James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, has announced that his panel will hold a hearing next Friday to examine the Treasury Department’s failure to provide bank activity reports for President Joe Biden’s son Hunter, his brother James Biden, and a number of Biden family associates and affiliated businesses.
Kentucky Republican Comer has long promised to investigate the Biden family’s financial transactions and foreign business dealings, and the bank activity reports held by the Treasury Department have been a prime target for this investigation.
When the Republicans in the House were in the minority, they ignored Comer’s requests. Now that he is chairman of the Oversight Committee, he is making this a top priority.
In one of his first acts as chairman, Comer resubmitted a request for bank reports, also known as suspicious activity reports, to the Treasury Department on January 11. He requested that the information be provided by January 25. Comer subsequently sent an official document request to Hunter Biden, James Biden, and a close associate of Hunter Biden concerning their international business dealings.
Comer sent a letter to a Treasury Department official last week detailing the committee Republicans’ attempts to modify their request. He stated that he was willing to view the reports in a restricted manner, prioritize the requests, and accept the reports on a rolling basis.
Comer wrote to Isabella More, the deputy assistant secretary for oversight at the Treasury Department, on February 24: “Given the amount of time that has passed since our initial request and Treasury’s inability to provide a projected timeframe when the SARs will be produced, the Committee believes Treasury may be delaying its production to hinder our investigation and operating in bad faith.”
Treasury Department must “confer with law enforcement partners, who may identify particular law enforcement conflicts or sensitivities,” according to an email referenced by Comer from February 23. “The entire process takes considerable time to complete,” the email continued.
Previously, Comer has mentioned the suspicious activity reports as proof of possible wrongdoing by the President’s family members. However, these reports are not conclusive and do not always indicate wrongdoing. Each year, financial institutions file millions of suspicious activity reports, but few results in law enforcement investigations.
In a statement about the upcoming hearing, Comer said, “Biden’s Treasury Department continues to make excuses for its failure to provide suspicious activity reports that are crucial to our investigation into the business schemes of the Biden family.”
