House GOP panel says members of Biden family got $10 million from foreign entities as Democrats note no sign of Joe Biden's involvement
After reviewing thousands of records subpoenaed from four banks, the House Oversight Committee said in an interim report that some Biden family members, associates and their companies received more than $10 million from foreign entities, including payments made during and after President Joe Biden's vice presidency. But the White House countered that GOP investigators could not point to a "single Joe Biden policy" that was unduly influenced.
The 36-page interim GOP report, released by Oversight Committee chair James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, accused some Biden family members and associates of using a "complicated network" of more than 20 companies, mostly LLCs formed when Mr. Biden was vice president, and used "incremental payments over time" to "conceal large financial transactions."
"From a historical standpoint, we've never seen a presidential family receive these sums of money from adversaries around the world," Comer said.
White House spokesman Ian Sams responded on Twitter that Comer has offered "no evidence of any wrongdoing" by Mr. Biden, that "House Republicans have shown no evidence of any policy decisions influenced by anything other than U.S. national interests" and added that "[t]hey're really just microwaving old debunked stuff."
Comer and panel members focused Wednesday's news conference on payments from individuals from China and Romania, which is not a U.S. adversary. When asked about a direct link to Mr. Biden, Comer said the early phase of the investigation suggested a pattern of behavior.
"I don't think anyone in America who's watching C-SPAN or any other network covering this would think that it's just a coincidence that nine Biden family members have received money for this influence-peddling scheme," Comer said.
"We believe that the president has been involved in this from the very beginning, obviously. We're going to continue to look," he said, though he did not identify any direct or indirect payments to Mr. Biden.
"What we cited today and what we're updating you with today — results from four banks. We believe there are 12 banks. So right now, you could say that we're in the beginning stages of this investigation."
House Republicans insisted their inquiry has several legislative aims behind it: addressing "deficiencies" in ethics and disclosure laws, strengthening reporting requirements for senior elected officials' family members, and evaluating the Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering laws.
The House Oversight Committee's ranking Democrat, Jamie Raskin of Maryland, said in a statement that a former business associate and financial adviser to then-Vice President Biden told Republican and Democratic Oversight Committee staff in March 2023 that "he was not aware of any involvement by President Biden in the financial conduct of the President's relatives' 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."
Abbe Lowell, an attorney for Hunter Biden suggested, "Instead of redoing old investigations that found no evidence of wrongdoing by Mr. Biden, Rep. Comer should do the same examination of the many entities of former President Trump and his family members."
At the same time, there is a federal investigation into Hunter Biden's business dealings that began in 2018, led by David Weiss, the U.S. attorney in Delaware. A 2019 federal subpoena obtained by CBS News sought financial and business records pertaining to 15 business entities and Hunter Biden, the president's brother James, as well as two business partners dating back to 2014 when Joe Biden was vice president.
Two sources familiar with the matter recently confirmed to CBS News that the attorney for the IRS whistleblower who alleges that the Justice Department interfered in and mishandled the Hunter Biden criminal probe met last week with members of Congress on behalf of his client.
The meeting was described as a proffer session with the House Ways and Means and Senate Finance committees to lay the groundwork for what the whistleblower could tell investigators and how he could do so without running afoul of taxpayer privacy laws.