House Oversight Committee ranking member Rep. Jamie Raskin released a memo showing that Republicans are distorting the Biden bank records and there is no pay-for-play.
House Oversight Committee Democrats released a memo that debunks Oversight Committee Chair Rep. James Comer’s claims:
Chairman Comer has publicly stated that the alleged financial wrongdoing that Committee Republicans are investigating, including the SARs (Suspicious Activity Reports), implicate “the entire [Biden] family.” However, none of the SARs reviewed by Committee staff allege, or even suggest, any potential misconduct by President Biden, nor do they show President Biden’s involvement in Hunter Biden’s financial or business relationships.
This finding is consistent with recent statements by Eric Schwerin, Hunter Biden’s former business associate and then-Vice President Biden’s former financial adviser, with whom Committee Republican and Democratic staff met last month.
During the meeting, Mr. Schwerin explained that between 2009 and 2017, he performed a number of administrative and bookkeeping tasks for the then-Vice President and Hunter Biden. In doing so, he had the ability to view President Biden’s bank account transactions and stated that he was not aware of any involvement by President Biden in the financial conduct of his relatives’ businesses, much less any transactions into or out of the then-vice President’s bank account related to business conducted by any Biden family member.
Schwerin also explained that he knew of no request for then-Vice President Biden to take any official action on behalf of Hunter Biden in connection with any of his businesses.
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Several banks cited a 2020 report released by Senate Republicans that relied on widely discredited allegations as the reason for filing Hunter Biden-related SARs. The report was co-authored by Senator Ron Johnson, who acknowledged that the pursuit of the Senate Republicans’ probes “would certainly help Donald Trump win reelection.”
Similarly, some banks filed SARs solely in response to conjecture in the media. For example, several SARs cited a debunked Federalist article that claimed Hunter Biden received $1.5 billion dollars from the Chinese government while his father was Vice President.
Other SARs indicate they were initiated solely because of Hunter Biden’s (1) familial relation to the former Vice President; (2) relationship with his former business associate Devon Archer, who was indicted on an unrelated fraud charge; or (3) relationship with Ye Jianming, the CEO of CEFC, who was under investigation in China for economic crimes unrelated to Hunter Biden. Yet other SARs merely stated they were filed due to “negative” media attention about Hunter Biden. Tellingly, Chairman Comer has not revealed any of these underlying reasons when publicly discussing SARs.
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In other words, it is all a BS recycled conspiracy theory from the 2020 election. House Republicans are cherry-picking and distorting documents to manufacture evidence that fits their conspiracy theories.
Ranking Member Raskin: Comer Has No Evidence And Is Outright Lying
Rep. Raskin (D-MD) said in a statement provided to PoliticusUSA:
Once again Chairman Comer has failed to provide factual evidence to support his wild accusations about the President. He continues to bombard the public with innuendo, misrepresentations, and outright lies, recycling baseless claims from stories that were debunked years ago. Unable to implicate the President directly, Committee Republicans have resorted to using cherry-picked bank records, misrepresentations about confidential and unverified bank reports known as SARs, and baseless conspiracy theories to attack the President’s family, including his grandchildren.
As Republicans use their oversight powers to advance this tiresome and aging smear campaign, they refuse to honor their public commitment to investigate former President Trump and former senior White House advisor, Jared Kushner, their hundreds of LLCs, and the billions of dollars they collected directly from autocratic and corrupt foreign governments. If they’re in search of presidential corruption by foreign powers, the undisputed champion is their own guy.
House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer is lying about Biden pay for play. Comer’s press conference made it obvious that he has no evidence of wrongdoing by the president.
Comer is outmatched by ranking member Raskin, as Democrats have been masterfully killing off these conspiracies before they can gain mainstream traction.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
