House Republicans accused the White House of “obstructing” their pursuit of inquiries into President Joe Biden on Friday. The investigations center on the alleged mishandling of classified documents and the Biden family’s business dealings.
A senior White House attorney wrote to the GOP-led House Oversight and Judiciary committees on Friday, urging the withdrawal of multiple subpoenas issued to Biden staffers and family members. More than 20 people received these subpoenas, with House Judiciary Committee Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) saying there were “more to come.”
The two powerful committees say they’ve found indications of “influence peddling” by members of the president’s family in their business dealings, according to House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.).
Mr. Comer responded to the letter from Richard Sauber, special counsel to the president, expressing the view that it indicates the White House intends to obstruct their inquiries.
Challenging the administration, Mr. Comer said that if the president had nothing to hide, his aides should be made available for committee interviews concerning the classified documents probe.
However, the White House pushed back against the House Republicans’ claims in a four-page letter in which Mr. Sauber accused them of misrepresenting facts and disregarding “overwhelming evidence,” which he says contradicts their allegations.
“This pattern of distortions and falsehoods lays bare that no amount of truthful testimony or document productions will satisfy you and exposes the improper nature of your Committee’s efforts,” Mr. Sauber wrote in his letter to Mr. Comer and Mr. Jordan.
Mr. Sauber characterized the subpoenas as an act of “congressional harassment” and criticized the GOP’s efforts as an attempt to “score political points,” saying that this “is precisely the type of conduct that the Constitution and its separation of powers was meant to prevent.”
The letter also noted that some subpoenas targeted private citizens, including Hallie Biden, the widow of the president’s son Beau, and Sara Biden, the president’s sister-in-law.
Former White House counsel Dana Remus and other White House aides were also subpoenaed earlier this week to speak with the committee on whether President Biden had mishandled classified information. That issue is under investigation by special counsel Robert Hur.
Mr. Comer, citing newly surfaced information, challenged the White House’s “narrative of events” and demanded clarity on the classified materials’ potential role in the Bidens’ financial dealings.
“We also need to know if these classified materials aided the Bidens’ global influence-peddling enterprise that brought in tens of millions for the Bidens and their associates,” Mr. Comer said on Friday.
Mr. Comer charged that the White House is withholding over 82,000 pages of emails in which President Biden is alleged to have used a pseudonym when he was vice president, refuses to provide proof that President Biden “loaned his brother money, and now seeks to block the Bidens, their associates, and current and former White House staff from testifying before Congress.”
“This obstruction does not deter us, and we will continue to follow the facts and hold President Biden accountable to the American people,” Mr. Comer said.
The White House attorney, Mr. Sauber, dismissed the GOP’s pursuit as an illegitimate impeachment inquiry lacking evidence. He argued that House Republicans were “improperly weaponizing the oversight powers of Congress” for political gain.
The White House attorney added that House Republicans have “consistently misrepresented the documents and testimony you have received and then moved the goalposts when your claims have been debunked.”
While representatives for Hunter Biden dismissed the subpoenas as a “political stunt,” they expressed willingness for him to address the Oversight Committee publicly at the appropriate time.
Similarly, an attorney for James Biden argued that the committee had already reviewed relevant private bank records related to transactions between the Biden brothers.
