Republicans are signalling an interest in litigating Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings through the power of Congress’s investigative mandate should the GOP retake control of one or both houses of Congress later this year.
A GOP congressman set to chair the House Oversight Committee, which has broad powers to investigate governmental affairs, told Politico in a recent interview that his committee will be “all over” Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings if he chairs the influential panel next year.
“The House Oversight Committee is going to be all over Hunter Biden,” said Rep James Comer.
“We’re going to focus on Hunter Biden not for political reasons,” he continued in his interview with Politico, “but because we feel he’s a national security threat.”
And the House isn’t the only branch with plans to go after the president’s son. Sen Ron Johnson, who could chair the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee next year if the GOP retakes the upper chamber, has made similar indications.
“We’ve been trying to get his travel records for a couple of years now,” Mr Johnson told The Hill.
At issue is Mr Biden’s business dealings with figures in Ukraine, Russia, and China; The New York Times has reported that the Justice Department is continuing to look at whether Mr Biden violated foreign lobbying laws or tax laws with his work for companies and clients abroad.
Mr Biden co-founded Rosemont Seneca Partners, a DC-based investment firm that does business abroad, in 2009 shortly after his father joined the White House. The firm, also co-founded by the stepson of future Secretary of State John Kerry, has long been the target of accusations that the son of then-Vice President Joe Biden was using his connection to his father to generate business; many of the firm’s partners were actively involved in negotiations with the White House and State Department while doing business with Rosemont Seneca Partners.
Mr Biden also faces a separate investigation regarding his payment of taxes over the years.
Crucially, Mr Comer’s investigation looks like it would have the support of GOP leadership in the House.
“I know the grand jury is looking now, but I think there’s a real need to understand what was always said, what other countries are paying him in the process,” House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy told Politico of plans to investigate the president’s son. “I think it is definitely something we should look at.”
Senate Republicans previously launched an investigation into Hunter Biden’s dealings in Ukraine during the 2020 election; that investigation directly accused the younger Biden of using his family name and connections to launch a lucrative international company, but found no evidence that now-President Joe Biden or his son had committed any misdeeds or broken any laws.
