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House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer has subpoenaed Bank of America for more than a decade of records related to Hunter Biden’s business dealings, according to the panel’s top Democrat.
Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland disclosed the Feb. 27 subpoena in a scathing letter accusing Republicans of carrying out a one-sided probe into the Biden family while overlooking alleged conflicts of interests and foreign influence under President Trump.
Mr. Raskin accused Mr. Comer of taking his probe to the extreme with demands in “over 70 letters to virtually anyone who you believe can provide information on any aspect of Hunter Biden’s life despite a complete lack of evidence that any of these individuals or their financial transactions personally benefitted a government official or influenced, in any manner whatsoever, U.S. government policy.”
“You have now also begun to use the Committee’s subpoena power to compel at least one financial institution to turn over personal bank account records of private individuals,” Mr. Raskin wrote.
The Bank of America subpoena requested “all financial records” for three individuals dating back to Jan. 20, 2009 – when President Biden served as vice president, he said
Mr. Comer, Kentucky Republican, justified the subpoena by saying that “by 2017, Biden family members and their associates, including John R. Walker, formed a joint venture with CEFC China executives.”
CEFC China is a now-defunct Chinese energy conglomerate with suspected ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
“These documents go well beyond any business deal with Hunter Biden or CEFC,” Mr. Raskin said. “I fear this wildly overbroad subpoena suggests that your interest in this investigation is not in pursuing defined facts or informing public legislation but conducting a dragnet of political opposition research on behalf of former President Trump.”
A spokesperson for the committee said it has begun to receive at least some of the subpoenaed documents and that the records “solidify our understanding of several areas of concern and have opened new avenues of investigation about the Biden family’s business schemes.”
Mr. Comer has made the Biden family’s financial transactions the centerpiece of a probe into the long trail of suspicious business ventures involving the president and his son.
For months, Republicans have been engaged in a fruitless back and forth with the Treasury Department to hand over information on suspected financial transactions related to Hunter Biden that U.S. banks had flagged as suspicious.
Suspicious activity reports give banks a mechanism to flag transactions for the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
In the May letter, Mr. Comer cited media reports claiming that “more than 150 of Hunter Biden and the Biden network’s international business transactions have generated suspicious activity reports by U.S. banks for further review by the Treasury Department to determine if there is illegal activity or a threat to national security.”
He said officials responding to his initial demands refused to hand over the reports unless the committee’s Democratic leaders signed off on the request.
In January, after Republicans took control of the House, Mr. Comer redoubled his demands.
“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,” Mr. Comer wrote to Ms. Yellen on Jan. 11. “Accordingly, we make this renewed request for certain records and information in Treasury’s custody.”
In response, Treasury said it would “identify potentially responsive documents” and “make determinations concerning how to accommodate legitimate legislative needs while also protecting Executive Branch interests, including law enforcement needs.”
“While the Department will work as expeditiously as possible, this process will necessarily take time to complete,” Jonathan Davidson, assistant secretary for legislative affairs, wrote to Mr. Comer on Jan. 25.
Mr. Comer has accused the Treasury Department of obstructing his probe and is now calling on Mr. Davidson to appear for a transcribed interview “under the penalty of perjury.”
“Treasury Department officials have repeatedly said that they are cooperating with the Committee’s request but all we’ve seen is obstruction,” Mr. Comer said last week. “We’ve offered multiple good faith accommodations, but Treasury continues to provide excuses and employ delay tactics.”
Mr. Comer said Mr. Davidson was being called to “explain to Congress and the American people why the department is hiding critical information.”
After Mr. Davidson refused to appear at a public hearing last week, Mr. Comer demanded that Mr. Davidson appear for a deposition on March 14.
