WASHINGTON – House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer asked special counsel Robert Hur on Monday to reveal whether any classified documents were improperly withheld by President Biden following his vice president’s deals with countries where his son Hunter does business.
Comer (R-Ky.) also asked Hur to detail the scope of his office’s two-day interview with the president last week and “any limitations or restrictions on scope during the interview that would prevent a line of questioning about evidence (emails, texts). messages, or witness statements) that directly linked Joe Biden to troubling foreign payments.”
The Oversight Committee is one of three panels leading the impeachment inquiry into Biden’s role in his family’s foreign business dealings.
On September 28, Comer subpoenaed the bank records of Hunter and first brother James Biden, who regularly involved Joe Biden in their business dealings.
“If any classified documents misused by President Biden involve countries or individuals who have financial dealings with members of the Biden family or their related companies, the Committee needs access to that information to assess whether our national security has been compromised,” Comer wrote to Hur .
“The committee is concerned that President Biden may have kept sensitive documents related to certain countries involving his family’s foreign business.”
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer asked special counsel Robert Hur to inform him if there are classified documents kept by President Biden dealing with countries where Hunter Biden has business deals. AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta Hur interviewed President Biden over two days as part of an investigation .TNS via Getty Images
CNN reported in January that 10 classified documents — touching on Iran, Ukraine and the UK — had been recovered from Biden’s vice presidential office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington. The record reportedly dates from 2013 to 2016, when Hunter earned up to $1 million a year working for Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings — while his father headed the Obama administration’s Ukraine portfolio.
Some of the documents were reportedly labeled “top secret.”
Comer wrote that “evidence suggests that President Biden may have used certain members of his family — particularly his son, Hunter Biden — to raise millions of dollars from foreign individuals and entities for the benefit of his family and himself.”
So far, the classified documents investigation has not been linked to the impeachment inquiry into Biden who frequently interacted during his vice presidency with his brother’s foreign partners.
Comer wrote that the House Oversight Committee was concerned that the president “kept sensitive documents related to certain countries involving his family’s foreign business.” AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite Comer subpoenaed the bank records of Hunter (above) and James Biden last month.REUTERS/Mike Segar
There is evidence that Joe Biden met — in DC and while abroad — with associates of his family members from China, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Russia and Ukraine.
An Associated Press poll released Saturday found that 68% of Americans, including 40% of Democrats, say President Biden acted either illegally or unethically in his son’s business dealings.
Hunter Biden agreed in June to plead guilty to tax evasion related to some of those ventures, but later walked away from a probation-only deal. He pleaded not guilty earlier this month to federal weapons charges and making false statements.
Hur is investigating whether President Biden or anyone in his orbit broke the law by mishandling classified records. A different special counsel, Jack Smith, has criminally charged former President Donald Trump with allegedly hiding national security information after he left office.
Documents reportedly related to Ukraine, the UK and Iran were found in the Penn Biden Center office. Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images Additional classified documents found at Biden’s Wilmington home.AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File
Biden did not publicly disclose for more than two months the November 2, 2022 discovery of classified documents in his former DC office — and the Oversight Committee last week released records showing that White House aides may have reviewed records as early as March 2021.
George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley wrote in an op-ed on Saturday in The Hill that the new details mean that “[t]his timeline will now more closely reflect Trump’s timeline of knowing retention of classified material, failure to turn over all classified material despite assurances from lawyers, and alleged false accounts of discovery of the documents.”
A second set of classified records was found Dec. 20 in Biden’s garage in Wilmington, Del., next to his classic Corvette. At least three additional searches, including by the FBI, turned up more sensitive documents.
“My Corvette is in the locked garage, OK? So it’s not like they’re sitting on the street,” Biden snapped at the time.
The president also claimed that the documents were stray papers from his time in the Senate and as vice president, saying at one point in January that “there’s no ‘there’ there.”
A White House spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Comer’s request. A spokesperson for Hur said, “The DOJ can confirm receipt of the letter but declined to comment further.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
