The House Oversight Committee secured a February interview with the president’s brother, James Biden, amid a broader investigation into the Biden family’s financial dealings.
The interview could also look into two loans President Biden made to his brother, as well as other business deals that James Biden secured with his nephew Hunter Biden.
James Biden’s interview is scheduled for February 21, a week before Hunter Biden’s interview, and comes after both men received subpoenas from the committee.
House Republicans are focused on the Bidens’ business ventures, saying their work with foreign companies amounted to influence-spreading and loans between the brothers could be part of a larger bribery scheme. suggests.
But they have yet to find conclusive evidence to support the bribery theory, and records kept by the committee and reviewed by The Hill show a bank account in which President Biden sent money to his brother that was soon repaid. It is shown.
“We look forward to his testimony,” the committee announced the interview in a short post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
The committee has taken pains to document the money flowing in and out of Hunter and James Biden’s accounts, but has struggled to show any obvious inappropriate links between their work and Joe Biden. are doing. All financial transactions between men are said to be repayments of personal loans.
Republicans are focused on two checks that James Biden wrote to his brother. One for $200,000 and the other for $40,000, both written while Joe Biden was not holding political office.
The $200,000 check from James Biden was characterized as loan repayment and was sent after receiving a loan from local hospital operator Amecore Health. James Biden apparently told the company that his name could “open doors” in the Middle East, but he didn’t comply. The loan payments appear to have nothing to do with the overseas work.
Another $40,000 check between the brothers, listed as loan repayment in the memo section of the check, was sent after Hunter Biden secured a major deal with a Chinese energy company and sent the money to his uncle. was. James Biden used some of those funds to repay his brother. Republicans used this to accuse President Biden of receiving laundered funds from China.
Democrats argue that the funds were nothing more than short-term loans made between Biden’s family members while he was a private citizen.
The effort to link any funding to bribery charges stems from the debunking of President Biden’s efforts as vice president to fire Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin. Republicans say the move was not because Mr. Shokin failed to fight corruption, as Mr. Biden said, but rather to benefit his son, who served on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma. .
But Mr. Biden’s actions were consistent with those of the international community, and State Department communications at the time showed that the United States was withholding aid to Ukraine over concerns that Mr. Shokin would not be able to implement meaningful reforms. It has been shown that
Shokin also did not indict Burisma. His aide said the initial investigation had been dormant by the time Biden became involved. The reason the United States was concerned about aid to Ukraine was because Shokin was unable to become an aggressive prosecutor.
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.