 36-page report provided some details about foreign wire transfers related to Hunter Biden, but did not assert there was any illegality, nor that there was any evidence of money directed to Joe Biden. Asked by reporters if he could name a specific official policy decision Joe Biden had made that may have been directly influenced by foreign payments, Comer said he could not but added he thought Biden had made decisions to "put China first and America last". Comer asserted "We're pretty confident that the president was very knowledgeable of what his family was doing".[1][97][98][99]

The memo alleged that in June 2016 Serbian diplomat Vuk Jeremić, who was seeking to be elected UN secretary-general, had contacted Hunter Biden and a business associate, Eric Schwerin, about meeting Colin Kahl, vice president Biden's national security advisor. The next month Jeremić emailed that he had briefly met with Kahl, who he said appeared "outside the decision-making loop" regarding the UN secretary-general election. Hunter Biden had been retained as a defense attorney by Romanian businessman Gabriel Popoviciu in November 2015, and through May 2017 Popoviciu wired $3 million to Hunter Biden business associate Rob Walker, who then wired $1 million in installments to Hunter Biden, business associate James Gillian, and Hallie Biden, the widow of the president's oldest son. Hunter Biden's association with Popoviciu had been reported in 2019, when Trump personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, who himself was associated with Popoviciu, tried to bring it to public attention.[1][97][98][99][100]

Devon Archer testimony

Former Hunter Biden business partner and fellow Burisma board member Devon Archer provided more than five hours of closed-door testimony to committee members on July 31. Republicans had long considered Archer a key witness in their search to directly connect the president to his son's business activities. Both Republicans and Democrats who attended the interview later said Archer testified that over the course of ten years Hunter Biden put his father on speakerphone about twenty times while in the presence of business associates but that Joe Biden "never once spoke about any business dealings". Democratic congressman Dan Goldman told reporters that Archer characterized the calls as "all casual conversation, niceties, the weather, 'What's going on?'" Goldman said Archer testified Hunter Biden sold the "illusion of access" to his father in business meetings.

Hunter Biden's former business partner insisted in testimony to Congress Monday that President Joe Biden was never directly involved in their financial dealings, though Hunter would often put his famous father on speakerphone to impress clients and business associates.[101]

Goldman said Archer was asked about bribery allegations against the Bidens and responded he was unaware of any bribes and would be shocked if there were any.[102] Archer testified that the Burisma public relations team in Washington did not find it helpful for Ukrainian prosecutor general Viktor Shokin to be removed at the time Joe Biden pressed for it.[103][104]

Archer contradicted a claim made by Trump and the Comer committee that in 2014 Russian billionaire Yelena Baturina wired $3.5 million to a shell company account controlled by him and Hunter Biden. Trump alleged the payment went to Joe Biden. Archer testified the wire was a commission payment for a Brooklyn real estate transaction he had brokered for Baturina that accidentally went into a wrong account for a company Hunter Biden had an ownership stake in, and that Biden had no role in the real estate deal.[105][106]

Some Republicans misrepresented the Archer testimony, in some cases asserting the opposite of what he had said. Comer said on Hannity "Every day this bribery scandal becomes more credible", though the testimony indicated there was no evidence of bribery. Congresswomen Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert falsely asserted Archer testified Joe Biden had participated in his son's business deals over twenty times, though Archer testified Joe Biden never discussed business.[107][108][109] On Hannity, Comer and Jim Jordan alleged that in December 2015 Hunter Biden phoned his father asking him to help Burisma and that the vice president traveled to Ukraine five days later to call for Shokin's removal, though the trip had been publicly announced weeks earlier. Archer testified Hunter had called someone in Washington but was not sure it was Joe Biden; Burisma maintained a public relations team in Washington.[110] Republican congressman Andy Biggs said the Archer testimony implicated the president directly and that an impeachment inquiry was necessary. Comer released a statement[111] asserting the testimony "confirms Joe Biden lied to the American people when he said he had no knowledge about his son's business dealings and was not involved". Greene concurred and said a formal impeachment inquiry was the logical next step.[111][101][112]

