The GOP has sought records from Biden’s family about business deals

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans made their first formal request Thursday for documents from Hunter and James Biden about their foreign business dealings, a growing A comprehensive investigation In the President’s family

Reputation. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, sent a letter to President Joe Biden’s son Hunter; The President’s brother, James; And their former business manager is seeking documents and communications related to overseas business pursuits “with individuals associated with the Chinese Communist Party.”

“If President Biden is compromising deals with foreign adversaries and they influence his decision-making, it is a threat to national security,” Comer said in a statement.

The letters are the latest move by Republicans to go after the Biden family for what they accuse of “influence peddling,” but have so far failed to produce evidence to support those claims.

The broad request includes any records “designated classified” and communications related to travel and financial activities between the president or James Biden and his wife, Sarah Jones Biden, and Hunter Biden since January 20, 2009.

A lawyer for Hunter Biden dismissed the request Thursday as an attempt to peddle “false and baseless conclusions under the guise of a factual investigation” by Kammer.

“Because your letter is an extensive effort to collect a wide array of documents and communications from President Biden and his family, I am writing to explain that the Committee on Oversight and Accountability does not have a legitimate legal purpose and oversight basis to request such records. .Biden, who is a private citizen,” attorney Abbey Lowell wrote in a letter to the committee.

Shortly after taking control of the House, Republicans led by Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Rep. Jim Jordan began a series of wide-ranging inquiries into the president’s family, sending records requests to nearly every government agency.

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Last month, Comer used the power of the new Republican House majority to seek information from the Treasury Department about financial transactions of Biden family members that were flagged as suspicious activity. These reports are routine, large financial transactions are automatically flagged to the government, and are not evidence of misconduct on their own.

Weeks later, the Kentucky Republican Asked for a transcribed interview with Georges Burgess, Art dealer who has been exhibiting Hunter Biden’s work in New York and Los Angeles galleries since 2021. He requested communications between the gallery and the White House, citing Republican concerns that the younger Biden was trading in his father’s name.

And on Wednesday, former Twitter executives testified before Congress about the company’s decision to initially block a New York Post article from Twitter in October 2020 about the contents of a Hunter Biden laptop.

Former employees acknowledged during an hour-long and intense hearing that Twitter made a mistake by blocking a story about the president’s son in the run-up to the 2020 election, but The Republicans strongly denied the claim Democrats and law enforcement pressured them to suppress the story.