House Republicans Seek Information on Hunter Biden’s Finances
Finances of the younger Mr. Biden have been focus for Republicans for several years, including GOP-led Senate probe launched before 2020 election that looked at business deals in Ukraine
WASHINGTON—Republicans on the House Oversight Committee are laying the groundwork for a probe into Hunter Biden’s finances, part of efforts to keep the president’s son in the spotlight ahead of midterm elections.
The top Republican on the committee on Wednesday sent letters to numerous banks and the Treasury Department requesting more information about Hunter Biden and his associates. The letters, viewed by The Wall Street Journal, ask for financial records.
The probe has no Democratic support, and House Republicans have no enforcement powers. But should Republicans win House control in November, as many polls suggest, they would gain the power to hold hearings and issue subpoenas.
Lawmakers involved said the requests for information are a sign of where the GOP will focus its investigative authority. “We’re definitely laying the groundwork to come out of the gate in January,” said Rep. James Comer (R., Ky.), the ranking Republican on the oversight committee.
The White House declined to comment on the prospective probe into Hunter Biden’s business dealings.
A lawyer for Hunter Biden declined to comment on the Republican plans for a probe of his client’s finances.
Mr. Comer said investigating whether President Biden had any links with his son’s business dealings would be a priority. Hunter Biden hasn’t been charged with any criminal activity.
The Journal’s previous reporting found Joe Biden played no role in Hunter Biden’s enterprises or deals. The elder Mr. Biden said he hasn’t been involved in his son’s dealings.
Federal prosecutors have called several of Hunter Biden’s associates and other witnesses to testify before a grand jury looking into whether he violated tax or other laws, including those governing lobbying for foreign governments, through his business relationships in Ukraine, China, Kazakhstan and elsewhere, the Journal has reported.
Republicans have worked to turn these ventures abroad into a liability for Joe Biden. The then-GOP-led Senate launched an investigation before the 2020 election that looked at Hunter Biden’s business deals in Ukraine.
The Senate Republican investigation into the Bidens’ role in Ukraine found no wrongdoing, though the report said two Obama administration officials had raised concerns to the White House in 2015 about Hunter Biden serving on the board of a gas company called Burisma Holdings Ltd. because it created a perception of a conflict of interest. The younger Mr. Biden was paid around $50,000 a month for the role. He has denied wrongdoing but said he showed poor judgment in taking the Burisma board seat.
Addressing the report in September 2020, Andrew Bates, a spokesman for the Biden campaign, said before the report’s release that Sen. Ron Johnson (R., Wis.), the then-chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee who led the probe, was using committee resources to “subsidize a foreign attack against the sovereignty of our elections with taxpayer dollars.”
The Democratic-led House impeached President Donald Trump in 2019 for actions related to withholding aid to Ukraine while he was pressing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate whether Joe Biden, as vice president in the Obama administration, sought to remove a prosecutor to protect Burisma on whose board his son served—an allegation that wasn’t substantiated. Mr. Trump was acquitted by the GOP-led Senate.
Mr. Comer said that while the Senate investigation revolved around Burisma, the House GOP probe would be broader. “We’re investigating everything,” he said.
Mr. Comer said his probe would look at what the president’s son has done since President Biden took office in January 2021, specifically with the undisclosed buyers of Hunter Biden’s art and Hunter Biden’s work in 2017 to help CEFC China Energy Co., a now-defunct Shanghai energy and financial business that pursued projects around the world. Sens. Chuck Grassley (R., Iowa) and Johnson recently released bank records tracking these transactions.
The White House has bolstered its legal team in anticipation of showdowns over a variety of matters following the midterm elections should Republicans take control. Democrats now have slim control of the House and Senate. The White House recently added a leading Washington defense lawyer, Richard Sauber, who had been working as general counsel for the Department of Veterans Affairs.
It also recently brought on Ian Sams, a former spokesman for Vice President Kamala Harris’s presidential campaign, to handle related communications. “As we have since the transition, we are ensuring the White House is prepared for the issues we are facing or will face in the future, and we have built and continue to build a strong legal team to conduct our work and serve the public and the president,” Mr. Sams said in a statement.
Prosecutors from the U.S. attorney’s office in Delaware who are involved in the federal tax investigation have sought information and grand-jury testimony about the money Hunter Biden received from Burisma and how he used that money to pay some obligations.
Hunter Biden has said his tax matters were under investigation by the U.S. attorney’s office in Delaware, and said he was “confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately.”
In letters sent Wednesday morning to several banks where Hunter Biden and Biden family members have accounts, Mr. Comer requested any possible records, documents, and communications related to potential suspicious-activity reports,or SARs, generated for Hunter Biden, his business partners, and members of the Biden family.
Mr. Comer also wrote Wednesday to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen asking for suspicious-activity reports, generated in connection with Hunter and James Biden, the president’s brother, if they exist. The letter seeks communications related to the Biden administration’s plan to restrict access Congress has to suspicious activity reports, which Mr. Comer said was only recently stopped.
The Treasury Department in a statement said it “provides SARs to Congress in a manner that enables robust oversight and that is consistent with how other sensitive law enforcement information is produced. Treasury has made SARs available for every request we’ve received, regardless of party, and will continue to do so.”
A Treasury spokeswoman said that when Mr. Biden took office, the department developed a protocol on handling SARs, which included the opportunity to view documents at the Treasury, though reports can also be taken to the Capitol.
The Treasury hasn’t immediately responded for comment on the Republican letters that were sent Wednesday to the department.
Rep. Maxine Waters, the California Democrat who chairs the Financial Services Committee, has raised the issue this year and introduced legislation mandating that reports be turned over within 30 days of a request. In a hearing last week, Ms. Waters said the reports are important for congressional investigations, citing as an example attempts to track the flow of illicit funds from Russia into the U.S. Her bill has drawn Republican support.
A Financial Services staff memo about the bill says restrictions from the Treasury Department “are unworkable given the complexity and amount of information contained in such materials, and severely impairs Congress’ responsibility to carry on its oversight work in a timely and effective fashion.”
Apart from Hunter Biden’s business dealings, Republicans have indicated they also want to probe Mr. Biden’s withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, the administration’s management of the U.S.-Mexico border and how money to address the Covid-19 pandemic was handled.