WASHINGTON — The Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee on Thursday formally invited President Joe Biden to testify before the committee as part of the impeachment inquiry.
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), who heads the committee, suggested in a letter Thursday that Biden appear in court on April 16, and that Hunter Biden's former business associate Tony Comer It cited testimony from Bobulinski and Jason Galanis at last week's hearing. Comer said their testimony contradicted the president's statements about his son's involvement in business transactions. He first announced plans to invite the president to testify at the end of the hearing, which also included former Ukrainian businessman Lev Parnas.
“Given the large gaps between your public statements and the evidence collected by the committee, and given the White House obstruction, it is in the best interest of the American people for you to answer directly to questions from members of Congress. , I urge you to do so,” Comer wrote.
The proposed testimony would come at a pivotal moment for former President Donald Trump, Biden's primary challenger in 2024. Trump's New York criminal trial is scheduled to begin on April 15, the day before.
Comer's letter specifically cites President Gerald Ford's 1974 testimony before the House Judiciary Committee's Criminal Justice Subcommittee as precedent.
In response, the White House pointed out that: Post to X When Comer announced last week that he planned to invite Biden to testify, press secretary Ian Sams said:
“Mr. Comer knows that over 20 witnesses have testified that the President did nothing wrong,” Sams said in the post. “He knows that the hundreds of thousands of pages of records he received refute his false claims. This is a sad event at the end of a complete impeachment. It's over. Let’s do it, man.”
Democrats on the Oversight Committee I wrote to X On Thursday, Republicans said they “found no impeachable offense” and said the evidence in the investigation was “ridiculously distorted and distorted.”
“The Republican impeachment inquiry has been a circus. It's time to fold up the tent,” they wrote.
Bobulinski and Galanis testified in a hearing last week that the president was part of a plan to support Hunter Biden's business, a claim the White House denies.
“The public is left with two contradictory narratives. The first is that, as you claimed, you were not involved in spreading influence in exchange for payments to your family. ,” Comer wrote Thursday. You were certainly involved in a scheme to reward these influences. ”
Comer's letter noted that Biden made loans to his brother James Biden before he took office. The president's brother testified privately last month that the loan was “short-term” and quickly repaid.
Comer also said the committee heard testimony that the president “regularly participated in conferences on speakerphone” with his son and business associates. Devon Archer, a former business associate of Hunter Biden, testified in July that the president participated in about 20 calls with his son and colleagues, but the conversations were short and did not involve official business. . Archer also testified that he had no knowledge of any wrongdoing by the president.
Parnas, who was invited by Democrats to testify before the committee, testified last week that there was no evidence of corruption by the Biden family in Ukraine and that the Russian government pushed false claims. He later said in an interview with NBC News that the Republican-led hearings were “promoting the same rhetoric and propaganda as Russia.”
House Republicans have repeatedly targeted Hunter Biden as part of their father's impeachment inquiry, but no evidence of wrongdoing by the president has been presented.
The Republican-led investigation was launched last month after former FBI intelligence officer Alexander Smirnov, who played a major role in sparking the probe, was accused of providing false information to the FBI about Biden and his son during the 2020 presidential campaign. He was prosecuted and faced a serious setback. .
Hunter Biden testified in a closed-door deposition to the House Oversight and Judiciary Committee last month as part of the impeachment inquiry that his father was not involved in any of his business dealings and called the investigation into question. It called it a “groundless and destructive political farce.” ” is based on a “MAGA conspiracy.”
Rebecca Kaplan reported from Washington and Zoe Richards from New York.