House GOP makes clear it's going after Joe Biden via Hunter - POLITICO
By: JORDAIN CARNEY
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Now that they've taken the majority at last, House Republicans made it explicit on Thursday: Their long-simmering investigation into Hunter Biden investigation is really about his father.
"I want to be clear: This is an investigation of Joe Biden, and that's where the committee will focus in the next Congress," said incoming Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.), who's seen as the party's leading player in Hunter Biden oversight.
Comer and others haven't been shy about their efforts being a probe in search of a problem — a hunt for a smoking gun that would provide a still-unproven direct link between Joe Biden's decisions as vice president or president and his son's business dealings. But the public rollout of those plans, one day after Republicans officially won the House in the midterm elections, shows where a GOP facing partisan gridlock will focus much of its attention for the next two years.
House Republicans kick-started the push Thursday by doubling down on document requests to a flurry of agencies and releasing an interim report that skirted around the lack of evidence implicating the president. It said Joe Biden "misused his public position" to benefit his family financially and "created the potential" that he could be influenced.
"We're trying to stay focused on: 'Was Joe Biden directly involved with Hunter Biden's business deals' and 'was he compromised,'" Comer said about the thrust of the investigation.
It's a far cry from the days of the Benghazi select committee, when House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy earned the public's ire for depicting an inquiry into an attack on U.S. officials in Libya as a way to wound Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton. And it's revisiting well-trodden ground: a pair of Senate Republicans released a report on Hunter Biden and other family members weeks before the 2020 election, when Joe Biden was the party's nominee.
Meanwhile, congressional Democrats and Biden's allies are preparing to go on defense — with the DNC circulating a memo on Comer Thursday calling him a "conspiracy theorist, Trump sycophant, [and] proven liar"— while also predicting that an investigation will backfire with swing voters in the 2024 election, as Biden flirts with a second run.
With much of House Republicans' legislative agenda already in limbo due to Democrats winning the Senate and Biden in the White House, their investigative plans are expected to take center stage next year. Democrats have pointed to incoming Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan's (R-Ohio) comments earlier this year that investigations will help "frame up" the 2024 presidential election as evidence that GOP probes and their political ambitions are inextricably tied together.
"Instead of working with President Biden to address issues important to the American people, like lower costs, congressional Republicans' top priority is to go after President Biden with politically-motivated attacks chock full of long-debunked conspiracy theories," said Ian Sams, a spokesperson for the White House counsel's office.
And a spokesperson for Democrats on the Oversight Committee added that Comer is "saying the quiet part out loud: Now that former President Trump is running for office again, House Republicans' top priority is attacking President Biden and his family in a desperate attempt to return Mr. Trump to power."
Republicans offered hints of their first targets next year, as more than a dozen GOP lawmakers convened a press conference Thursday morning. Though they had announced the timing of the press conference earlier this week, it ended up being the first House GOP press conference since the party formally won control less than 24 hours beforehand.
And Comer is setting the bar high, even as Republicans struggle to connect the president to the ongoing federal inquiry into Hunter Biden. He claimed that lawmakers have already "uncovered evidence of federal crimes committed by and to the benefit of the president's family" including conspiracy of defrauding the United States, wire fraud, violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, tax evasion and money laundering.
That will result in a final report at the end of the Hunter Biden probe, as well as potential law enforcement referrals or legislative changes, Comer and Jordan said.
The group unveiled a 31-page interim report, which Comer sourced to "multiple whistleblowers," "previously unknown transactions" and information from an infamous laptop. POLITICO has not undergone the process to authenticate the laptop, but reporter Ben Schreckinger has confirmed the authenticity of some emails on it.
They also resent requests to a bevy of administration entities, including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, the National Archives and FBI Director Christopher Wray, and the gallery responsible for selling Hunter Biden's artwork. Asked about calling Hunter Biden or other family members to testify next year, Comer noted "we'd love to talk to people in the Biden family, specifically Hunter and Jim Biden," referring to the president's brother.
Oversight panel Republicans also want copies of Treasury Department suspicious activity reports related to Hunter Biden. Treasury has rebuffed their requests, indicating that it is the department's policy to require committee chairs or a majority of members to approve demands for those reports, which flag suspicious behavior but don't necessarily indicate wrongdoing. Republicans are in possession of two of the reports, which Comer said they did not get from Treasury and can be found online.
