House Republicans on Wednesday urged the Justice Department to prosecute Hunter Biden and the president’s son and brother, James Biden, for making false statements to Congress in the impeachment investigation into President Biden.
The chairmen of three House committees recommended the measure in a criminal complaint sent less than a week after former President Donald J. Trump was convicted of 34 felony counts in New York. Their allegations allege that the men made false statements to Congress about President Biden’s family’s involvement in his business dealings, including appearing to include misrepresenting Hunter Biden’s testimony.
They also charged Hunter Biden with perjury.
The recommendation has no legal force, but House Republicans hope to encourage the Justice Department to pursue further charges against the Biden family, especially if Trump takes power. And since Biden’s conviction last week, Republicans have been exploring ways to use their House majority to retaliate against and weaken the two federal indictments against the former president.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said in a statement that Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, who Republicans have accused of anti-conservative bias, should immediately act on the accusations and demonstrate his independence.
“If the Attorney General wants to prove he is not operating a duplicitous justice system and targeting the President’s political opponents, he will open a criminal investigation into James Biden and Hunter Biden,” Johnson said.
Hunter Biden has already been indicted by two federal grand juries in different jurisdictions and is currently on trial in Wilmington, Delaware, on charges that he lied about his drug use on federal forms when purchasing a gun.
Oversight Chairman Rep. James Comer, Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jim Jordan and Ways and Means Chairman Rep. Jason Smith signed onto the new introduction.
Hunter Biden testified in February, in a private deposition, blasting the House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry as a “partisan political effort” based on “false premises” and driven by “lies.” James Biden also testified that his brother “has no involvement in, and has no direct or indirect financial interest in, any of” his business activities.
The complaint alleges that Hunter Biden made false statements about his position at Rosemont Seneca Bohai, a business entity that received millions of dollars from foreign nationals.
When asked during his testimony whether he held the title of “corporate secretary” at the company, Hunter Biden said he “didn’t even know such a position existed.”
According to a member of Hunter Biden’s legal team, Hunter Biden said he did not know he held the title of “corporate secretary,” even though documents show he did.
They point to the testimony of Hunter Biden’s business partner, Devon Archer. Archer said Hunter Biden did not hold a position in the company but was a shareholder. During Hunter Biden’s testimony, he was asked, “It seems to me that Devon Archer’s testimony and your testimony are the same. You did not hold a position at Rosemont Seneca Bohai. Is that correct?”
Hunter Biden responded, “That’s correct.”
The complaint also accuses Hunter Biden of “completely falsely stating” that he sent threatening WhatsApp messages to a business partner while claiming to be sitting next to his father. Biden said in his testimony that he exchanged such messages with an individual named Henry Zhao, when in fact he was doing business with a completely different individual named Raymond Zhao, indicating that Biden must have been intoxicated and high.
But it was Republicans and IRS officials who initially confused the two Zhaos when they presented evidence Hunter Biden relied on to answer questions about the messages. The complaint accuses Hunter Biden of deliberately misleading them about the true recipients.
Republicans also allege that James Biden lied when he told Congress that Joseph R. Biden Jr. did not meet with Hunter Biden’s business partner, Tony Bobulinski, while pursuing the deal with the Chinese company in 2017.
James Biden denied in his testimony that such a meeting took place, but Hunter Biden told Republican investigators that Bobulinski met with his father in the lobby of the Beverly Hilton in California. Hunter Biden said he introduced the two, shook hands and told them about Bobulinski’s family, who has cancer.
In his testimony, James Biden said no such meeting took place and that he never discussed such a meeting with Hunter Biden. “That’s not what he remembers,” his lawyer interjected. “That’s not what I remember,” James Biden said.
“The Biden family appears to have a penchant for making false statements,” Comer said in a statement. “We have caught President Biden’s son and brother telling blatant lies to Congress in what appears to be a coordinated effort to hide Joe Biden’s involvement with Planned Parenthood.”
Lawyers for James Biden on Wednesday criticized the referral to Congress.
“This baseless, partisan action is a clear and cynical attempt to distract attention from and retaliate against Donald Trump’s recent conviction,” attorney Paul J. Fishman said in a statement. “James Biden testified earlier this year and has consistently maintained that Joe Biden had no involvement in any of Mr. Trump’s business dealings.”
Hunter Biden’s lawyers have denied that he lied to Congress. His lawyer, Abe Lowell, said examples of his client’s testimony cited by Republicans had been twisted to distort its meaning. “This is nothing more than a desperate attempt by Republicans to distort Hunter’s testimony to distract from their failed impeachment inquiry and interfere with his trial,” Lowell said.
Republicans conducting the impeachment inquiry into President Biden have struggled for months to link Hunter Biden’s father to criminal conduct, leaving them without the votes within their party to charge the president with high crimes and misdemeanors — the constitutional standard for impeachment.
Instead, leading Republicans have pivoted to a strategy of pursuing criminal charges, which would be an easier route politically for House Republicans than impeachment, which does not require a congressional vote.
Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Oversight committee, said the Republican pivot to criminal charges made clear the failure of his party’s impeachment inquiry into President Biden.
“The committee chairmen’s 60-page letter is a last-ditch effort to divert attention from President Biden’s exoneration by accusing the president’s son and brother of ‘whitewashing’ based on their efforts to recall years-old financial transactions, text messages and conversations during the course of this endless search operation,” he said.
In some ways, Republicans are following the model laid out by Democrats in the last Congress.
The Democratic-led House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol made headlines last Congress when it brought criminal charges against Trump. (Trump was subsequently indicted by the Department of Justice on crimes related to a plot to overturn the results of the 2020 election.)