Impeachment considerations

By late summer 2023, House Republicans were debating whether to open a formal impeachment inquiry that might lead to impeachment proceedings against Joe Biden. A House vote was expected soon after the August recess. Following months of formal investigation, Republicans had been unable to corroborate various public allegations they had made against the president, and were concerned that not proceeding with an inquiry might create an impression they had cleared him of wrongdoing. By this time, the Comer investigation had not found sufficient evidence to support a bribery allegation or that any wire transfers were linked directly to the president. No illegality had been found among wire transfers involving Hunter Biden and his associates, nor was there evidence Joe Biden had been improperly influenced. Suggestions that SARs indicated wrongdoing were inconclusive. In an August 9 memo to committee Democrats, Republicans pivoted to a new position, asserting they didn't need to show direct evidence the president had benefited from his son's business ventures in order to pursue impeachment.

Republicans instead appeared focused on assertions Joe Biden lied by saying he had never been involved in his son's business affairs, by pointing to the Archer testimony. Republicans also appeared to focus on the IRS whistleblower allegations that the Biden administration had undue influence on the investigation of Hunter Biden. Most Republicans believed that opening an inquiry would inevitably lead to impeachment proceedings, but Republicans had only a four-vote margin in a House vote to move forward, and eighteen represented districts Biden won in 2020. Some Republican donors conveyed to party leaders their concerns that impeachment was a risky political strategy; Republican committee member Nancy Mace warned impeachment could cost Republicans their House majority in 2024. Raskin asserted an inquiry was intended to distract from Trump's "mounting criminal indictments and deepening legal morass".[113][114][115]

McCarthy said on September 1 that he would not initiate an impeachment inquiry without a full House vote, though it appeared he did not have sufficient Republican support to pass such a measure.[116][117] He announced on September 12 that he was directing the Oversight, Judiciary and Ways and Means committees to begin such an inquiry, to be led by Comer. McCarthy did not mention whether a full House vote might be held.[118] The first impeachment inquiry hearing was scheduled for September 28, as Comer announced he expected to subpoena the bank records of Hunter Biden and his uncle, James.[119]

Pseudonym emails

In August, the committee majority became aware of 5,138 emails Joe Biden had sent or received as vice president, using pseudonyms to obfuscate his actual identity. The Obama administration had announced in 2013 that some officials were following this practice to prevent their regular email accounts from being spammed. The emails were sent via a government account and two Gmail accounts. One email was sent by a Joe Biden aide to the vice president's account, Robert.L.Peters@pci.gov, containing his schedule for the day, which included a phone call with Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko. Hunter Biden was copied on the email, leading Comer to speculate on Newsmax that the younger Biden was being alerted to "a shady, shady transaction" involving the vice president coming to Ukraine in five days to fire Viktor Shokin in order to protect Burisma. The email was sent on May 26, 2016, though Shokin had already been fired the preceding March 29. The email noted that Joe Biden would be at his Delaware home for the coming Memorial Day weekend, where the Biden family gathered to observe the first anniversary of Beau Biden's death. Comer asked NARA to provide any documents on which Joe Biden had used pseudonyms or had copied his son.[120] The first batch of documents provided to the committee on September 21 did not reveal anything of consequence.[121]

Eric Schwerin interview

Schwerin is a former Hunter Biden business partner who also provided administrative and bookkeeping work for Joe Biden throughout his vice presidency. He met with Democratic and Republican committee staffers in March 2023 for an untranscribed interview. A spokesman for committee Republicans told Fox News in September that the committee "never interviewed Schwerin" but had only met with him regarding the production of documents they had asked him for in February. In a September letter to Comer, Raskin asserted Schwerin "spent hours answering substantive questions from Republican and Democratic staff about his relationship with Hunter Biden, as well as the history, structure, and operations of Hunter Biden's various business entities." Raskin added that Schwerin had access to Joe Biden's bank account transactions and asserted he had said "he was not aware of any involvement by President Biden in the financial conduct of his family members' businesses, much less any transactions into or out of the then-vice president's bank account related to business conducted by any Biden family member." Raskin further asserted Schwerin had provided exonerating statements that Republicans found inconvenient. Schwerin's attorney confirmed Democrats' characterization of the interview.[122][123]

