OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said over the weekend that the GOP-led impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden is likely to lead to “multiple” criminal referrals, though it’s unclear whether his Justice Department will act on them.
The Kentucky Republican made the announcement during a Fox News interview while revealing plans to hold a public hearing this week though first son Hunter Biden has declined to take part after providing private testimony. Earlier, Biden’s attorney said his client would participate in a public hearing.
“If he does not show up, then it’s not going to end well for the Bidens, because we have three witnesses that … have already testified under oath to significantly different stories as to what exactly the Biden influence peddling schemes were,” he told “Sunday Morning Futures” anchor Maria Bartiromo.
“This is very serious because we’re at the point now of criminal referrals,” Comer added.
In response to Bartiromo’s question about how many referrals would be forthcoming, Comer said only “multiple.” He didn’t reveal a specific number.
WATCH:
Biden and his supporters have aimed to push back against the impeachment effort, labeling it a “sham” inquiry devoid of impeachable offenses. Nevertheless, evidence contradicts the president’s denials of involvement in his family members’ business dealings, with instances emerging of Biden meeting and communicating with their associates, The Daily Wire reported.
The GOP leader said there has been “massive obstruction” from the White House the Biden legal team. That said, Comer added that congressional investigators have been “able to get probably 80 percent of the information that we have requested.”
“We have accumulated lots of evidence of wrongdoing, from the 170 suspicious activity reports to the multiple shell companies that were used to launder the money and then send the ten different Biden family members incremental payments, all the payments from Romania, from Kazakhstan, from Ukraine, from Russia that were sent to the Bidens during — most of which was — happened during Joe Biden’s tenure as vice president of the United States,” Comer, a cattle farmer and former bank executive, said.
Earlier this month, following Hunter Biden’s behind-closed-doors testimony before his panel and the House Judiciary Committee, Comer discussed what the next steps likely are in the impeachment inquiry.
Comer said the GOP will be moving into its “next phase” that could include having Hunter return for public testimony, though the first son’s attorney threw cold water on that, Fox News Digital reported.
Hunter’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, told reporters: “The transcripts of witnesses who have been called to date, including Hunter’s, makes it obvious that there is nothing left to ask, answer, say or do. This illegitimate inquiry should have ended long before their star witness was indicted for lying but it wasn’t. Now that Hunter has put this partisan conspiracy to the lie that it is — on the record and under oath — this political charade should finally come to an end.”
Hunter testified that he “did not involve” his father in his businesses while heavily criticizing House Republicans for having “hunted” him in a “partisan political pursuit” and impeachment inquiry against the president.
In addition, Lowell also said the GOP has no evidence against his father, the president, “because there isn’t any.”
Fox News added:
A source with direct knowledge of the deposition told Fox News Digital that Hunter “first made clear in his opening statement and emphasized throughout the deposition, Joe Biden was not involved in, did not benefit from, and took no official actions to benefit any of his business ventures.”
In reference to the “10 held by H for the big guy?” email, the source claimed that Hunter told the congressional committee that the business associate who sent the message, James Gilliar, was “out of his mind for even suggesting Joe Biden get involved in their joint venture.”
“Hunter discussed his addiction at length,” the source noted further, going on to explain that Hunter “admitted that he was high or drunk when he sent the ‘sitting here with my father’ WhatsApp message, sent it to the wrong recipient, and is now embarrassed by the message.”
The text was sent to a business partner for Chinese energy firm CEFC, Fox News Digital noted.
