House Oversight and Accountability Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) has accused committee Republicans of attempting to divert attention from former President Donald Trump’s legal issues with their ongoing investigation into President Joe Biden.
Raskin asserts that the recently released bank memo by Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) does not provide evidence implicating Joe Biden in any wrongdoing.
The bank memo discloses that Hunter Biden and his business partner received millions from foreign oligarchs during Joe Biden’s tenure as vice president.
However, it does not establish any connection between Joe Biden and funds from foreign entities.
“Committee Republicans have once again released information on financial transactions that do not involve the President,” Raskin said.
“Instead, they rehash the same Hunter Biden business dealings that Congressional Republicans identified at least three years ago. The evidence released since then — including the testimony of witnesses called and interviewed by the Republicans and the records reviewed as part of Chairman Comer’s probe — have all clearly established that President Biden was not involved in his son’s business dealings.” Raskin added.
Raskin characterizes the Republican effort as an “embarrassing attempt” to justify calls for an impeachment inquiry against Joe Biden. He claims that it serves as a distraction from Trump’s ongoing criminal charges in various cases.
These sentiments were echoed by the Congressional Integrity Project, aligned with Democrats and established to counter GOP investigations into Joe Biden.
The project’s executive director, Kyle Herrig, dismissed Comer’s efforts as a “fishing expedition” that fails to produce any evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden.
“This stunt from Comer is just more of the same — no evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden, no new information to tie him to Hunter Biden’s business, and another desperate attempt to keep this bogus investigation alive,” Herrig said. “Comer’s fishing expedition continues to reel in nothing in a desperate attempt to distract from Trump.”
While the memo does not implicate Joe Biden in financial misconduct, it does reveal meetings between then Vice President Joe Biden and foreign oligarchs in Washington D.C.
These meetings occurred after the oligarchs wired money to companies linked to Hunter Biden and his business associate Devon Archer.
One such meeting took place in spring 2014 at Cafe Milano in Georgetown, where Joe Biden dined with Hunter Biden, Archer, Russian billionaire Yelena Baturina, and Kazakhstani oligarch Kenes Rakishev.
Notably, this meeting followed Baturina’s $3.5 million wire to a company controlled by Archer, with $2.7 million subsequently transferred to an account partly managed by Hunter Biden.
