4 Hunter Biden associates helping House GOP probe, Comer says

WASHINGTON – The House Oversight Committee has contacted four of first son Hunter Biden’s business associates, which the panel’s chairman said Friday represents “progress” in its investigation of the first family’s wheeling and dealing.

“I’ve just been chairman of the committee for five weeks, and we’ve already made contact — and I’m pleased to say are getting some cooperation — from some of the people involved in the influence peddling,” James Comer (R-Ky.) said at the Conservative Political Action Conference, without identifying the individuals.

Asked whether the committee would subpoena members of Biden’s family, Comer promised “we’re going to do whatever it takes to get to the truth.”

“We’re starting with everyone that was involved in the Hunter Biden influence peddling scheme,” he said. “I’m pleased to report we communicated with four of those people this week, either directly with the individual or with their attorney. So we’re making progress.”

The “progress” comes as the committee fights with the Treasury Department over the release of more than 150 bank reports of sketchy transactions tied to Hunter Biden and his uncle, first brother Jim Biden.

On Monday, Comer accused the Treasury of making “several excuses” not to comply with his Jan. 11 request for the “Suspicious Activity Reports,” (SARs) which were triggered by “unusual foreign or high-dollar transactions” executed by the first brother and son, their associates and companies.

“When you have a Suspicious Activity Report, it is the bank notifying the Treasury Department that we believe our client could have potentially committed a crime,” Comer explained.

After 9/11, the chairs of the House Oversight and Financial Services Committee were given access to Suspicious Activity Reports, but a recent rule change has made accessing the reports more difficult, Comer explained Friday.

“When Joe Biden became president, he snuck in right at the very beginning and did what’s called a rule change – not an executive order – but a rule change,” he said. “He changed the rules where chairmen of those committees couldn’t have access to Suspicious Activity Reports. Now why would he do that?”

The rule change largely went unnoticed at first because “most members of Congress didn’t know what a Suspicious Activity Report was at the time and no member of Congress knew that the Biden family had so many,” Comer said.

“He’s clearly trying to hide evidence of potential wrongdoing,” the chairman alleged of the president. “I mean, his family has over 150 of these.”

While the Oversight Committee still has not received the financial reports from the Treasury, the right-wing nonprofit research group Marco Polo in a 2022 report obtained and published two SARs connected to Hunter Biden, his law firm and associates that included more than 100 wire transfers involving a sum of more than $2.6 million.

“The SARs revealed the international business networks and human trafficking rings that Hunter and his associates facilitated and patronized,” Marco Polo alleged in its report.

Comer said his experience as a former bank director led him to lend credence to the SAR accusations.

“No bank wants to issue those because when you do, you are inviting the bank examiners into the bank,” he said Friday.

“The last thing you want are the bank examiners in the bank any more than they already are,” he added. “You’re not going to issue one of those on a good customer. You’re certainly not going to issue one on the son of the president of the United States or the brother of the vice president of the United States unless you’re pretty certain potential wrongdoing occurred.”