The top Democrat on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee is accusing committee Republicans of conducting their investigation of the Biden family’s business dealings “behind a veil of secrecy,” charging that the majority party has privately issued subpoenas without providing Democrats sufficient notice.
“Committee Republicans’ decision to conduct this probe behind a veil of secrecy runs counter to the Committee’s traditional commitment to transparency and raises serious questions about the integrity of the investigation,” Raskin wrote. “Further, Chairman [James] Comer’s furtive actions have resulted in at least one misaddressed subpoena and the release of private citizens’ personal financial information that was compelled by Committee Republicans without any notice to the affected parties.”
According to the memo, subpoenas have thus far been issued to Bank of America, Cathay Bank, JP Morgan Chase, HSBC Bank USA N.A., and Mervyn Yan, a former business associate of Hunter Biden. Initially, the subpoena for HSBC Bank USA N.A. was misaddressed under the incorrect name, so a sixth subpoena was later issued to correct that mistake.
“Had Committee Democrats received proper notice, we may have been in a position to prevent Chairman Comer from issuing a subpoena to the wrong entity—an issue that previously caused harm to the integrity of Committee investigations under a prior Republican chair,” Raskin said.
In all, the subpoenas sought the financial records of six individuals and at least 10 entities and spanned a period of at least 14 years “in most cases.”
Citing Comer’s declaration in several media interviews that four witnesses had provided information to the committee about the Biden family’s “influence peddling,” Raskin noted that Democrats were only made aware of two such witnesses.
“Your repeated statements about ‘four people’ suggest that either you have intentionally misrepresented the Committee’s investigative progress to your conservative audience or that key investigative steps have been deliberately withheld from Committee Democrats,” he wrote.
In response to a query from The Epoch Times, a spokesman for Comer said that “the Oversight Committee’s investigation remains focused on suspicious activity reports held by the Treasury Department and Biden family members’ and associates’ bank records we’ve obtained.”
“The authenticity of these documents and records are indisputable and Ranking Member Raskin’s attempt to muddy the water is a last-ditch effort to cover up the Biden family’ shady business schemes,” the spokesperson added.
