The U.S. Treasury Department has reportedly agreed to provide Republican lawmakers access to a set of Suspicious Activity Reports (SAR) relating to transactions by President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden, the president’s brother James Biden, and their business associates.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) issued a statement today announcing the Treasury Department had agreed to provide the committee with an in-camera review of suspicious activity reports related to members of the Biden family and their business associates. Comer said the reports relate to “unusual foreign or high-dollar transactions.”
SARs are records generated by banking and financial institutions and are filed with the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). A FinCEN guide (pdf) lists several activities that could cause banks to generate SARs, such as transactions with no apparent business activity or large volumes of wire transfers.
In a November report (pdf), Comer cited media claims alleging U.S. banks may have generated more than 150 SARs related to Biden family business transactions. Comer formally requested access to these Treasury records in January after Republicans gained control of the House of Representatives.
Last week, Comer issued a subpoena, calling on Treasury Department Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs Jonathan Davidson to appear for a transcribed interview regarding the department’s handling of Republican requests for the Biden family SARs. After announcing that the Treasury Department had agreed to provide access to the SARs, Comer announced that Davidson’s interview would be postponed.
“After two months of dragging their feet, the Treasury Department is finally providing us access to the suspicious activity reports for the Biden family and their associates’ business transactions,” Comer said. “It should never have taken us threatening to hold a hearing and conduct a transcribed interview with an official under the penalty of perjury for Treasury to finally accommodate part of our request.”
NTD News contacted the Treasury Department for comment but did not receive a response by the time of publication.
Biden Family Investigations
Republicans have raised allegations that Biden family members profited off their access to Joe Biden, enriching themselves by offering investors, including foreign nationals, access to Joe Biden.
The SARs are one of several angles Republican lawmakers have been pursuing in their investigation of the Biden family’s business dealings. Republicans have also been in contact with business partners and affiliates of the Biden family, such as Eric Schwerin and Kathy Chung.
On March 12, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, published a letter (pdf) alleging the Republican majority had also issued subpoenas to Bank of America for the financial records of three of Hunter Biden’s associates.
Comer has indicated he has gained access to at least some business records linked to the Biden family.
“According to bank documents we’ve already obtained, we know one company owned by a Biden associate received a $3 million wire from a Chinese energy company two months after Joe Biden left the vice presidency,” Comer said on Tuesday. “Soon after, hundreds of thousands of dollars in payouts went to members of the Biden family. We are going to continue to use bank documents and suspicious activity reports to follow the money trail to determine the extent of the Biden family’s business schemes, if Joe Biden is compromised by these deals, and if there is a national security threat.”
Republican investigations have overlapped with investigations by federal prosecutors. In December 2020, Hunter Biden also announced he was being investigated by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware over his taxes. The Washington Post reported last October, based on unnamed sources, that prosecutors have enough to charge the president’s son with tax crimes and lying on a federal form while purchasing a firearm.
Hunter Biden has not been charged as a result of the ongoing federal investigation, and Joe Biden has said he has “great confidence” in his son.
Raskin Alleges GOP Blocking Trump Investigation
While the Republicans on the House Oversight Committee have been moving forward with investigations into the Biden family, Raskin has accused them of hindering investigations into former President Donald Trump.
In his March 12 letter, Raskin alleged Comer “may have acted in league with attorneys for former President Donald Trump” to block the committee from receiving subpoenaed records from Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars USA.” Raskin said those records also pertained to evidence that foreign governments “sought to influence the Trump Administration by playing to President Trump’s financial interests.”
“The Committee simply cannot coordinate with former President Trump’s attorneys to obstruct a lawful subpoena investigating his demonstrated corruption, then issue an invasive and overbroad subpoena based on an investigation of the business dealings of his political rival’s son, who has never served in government,” Raskin wrote.
A spokesperson for the House Oversight Committee dismissed Raskin’s allegation as “unfounded and untrue.”
“There has been no coordination or discussion with anyone from the Committee’s majority with anyone about the Mazars documents,” the committee spokesperson told The Epoch Times. “Even Raskin’s own letter, buried in footnote 5, admits there’s no evidence for what he is accusing Chairman Comer of.”
The committee spokesperson said the point of Raskin’s claims was to “try to get ahead” of new developments in the Republican investigation into the Biden family, including documents that “solidified the committee’s understanding of several areas of concern and opened new avenues of investigation about the Biden family’s business schemes.”