The House Oversight Committee has subpoenaed Bank of America for financial records linked to Hunter Biden’s business dealings. The committee has already received some documents from the bank that it says have “opened new avenues of investigation about the Biden family’s business schemes.”
GOP James Comey, chairman of the committee, subpoenaed Bank of America for “all financial records” dating from January 20, 2009, to the present from three of Hunter Biden’s business associates.
“The Oversight Committee has subpoenaed and obtained financial records related to the Biden family’s influence peddling,” according to a committee spokesperson. “These documents solidify our understanding of several areas of concern and have opened new avenues of investigation about the Biden family’s business schemes.”
In a letter sent by Ranking Member, Democrat Jamie Raskin, sent a letter this week alleging that GOP members on the panel are not conducting a fair investigation and accused them of conducting “political opposition research on behalf of former President Trump.”
Raskin said the Republican subpoena “required Bank of America to produce ‘all financial records’ for three private individuals from January 20, 2009, to the present — a staggering 14-year period.”
“To justify this roving congressional inquisition into the affairs of at least one private American citizen, you have offered that, ‘[b]y 2017, Biden family members and their associates, including John R. Walker, formed a joint venture with CEFC China executives,’ a reference to a now-bankrupt Chinese energy conglomerate,” wrote Raskin.
“Despite this limited justification, you compelled the production of and obtained thousands of pages of Mr. Walker’s private financial information, including statements of his and his wife’s joint checking account for a decade,” he continued.
The letter from Raskin said Bank of America is providing “thousands of pages” of financial information belonging to John R. Walker, known as Rob Walker, a business associate of Hunter Biden. The identity of the two other individuals whose records are being turned over to the committee has yet to be made public.
Walker worked with Jim Biden, the president’s brother, Hunter Biden, Tony Bobulinski, and James Gilliar in a joint venture called Sinohawk Holdings, which was to partner with CEFC, a Chinese energy firm.
“I fear this wildly overboard 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,” wrote Raskin.
Spokesperson said the letter is an attempt to “try to get ahead of the information”
A Republican committee spokesperson said that Raskin’s letter is an attempt to “try to get ahead of the information the Oversight Committee is receiving in its investigation of the Biden family’s influence peddling.”
“Ranking Member Raskin may want to have his staff conduct another review of the records obtained by the committee, as there are several quite notable developments that have both solidified the committee’s understanding of several areas of concern and opened new avenues of investigation about the Biden family’s business schemes,” said the spokesperson.
Last month, Comer sent requests to Eric Schwerin, Hunter Biden’s business partner and the president’s brother, for records as the GOP probes whether Biden family members leveraged now-President Joe Biden’s position as vice president to “sell access around the world.”
The investigation by the committee comes as the federal investigation into Hunter Biden enters its fifth year.
Since 2018, Hunter Biden has been under federal investigation for his tax affairs. The investigation is taking into account suspicious activity reports (SARs) about some foreign transactions. The SARs involved funds from “China and other foreign nations,” said sources close to the investigation.
The existence of an investigation involving Hunter Biden was first reported in October 2020, before the presidential election. It became known that the FBI had subpoenaed the laptop that belonged to Hunter Biden in the process of an existing investigation into money laundering.
In December 2020, After Joe Biden was elected president, Hunter Biden confirmed the investigation into his “tax affairs.”
The investigation is led by Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, who former President Donald Trump appointed.
