After gaining control of the U.S. House of Representatives, Republicans said Thursday that investigating President Joe Biden and his family will be their top oversight priority when they formally take office next year.
Rep. James Comer, a Republican from Kentucky who is expected to chair the House Oversight and Reform Committee, told reporters that the panel would investigate bank reports and claims by anonymous whistleblowers that he says show links between the president and the business activities of his 52 years old businessman son, Hunter Biden.
“Let me be clear. This is an investigation by Joe Biden. This is where the committee will focus in the next Congress,” Comer told reporters.
“This committee will evaluate the state of Joe Biden’s relationship with his family’s foreign associates and whether he is a compromised president or influenced by foreign dollars and influences,” Comer said, saying the committee obtained two suspicious activity reports filed by the major banks.
A White House statement accused House Republicans of planning to go after Biden “with politically motivated attacks rife with long-debunked conspiracy theories.”
“President Biden will not let these political attacks distract him from focusing on the priorities of the American people,” said the statement by Ian Sams, spokesman for the White House counsel’s office.
For years, Hunter Biden has come under relentless attacks from former President Donald Trump and his Republican allies, who have accused him of, among other things, wrongdoing related to Ukraine and China. He has also publicly detailed his struggle with substance abuse and has worked as a lobbyist, lawyer, investment banker, and artist.
Hunter Biden revealed in December 2020 that federal prosecutors in Delaware were looking into his tax affairs, although they did not charge him with any crimes. He denied wrongdoing.
Hunter Biden has never held office in the White House or in his father’s campaign. The president said he has not discussed foreign affairs with his son and said his Justice Department would have independence in any investigation of a family member.
The House Republican probe will begin next year as the U.S. political calendar heads towards the 2024 presidential election, in which Biden has said he currently plans to seek reelection.
More than a dozen House Republicans appeared with Comer at a news conference Wednesday, many of them staunch allies of Trump, who announced his 2024 run for the White House on Tuesday.
Republicans have described the upcoming investigation in terms that seem to echo charges leveled against Trump by Democrats, who have been investigating the business dealings of the former president and his family.
Trump has been impeached twice by Congress, once for allegedly pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Biden and his son ahead of the 2020 presidential election and once for January 6, 2020, storming of the Capitol…
Trump was acquitted both times by Senate Republicans.
The upcoming House Oversight investigation into Biden will coincide with a House Judiciary Committee investigation into allegations of political influence in the Justice Department under Biden.
Comer and Rep. Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican who is expected to preside over the judicial panel, have promised to oversee the evidence-based investigation that complies with the Constitution.