"I think the most important thing for us right now is to get those bank records," Comer said.
Regardless, Republicans know their hopes for cooperation are low.
"They've now set up a committee ... to attack us and to come after us. So, I don't know, you guess. They're probably not going to work with us too well," Jordan said, pointing to a POLITICO report on a war room Democratic strategists have established.
The GOP probe comes as the Justice Department is investigating whether the president's son violated foreign lobbying laws — including connections to a Chinese energy company — in addition to his tax dealings. Republicans acknowledged that DOJ may have investigated some of their claims.
"Maybe they have," Jordan said. "We don't know."
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So, nothing about inflation or the border which they yell and scream about non stop....
Get power and those things are out the window.
Yea, they'll carry on like fools for YEARS.
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As everyone will remind Republicans for the next two years they only hold the House. Which means they don't have the power to enact any laws.
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Which means there is plenty of time for reprisals- which Democrats so richly deserve.
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Wonder how many times they can impeach Brandon, Garland, and Mayorkas in two years? Hopefully at least 3 times. Need to break the Democrat's record for Trump.
I don't get this seven year itch. You are going into Obama's term.
Thanks for confirming what we all knew, the republican congress is only out for revenge.
Funny you seem to ignore all the previous republican investigations, like the Benghazi investigations, the Hillary email investigations.
But do go on and act like investigating trump was the travesty of the century.
Also you can stop with the seven year itch you seem to have as the dems have not held complete power in that whole time frame.
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Says the one that can't count. 6 years does not equal seven.
Conspiracy theory all around and calling me names.
You are lucky Dev caught you or you would have points.
And for Jim voting that up, shows true character there Jim....
their schools of political carp and suckers swallow those doughballs every time...
There is nothing there, they just can't get over trump losing in 2020. This will be as productive as the fake Durham investigations.
How long is that going to go on? I guess find nothing so keep looking.
It is turning into one of the longest investigations in US history, with nothing to show for it.
Get
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The Republican Freak Show is just getting geared up. Comer, Greene and Jordan are going to be competing to see how much U.S. taxpayer money they can waste with their idiotic witch hunts. In 2 years they can easily exceed $500 million - $1 billion.
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Assume the GOPERS will use the 'Hunter Biden Thing' to keep the questions away from Trump Border funding appropriations and Russian/Saudi/Chinese money.
Never thought of that. Good point
Can't understand why Trump border funding was never audited. Where did all that money go? Did some of it end up offshore?
The Republicans ran on several issues in this last election.
What is their plan to - fix inflation?
- fight crime?
- fix immigration?
Answer: Investigate Hunter Biden!
Exactly
I thought they were going to wave a magic wand and fix everything. Their supporters seem to think so
I think that their supporters primarily wanted to stop Dems.
OT and NV? if you say so... Anyone that didn't think Republicans weren't going to investigate or quite possibly impeach Biden et al if they gained control of the House is delusional.....
We all knew what the Republicans were planning, but anyone who voted for them for that purpose is certifiably insane.
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That is what Putin says about Ukrainians!
That they're fascists who deserve to die...
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Do you have any idea how completely deranged your comment sounds?
Sickeningly, there are Putinite Fascists in America among the hardcore right wing reactionary extremists.
The Lincoln Project Republicans won't have it...
There are not 218 gop votes to impeach Biden!
Biden has not committed impeachable crimes...
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No, they are not and you well know it. Boehner left office at the right time when he saw the Tea Party Populists forming the Freedom Caucus. The first few months of the new House will be a shit show of who's really going to be running the show there. I don't think McCarthy is up to the task.
Boehner voted for Trump. The Lincoln Project rans ads for Biden and against pretty much every Republican in a contested election. The Lincoln project is a grift that takes money from Democratic donors and uses it to pay for the founders legal bills and lavish styles. The idea that there are "Lincoln project Republicans" in Congress is a myth that the uninformed fell for. It's sad to see how many people fell for it.
It's a grift like BLM or We Build the Wall.
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