The next steps in the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden are to obtain Hunter and James Biden’s personal and business bank records as well as conduct interviews with additional Biden associates, the House Oversight Committee signaled.
House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) plans to “pursue Hunter and James Biden’s personal and business bank records,” committee spokeswoman Jessica Collins told Punchbowl News Tuesday.
“The Committee also plans to interview additional Biden family associates,” she added.
The committee already obtained about 170 bank records from suspicious activity reports (SARs) flagged by U.S. banks to the U.S. Treasury. But SARs only convey information flagged as suspicious, not every transaction that occurred within the Biden business or between family members and associates.
Comer requested Hunter and James Biden divulge personal bank records in February, but those requests were not fulfilled.
“My job’s to follow the money,” Comer said Tuesday. “And now, with this impeachment inquiry, we have the tools necessary to hopefully get that information.”
Bank records obtained in May showed the Biden business received at least $10 million from business schemes in Romania and China. In August, Comer revealed the Biden family business received more than $20 million from Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan while Joe Biden was vice president.
In total, nine Biden family members received payments from the family foreign business ventures, including two of Joe Biden’s grandchildren.
Republicans are interested in the Biden bank records to ascertain if Joe Biden accepted money in connection with the Biden business.
In June, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) released an FBI information record that alleged Joe Biden and Hunter Biden each received $5 million from Mykola Zlochevsky, the founder of Burisma Holdings, after Joe Biden threatened to withhold aid to Ukraine until then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko fired a prosecutor investigating Burisma.
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Zlochevsky allegedly referenced Joe Biden as the “big guy,” the same alias used by four others, including Hunter Biden. A now-infamous email described “Ten [percent] held by H for the big guy” in a deal with CEFC China Energy Co.
Emails also show Hunter Biden alleged on April 12, 2018, that he and his father were both using a single bank account: “Too many cooks in the kitchen. Too many profile changes and such. Happened 10 days ago too . . . My dad has been using most lines on this account which I’ve through the gracious offerings of Eric have paid for past 11 years.”
Hunter Biden also claimed he was “forced to give half his salary” to Joe Biden and “paid thousands to repair dad’s home.”
“I hope you all can do what I did and pay for everything for this entire family for 30 years,” Hunter described in texts to his daughter. “It’s really hard. But don’t worry, unlike Pop [Joe], I won’t make you give me half your salary.”
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Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.