House Republicans previewed a swathe of investigations into President Joe Biden and his family after narrowly winning back the lower chamber in the midterms.
The House GOP is making a number of claims, including that Mr Biden is connected to Hunter Biden’s business dealings in as many as 50 countries.
While Mr Biden has rejected any claims that he’s linked to any of his son’s affairs, the House Republicans are pushing ahead as they attempt to grind the Democratic administration to a halt.
Representative James Comer contended during a press conference on Thursday that Mr Biden is the “chairman of the board,” claiming that the president is in charge of a supposed family business operation.
Mr Comer, who’s set to chair the House Oversight Committee, also claimed without evidence that the White House has spent $250,000 to get rid of negative news stories about Hunter Biden.
“This is an investigation of Joe Biden,” Mr Comer told reporters. “I think we’ve laid out the evidence as to why we feel it’s important, and we’re going to move forward with that.”
“We’re trying to stay focused on – was Joe Biden directly involved with Hunter Biden’s business deals, and is he compromised?”
White House Counsel’s Office spokesperson Ian Sams said in a statement that “instead of working with President Biden to address issues important to the American people, like lower costs, congressional Republicans’ top priority is to go after President Biden with politically-motivated attacks chock full of long-debunked conspiracy theories”.
“President Biden is not going to let these political attacks distract him from focusing on Americans’ priorities, and we hope congressional Republicans will join us in tackling them instead of wasting time and resources on political revenge,” Mr Sams added.
Mr Comer said he would like Biden family members to testify before Congress but added that the focus as of this time was to get ahold of bank records.
“As part of our investigation, we have evidence that the finances, credit cards, and bank accounts of Hunter and Joe Biden were commingled, if not shared,” he added.
“One of Hunter’s closest associates, Eric Schwerin, was accessing Joe Biden’s money and writing checks to reimburse Hunter,” Mr Comer claimed.
The Kentucky Republican said that a number of accounts connected to the Biden family were “red flags” concerning “suspicious or illegal activity”.
Without providing evidence, Mr Comer said, “Hunter Biden and his business associates” are connected “to international human trafficking, among other illegal activities”.
“We have repeatedly called on the Biden Treasury Department to release additional financial documents to committee Republicans, but thus far Treasury has refused,” he said. “We want to know what the Biden administration has tried to hide from the American people and why they are not being transparent.”
“After an apparent falling out with Schwerin, Hunter began coordinating business himself and increasingly the deals brought in Joe Biden as a direct equity holder,” Mr Comer said on Thursday.
“Hunter Biden isn’t this guy who just got a bad rap because he’s got a drug problem,” he said.
House Republicans said they would be releasing a report outlining the evidence for their claims.
In a sign of what’s to come, the House Republicans posted a number of tweets on Thursday, including “the Biden Crime Family must be investigated as a matter of national security,” “Hunter Biden’s laptop is REAL,” and “Joe Biden is the BIG GUY”.
They also posted a number of clips of Hunter Biden from TV interviews and photos which they said showed “Joe Biden meeting with his family members’ business partners”.
The Republicans have long argued that Hunter Biden used Mr Biden’s political power to enrich himself, joining the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian natural gas company, in 2019.
An investment firm co-founded by Hunter Biden assisted a Chinese company in their purchase of a cobalt mine in Congo from an American firm in 2016, in addition to other ventures, NBC News reported.
Hunter Biden is currently under investigation by federal authorities, which he said would reveal that “I handled my affairs legally and appropriately”.
Mr Comer said on Thursday that “we can’t reveal our sources” for their many claims, but added some evidence can be found online “if you dig”.
