Oversight chair Comer presses Treasury for Hunter Biden financial data

Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) demanded again Wednesday that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen provide information about first son Hunter Biden’s overseas business deals, saying his House committee needs the data for its investigation into whether President Biden endangered national security.

The chair of the House Oversight Committee made a request last summer for suspicious activity reports (SARs) related to Hunter Biden and repeated his request Wednesday, pointing out that the Treasury Department’s reasons for dragging its feet are no longer valid now that Republicans control the House.

In the letter, Comer said the agency stated in 2022 that it has complied with requests for SARs it has received and will continue to comply “regardless of party.”

“However, Treasury’s lack of a substantive response to Republican requests for SARs and other information in the 117th Congress indicates that Treasury’s leadership abandoned this policy at a similar time when we requested information regarding the Biden family,” Comer wrote.  

SARs are generated by banks that flag suspiciously large transactions and are meant to guard against money laundering.

Comer said the Treasury Department informed Republican committee staffers that it would provide SARs to panels only at the request of committee chairs.

“I now make these requests pursuant to my authority as Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability,” he wrote, adding that the committee is investigating the president’s connection to his son’s business relationships “and international influence peddling schemes.”

“The Committee is investigating President Biden’s knowledge of and role in these schemes to assess whether he has compromised our national security at the expense of the American people,” he said in the letter, saying the panel is also considering legislation to bolster federal ethics laws for employees and their families.

He set a Jan. 25 deadline for the Treasury Department to furnish the committee with all SARs concerning Hunter Biden, his uncle James, business partner Devon Archer, and a slew of companies associated with the first son, including Rosemont Seneca Advisors. 

Archer and Hunter Biden sat on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings, which paid the first son as much as $1 million a year even though he has no expertise in energy matters. 

The Post revealed Hunter Biden’s extensive business dealings in Ukraine and China in a series of blockbuster reports beginning in October 2020.

The reporting was based on documents and emails found on the laptop Hunter Biden abandoned at a Delaware computer repair shop in April 2019.