House Oversight Committee chair James Comer (R-KY) suggested that President Joe Biden possibly kept sensitive documents related to the Biden family’s business relationships with foreign nations. This could reveal new layers to this saga, especially as former President Donald Trump is currently being indicted for a similar offense.
The president’s legal team argues that the discovery of classified documents at the Penn Biden Center occurred on November 2, 2022. But the committee is contradicting this claim.
Comer sent a letter on Monday to Special Counsel Robert Hur, demanding that he provide answers on whether the documents were related to specific countries that the Biden family had business dealings with.
“The Committee has developed significant evidence regarding President Biden’s retention of classified materials at Penn Biden Center,” the letter reads. “Witness testimony, emails, and text messages establish there were at least five current and former White House employees who coordinated accessing boxes, which contained classified documents, between 2021 and October 2022.”
Comer continues:
As detailed in the Oversight Committee’s bank memoranda and Impeachment Inquiry Memorandum, evidence suggests President Biden may have used certain members of his family—particularly his son, Hunter Biden—to accumulate millions of dollars from foreign individuals and entities for the benefit of his family and himself. Indeed, the Biden family received millions of dollars from foreign sources while President Biden served in public office and afterwards. If any of the classified documents mishandled by President Biden involved countries or individuals that had financial dealings with Biden family members or their related companies, the Committee needs access to that information to evaluate whether our national security has been compromised.
The letter goes on to highlight how members of the Biden family, along with their business associates, “received significant payments from individuals and companies in China, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Romania” and points to evidence released by the House Ways and Means Committee which “identified over 20 different countries with ties to the Biden family’s influence peddling schemes.”
Comer noted that the committee “is concerned that President Biden may have retained sensitive documents related to specific countries involving his family’s foreign business.”
The chairman questioned the reasons Biden would have kept the documents. “Of the many classified documents he reviewed over his lengthy career, why did President Biden keep these specific documents in his home and office?” he asked. He also noted that there was “no reasonable explanation” for why five White House employees “were tasked with obtaining what were purportedly personal documents not subject to the Presidential Records Act.”
Comer then demands documentation and information related to the documents Biden kept, including interview notes and a list of countries and individuals named in any classified documents that were recovered.
This revelation brings up even more questions – some of which were asked by Comer in the letter. Did any of Biden’s mishandled documents relate to countries with which his family had business interests? If so, what is the nature of these documents, and why did Biden decide to hold on to them? Is there information in these papers that might expose wrongdoing on his part – or that of his family?
Of course, there is a possibility that there is nothing damning in these documents. But the fact that Biden and his team have not been transparent about the matter suggests there could be fire behind this smoke. There remain more questions than answers in this matter, and more players than a Sunday night poker game. Still, until the investigations conclude, the only thing that is clear is that nothing is clear.