After first hearing, House impeachment inquiry turns to securing Bidens’ bank records

House Republicans made an early case why they believe Joe Biden abused the power of his office, and now they are turning their attention to securing the bank records of the president’s son and brother.

Hours after finishing his first impeachment inquiry hearing, House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., issued three subpoenas Thursday evening for the personal and business bank records of Hunter and James Biden.

Comer said the record demands are key to following the money from foreign sources to its final destination.

"One of those steps is gaining insight into where the Biden’s’ foreign money ended up, for what purposes," Comer said as the marathon hearing wrapped up. "Today, I will subpoena the bank records of Hunter Biden, James Biden and their affiliated companies."

A memo released Wednesday from Comer, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Oh.), and Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) alleged that "The Biden family and their business associates received over $24 million from foreign sources over the course of approximately five years."

During the hearing, Comer argued that Biden "abused" his public office for his "family's financial gain." Comer said for years Biden has "lied" to the American people about not speaking to his family about foreign business dealings.

As an example, Republicans on the committee cited wires showing a Chinese national paid $250,000 to first son Hunter. 

"What were the Bidens selling to make all this money? Joe Biden himself," Comer said. "Joe Biden is the brand."

Comer pointed to a payment record from Chinese nationals to Hunter from 2019 that listed his father’s home address in Delaware as the beneficiary address, which drew a direct response from the White House.

“Imagine them arguing that, if someone stayed at their parents' house during the pandemic, listed it as their permanent address for work, and got a paycheck, the parents somehow also worked for the employer…It's bananas…Yet this is what extreme House Republicans have sunken to,” White House spokesman Ian Sams wrote on X.

News reports said that Hunter Biden was not living in Delaware at the time of the Chinese cash injection, but "both the first son’s memoir and proposed guilty plea agreement placed him in California with his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, in the summer of 2019" according to The New York Post.  

Witnesses at the first hearing included United States Department of Justice Tax Division attorney Eileen O'Connor, George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley and former Assistant Attorney General and forensic accountant Bruce Dubinsky.

Comer said his committee has obtained "thousands of pages of financial records, emails, texts, testimony from credible IRS whistleblowers, and a transcribed interview with Biden family business associate Devon Archer all reveal that Joe Biden allowed his family to sell him as 'the brand' around the world to enrich the Biden family. Joe Biden showed up on at least two dozen occasions to send signals of access, influence, and power to those who were paying the Bidens."

Ranking Democratic committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) brought a government shutdown clock to the hearing that counted down to the deadline of midnight on Saturday, when federal funding runs out. The House has yet to pass a bill to fund the government.

During the hearing, Raskin called for former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani to testify before Congress along with businessman Lev Parnas but Republicans, describing them as “the insiders who know the origins of the lie upon which this sham impeachment is based and who worked to spread it.”

Republicans on the committee tabled the motion.

“The majority sits completely empty handed with no evidence of any presidential wrongdoing, no smoking gun, no gun, no smoke,” Raskin said.

Rep. William Timmons (R-S.C.) responded to Democrats who are arguing that the GOP lacks the evidence to link Biden to his son’s foreign business deals.

"The Congress has a duty to determine whether Joe Biden was a loving father taken advantage of by a delinquent son or a knowing participant complicit in the scheme and financially compensated for his role,” he said. “That's why we are here today, to answer that simple question.”

Turley testified that an impeachment inquiry of Biden is warranted but the “evidence currently meets the standard of a high crime and misdemeanor needed for an article of impeachment.”

Forensics expert Bruce Dubinsky described Hunter's reference to the "big guy" in a text message as a codename but stopped short of saying it was evidence of "corruption, fraud, or any wrongdoing."

He told the committee that "more information needs to be gathered and assessed before I would make such an assessment."

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-Oh.) mentioned that Biden’s alleged mishandling of classified documents from his two-terms as vice president could have a connection to his family's foreign business dealings. U.S. Attorney General has appointed Special Counsel Robert Hur to investigate the matter.

Turner said Biden's son Hunter had received payments from foreign countries like Romania, Russia, Ukraine and China. 

Turner asked Turley: “If there are in those documents that relate to, for example, the prosecutor in Ukraine or Burisma itself or other aspects of Ukraine or any of the parties or individuals obviously, that were making payments to Hunter Biden, that would be relevant, wouldn’t it?” 

In response, Turley said that “pre-office conduct” could be taken into consideration as part of the inquiry.