Presentation of interim findings

In August, Glenn Kessler, the lead fact-checker for The Washington Post, analyzed the committee's presentation of its interim findings in staff memos and Comer's comments in conservative media and on Twitter. Kessler found the memos, while written in a partisan tone that ignored or downplayed contrary information, tended to use more restrained language than did Comer in public statements. While a memo referred to "20 companies affiliated with certain Biden family members and their business associates," on Fox News Comer referred to "20-plus shell companies that the Bidens have created to launder the money they were receiving." Another memo described "$20 million in payments from foreign sources to the Biden family and their business associates," while on Newsmax Comer said "The Biden family received over $20 million from our enemies around the world." Comer often used the term "shell company," which can suggest money laundering, though Kessler's analysis found that virtually all the companies had legitimate business transactions or investments. Kessler found that payments from foreign sources totaled $23 million, though all but $7.5 million went to Hunter Biden business associates, and nothing was traced to Joe Biden.[124]

Fox News interviews with Shokin and Poroshenko

Fox News served as an important platform for Comer and his allies to broadcast unfounded allegations against the Bidens. Host Brian Kilmeade interviewed Viktor Shokin on One Nation with Brian Kilmeade in August 2023. Shokin said he was fired as prosecutor general "at the insistence of then-Vice President [Biden] because I was investigating Burisma." One month later Kilmeade interviewed former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko on his program, asking for his reaction to Shokin's assertion. Poroshenko responded:

First of all, this is a completely crazy person. There is something wrong with him. Second, there is not one single word of truth. And third, I hate the idea to make any comments and to make any intervention in an American election. We have very much enjoyed the bipartisan support, and please, do not use such a person like Shokin to undermine the trust between bipartisan support and Ukraine.

Kilmeade responded, "Okay, so that is not true. He didn't get fired because of Joe Biden." Poroshenko confirmed this, adding Shokin was fired by the Ukrainian parliament "for his own statement" and "he played a very dirty game unfortunately."[125][126]

Impeachment inquiry developments

The committee issued a subpoena for Hunter Biden's bank records on September 25, finding he received two wire transfers from Chinese nationals in summer 2019 that listed his father's Delaware home as the beneficiary address. Hunter Biden's attorney Abbe Lowell asserted the wires were loans from a Chinese company in which Biden had invested in 2017, and he used his equity in the investment as security for the loans. Lowell said the money went into "his new bank account which listed the address on his driver's license, his parents' address, because it was his only permanent address at the time."[127]

The committee held its first public hearing under an impeachment inquiry on September 28. Comer said in his opening statement that investigators had "uncovered a mountain of evidence" and alleged Biden used his official government role for his family's gain, but committee members did not present clear evidence to support the allegation. Three expert witnesses called by committee Republicans testified there was not impeachable evidence against Biden at that point. Committee Republicans made several false or misleading statements during the hearing. Nancy Mace falsely stated, "We already know the president took bribes from Burisma." Jim Jordan falsely said Hunter Biden had acknowledged he was unqualified to sit on the Burisma board, though Biden had said "I was completely qualified to be on the board" in a 2019 interview, but added he probably would not have been hired if not for his surname. Jordan also misled by suggesting the Justice Department improperly blocked investigators from examining Joe Biden. A Trump-era Justice Department prosecutor had directed that references to Joe Biden be removed from a search warrant for Hunter Biden, explaining there was no legal basis to reference Joe Biden in the warrant. Byron Donalds presented a text message from James Biden to suggest that Joe Biden would help in Hunter Biden's business matters, though preceding texts showed the discussion related to the younger Biden's alimony payments and other personal expenses. Pat Fallon asserted "Hunter admitted that he talked to his dad about business, specifically Burisma," referencing a 2019 New Yorker interview. In 2015, an Obama administration special envoy to Ukraine raised the issue of Hunter Biden sitting on the Burisma board with the vice president. Hunter recounted in that 2019 interview that "Dad said, 'I hope you know what you're doing,' and I said, 'I do'".[128][129][130]

