By Tom Ozimek
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) has revealed plans to issue around two dozen subpoenas to members of President Joe Biden’s family in the “very near future,” while accusing the president’s family of running a “very organized criminal enterprise.”
Mr. Comer detailed his intent to serve members of the Biden family with subpoenas during an interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures” on Nov. 5, after being asked whether the recent discovery of a $40,000 payment to Joe Biden is “in step with ’10 percent for the Big Guy.'”
“It matches up perfectly,” Mr. Comer said, referring to bank records showing a $40,000 check to Joe Biden from James Biden, the president’s brother, coming at the end of a series of transactions from a Chinese energy company called CEFC to businesses operated by President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.
Mr. Comer said that this “$40,000 landed in Joe Biden’s pocket after the Bidens laundered it. But that money came from China, further evidence that Joe Biden benefited from his family’s influence-peddling scheme.”
While President Biden and White House spokesman Ian Sams have strenuously denied any wrongdoing on the president’s part—or any involvement in or knowledge of his family’s business dealings—the Oversight Committee has released over 20 examples of evidence tying the president to his son’s business dealings.
“This was a very organized criminal enterprise by the Biden family,” Mr. Comer alleged during the interview on Fox News.
Asked whether he intends to issue any subpoenas in connection with the committee’s probe into the Biden family, Mr. Comer said: “I think you’re gonna see swift action on Biden and I would predict somewhere around two dozen subpoenas in the very near future.”
Repeated Denials
The Comer-led committee has been investigating the Biden family’s business dealings and possible ties to the president, who has repeatedly denied having any involvement in his family’s business affairs.
Besides the $40,000 check, the committee also revealed a separate $200,000 direct payment to Joe Biden, with both checks (which were labeled “loan repayment”) received between his time as vice president and his return to the White House as president.
In Mr. Comer’s view, the payments indicate that Joe Biden was involved in his family’s business dealings.
White House spokesman Ian Sams, however, has labeled Mr. Comer’s allegations against President Biden “lies and conspiracy theories” that have grown more and more fanciful as the GOP-led probe has, in his view, failed to turn up any smoking guns.
“Comer’s lies and conspiracy theories are getting more desperate by the day,” Mr. Sams said in a post on X, after Mr. Comer revealed the $40,000 check.
Later, while referring to both payments (totaling $240,000), Mr. Sams called Mr. Comer’s allegations that President Biden somehow profited from the “loan repayments” as a “complete lie.”
“There was no ‘profit,'” Mr. Sams wrote in a post on X. “The House Republicans know this. They have in their possession financial records showing Joe Biden gave his brother the money, then his brother paid the loan back.”
“They know this. Yet they lie anyway to smear the President,” Mr. Sams added.
Questions Persist
While President Biden’s allies have insisted the checks were a simple loan repayment, Mr. Comer has repeatedly questioned the documentation for the original loan payments Joe Biden allegedly sent his brother for which he was repaid.
Mr. Comer has also said that even if there was a loan, the financial arrangement may still run afoul of tax laws.
“The Internal Revenue Code has specific requirements for delineating and reporting ‘below-market [rate] loans’ from gifts. While there are some exceptions, for example loans of $10,000 or less, the payment in question would not appear exempt from such requirements if it is a loan,” Mr. Comer said in an Oct. 26 statement.
“Indeed, there appears to have been no interest paid on the ‘loan’ based upon the White House’s own representations. The current lack of documentation leaves reason to doubt claims that this transaction was repayment for a legal loan,” he said.
In his interview on Fox News, Mr. Comer said that, in the coming weeks, the Biden family will claim that the funds were loan repayments “because you don’t have to report loans on your taxes.”
He accused the Biden family of both money laundering and tax evasion.
Both the White House and President Biden’s allies elsewhere have pushed back on Mr. Comer’s suggestion that the two checks to Joe Biden amount to any evidence of wrongdoing.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said he expects to decide “very soon” whether to move beyond the current House impeachment inquiry of President Biden and begin pursuing articles of impeachment.
