Comer Confronts White House’s Obstruction of Biden Impeachment Inquiry - United States House Committee on Oversight and Accountability

Demands President Biden provide information about his interactions with his son’s foreign business associates, permit the release of documents‘

WASHINGTON—House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) today is confronting the White House’s pattern of obstruction of the House of Representatives’ impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden. In a letter to Special Counsel to the President Richard Sauber, Chairman Comer renews his request for President Biden to provide information about his interactions with his son’s foreign business associates and calls on the White House to permit the National Archives and Records Administration to release all records pursuant to the Committee’s multiple requests, including Air Force 2 manifests, emails where Vice President Biden used an email alias to communicate with his son’s business associates, and all drafts of the speech Vice President Biden delivered to the Ukrainian Rada in 2015.

“The Committee has proven that tens of thousands of dollars from Chinese state-affiliated entities entered Joe Biden’s bank accounts, and that Joe Biden has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from his family members in total […] Notwithstanding the overwhelming evidence, Joe Biden continues to lie to the American people about his knowledge of and involvement in these schemes to sell his office to the highest bidder. The Committee has demonstrated Joe Biden has placed his family’s wealth over his country’s interests, and the White House’s continued hostility towards Congress’s prerogative to investigate these matters constitutes obstruction and contempt of Congress—which are themselves impeachable offenses,” wrote Chairman Comer. “At every stage of the impeachment inquiry, while the White House has denounced the Committee’s investigation as lacking evidence of the President’s wrongdoing, the White House simultaneously has obstructed the Committee from receiving certain evidence of the President’s potential wrongdoing, including potential crimes. In blocking the House from obtaining evidence, the White House has failed to comply with its constitutional obligations.”

During the House of Representatives’ impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden, the White House has refused to permit the National Archives and Records Administration to release all documents pursuant to the Oversight Committee’s requests made on August 17, August 30, and September 6, 2023. The White House also has blocked current and former White House staff from testifying before the committee about President Biden’s mishandling of classified documents. This week, the President Biden declined to testify publicly about his knowledge of and participation in his family’s business schemes and refused to provide information about his interactions with his son’s foreign business associates.

“On March 28, 2024, the Committee invited President Biden to provide an explanation for his repeated dishonesty about his role in his family’s covert business dealings; the White House has declined the Committee’s invitation to the President to provide his explanation for the Committee’s findings. Included in the March 28 letter—in addition to the invitation to President Biden to testify—were questions to which the Committee requested the White House provide answers. Those questions have received no answer from the White House. The White House’s total contempt for congressional investigations—a strategy recently attempted by the Biden Administration’s Department of Justice, and which was excoriated by the judiciary—is puzzling given its insistence on the President’s innocence. Though presidents before Joe Biden have provided testimony to congressional committees, the President has apparently refused to do so, despite the majority of voters agreeing that the President should testify about his family’s pay-for-influence schemes. While the Committee regrets that, like his son, President Biden appears to be running from a public accounting of his role in his family’s influence peddling, the Committee reiterates its request that the President provide information regarding his interactions with the following foreign individuals:

Jonathan Li
Ye Jianming
Henry Zhao
Vadym Pozharskyi
Mykola Zlochevsky
Kenes Rakishev
Yelena Baturina
Yuriy Luzhkov

“Additionally, given the length of time the White House has had to review all documents, the Committee expects that the White House will now permit the National Archives to release all documents responsive to the Committee’s August 17, August 30, and September 6 requests for productions pursuant to the Presidential Records Act. The White House has held these documents for months, and it is no longer acceptable that it is withholding information required by the impeachment inquiry. Please provide information regarding the President’s interactions with the individuals listed above and inform the Committee by April 24, 2024, if the White House intends to raise objections to the release of any of those documents, so the Committee may act accordingly,” concluded Chairman Comer.

Read the letter to Special Counsel to the President, Richard Sauber, here.

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