House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., speaks during hearing on Capitol Hill, Feb. 8, 2023, in Washington.
Carolyn Kaster, Associated Press
The House Oversight and Accountability Committee issued a memo Thursday stating relatives of President Joe Biden secured over $1.3 million from a family business associate shortly after the associate received money from China.
The House GOP subpoenaed the records as part of its investigation into the Biden family’s business dealings.
Bank accounts connected to James Biden Sr., the president’s brother; Hunter Biden, the president’s son; Hallie Biden, the president’s daughter-in-law; and an account identified as “Biden,” collectively received over $1 million in payments in 2017 from family business associate John Robinson “Rob” Walker, according to the memo.
According to House Republicans, Walker paid out the money soon after receiving a $3 million wire transfer from a Chinese energy company in March 2017, two months after then-Vice President Joe Biden left office.
The committee noted that Walker’s business account balance was less than $160k before the multi-million dollar transfer was received.
Walker also transferred over $1 million the next day to companies connected to associates of the Bidens, according to the committee. The committee obtained the records after serving a subpoena to Bank of America.
“It is unclear what services were provided to obtain this exorbitant amount of money,” GOP chairman Rep. James Comer of Kentucky said in a statement.
Comer said he released the memo after the committee’s ranking Democrat, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, “mischaracterized” the findings of the subpoena by calling attention to Walker’s “miscellaneous purchases” of “Papa John’s” and “coffee at Starbucks.”
“It must be frustrating to my GOP colleagues to have even Fox News commentators rolling their eyes about this tiresome fishing expedition, but I want to stress that there always remains the possibility of doing serious bipartisan legislative oversight work together,” Raskin said, according to USA Today, referencing the GOP’s multi-year investigation into Hunter Biden.
But Comer said the committee was “concerned about the national security implications resulting from President Biden’s family receiving millions of dollars from foreign nationals.”
“We will continue to follow the money trail and facts to determine if President Biden is compromised by his family’s business schemes and if there is a national security threat,” he said.
A spokesperson for Hunter Biden did not deny the amounts disclosed by the committee but said Comer was perpetuating a conspiracy theory.
“Here we go again as Rep. Comer takes something old and tries to make it new by wrapping it in a wild and baseless right-wing conspiracy,” the spokesperson said.
“Hunter Biden, a private citizen with every right to pursue his own business endeavors, joined several business partners in seeking a joint venture with a privately-owned, legitimate energy company in China,” the spokesperson told Fox News. “As part of that joint venture, Hunter received his portion of good faith seed funds which he shared with his uncle, James Biden, and Hallie Biden, with whom he was involved with at the time, and sharing expenses.”
White House spokesperson Ian Sams likewise accused Comer and House Republicans of investigating with political motives, according to the New York Post.
“After a disgusting attack lamenting that the president’s deceased son Beau was never prosecuted while he was alive, Congressman Comer has now decided to go after Beau’s widow,” Sams said. “Instead of bizarrely attacking the president’s family, perhaps House Republicans should focus on working with the president to deliver results for American families on important priorities like lowering costs and strengthening health care.”
Hallie Biden is the widow of the president’s deceased son, Beau. Earlier this month, Comer said Beau Biden should have been prosecuted for alleged campaign donation violations when he was still alive.
The committee memo said they will continue to use all tools at their disposal to investigate. They also pledged to develop legislation to “strengthen reporting requirements related to certain foreign transactions involving senior elected officials’ family members.”