House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) offered President Joe Biden on Thursday an opportunity to testify at a public hearing about any involvement the president had in the business schemes of his family members.
Comer said in a lengthy letter to Biden, obtained by the Washington Examiner, that the hearing would allow the president to speak on the “yawning gap” between his public statements about the business dealings and the evidence the Oversight Committee had gathered in the past year.
“In light of the yawning gap between your public statements and the evidence assembled by the Committee, as well as the White House’s obstruction, it is in the best interest of the American people for you to answer questions from Members of Congress directly, and I hereby invite you to do so,” Comer wrote.
Comer also provided numerous questions for Biden to answer, including whether the president had met with certain foreign CEOs.
Comer asked, for instance, if Joe Biden had ever met with Ye Jianming, the former chairman of a Chinese energy conglomerate. One of Hunter Biden’s former associates testified that Joe Biden did indeed briefly appear at a small luncheon in 2017 at the Four Seasons in Washington, D.C., at which Ye had been present.
“Your son and business associates began courting business from Ye while you were Vice President. You then met Ye in 2017 in Washington, D.C., and his company wired $3 million to a Biden business associate days after you met him, which was shortly after you publicly signaled your intention to run for the presidency in 2020,” Comer observed.
Comer detailed evidence Republicans had gathered through their impeachment inquiry regarding business ventures Hunter Biden and the president’s brother James Biden partook in in China, Ukraine, and Russia. Comer said Joe Biden’s responses to his questions, as well as his public testimony, would constitute the next “phase” of the inquiry.
“The purpose of this letter is not to recount every material inconsistency said by you or your defenders or to detail every piece of evidence accumulated by the Committee,” Comer wrote. “Instead, the letter summarizes the Committee’s concerns and describes why it is now necessary for you to provide testimony to the Committee in furtherance of the impeachment inquiry—a phase of the investigation I have sought in earnest and good faith to avoid.”
Republicans are expected to issue a final report on the findings from their impeachment inquiry at the conclusion of it. The inquiry, led primarily by the House Oversight Committee, has spanned six months and involved the committee gathering thousands of bank records and hearing testimony from numerous witnesses, including Hunter and James Biden and several associates who were at one point close to the family.
The Republicans on the whole have not shown an interest in holding a vote to impeach the president based on a lack of conclusive evidence of Joe Biden’s wrongdoing, but Comer has said that criminal referrals or the introduction of legislation to address “influence peddling” are also options.
Comer noted in his letter to Joe Biden that President Gerald Ford testified before Congress in 1974. Ford appeared before the House Judiciary Committee that year for a hearing on his decision to pardon his predecessor, Richard Nixon, following the Watergate scandal.
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Ford acknowledged at the time that his appearance was an “unusual and historic event.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to a White House spokesman for comment.