EXCLUSIVE — House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said his committee will zero in on Biden family finances in the “next phase” of his investigation into President Joe Biden‘s classified documents and his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings.
Comer aims to expose foreign donations funneled to the University of Pennsylvania, which houses the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, where classified documents were found dating from Joe Biden’s vice presidency. Comer also wants answers on the anonymous donors who paid thousands of dollars for Hunter Biden’s artwork through a New York exhibition.
“We’re trying to trace the money,” Comer told the Washington Examiner. “We’ll be looking at bank statements. We’ll be looking at bank violations. That’s the next phase of our investigation because we’re trying to figure out who these anonymous sources are that are sending so much money to the Biden family schemes — the Biden Center for Diplomacy and Hunter Biden’s artwork.”
BIDEN’S PARTNERSHIP WITH FOREIGN-FUNDED PENN EXAMINED
In his first moves since taking the gavel, Comer sent out six requests regarding classified documents and Hunter Biden, two investigations he insists are linked because of the younger Biden’s “access” to sensitive documents also found at his father’s Delaware home.
“That raises a red flag,” Comer said.
Requests for document production have already gone to the White House, the University of Pennsylvania, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, among others. Comer teases more are on the way.
Comer said he’s “absolutely” prepared to use subpoenas to force testimony and documents if necessary. But he challenged the president to cooperate, especially after Joe Biden insisted Thursday the investigation will turn up nothing. “There’s no ‘there’ there,” the president said.
“If there’s nothing there, then the president should be more than willing to cooperate with House Republicans because he could make us look bad,” Comer said.
The documents drama has provided a fresh line of inquiry into GOP allegations of Biden family influence peddling and put a focus on the financial backing of the Penn Biden Center, especially Chinese donations to the university that hosts the think tank.
“What are they trying to peddle? What information does China want?” Comer said.
Government records show the University of Pennsylvania received tens of millions of dollars in donations from foreign countries, including large sums from anonymous donors. Joe Biden’s think tank was created after he left the vice presidency perch as part of a highly paid faculty arrangement that netted the president $911,000.
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Joe Biden has said he takes classified information seriously and is “fully cooperating” on securing the documents. Though both he and former President Donald Trump are now subjected to a special counsel investigation over the mishandled classified information, the White House has sought to downplay the president’s case as not as egregious given the number of documents in question and willingness to turn them over after being “inadvertently misplaced.”
Asked about House GOP investigations this week, White House spokesman Ian Sams dismissed them as “political stunts.”
“They’re faking outrage, even though they defended the former president’s actions,” Sams said.
