Biden Family Will Be Subpoenaed in House Oversight Probe: Comer

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) speaks during a hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington on June 13, 2023. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said his committee intends to subpoena the Biden family as part of its investigation into the family’s business dealings.

“This is always going to end with the Bidens coming in front of the committee. We are going to subpoena the family,” the congressman told Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo on Thursday.

“Obviously, with all the opposition and obstruction we’re getting from the Biden attorneys now, we know that this is going to end up in court when we subpoena the Bidens. So, we’re putting together a case, and I think we’ve done that very well,” he said.

Mr. Comer’s comments come a day after his committee’s release of its third bank memo (pdf) pertaining to the Bidens’ foreign business transactions. While the first two memos detailed the family’s dealings with entities and individuals in China and Romania, respectively, the third covered transactions in Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan.

“We found more bank records that show the Bidens continue to rake in millions of dollars from our adversaries around the world, much of it while Joe Biden was vice president,” the congressman noted on Thursday.

Thus far, the committee has subpoenaed the bank records of several businesses and individuals connected to the business activities of President Joe Biden’s family members. Those records showed more than $20 million in payments from foreign sources to at least nine members of the president’s family.

The records also revealed that the funds were funneled through a network of at least 20 shell companies before being transferred to those family members.

The committee has yet to subpoena the bank records of any of the Bidens—a decision Mr. Comer said was made strategically to avoid the investigation being halted by a judge.

“If I had subpoenaed Joe and Hunter Biden the first day I became chairman of the committee, it would have been tied up in court, and the judge would have eventually thrown it out,” he said.

Instead, the committee has focused its efforts on building a case to justify issuing those subpoenas when the time comes.

“We have put together a case that I think would stand up in any court of law in America, and we hope to hear from the Bidens soon,” he said.

‘Bank Records Don’t Lie’

One question that Mr. Comer said President Biden has yet to answer is what service his family members provided in exchange for the millions of dollars they received from foreign entities.

The president, for his part, has repeatedly denied having any knowledge or participation in the business schemes of his family members. He has also denied that his family received any money from foreign entities.

But Mr. Comer said his committee had disproven those claims.

“Bank records don’t lie,” he noted.

Witness testimony also contradicts the president’s statements.

Last week, the Oversight Committee heard testimony from Devon Archer, a former associate of first son Hunter Biden, who said it was not unusual for the older Biden to call his son during business meetings and chat with those present on speaker phone.

As for the first son’s appeal to foreign business partners, Mr. Archer was clear that the primary value he brought to the table was the Biden family “brand.”

But, said Mr. Comer, in conducting its investigation, his committee had not identified a single person that had sent the Biden family money that President Biden had not communicated with in some way.

“I think as we bring in more people who were in on the influence-peddling schemes, I think we’ll find more communication with Joe Biden,” he added.

“But we’ve already found more than enough to prove that he has lied to the American people over and over again.”

Influence on Policy

With the help of the subpoenaed bank records, Mr. Comer said his committee had identified six of President Biden’s policy decisions that they believed were directly influenced by money his family members received.

At the top of the list, he said, was the then-vice president’s pressuring of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to fire prosecutor Viktor Shokin in 2016.

At the time, Mr. Shokin was investigating Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian energy firm Hunter Biden had joined as a board member.

But a more recent policy decision the committee found to be equally suspicious was one President Biden made after the start of the war in Ukraine.

“One of the documents that we released yesterday showed a $3.5 million payment from a Russian oligarch,” Mr. Comer noted. “And then, when Russia invaded Ukraine, the president was quick to put sanctions on all the Russian oligarchs except one—the one person who sent his family $3.5 million.”

The specific oligarch in question was Yelena Baturina, who was the wife of Yury Luzhkov, the former mayor of Moscow, who died in 2019. Unlike most of her peers, she has yet to be hit with U.S. sanctions over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Describing that fact as “hard to explain,” Mr. Comer said the committee hoped to have the chance to ask the president personally about that decision, though he stressed that such an interview would not come easily.

“This is very difficult—this has been an uphill battle from day one. That’s why our strategy was always to follow the money.”

As for the Biden family subpoenas, the congressman said they would not be issued imminently as the committee has three or four more witnesses they would like to speak with first.

“We’ve been communicating with a couple of them,” he said. “We’re trying to bring them in just like we did Devon Archer for a transcribed interview. If they don’t come in voluntarily, then they’ll be subpoenaed.”

Joseph Lord contributed to this report.