In the first major escalation of the House Oversight Committee's investigation into Biden family corruption, Hunter Biden and James Biden have been subpoenaed along with Rob Walker, a former business associate of the president's son.
Rep. James Comer first hinted at the move on Sunday, suggesting that a slate of subpoenas would be on the way. Several others, including James Biden's wife, have also been requested to come in for transcribed interviews. It seems unlikely most would comply voluntarily.
Negotiations will commence in short order to figure out exactly when those subpoenaed will have to appear. It's very likely that all interviews will happen behind closed doors with perhaps the chance for a public hearing later. That has been the trend under Comer's leadership of the committee.
Certainly, there's some risk involved for Republicans. There is no doubt that Hunter and James Biden will play dumb and proclaim their innocence. In return, you can expect Democrats to leak portions of their testimony so the press can run with the narrative that the interviews were duds.
But is that really the point of any of this for Republicans? I can't imagine that Comer expects members of the Biden family to show up and tell the truth about what went on with their influence-peddling operation. Perhaps that's the point, though. I would suspect that Comer and his colleagues have information that hasn't been revealed publicly yet that will be used to test Hunter Biden and James Biden. Catching them in a falsehood or multiple falsehoods under oath is probably what Republicans are really counting on.
All this assumes there isn't a legal battle prior to any testimony. It is possible that the subpoenas are challenged legally, though there would appear to be precious little grounds to do so. If a judge steps in to play politics, it would only exacerbate the cloud of suspicion around Joe Biden and his family heading into the president's re-election campaign.
None of this adds up to anything, though, if Republicans don't actually have the goods. They've already uncovered some very telling financial transactions between China, Hunter Biden, James Biden, and Joe Biden. The last dot is getting the president's bank records to check those against, which could prove that the "loan repayments" were, in fact, just direct payments. Let's hope Comer didn't come this far without a clear plan to get to that point.