James Comer (R-Ky.), chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, has issued a subpoena for Hunter Biden’s allies’ financial information.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md. ), the ranking member of the Oversight committee, revealed the revelation in a letter to Comer expressing his worries over the panel’s inquiry into presidential ethics.
Raskin mentioned “the comprehensive subpoena you just issued relative to business associates of President Biden’s son” in his letter, claiming that Democrats were given “few hours of notice” to respond. According to Raskin, this went against “longstanding committee procedure” of giving the committee’s minority at least 48 hours’ notice before subpoenas were issued.
Later, he explained that the subpoena required Bank of America to turn over “all bank records” for three individuals dating back to January 20, 2009. Raskin described CEFC China as a “now-bankrupt Chinese energy behemoth,” and one of the individuals targeted was John R. Walker, who is said to have “established a joint venture with CEFC China executives.”
As Raskin put it, “Comer obtained thousands of pages of Mr. Walker’s private financial information, including statements of his and his wife’s joint checking account for a decade.” Moreover, he said, the papers “went way beyond any business deal with Hunter Biden or CEFC.”
A representative of the House Oversight Committee has confirmed that “financial records related to the Biden family’s influence peddling” had been subpoenaed and obtained, with the statement that “these documents solidify our understanding of several areas of concern and have opened new avenues of investigation about the Biden family’s business schemes.”
Concerns about the “wildly overbroad” scope of the Walker subpoena were expressed by Raskin.
He expressed concern that the probe was being used as “a dragnet of political opposition research on behalf of former President Trump” due to the sweeping nature of the subpoena.
In January, Comer began looking into the Biden family’s finances by sending a letter to the Treasury Department requesting relevant documents. In the time since, the panel has repeatedly requested supplementary materials.
A lawyer for Hunter Biden argued last month that the committee’s request for papers and information served “no legislative purpose,” and therefore the request was denied.
Concerned about the possible foreign conflicts of interest surrounding former President Trump’s tenure in office, Raskin wrote the letter.
After subpoenaing the audit and consultancy firm Mazars during the previous Congress, the panel began obtaining papers from the firm. According to Raskin, those records showed that countries like the PRC and Saudi Arabia spent hundreds of millions of dollars at Trump properties while he was president.
In contrast, Raskin now claims that Comer collaborated with Trump’s legal team “to block the disclosure” of papers relevant to the committee’s ethics investigation.
“Since taking over as Chair of the Committee two months ago, you have recognized both the need for meaningful legislative solutions to weaknesses in our government ethics and disclosure laws, particularly with regard to foreign transactions, and the specific ethical issues raised by former President Trump’s Administration,” Raskin wrote.
While a court-supervised settlement agreement and a lawful Committee subpoena have been reviewed by every level of the federal courts, including the Supreme Court of the United States, “yet you have worked with attorneys for President Trump to block the disclosure of documents directly relevant to these issues,” he continued.
