Comer demands answers on whether Biden classified records mention countries related to family business deals

FIRST ON FOX: House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer is demanding answers from Special Counsel Robert Hur on whether the sensitive, classified documents President Biden retained were related to specific countries— countries that were involved in his family’s lucrative foreign business deals.

Comer, R-Ky., is investigating the Biden family’s foreign business dealings as part of the House impeachment inquiry, as well as Biden’s alleged mishandling of classified documents.

Comer, in a letter to Hur, who is investigating Biden’s alleged improper retention of classified records, said his committee has “developed significant evidence regarding President Biden’s retention of classified materials at Penn Biden Center.”

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“As detailed in the Oversight Committee’s bank memoranda and Impeachment Inquiry Memorandum, evidence suggests President Biden may have used certain members of his family — particularly his son, Hunter Biden — to accumulate millions of dollars from foreign individuals and entities for the benefit of his family and himself,” Comer wrote to Hur. “Indeed, the Biden family received millions of dollars from foreign sources while President Biden served in public office and afterwards.”

Comer added, “If any of the classified documents mishandled by President Biden involved countries or individuals that had financial dealings with Biden family members or their related companies, the Committee needs access to that information to evaluate whether our national security has been compromised.”

Comer noted that Biden family members, their business associates and their “related companies” received “significant payments from individuals and companies in China, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Romania.” He also referred to “other evidence recently released by the Ways & Means Committee identified over 20 different countries with ties to the Biden family’s influence peddling schemes.”

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Comer said the House Oversight Committee has learned throughout its investigation that the Biden family and their business associates brought in more than $24 million between 2014 and 2019 by “selling Joe Biden as ‘the brand’ around the world.”

“The Committee is concerned that President Biden may have retained sensitive documents related to specific countries involving his family’s foreign business,” Comer wrote.

Meanwhile, Comer also questioned Hur on information to help the committee to “understand whether the White House or President Biden’s personal attorneys placed any limitations or scoping restrictions during the interview that would have precluded a line of inquiry regarding evidence (emails, text messages, or witness statements) directly linking Joe Biden to troublesome foreign payments.”

“President Biden’s retention of certain classified documents begs the question as to why he kept these particular materials,” Comer wrote. “Of the many classified documents he reviewed over his lengthy career, why did President Biden keep these specific documents in his home and office?”

He added, “The sensitive nature of the information contained in the documents may answer that question for the Committee, which is why we seek to review those materials.”

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Comer requested that Hur determine a “mutually agreed upon secured location” and provide information without redactions to the committee, including “any terms, agreements or scoping limitations” related to his office’s review of the president.

Comer also requested a list of the countries named in any documents with classification markings recovered from Penn Biden Center, Biden’s residence, including the garage, in Wilmington, Delaware, or elsewhere; and a list of all individuals named in those documents with classification markings; and all documents found with classified markings.

Comer is also asking if Hur was “permitted” to ask about evidence obtained by the U.S. Attorneys’s Office for the district of Delaware — which has been investigating Hunter Biden — and on any information released by IRS whistleblowers related to the Biden family’s business dealings.

Comer also asked for the copy of the report and agents’ notes following the special counsel’s interview of the president and any interview with former White House counsel Dana Remus.

Comer’s letter comes just days after President Biden was interviewed by Hur.

The White House Counsel’s Office confirmed the voluntary interview took place earlier this month at the White House over the course of two days — last Sunday and Monday and concluded Monday.

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“As we have said from the beginning, the president and the White House are cooperating with this investigation, and as it has been appropriate, we have provided relevant updates publicly, being as transparent as we can, consistent with protecting and preserving the integrity of the investigation,” White House spokesperson for investigations Ian Sams said. 

Hur’s investigation comes after a batch of records from President Biden’s time as vice president, including a “small number of documents with classified markings,” were discovered at the Penn Biden Center by the president’s personal attorneys on Nov. 2, 2022. 

Additional classified records were discovered at President Biden’s Wilmington home in January. After that discovery, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Hur as special counsel to investigate the matter.

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s team negotiated with lawyers for then-President Trump for an interview, but Trump never sat for one. His lawyers instead submitted answers to written questions.

President George W. Bush sat for a 70-minute interview as part of an investigation into the leak of the identity of a CIA operative. President Clinton in 1998 underwent more than four hours of questioning from independent counsel Kenneth Starr before a federal grand jury.