WASHINGTON — President Biden’s brother James will not appear for questioning Wednesday as specified in a House Oversight Committee subpoena — after his legal team argued there was “no justification” for the demand.
House Republicans believe James Biden will eventually comply with the subpoena, but it’s unclear when that might happen — while eldest son Hunter Biden’s legal team has yet to say whether he will show up for an interview scheduled for Dec. 13.
“It’s not going to happen tomorrow, but we’re in communication with his attorney about scheduling a time for him to come in,” a committee spokesman said of James Biden.
First brother attorney Paul Fishman, however, did not specifically commit to complying with the subpoena, telling The Post in a brief statement: “We have reached out to Oversight Committee staff regarding their request.”
In a Nov. 8 statement, Fishman argued that “there is no justification for this subpoena” and that “Jim Biden has never involved his brother in his business dealings.”
The White House has argued that the impeachment inquiry lacks the force of law because of the lack of a House floor vote to authorize it — prompting Republicans to consider retroactively taking that step as soon as this week.
President Biden’s brother James will not be present for this week’s House Oversight Committee deposition. AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari
White House Counsel Richard Sauber wrote in a Nov. 17 letter to GOP leaders that “you should reconsider your current actions and withdraw the subpoenas and demands for interviews” — calling them “irresponsible.”
The subpoenas to Hunter and James Biden were issued under the authority of the Oversight Committee, which has its own ability to subpoena witnesses and evidence independent of the impeachment inquiry.
Witnesses who refuse to comply with a subpoena can be prosecuted.
Stephen Bannon, former chief strategist to President Donald Trump, was sentenced to four months in prison last year for refusing to comply with a subpoena issued by a House select committee investigating the 2021 Capitol riots.
Hunter Biden is still scheduled to appear for an interview on Dec. 13. AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File
Peter Navarro, another former Trump adviser, was also convicted of contempt of Congress in September for not cooperating with a House panel. He is awaiting sentencing.
James Biden has been accused repeatedly of leveraging his brother’s political power in business dealings and the Oversight Committee previously obtained his bank records through a subpoena.
He worked with his nephew Hunter, now 53, on business ventures involving China and Mexico, according to files from Hunter’s laptop left behind — in addition to other ventures, such as a project in Saudi Arabia that he claims he got in part because of Biden’s “name” .
James allegedly attended a May 2017 gathering of business partners involved in a joint venture with CEFC China Energy in connection with the Chinese government with Hunter and Joe Biden. An email in the same month was written in Joe Biden, who had just left office as vice president, for a 10% cut of the deal.
James ended up receiving nearly $2 million from the CEFC deal and the Oversight Committee last month alleged that he used $40,000 of that amount to pay his brother.
Biden’s defenders say that James Biden only repaid a loan made 37 days earlier, but Republicans point to a lack of evidence of a loan agreement and the fact that the original funds for the alleged loan came from a law firm, clouding the picture.
The Biden family received $5.1 million in cash payments from CEFC within 10 days after a threatening WhatsApp message was sent in late July 2017 by Hunter to an associate based in China, warning that he was “sitting here with my father.”
A separate $200,000 transfer from James to Joe Biden — on March 1, 2018 — came the same day James received a $200,000 transfer from troubled rural hospital company Americore by promising to use his political connections to land Middle Eastern investors, according to the firm. bankruptcy filing.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer held a press conference on the Biden impeachment inquiry on Dec. 5. 2023. Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images
The Bidens say that in that case, James also paid back the short-term loan, even though the original funds were channeled from the same law firm.
James Biden’s business overlaps with his brother’s political career allegedly dating back to Joe Biden’s time as a US senator.
In 2006, when Joe Biden was the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, James Biden bragged about selling influence to his brother when he and Hunter sought to take over a New York-based hedge fund, according to the book “The Bidens: Inside The First Family’s Fifty-Year Rise to Power” by Politico reporter Ben Schreckinger.
“Don’t worry about investors,” James Biden told corporate executives. “We have people all over the world who want to invest in Joe Biden … We have investors lined up in a line of 747s full of cash.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
