James Biden, the brother of President Joe Biden, is scheduled to sit for a private interview with the Republican-led House Oversight Committee amid the GOP’s impeachment inquiry into the president.
The House Oversight Committee said James Biden will appear for “a transcribed interview” on Feb. 21. The committee in November subpoenaed him and the president’s son, Hunter Biden, for depositions.
The House GOP lawmakers voted in December to authorize the inquiry after months of investigations by Republicans who alleged that President Biden and his family personally profited from policy decisions he made as vice president during the Obama administration.
Mr. Biggs serves on the House Oversight Committee and House Judiciary Committee, both of which are leading the impeachment inquiry.
Mr. Biggs said Republicans have collected thousands of pages of Biden family bank records, including more than 175 suspicious activity reports that banks have used to flag transactions by the Bidens.
The Arizona Republican noted investigations had also identified multiple bank accounts and business entities linked to the various Biden family members.
“We’ve literally received documentation for almost two dozen corporations that appear to be shell corporations. There’s no product that they’re selling, there’s nothing that’s happening there, but money’s being funneled through those corporations and into multiple bank accounts.
“We think that it’s important to get these two individuals in, especially since we’ve had other testimony indicating pretty clearly that the product that they were selling was nothing more than Joe Biden and access to Joe Biden, which certainly seems [like] corruption,” he said.
The House Oversight Committee’s Republican majority highlighted a $40,000 check and a $200,000 check James Biden paid to his brother. The memo lines on both checks, which were paid in September 2017 and March 2018 respectively, stated the funds were for a loan repayment. On the other hand, House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) has questioned the legitimacy of the check’s stated purpose.
Mr. Comer said that James Biden paid the $200,000 check on the same day the president’s brother received a $200,000 loan from one of his business interests, a now-bankrupt rural hospital operator called Americore.
Mr. Comer, citing documents related to Americore’s bankruptcy case, said that James Biden received these loans based on assertions that his last name could “open doors” and that he could leverage his political connections to attract investors from the Middle East to support the business venture.
Paul Fishman of Arnold & Porter, a lawyer representing James Biden, has said that his client “has never involved his brother in his business dealings.”
“Instead of doing anything to help make Americans’ lives better, they are focused on attacking me with lies,” the president said on Dec. 13, 2023.
“Instead of doing their job on the urgent work that needs to be done, they are choosing to waste time on this baseless political stunt that even Republicans in Congress admit is not supported by facts,” he added.
