Home Republicans will hold its second audience Accused investigative hearing Wednesday as they continue to examine whether Joe Biden used his political influence as vice president to help his family profit.
The House Oversight Committee will hold the hearing, titled “Influence Peddling: Examining Joe Biden’s Abuse of Public Office,” at 10 a.m. at the Capitol.
The Bidens “do not work as consultants, nor as lawyers, nor as advisors. The Bidens are not selling a product, service or skill set. The Bidens are selling Joe Biden,” Speaker James Comer (R-KY) plans to say at the hearing, according to excerpts of his opening speech obtained by the Washington Examiner.
“The scam is simple. The Biden family promises that it can resolve the problems of a foreign partner by engaging the US government,” Comer will say.
Republicans on the committee invited four witnesses to appear at the hearing, but two of them, Hunter Biden and his former business partner Devon Archer, declined to attend. The other two, Jason Galanis and Tony Bobulinski, both plan to testify. Galanis, who is serving a 14-year prison sentence in Alabama, will appear virtually from his detention center. Both Galanis and Bobulinski previously worked with Hunter Biden.
The Democratic committee invited Lev Parnas, a former associate of Rudy Giuliani, to appear as a witness, according to a Democratic source. Parnas, who was convicted in 2021 of campaign finance and false statements, had worked with Giuliani before the 2020 presidential election to uncover any interference by the Biden family in Ukrainian politics. He later Express He regretted doing so in a letter to Congress and said the impeachment inquiry had “no merit.”
A spokesperson for the Les Républicains committee said in a statement that Democrats “are relying on a convicted liar who claims Joe Biden never met with a Burisma official when in fact he had dinner with one.”
Oversight Committee member Jamie Raskin (D-MD), who has been tasked with countering Republican impeachment narratives since the investigation began six months ago, said Parnas would “debunk” the investigation.
“Lev Parnas can debunk the false claims at the heart of the impeachment inquiry and, in doing so, explain how the Republican Party ended up in this degraded and embarrassing place,” Raskin said.
Republicans had invited Hunter Biden to attend the hearing, but the first son declined. His lawyer said in a letter to Comer that the hearing was an “attempt to resurrect” the House Republicans’ “moribund investigation with a circus act designed for right-wing media.”
Hunter Biden initially told the committee that he would only appear for a public hearing after Comer subpoenaed him for a closed-door deposition. The first son initially resisted appearing behind closed doors, arguing that Republicans would publicly misrepresent the interview. However, he ultimately relented when faced with the prospect of being tried for contempt of Congress and showed up for the deposition last month. He then walked back his offer to appear publicly when Comer invited him to Wednesday’s hearing.
Watchdog Republicans plan to keep a seat at the witness table bearing Hunter Biden’s name on Wednesday to show his absence, according to a source familiar with the plan.
The source said Republicans are expected to ask questions during the hearing to address inconsistencies they have observed in various interviews they have already had with witnesses, including Hunter Biden, the brother of President James Biden , Archer, Bobulinski, Galanis and other business partners of the Biden family. , like Eric Schwerin and Rob Walker.
They plan to refute Joe Biden’s initial claim in 2019 that he “never discussed” affairs with his son, the source said. As evidence emerged that Joe Biden had called and attended meetings with Hunter Biden’s foreign business associates, the White House’s tone offbeat slightly over the years.
“As we have said many times before, the president was not in business with his son,” White House spokesman Ian Sams said in June last year.
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There is no indication at this point that the investigation will lead to a vote to impeach Joe Biden, as Republicans have found little evidence that the president definitively engaged in or profited from the business activities of his family members, despite their findings that the president previously had at least a tangential presence for some of them.
Comer said the investigation could also lead to legislative reforms or criminal dismissals, rather than an impeachment vote.