WASHINGTON – House Republicans will hold their first public hearing in the impeachment inquiry against President Biden on Thursday, Sept. 28.
A spokesman for the House Oversight Committee told The Post Tuesday the hearing will focus on “constitutional and legal questions surrounding the president’s involvement in corruption and abuse of public office.”
Ahead of the hearing, the panel led by Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) plans to subpoena the bank records of Hunter Biden’s first son and first brother James Biden, whose overseas business interests were at the center of the impeachment inquiry announced by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) last week.
The subpoena seeks to determine whether funds from countries such as China and Ukraine flow to Joe Biden and could set off a lengthy court battle over Congress’ right to access that information.
“The Oversight Committee will continue to follow the evidence and money trail to provide the transparency and accountability that the American people demand from their government,” the spokesman said.
James Comer has long alleged that Hunter Biden and other family members participated in an influence peddling scheme to usurp Joe Biden’s political power.AP
White House spokesman Ian Sams blasted the hearing, which will be held before a possible partial government shutdown on October 1, and said it was intended to “distract from [Republicans’] its own chaotic inability to rule.”
“Conducting political action hearings in the waning days before they can shut down the government reveals their true priorities,” Sams said. “For them, a baseless personal attack on President Biden is more important than preventing a government shutdown and the pain it will cause the American family.”
The president routinely interacted with his son’s and brother’s international business associates while serving as vice president, and Hunter, now 53, complained in messages taken from his abandoned laptop that he had to pay “half” of his earnings to his father.
President Biden has insisted that he does not participate in his son Hunter’s business dealings.
Republicans have not yet determined whether Joe Biden received money from his family’s foreign ventures, but are investigating incriminating messages including a 2017 text message in which Hunter Biden pressured a businessman with ties to the Chinese government to go along with the deal by warning that he was “sitting here.” with my father,” shortly before the $5.1 million transfer.
That May, Joe Biden — referred to as “the big guy” in an email — was given a 10% cut of the same Chinese venture by one of Hunter’s partners.
The Oversight Committee is also investigating a paid FBI whistleblower’s tip that Joe and Hunter Biden accepted $10 million in bribes from Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings in exchange for the elder Biden’s help in impeaching Kyiv Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, who is investigating the firm.
Hunter Biden also faces federal charges over tax and gun crimes after a plea deal collapsed in the summer.REUTERS
Burisma paid Hunter up to $1 million a year starting in early 2014, when his father assumed control of the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy, and the then-vice president had dinner in DC with a Burisma executive in 2015 — despite publicly claiming he “never” discussed business with his son.
The president’s alleged role in additional business relationships involving his son and associates from China, Kazakhstan, Romania, Russia and Mexico is also being examined by the committee.
Hunter Biden’s former business partner Devon Archer told the Oversight Committee on July 31 that Joe Biden used speakerphone during about 20 business meetings with his son’s associates, had two meals in DC with his Eastern European and Central Asian clients and had coffee at Beijing and then spoke by phone with the CEO of the government-backed fund Hunter co-founded.
Archer, who is serving prison time for fraud, said Hunter and two Burisma leaders left a December 2015 meeting in Dubai to call then-Vice President Biden — just before Joe Biden reportedly caught a fellow US official off guard by tying up $1 billion in bail US loan for the removal of Shokin.
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
