Here’s what Republicans are looking into.
Following the 2022 midterms, Republicans vowed to use their new majority in the House of Representatives to go after President Joe Biden and his family over their business dealings. Now that they’re officially in control, they’re wasting no time in making good on that promise.
Just a week after Congress kicked off its 118th session, House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer requested Biden’s financial information from the Treasury Department as well as testimony from former Twitter executives over the company’s decision to temporarily suppress coverage over Hunter Biden’s laptop during the 2020 election.
“Now that Democrats no longer have one-party rule in Washington, oversight and accountability are coming,” Comer said in a statement on Wednesday.
These are the first of many investigations: House Republicans voted Tuesday to form a special panel to scrutinize the Justice Department in what they call the “weaponization of the federal government.”
But does the party really have any basis for these inquiries — or are they just another display of partisanship? Here’s a breakdown of what led up to these moves and their political implications.
Why are House Republicans investigating Joe Biden?
The GOP-led committee is looking into the Biden family’s domestic and international businesses, arguing that certain financial deals could pose a threat to national security.
Comer kicked off the inquiry by sending a series of letters to the Treasury Department asking about financial transactions related to the president’s son Hunter Biden, his brother James Biden, and several other associates that were flagged for suspicious activity. But this doesn’t mean that the Biden’s necessarily did anything wrong: Banks are required to file reports on any cash transaction of more than $10,000 to the government as a guardrail against potential illicit financial activity, like money laundering. Now, the Treasury has until Jan. 25 to deliver the details.
So why is the committee asking for this information now? In the same letter to the Treasury Department, Comer said that the agency had previously rejected Republican requests during the last Congress, when Democrats controlled the House.
Why is Hunter Biden getting so much focus?
Though other members of the Biden family business will face scrutiny, Hunter has already found himself at the center of the probe. What’s more, Republicans are considering issuing congressional subpoenas to foreign companies that did business with him.
But this isn’t necessarily a surprise. The GOP has been preoccupied with Hunter ever since 2020, when a laptop belonging to him was abandoned at a Delaware computer shop. Since then, they’ve been analyzing messages and financial transactions that were found on it. (An in-depth exploration of everything that’s happened with that laptop is available right here.)
It’s also worth noting that the president’s son is already in hot water. Specifically, his taxes and business work are currently under a separate federal investigation. In March 2022, a grand jury in Delaware heard testimony about his income and payments he received while serving on the board of a Ukrainian energy company, but it’s too soon to tell whether he’ll face any charges. While there’s no concrete evidence, there have long been suspicions about Hunter trading on his father’s influence to strike business deals in other countries like China. That said, another Republican-led inquiry into Biden and his son didn’t find any proof of improper influence or wrongdoing.
As for the president himself, he has maintained that he’s never talked to his son about his foreign agreements.
What does the committee want from Twitter?
Comer is also asking three former Twitter employees — James Baker, Yoel Roth, and Vijaya Gadde — to attend a public hearing on Feb. 6. In a letter to each of them, he requested that they explain the company’s decision in 2020 to block users from sharing a New York Post story that included information reportedly was taken from Hunter Biden’s laptop. At the time, intelligence officials thought the allegations within the story stemmed from Russian disinformation, but Twitter ultimately said the article violated its hacked materials policy. Still, Republicans alleged that it was blocked for political reasons.
“The investigation will inform legislative solutions to protect Americans’ First Amendment right to freedom of speech and press and prevent public officials and their family members from using public office to enrich themselves,” Comer said in a statement.
The impending public hearing sets off what could be an intense showdown between Republicans and the White House.
What’s the deal with Biden’s classified documents?
Biden has simultaneously found himself in another political firestorm. The former president said Tuesday that he “was surprised to learn” that classified documents from his time as vice president had been taken to his private office after he had left office. Though Biden’s team immediately handed over those sensitive records to the government, they waited two months to say that publicly, raising some ethical questions.
In response, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham called for Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel to investigate this classified material, arguing that if such a counsel was assigned to investigate sensitive documents on Donald Trump’s property, the same principle should be applied to Biden. (As you probably remember, Trump is currently under investigation by the DOJ for his own handling of more than 300 classified documents housed at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort.)
What are Democrats saying about all this?
It likely won’t surprise you to hear that Democrats remain skeptical about the possibility of these investigations turning up any important information, calling it a distraction from the nation’s more pressing issues at hand.
“In their first week as a governing majority, House Republicans have not taken any meaningful action to address inflation and lower Americans’ costs, yet they’re jumping out of the gate with political stunts driven by the most extreme MAGA members of their caucus in an effort to get attention on Fox News,” said a statement from White House spokesman Ian Sams.
