Comer Accuses White House of Obstructing Impeachment Inquiry After Joe Biden Declines to Testify

House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R., Ky.) is accusing the Biden administration of obstructing the impeachment inquiry into the president.

Comer wrote a letter on Wednesday to Richard Sauber, the special counsel to the president, laying out the White House’s pattern of alleged obstruction throughout the impeachment inquiry into President Biden.

“At every stage of the impeachment inquiry, while the White House has denounced the Committee’s investigation as lacking evidence of the President’s wrongdoing, the White House simultaneously has obstructed the Committee from receiving certain evidence of the President’s potential wrongdoing, including potential crimes,” Comer wrote.

He reiterated his questions for the president about whether he had ever interacted with his son’s foreign business partners from Ukraine, Russia, and China, based on testimony from Hunter Biden and his former business partners Tony Bobulinski, Jason Galanis, and Rob Walker.

The White House is allegedly holding up document production by the National Archives for files related to the impeachment inquiry, Comer said in the letter. At the start of April, the National Archives gave the Oversight Committee access to a tranche of emails connected to the impeachment inquiry. A source familiar told National Review that the White House was selectively permitting the National Archives to turn over files.

“Additionally, given the length of time the White House has had to review all documents, the Committee expects that the White House will now permit the National Archives to release all documents responsive to the Committee’s August 17, August 30, and September 6 requests for productions pursuant to the Presidential Records Act,” Comer’s letter says.

“The White House has held these documents for months, and it is no longer acceptable that it is withholding information required by the impeachment inquiry.”

Earlier this week, Sauber informed Comer that the Biden administration would be formally declining his offer for Biden to testify publicly and answer questions about his family’s foreign business dealings, many carried out by the president’s son Hunter. Sauber’s letter did not contain answers to questions Comer sent the president.

The younger Biden similarly declined Comer’s request that he testify publicly in March alongside Galanis and Bobulinski. In February, Hunter Biden testified privately and admitted that his father had met and spoken with his foreign business associates. Throughout his testimony, Hunter Biden maintained that his father did not participate in his foreign business dealings.

Before his private session, Hunter Biden demanded that House Republicans allow him to testify publicly during a press conference he held in defiance of a congressional subpoena. Days before the press conference, his attorney appeared at the White House for an event celebrating Hanukkah, renewing concerns of potential coordination with the Biden administration.