House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer announced a slew of subpoenas on Wednesday targeting members of President Joe Biden’s family, including his son Hunter Biden, his brother James Biden, and Hunter Biden’s former business partner Rob Walker, demanding that they appear for depositions.
The subpoenas, which Coomer has threatened for months, represent an escalation in his committee’s ongoing impeachment investigation of President Biden. The committee had previously asked banks to obtain records related to Hunter and James Biden.
In addition to the subpoenas, the committee is requesting written interviews with other members of Biden’s family and aides, including Hunter Biden’s wife, Melissa Cohen, and Beau Biden’s widow, Hallie Biden. James Biden’s wife, Sarah, also requested written interviews; Elizabeth Sekondi, Hallie Biden’s older sister; Tony Bobulinski, Hunter Biden’s former business partner.
The investigation, which also includes the Judiciary Committee and the Ways and Means committees, was briefly halted amid a lengthy speaker battle last month.
House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., arrives for the weekly meeting of the House Republican Conference in the basement of the U.S. Capitol on November 7, 2023, in Washington, D.C.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
In a statement to ABC News, Coomer said: “The House Oversight Committee pursued the funds and created a trail of evidence revealing how Joe Biden knew, participated in, and benefited from his family’s influence-peddling schemes. Now, the House Oversight Committee is taking on the influence-peddling task.” “We will bring in the Biden family members and associates for questioning about this record of evidence.”
“This is yet another political stunt designed to distract from the blatant failure of Rep. Comer and his MAGA allies to prove one of their wild and now discredited conspiracies around the Biden family,” Abbe Lowell, Hunter Biden’s attorney, said in a statement. However, Hunter is eager to have the opportunity, in a public forum and at the appropriate time, to discuss these matters with the Committee.”
Along with members of the Biden family, one of the subpoenas targets Hunter Biden’s former business partner, Walker, who Walker said, in a December 2020 interview with the FBI, “certainly never thought at any point that the Vice President [Biden] “It was part of everything we were doing.” He explained that the idea that President Biden would ever be involved was “wishful thinking” on the part of another business partner, James Gilliard, akin to “a unicorn and a rainbow.”
Comer’s investigation has been marked by criticism — even from some Republicans — claiming that the nearly yearlong investigation into Biden has not yet produced enough evidence for impeachment.
Rep. Jamie Raskin, the committee’s ranking Democrat, criticized the subpoenas and the “farcical impeachment hearing.”
“The committee has already obtained the personal financial records of the three citizens subpoenaed by Chairman Comer: the president’s brother, his son, and one of their business partners, Rob Walker,” Raskin wrote in part in a lengthy statement. “The Committee also has Mr. Walker’s interview with the FBI and a summary of his interview with the IRS, which Republicans have already released. These subpoenas and interview requests are further evidence that this sham impeachment investigation is driven only by the demands of President Trump.” “The vengeful and devious Donald Trump.”
Hunter Biden, exiting the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building in Delaware, July 26, 2023
Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Hunter Biden’s lawyers submitted a lengthy letter Wednesday morning to new House Speaker Mike Johnson — ahead of the subpoenas — asking him to intervene in the Republican investigation into Joe Biden and his family.[stop] And prevent them from continuing their partisan political games.”
The 12-page letter, obtained by ABC News, outlines seven alleged lies told by Comer and Reps. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Jason Smith, R-Mo., about the Biden family and their various business endeavors. .
Lowell, the letter’s author, said Republicans’ behavior “is ripe for your interference” and asked him to follow through on his pledge to “restore the integrity and reputation of your House.”
“Even in the age of ‘alternative facts,’ your colleagues’ manipulation and disregard for the truth is astonishing,” Lowell wrote. “Please remind [them] What I said recently: House Republicans have a “constitutional responsibility to pursue this.”[e] “The truth is wherever it leads, and I promised to follow only the facts and not use this in partisan political games.”
“These presidents are about to ignore your warning by continuing to pursue baseless allegations,” Lowell added.
This article originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
