House Republicans are investigating whether President Joe Biden received any “defensive” briefings related to foreign interference as he sold political influence overseas while in the upper echelons of American government.
On Monday, the chairmen of the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees sent letters to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines demanding the administration give details of any briefings they gave Biden about his family's influence-peddling schemes.
“The Committees seek to understand if, because of Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings and his vulnerabilities, Joe Biden was given 'defensive' briefings to discuss potential foreign interference either during his time as Vice President or while he was a presidential candidate,” lawmakers write in both letters.
The FBI director and the director of national intelligence were given until April 29 to respond.
In their letters, House Republicans outlined the major findings of their impeachment inquiry that has uncovered a series of financial relationships with foreign oligarchs. Former Biden family business partners have testified about the president's influence-peddling schemes and claimed they opened risks for national security. Tony Bobulinski went as far as to claim President Joe Biden was “compromised” by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) even before the 2020 election.
“I want to be crystal clear: from my direct personal experience and what I have subsequently come to learn, it is clear to me that Joe Biden was 'the brand' being sold by the Biden family,” Bobulinski told lawmakers at a March hearing. “His family's foreign influence peddling operation — from China to Ukraine and elsewhere — sold out to foreign actors who were seeking to gain influence and access to Joe Biden and the United States government.”
House investigators have discovered more than 20 shell companies established by the Biden family to funnel tens of millions of dollars from foreign oligarchs.
In their Monday letters, lawmakers outlined payments from leaders in China, Ukraine, Russia, and Kazakhstan while citing evidence that President Biden “was aware of, and involved in, his family's influence peddling scheme.”
House Oversight Chairman James Comer of Kentucky formally requested testimony from President Biden last month.
“The Committee has identified and successfully traced money from foreign transactions — including from China — to your own bank accounts,” wrote Comer. “…In addition to requesting that you answer the questions posed in this letter, I invite you to participate in a public hearing at which you will be afforded the opportunity to explain, under oath, your involvement with your family’s sources of income and the means it has used to generate it.”
Comer also said last month that Republicans' impeachment proceedings would most likely culminate in criminal referrals to the Department of Justice.
Hunter Biden, who had previously made a public hearing a prerequisite for cooperation with House Republicans, declined lawmakers' invitation to testify at an open forum. Instead, Hunter Biden's attorney, Abbe Lowell, demanded House Republicans hold a hearing into a former client's business deals, in a potential violation of legal ethics rules.
Hunter Biden testified only in private, and, according to Wyoming Rep. Harriet Hageman, used his addictions as an excuse to avoid answering tough questions.
Read Monday's letters below:
Source link