White House Declines Comer’s invitation for Joe Biden to Testify about Family’s Business Dealings

The White House rejected an offer from House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R., Ky.) to have President Joe Biden testify publicly about his family’s foreign business dealings.

White House counsel Richard Sauber wrote a letter to Comer on Monday notifying him of the Biden administration’s decision to formally decline his offer last month for President Biden to testify as part of the impeachment inquiry into the president.

“Your insistence on peddling these false and unsupported allegations despite ample evidence to the contrary makes one thing about your investigation abundantly clear: The facts do not matter to you,” Sauber wrote, according to a copy of the letter obtained by National Review.

“Accordingly, we decline your invitation for President Biden to testify.”

The central focus of the impeachment inquiry is the Biden family’s foreign business dealings, primarily conducted by the president’s son Hunter. Comer’s request to Biden summarized the evidence gathered during the impeachment inquiry, namely financial records indicating that the Biden family received $24 million from foreign sources during the time Joe Biden was serving as vice president and soon after he left office.

In March, Hunter Biden declined to appear next to his former business partners in a public hearing after previously demanding a public session. Tony Bobulinski and Jason Galanis testified publicly and described their knowledge of Joe Biden’s apparent role in his son’s business ventures. To begin the hearing, Bobulinski accused Hunter Biden and his uncle James of lying under oath about the details of their business dealings with Chinese conglomerate CEFC.

Bobulinski recalled his meeting with Joe, Hunter and James Biden in May 2017 during negotiations with CEFC. Galanis alleged Joe Biden hopped on phone calls to help his son finalize deals with Chinese and Russian business partners. They both delivered nearly identical testimony to their previous private testimony for the impeachment inquiry.

“Like his son, Hunter Biden, President Biden is refusing to testify in public about the Bidens’ corrupt influence peddling,” Comer said in a statement.

“This comes as no surprise since President Biden continues to lie about his relationships with his son’s business partners, even denying they exist when his son said under oath during a deposition that they did.”

Hunter Biden testified behind closed-doors for the impeachment inquiry in February and admitted his father met and spoke on the phone with his foreign business partners. However, he dismissed the possibility of Joe Biden playing a role in his foreign business dealings and disparaged the impeachment inquiry. Joe Biden has denied meeting with his son’s business partners despite witness testimony to the contrary.