The Republican chairman of the newly-named House Oversight and Accountability Committee is demanding the Treasury Department hand over all suspicious activity reports linked to Hunter Biden following a year of stonewalling.
Rep. James Comer (R-KY), the ranking member in the 117th Congress and now the chairman as the 118th Congress kicks off, spent much of 2022 repeatedly pushing the Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to hand over the suspicious bank activity reports linked to Biden family businesses as he argued that the Treasury Department’s responses continued to stonewall his efforts to get answers on the financial transactions of President Joe Biden‘s son linked to China, Russia, and elsewhere.
FBI HAS “VOLUMINOUS EVIDENCE” OF POTENTIAL HUNTER BIDEN CRIMINALITY
“For the past two years, the Biden Administration and Big Tech worked overtime to hide information about the Biden family’s suspicious business schemes and Joe Biden’s involvement,” Comer said in a statement to the Washington Examiner on Wednesday. “Now that Democrats no longer have one-party rule in Washington, oversight and accountability are coming.”
Comer added: “The American people must know the extent of Joe Biden’s involvement in his family’s shady business deals and if these deals threaten national security and his decision-making as president.”
The Treasury Department claimed in May 2022 that it “has made SARs available for every request we’ve received, regardless of party, and will continue to do so.”
Comer, however, said in July 2022: “This is not true.”
And the newly-elected chairman then said on Wednesday that “Treasury’s lack of a substantive response to Republican requests for SARs and other information in the 117th Congress indicates that Treasury’s leadership abandoned this policy at a similar time when we requested information regarding the Biden family.”
Hunter controversially held a lucrative position on the board of Ukrainian energy giant Burisma while his father was vice president. The president’s son also pursued business deals in China and elsewhere during and after his father’s tenure as vice president, raking in millions thanks to these associations.
Jonathan Davidson, the Treasury Department’s assistant secretary for legislative affairs, responded to Comer’s requests for information in September 2022, defending the department’s decision to keep a close hold on the suspicious activity reports.
“The Department deeply respects the critical oversight role of Congress and remains committed to responding to appropriate requests from committees of jurisdiction,” the Treasury official wrote, arguing that “safeguarding Bank Secrecy Act information is critical to law enforcement efforts to investigate money laundering, terrorist financing, and other illicit financial activity.”
Davidson added: “These suspicious activity reports and other BSA reports filed with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network contain details of financial transactions and other sensitive, nonpublic information. This is preliminary and unverified tip-and-lead information on possible violations of law.”
Comer has now renewed his demand that Yellen hand over “all SARs generated in connection with” Hunter Biden, his uncle James Biden, the younger Biden’s business partners (including Eric Schwerin and Devon Archer), and his businesses. Comer also asked Treasury to provide any FinCEN records tied to any banks related to Hunter Biden, James Biden, and others.
“I now make these requests pursuant to my authority as Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability,” the Kentucky Republican said Wednesday.
The renewed call for access to the suspicious activity records comes after a Washington Examiner investigation in 2022 found Hunter Biden disclosed in text messages to a woman named Eva, the go-between who served as his primary point of contact for the UberGFE escort service, that his accounts were frozen temporarily after his attempted payments to her “girls,” who had Russian-linked email accounts, raised a “red flag” with his bank.
The president’s son spent over $30,000 on escorts linked to Eva and UberGFE between Nov. 26, 2018, and March 10, 2019. Eva directed him to make payments to bank accounts linked to “.ru” Russian email addresses at least 11 times during that time frame.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Hunter Biden was able to spend this much money thanks in part to Joe Biden committing to wiring him a total of $100,000 to allegedly help pay his bills from December 2018 through January 2019. In one instance, Joe Biden wired his son $5,000 while he was actively engaged with an UberGFE escort.
