Eric Schwerin, a longtime business associate of the Biden family, testified to Congress on Tuesday about the free financial services he provided several years ago to then-Vice President Joe Biden, according to sources familiar with the testimony.
Schwerin told lawmakers in a closed-door interview that he performed bookkeeping, bill paying, tax preparation, and other financial tasks for Joe Biden free of charge, despite ethics policies that restrict government officials from accepting professional services as gifts, according to one source.
Schwerin said he had known Joe Biden for a decade at that point and had provided the assistance for the then-vice president as a friend, another source said.
Schwerin’s testimony came as part of the Republican-led impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden over allegations he abused his political influence as vice president to help his family members, and particularly his son Hunter, profit in their foreign business endeavors.
Schwerin, an executive at a firm cofounded by Hunter Biden, undercut that allegation during his testimony by saying he was “not aware of any role” Joe Biden had in his son’s business activity, one of the sources said.
“I am not aware of any financial transactions or compensation that Vice President Biden received related to business conducted by any of his family members or their associates nor any involvement by him in their businesses. None,” Schwerin also said.
These were “narrowly tailored” remarks, however, and Schwerin also said he had little insight into payments Hunter Biden and his companies received from foreign entities and individuals in China, Ukraine, Romania, and elsewhere, the first source warned.
Republicans have pored over thousands of bank records to trace foreign money flowing into Biden family bank accounts. They found instances where cash had been funneled from foreign sources to shell companies and then to Biden family members, and they argued that the Bidens were making money from these entities by selling their name and Joe Biden’s political influence — but not real goods or services.
Schwerin was also questioned by Republicans for hours on Joe and Hunter Biden’s involvement in Ukraine, specifically, one of the sources said.
While his father was vice president and vocally condemning corruption in Ukraine, Hunter Biden held a lucrative position as a board member of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company. One of Joe Biden’s most scrutinized moves as vice president was his decision to pressure Ukraine at the time to fire the country’s top prosecutor, a move that Republicans say benefited Hunter Biden because the prosecutor had targeted Burisma.
Schwerin was the recipient of or copied on dozens of Ukraine-related emails that the House Ways and Means Committee obtained that included alias email addresses used by Joe Biden, such as “robinware456” and “JRBware” Gmail accounts. Hunter Biden was also copied on some of the emails.
The committee observed that the alias email activity increased during the times when Joe Biden was making trips to visit Ukraine on official business. Some of the emails specifically related to Joe Biden’s Ukraine travel preparations.
While Republicans have framed Joe Biden’s use of pseudonyms in emails as a suspicious attempt to avoid appearing too closely tied to Hunter Biden’s lucrative work in the country, a White House spokesman has said it was entirely normal.
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“Just when you think @HouseGOP shenanigans can’t get dumber they start fussing about email ‘pseudonyms,’” spokesman Ian Sams wrote on social media when the emails began surfacing. “Newsflash: government leaders for decades have used aliases to avoid spam & hacking. Did they think he was just joe dot biden @? LOL.”
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY), who has been leading the impeachment inquiry, has conducted three interviews with Biden business associates, including Schwerin, in the past two weeks now, and Comer has said he will publicly release the transcripts of them once they are available.