Oversight Committee probes Hunter Biden as Raskin accuses chair of blocking Trump probe
Written by ABC AUDIO on March 14, 2023
(WASHINGTON) — House Oversight Chairman James Comer has issued the committee’s first subpoena since taking over the gavel, targeting Bank of America for records related to multiple associates of Hunter Biden, according to the Democratic ranking member on the committee, Rep. Jamie Raskin, who accused the Republican chairman of coordinating with lawyers for Donald Trump to block a previous probe into the former president’s business.
In a letter obtained by ABC News, Raskin details that the subpoena called for “all financial records” spanning 14 years, beginning in 2009, from three of Hunter Biden’s business associates.
The subpoena was disclosed in a letter that Raskin wrote accusing Comer of coordinating with former President Trump’s team about a 2019 subpoena from the committee regarding foreign spending at Trump-owned properties. Attorneys for Trump have previously argued that seeking to show that foreign officials have stayed at Trump-owned properties because Trump owned them is “too speculative.”
Raskin accuses Comer of working with Trump’s lawyers to prevent the former president’s longtime accounting firm Mazars USA from producing evidence related to his tax dealings. Mazars had previously agreed to hand over documents requested by the Oversight Committee through a House subpoena issued in April 2019, when Democrats held the gavel.
According to correspondence obtained by Democrats, Trump’s lawyers told a counsel for Mazars to stop providing documents related to Trump’s accounting practices to Oversight at the behest of GOP investigators.
“On January 19, 2023, Patrick Strawbridge, counsel for Donald Trump, wrote to counsel for Mazars, stating ‘I do not know the status of Mazars [sic] production, but my understanding is that the Committee has no interest in forcing Mazars to complete it and is willing to release it from further obligations under the settlement agreement.’ When counsel for Mazars sought clarification, Mr. Strawbridge confirmed this direction had been provided to him, twice, by the Acting General Counsel of the House of Representatives, in his capacity as counsel to the Committee,” Raskin wrote.
CNN was first to report on the letter.
A House GOP committee spokesperson denied the allegation from Raskin, telling ABC News in a statement. “The accusation by Ranking Member Raskin is completely unfounded and untrue. There has been no coordination or discussion with anyone from the Committee’s majority with anyone about the Mazars documents.”
The House committee also confirmed it had subpoenaed Bank of America for records related to associates of Hunter Biden: “The Oversight Committee has subpoenaed and obtained financial records related to the Biden family’s influence peddling. These documents solidify our understanding of several areas of concern and have opened new avenues of investigation about the Biden family’s business schemes.”
A representative for Hunter Biden had no comment when contacted by ABC News. The younger Biden has previously denied any wrongdoing, ethically or criminally, but has acknowledged that his family ties likely bolstered his career. President Joe Biden has said that he and his son never discussed his son’s overseas business dealings.
White House spokesman Ian Sams previously called a Comer-led Feb. 8 hearing on Twitter’s handling of Hunter Biden-related tweets a “bizarre political stunt.”
“This appears to be the latest effort by the House Republican majority’s most extreme MAGA members to question and re-litigate the outcome of the 2020 election,” Sams said at the time. “This is not what the American people want their leaders to work on.”
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