By Jack Phillips
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the likely next chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said that Republicans will investigate more than 150 suspicious activity reports filed by banks concerning Hunter Biden’s transactions and will attempt to determine whether they’re linked to his father, President Joe Biden.
In an interview with Just the News, Comer said that it “isn’t a fishing expedition” and added that the GOP suspects “Hunter Biden was paying for living expenses for Joe Biden, a significant amount of living expenses. And we want to verify that.”
“The Democrats have set a precedent on this,” he explained. “They filed suit forcing former President [Donald] Trump to have to turn over his tax records. So the Democrats have already set a precedent for bank records and tax records.”
The White House will likely fight back against House Republicans’ efforts to obtain those financial transactions, Comer told the outlet. The administration has already signaled that it believes the suspicious activity reports are not subject to congressional oversight.
“When the White House will inevitably say, ‘Well, Joe Biden wasn’t benefiting from Hunter’s shady business dealings,’ there’s gonna be a little ‘Wait a minute now, who was paying for this, and who was paying for that? How did the President afford this? Who paid for that?’” he explained. “And that’s why we need the bank records.”
House Oversight Republicans released a report (pdf) on Nov. 17 outlining their findings, claiming that they’ve uncovered evidence of federal crimes committed by or to the benefit of the Biden family.
Such crimes, according to Comer, include conspiracy to defraud the United States, wire fraud, violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, tax evasion, money laundering, and violations of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.
“One suspicious activity report generated by an American bank to the Treasury Department connects Hunter Biden and his business associates to international human trafficking, among other illegal activities,” Comer said.
The Epoch Times has contacted Hunter Biden’s lawyer Chris Clark for comment.
In response to House Republicans’ statements about an investigation earlier this month, White House spokesman Ian Sams told The Epoch Times that it is a “politically-motivated” attack that is filled with “conspiracy theories.”
“President Biden is not going to let these political attacks distract him from focusing on Americans’ priorities, and we hope congressional Republicans will join us in tackling them instead of wasting time and resources on political revenge,” Sams said.
Hunter Biden joined the board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma in 2014, around the time his father, the then-vice president, was helping conduct the Obama administration’s foreign policy with Ukraine. Senate Republicans have said the appointment may have posed a conflict of interest.
Messages sourced from Hunter Biden’s laptop, meanwhile, in late 2020 had showed that the younger Biden had business dealings with a Chinese Communist Party-linked investment fund known as CEFC. A whistleblower who worked with the Biden family, Tony Bobulinksi, later revealed that Joe Biden was included in on the deal, was referenced by Hunter as “the big guy,” and was promised 10 percent of the proceeds of the deal.
Months later, Hunter Biden and his father revealed that he is under investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office in Delaware over his tax affairs, although Joe Biden has stated he’s never spoken to his son about his overseas business dealings. Hunter in 2019 also told ABC News that he was engaged in no wrongdoing, although he noted that the deals were a political mistake.
Cathy He and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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