House Oversight Demands Special Counsel Turn Over Classified Docs Related to Biden Foreign Business Dealings

House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer sent a letter Monday to special counsel Robert Hur, who is investigating President Biden’s alleged mishandling of classified documents, asking that he turn over any documents related to the Biden family’s extensive foreign business dealings. 

The letter comes after Hur interviewed Biden last week. The White House Counsel Office said a “voluntary interview was conducted at the White House over two days” last week.

Comer writes that the committee is “concerned that President Biden may have retained sensitive documents related to specific countries involving his family’s foreign business.”

The Biden family and its business associates received millions of dollars from oligarchs in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine while Joe Biden was vice president, according to bank records obtained by the House Oversight Committee.

The committee says it has identified more than $20 million in payments from foreign sources to the Biden family and their business associates. Those foreign sources include China and Romania, in addition to the aforementioned sources.

While Biden has claimed that he never discussed business with his son Hunter Biden, former Hunter Biden business associate Devon Archer previously testified that then–vice president Biden joined at least 20 phone calls and/or in-person meetings with Hunter’s foreign business associates during their time working together. He explained that access to the vice president served as the selling point of the Biden “brand” that allowed he and Hunter several lucrative financial opportunities, including joining the board of Burisma.

At the time, Burisma’s founder and CEO Mykola Zlochevsky was being investigated by Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin, whom the elder Biden later bragged about having fired.

Additionally, then-Vice President Joe Biden’s office exchanged 19,335 emails with Hunter Biden’s investment firm Rosemont Seneca, a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from America First Legal revealed last week. The office also exchanged 4,243 emails with Hunter Biden and another 1,751 emails with then-VP Biden’s brother, Jim Biden.

“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,” Comer writes.

The Kentucky Republican explains that the committee is looking to understand whether the White House or President Biden’s personal attorneys “placed any limitations or scoping restrictions during the [special counsel’s] interview that would have precluded a line of inquiry regarding evidence (emails, text messages, or witness statements) directly linking Joe Biden to troublesome foreign payments.”

Attorney general Merrick Garland appointed Hur to investigate Biden’s handling of classified documents in January after the president’s attorneys found classified documents reportedly related to his time as a senator and as vice president in his Delaware residences and at the Penn Biden Center, a think tank that served as Biden’s private office from 2017 to 2019 after his time as vice president came to an end.

The documents recovered from Biden’s think tank were discovered in a locked closet by personal attorneys for Biden who were cleaning out the space, the White House said. The lawyers then informed the White House and White House counsel told the National Archives, which referred the matter to the Justice Department.

The FBI later found “some materials and handwritten notes” at the Biden family home in Rehoboth, Del., from Biden’s time as vice president.

Comer says the committee has “developed significant evidence” about the classified documents stored at the Penn Biden Center. At least five current and former White House employees coordinated accessing boxes that contained classified documents between 2021 and October 2022, according to witness testimony, emails and text messages reviewed by the committee, Comer said.

“The Committee is concerned as to why President Biden has not been fully transparent about the White House’s involvement in accessing these materials prior to November 2, 2022,” Comer writes. 

Comer argues there is “no reasonable explanation” as to why five White House employees — Dana Remus, Anthony Bernal, Ashley Williams, Annie Tomasini, and an unidentified employee — as well as Department of Defense employee Kathy Chung and private attorneys Bob Bauer and Patrick Moore were tasked with obtaining what were purportedly personal documents not subject to the Presidential Records Act.

Comer says evidence suggests the White House was concerned about potential document retention issues before November 2, 2022 “and used significant government resources to obtain the materials.”

“The Committee seeks to further understand why President Biden retained certain classified documents, if such information related to any of his family’s foreign business interactions, and why so many White House officials were involved in obtaining these materials,” Comer writes.

Comer requests that the special counsel grant the committee permission to view certain unredacted information from the investigation in a mutually agreed upon secured location. That information includes “any terms, agreements, or scoping limitations related to your office’s interview of President Biden (i.e., Was your office permitted to ask about evidence obtained by the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware (“Delaware-USAO”) and subsequently released by Internal Revenue Service whistleblowers related to the Biden family’s foreign business dealings?)” and a copy of the report and agents’ notes from the interview of Biden and from any potential interview with Dana Remus.

Additionally, the chairman asks the special counsel for a list of the countries named in any documents with classification markings that were recovered from Biden, as well as a list of the individuals named in any of the documents.

Finally, the letter requests all documents with classification markings that were recovered from the Penn Biden Center, President Biden’s residence, including the garage, in Wilmington, Del., or elsewhere.