Politico reported after the first hearing that some Republicans expressed discontent with Comer's approach, suggesting Jim Jordan should lead the inquiry, though others voiced support for Comer. Critics were disappointed with Comer's decision to call expert witnesses who testified they saw no evidence of impeachable acts, rather than fact witnesses who might present new Biden bombshells. Some Republicans said Comer set too high a bar by trying to show Joe Biden personally benefited from his son's business activities, rather than claiming "abuse of power" by showing he knew his family was trading off his name but did nothing about it. Some were also critical of Comer's media strategy to present his case to a receptive audience on conservative outlets like Fox News, rather than seeking to persuade a broader mainstream media audience.[131]

On October 20, Comer released an image of a bank check dated March 1, 2018 drawn on the account of James Biden and his wife, Sara, payable to Joe Biden in the amount of $200,000. The check bore the notation "loan repayment." The check was written on the same date that Americore Health LLC, a failing healthcare company that managed rural hospitals, deposited $200,000 into James Biden's bank account. In a 2022 bankruptcy filing, Americore stated it had given hundreds of thousands in loans to James Biden on the promise his last name "could 'open doors' and that he could obtain a large investment from the Middle East, based on his political connections." Comer characterized the check as "a $200,000 direct payment" and that "Joe Biden's ability to be paid back by his brother depended on the success of his family's shady financial dealings." James Biden's attorney asserted that the Comer characterization was "highly selective and misleading," saying that the check was repayment of a $200,000 loan Joe Biden had made to James six weeks earlier, and "at no time did Jim involve his brother in any of his business relationships." A White House spokesman said the new information showed no wrongdoing and was revealed to distract from the continuing failure of Republicans to elect a new Speaker of the House.[132][133]

Political considerations

In a May 22 Fox News interview, Comer said he believed the media attention his investigation had drawn "absolutely" affected Joe Biden's lower polling relative to Trump's.[134] The next day he insisted he had never said such a thing.[135] Comer agreed with a reporter's March assessment that it would be "politically unsustainable" for his committee to investigate Jared Kushner, who accepted $2 billion from a Saudi Arabian sovereign wealth fund to start a hedge fund soon after leaving his official White House position in 2021.[136][137]

Conspiracy theories

In January 2023, an anonymous Twitter account posted a rental application found on Hunter Biden's laptop, leading to a false claim that in 2018 Hunter Biden had paid $49,910 in monthly rent for his father's Delaware residence where classified documents had been found. The false allegation quickly spread across conservative media. A Breitbart story that speculated Hunter Biden may have had access to classified documents was retweeted by House Republican Conference chair Elise Stefanik who added that "Joe Biden and the Biden Crime Family are corrupt and significant threats to national security. Our Republican House Majority will hold them accountable". Comer suggested it was evidence that Hunter Biden may have been funneling foreign money to his father. The document actually showed quarterly rental payments for office space at the House of Sweden in Washington, D.C.[138] On his Fox News program, host Tucker Carlson echoed Comer's false suggestion of Hunter Biden malfeasance; days later Hunter Biden's attorneys wrote Carlson and Fox News demanding they correct the falsehood or risk a defamation lawsuit.[139]

On the day before former Hunter Biden business partner Devon Archer was to provide a deposition to the committee, New York Post columnist Miranda Devine asserted on Twitter that "The DOJ is trying to arrest Devon Archer ahead of his bombshell testimony Monday about Joe Biden's involvement in his son Hunter's Ukraine business when he was VP". Devine cited as evidence a section of a letter from US attorney Damian Williams to a judge regarding setting an incarceration date for Archer, who had days earlier lost his appeal on a fraud conviction. Devine's report triggered viral speculation among Republican lawmakers that the DOJ was obstructing the Comer investigation and attempting to intimidate Archer. His attorney said Archer "does not agree with that speculation". Congressman Matt Gaetz pledged "immediate emergency hearings on the DOJ's interference". Made aware of the controversy, later that day Williams wrote to the judge to clarify what his original letter actually said. Some House Republicans then asserted the DOJ had backtracked after being caught red-handed.[140]

The Washington Post wrote that "after widespread debunking of Devine's original claim, the New York Post put a variation of her conspiracy theory on its front page...Devine wrote that the situation is 'another example of a DOJ gone astray'".[140]

See also

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