Businessman James Biden, younger brother of President Joe Biden, said in a closed-door deposition to House impeachment investigators yesterday that the president wasn’t involved in his business dealings.
The deposition comes at a critical moment for House Republicans’ Biden impeachment inquiry after a key witness in the probe was charged by the special counsel with lying about the alleged role of the president and his son Hunter Biden in the Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
Biden spoke to the House Judiciary Committee, which is assisting in an impeachment inquiry into the president.
Republicans have alleged in past findings that the president’s brother benefited from Hunter Biden’s business dealings, making about $360,000 on at least one known occasion. The finding came as part of a larger GOP-led investigation into allegations of influence peddling by the first family, and potentially by the president himself.
But during his opening remarks to the panel, Biden insisted that over the course of his decades-long career, Joe Biden had never been involved.
“I have had a 50-year career in a variety of business ventures,” Biden said in opening remarks. “Joe Biden has never had any involvement or any direct or indirect financial interest in those activities. None.”
“In every business venture in which I have been involved, I have relied on my own talent, judgment, skill, and personal relationships—and never my status as Joe Biden’s brother,” Biden said. “Those who have said or thought otherwise were either mistaken, ill-informed, or flat-out lying.”
Republicans leaving the hearing didn’t go into much depth about what they discovered but suggested that they found Biden’s answers lacking.
“He certainly said some things that make you wonder if he’s maybe conveniently forgetting something,“ House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said, though he didn’t elucidate. “Some of the answers we got just don’t make a whole lot of sense.”
Asked whether Biden was answering questions in good faith, Rep. William Timmons (R-S.C.) quipped, “He was answering questions.”
The hearing comes after major doubts have been cast on the validity of a document claiming the Bidens benefited from a protection deal with the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma. Special Counsel David Weiss has charged the source of that document with peddling false information backed by Russian state actors.
Republicans leading the inquiry have downplayed the relevance of these allegations.
But for House Oversight Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), they mark the unofficial end of the inquiry.
“The impeachment investigation essentially ended yesterday in substance if not in form,” he told reporters.
The transcript of Biden’s closed-door hearing can be expected to be released to the public in the coming weeks.
—Joseph Lord
BIDEN HOLDS THE MOST CASH
President Joe Biden, according to a murky picture presented by monthly federal filings and a report from his campaign, is the far and away leader in the presidential cash race.
The major presidential candidates revealed some of their financial information on Feb. 20 when they filed monthly reports with the Federal Election Commission. Key fundraisers for Biden, Nikki Haley, and Donald Trump won’t show their hands until Tax Day.
Nevertheless, the filings and the campaign say the president had access to more than $130 million in cash on hand at the end of January. Biden For President, the only Biden organization that reported on Tuesday, raised about $15.7 million in January and had about $56 million in cash.
Trump, besieged by trials and judgments, raised around $21.2 million between three political action committees that back him: Donald J. Trump For President Inc., Save America, and Make America Great Again Inc. The groups had about $47.7 million on hand at the end of January.
Save America and the other PACs plunked down more than $3.6 million on legal expenses in January.
Haley, who says she’s not going anywhere, continues to rake in donations. However, her cash reserves could be dwindling.
Nikki Haley For President and a hybrid PAC that supports her, SFA Fund Inc., brought in about $23.6 million in January. The pair had about $14.9 million in cash on hand at the end of the month.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., in spite of a Super Bowl splurge, maintains a multimillion-dollar reserve, too.
His committee, Team Kennedy, and a hybrid PAC, American Values 2024, raised about $12.4 million in January. The two funds entered February with about $6.3 million in cash on hand.
—Austin Alonzo
EPA SMOG RULE BEFORE SCOTUS
The Supreme Court considered yesterday halting the Environmental Protection Agency’s “Good Neighbor” policy, which aims to control air pollution that crosses state lines.
Ohio and other states have warned about blackouts resulting from the regulation. On Wednesday, Ohio Deputy Solicitor General Mathura Sridharan said: “At the breakneck speed we’re going in order to go get into compliance with an unlawful federal rule, we are spending immense sums, both the states as well as our industries. And on top of that, we are facing the threat of power shortages and heating shortages.”
In its current form, the plan only applies to 11 states, rather than the 23 it initially targeted, due to resistance from lower courts.
Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan seemed to be the most critical of states requesting emergency relief from the regulation. “
It’s fairly extraordinary, I think, to be asking the court to decide this matter when you haven’t even lost below in terms of what is before the D.C. Circuit … I’m trying to understand what the emergency is that warrants Supreme Court intervention at this point,” Justice Jackson told Sridharan at one point.
Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch seemed more sympathetic to the request for a stay with the former suggesting the EPA had been unclear about how its multi-state scheme would unfold.
–Sam Dorman
WHAT’S HAPPENING
- Vice President Kamala Harris travels to Michigan as part of her national tour focused on access to abortion.
- Trump speaks at the International Christian Media Convention in Nashville, Tennessee, at 8 p.m. ET.
The Biden administration is taking a number of actions aimed at bolstering cybersecurity and fending off threats posed by the Chinese Communist Party at ports across the United States, The Epoch Times’ Katabella Roberts reports. Yesterday Biden signed an executive order that will boost the security of the nation’s ports and other maritime interests.
Democrats in coastal, left-leaning cities are paying the political price for pushing so-called clean energy initiatives, Politico reports. Following the push for these alternative energy sources, utility bills for those affected skyrocketed—and voters aren’t happy about it.
China is often seen as a political and economic powerhouse that’s strongly competitive with the United States. But, The Epoch Times’ Terri Wu reports, that appearance could be misleading, as signs suggest that “a recession is hiding in plain sight” in the country.
The Biden administration is set to wipe out $1.2 billion in student loan debt for select borrowers, The Epoch Times’ Bill Pan reports. It’s the latest in a series of sometimes-challenged executive actions taken by the president to relieve student loan burdens on American citizens.
Florida’s state government may soon be requiring that public schools teach children about the history of communism, The Epoch Times’ T.J. Muscaro reports. A bill that would require this curriculum was favorably reported out of a Senate committee, moving the bill one step closer to passage.
