House Republicans Say Impeachment Investigation Could Rope In More Biden Family Members
DAILY CALLER — House Republicans indicated on Wednesday that their impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden could involve many more of his family members.
Biden is the subject of an ongoing inquiry regarding his involvement in business deals by his son, Hunter Biden, who has been indicted on nine felony tax charges concerning income from his foreign commercial transactions in Ukraine and China. House Republicans indicated to the Daily Caller News Foundation that they seek to expand the inquiry to cover other Biden family members.
“[The money was] poured into another LLC and then used by various Biden family members to pay their expenses. They weren’t paying taxes on it. Again, these were shell companies. They weren’t providing a service,” Republican Rep. Harriet Hageman of Wyoming told the DCNF. “They had nothing but a shell company that was used solely for the purpose of moving money around and then eventually into the hands of the individual Biden and family members. So yes, Joe Biden even compromised his own grandchildren by having them as some of the owners of these LLCs.”
“They just simply are the name on the LLC. So they have a mechanism by which to distribute that money to the family members,” Hageman said.
Hageman refers to over 20 limited liability companies (LLCs) that were allegedly set up by Biden family members, which received payments representing parts of Hunter Biden’s foreign business income, according to the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, which has led the investigation into Joe Biden’s involvement in his son’s business dealings.
“Usually in these kinds of instances … they were including a lot of other family members. Dare I call it this ‘web.’ They were using a lot of other family members. So the question then becomes: exactly how broad was that web?” Republican Rep. Randy Weber of Texas told the DCNF. “And if there was nothing there, okay. But, if you really expanded out to spread out the amount of money so that it wouldn’t raise as many red flags, you’re darn right, we ought to look into it.”
The Oversight Committee released on Nov. 1 evidence of a direct payment received by Joe Biden from James Biden and his wife Sara Biden, for $40,000 in 2017, with the check’s memorandum being “loan repayment.” The Committee alleges that the money was part of a larger $5 million amount paid to Hunter Biden’s holding company, Hudson West III, from a Chinese firm.
“I mean, there’s a check … for $200,000 from his family’s business dealings for actions that he took as vice president,” Republican Rep. Greg Steube of Florida told the DCNF. “[A]s they do the subpoenas and get the financial information back for all these different LLCs … you will likely see more payments to Joe Biden from those accounts and that’s that’s why we need to open the impeachment inquiry.”
“I think this should go to anybody who has been touched by becoming wealthy by this process,” Republican Rep. Burgess Owens of Utah told the DCNF. “There is something that is strange and very, very, very wrong when you have wealth being created in the dark without transparency.”
Some members were non-committal on investigating the Biden family beyond Hunter and James Biden.
“We don’t know who was involved at this point. We only see tantalizing evidence of suggested involvement for a number of different members of the family,” Republican Rep. Neal Dunn of Florida told the DCNF.
“[It’s] precisely why you get the impeachment inquiry [voted upon] … to get that additional subpoena power, getting financial records, getting IRS records,” Republican Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa, told the DCNF. “We want to connect those dots and make sure the American people see that we’re doing so in a methodical legal manner. And I think that’s how we’ve conducted ourselves.”
“Everybody gets the joke that millions of dollars flowed in from foreign entities into the Biden family. That is fairly obvious,” Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas told the DCNF. “There’s lots of things we need to pursue to be able to see where the truth leads.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
