White House Challenges Biden Impeachment Inquiry, Rejects House GOP Subpoenas

The White House is challenging the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, demanding that House Republicans withdraw their issued subpoenas and interview requests relating to their investigation of the Biden family.

In a letter sent to House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R., Ky.) and House Judiciary chairman Jim Jordan (R., Ohio) on Friday, White House special counsel Richard Sauber denounced the “irresponsible” and “unjustified” congressional requests for information directed at Biden’s relatives. Sauber argued that the Biden impeachment inquiry is constitutionally unsound because it was not voted on in the House. Instead, Representative Kevin McCarthy (R., Calif.) officially opened the investigation in September when he was still speaker.

“The subpoenas and interview requests purport to be in furtherance of what you have characterized as an ‘impeachment inquiry,’ even though no such inquiry has been authorized by the House of Representatives,” the letter reads. “Indeed, you appear so determined to impeach the President that you have misrepresented the facts, ignored the overwhelming evidence disproving your claims, and repeatedly shifted the rationale for your ‘inquiry.'”

White House spokesman Ian Sams posted the letter on X, slamming the House GOP as well.

“You also claim the mantle of an ‘impeachment inquiry’ knowing full well that the Constitution requires that the full House authorize an impeachment inquiry before a committee may utilize compulsory process pursuant to the impeachment power — a step the Republican House Majority has so far refused to take,” Sauber wrote.

He goes on to cite how Comer, Jordan, and Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) objected to former president Donald Trump’s impeachment proceedings over constitutional concerns roughly four years ago. At the time, House Republicans did not want to move forward with Trump’s impeachment inquiry until the whole House had voted on its authorization.

“This pattern of distortions and falsehoods lays bare that no amount of truthful testimony or document productions will satisfy you and exposes the improper nature of your Committees’ efforts,” the letter continues. “Congressional harassment of the President to score political points is precisely the type of conduct that the Constitution and its separation of powers was meant to prevent.”

The scathing, four-page correspondence with House Republicans comes little more than a week after Comer issued subpoenas to Hunter Biden, James Biden, and Rob Walker — the president’s son, brother, and family associate, respectively. The court orders would force them to appear for depositions before the Oversight Committee. The Kentucky lawmaker also used congressional authority to request transcribed interviews with more Biden family members and their associates, “including . . . the President’s deceased son’s widow and her sister,” according to Sauber.

After receiving the letter, Comer publicly shared his response on X. “If President Biden has nothing to hide, then he should make his current and former staff available to testify before Congress about his mishandling of classified documents,” he said.

“Instead of fulfilling President Biden’s pledge to have the most transparent administration in history, the White House is withholding over 82,000 pages of emails where Joe Biden used a pseudonym when he was Vice President, refuses to provide proof that Joe Biden loaned his brother money, and now seeks to block the Bidens, their associates, and current and former White House staff from testifying before Congress.”