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Democrats on Wednesday accused Republicans of deliberately timing the release of evidence in their investigation of Hunter Biden to distract from Donald Trump’s fourth impeachment.
The accusation was included in a memo circulated by the Democratic staff of the House Oversight Committee, designed to provide talking points for members. He calls on Republicans for releasing the transcripts of their interview with an FBI agent the same day former President Trump was due to be indicted in Georgia.
The document offers the same claim Republicans make in reverse: GOP committee members say that whenever there is new damaging news about Hunter Biden, Trump is indicted.
Top Oversight Democrat Jamie Raskin had hammered Speaker James Comer for taking four weeks to release the transcript of an interview with a former FBI Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) who they say undermined the narrative of the GOP.
House Oversight Democratic staff circulated a new memo on Wednesday that points to a suspicious timing for the release of information about the Republican-led investigation into Hunter Biden.
The memo specifically calls out Republicans for releasing the transcripts of their interview with an FBI agent the same day former President Trump was due to be indicted in Georgia.
Now they accuse Comer of having the transcript and not dropping it until Monday – the day Trump was indicted for the fourth time – this time in the Georgia election case. They also called out the president for giving the transcript to Fox News before releasing it to the public.
“The SSA’s statements during this interview have clearly refuted Republican allegations of political interference in the DOJ’s investigation and prosecution of Hunter Biden,” reads the letter, from Democratic staffers to members. democrats.
“Despite Ranking Member Raskin’s multiple calls for President Comer to publicly release the transcript and allow the American people to draw their own conclusions based on all the facts, President Comer waited four weeks to release the transcript. and only did so after first providing it to Fox News.’
“The Monday release of the SSA transcript is the latest episode in Congressional Republicans’ campaign to weaponize Congress and this committee to do former President Trump’s political bidding.”
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis indicted the former president on charges related to his attempts to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results.
Democrats also note that Comer released the transcripts of Devon Archer’s testimony the same day Trump was arraigned on federal charges related to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
The Democratic memo said the two transcripts prove Republicans’ investigation into the Biden family business deals a “complete and utter failure” and accuses them of trying to “pick, twist and twist the facts.” .
“The latest propaganda from the Democrats is yet another example of them acting as defense attorneys for the Biden family,” a House Oversight GOP spokesperson said in response. “The Oversight Committee’s investigation has produced concrete evidence through bank records and testimony that reveals Joe Biden’s involvement in his family’s corrupt influence-peddling schemes.”
The memo admits that Hunter Biden “appears to have engaged in common conduct in lobbying and government relations in Washington – exchanging surnames and connections with Washington and, in the case of Hunter Biden, “the delusion of to have access “to his father”.
But, they say, the investigation “repeatedly revealed that President Biden never took any official action for the benefit of Hunter Biden, his clients, or his business partners.”
“This radical misuse of congressional resources by Republican members of Congress to improve Mr. Trump’s electoral prospects is no secret strategy.”
Newly released transcripts from Monday confirm testimony from an IRS whistleblower that the FBI tried to interview Hunter Biden as part of their investigation into his tax crimes and with a gun, but never did. could do it.
Years into the Hunter Biden investigation, which began in 2018, the FBI decided to interview their target. The interview was scheduled to take place on December 8, 2020 – weeks after the presidential election. The FBI agent said he understood the Secret Service needed to be notified for security reasons, but said he intended to notify them at 8 a.m. the morning of their interview. “intention” to speak with Hunter.
But the night before, the FBI agent learned that the Secret Service and Biden’s transition team had already been briefed. “It basically tipped off a group of people very close to President Biden and Hunter Biden and gave that group an opportunity to obstruct the approach of the witness.”
“I thought they were people who didn’t need to know our intention,” he said. “I believe the Secret Service had to be notified for our safety, for lack of confusion, for deconfliction, which we would do in so many other cases, but I didn’t understand why the initial notification.”
The agent was then told to give his contact details to the Secret Service and not to approach the house but to wait outside for a call that Hunter was ready for the interview. The officer said he never recalled being told to wait for a target to call and say they were ready for an interview.
The call never came and the agent had other interviews to conduct, so he left.
As for Biden’s transition team, “I don’t know why that would have happened,” the agent said.
Democrats, led by Ranking Member Jamie Raskin, had hammered Speaker James Comer for taking four weeks to release the transcript of an interview with a former FBI Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) who they say undermined the GOP narrative.
“Despite multiple calls from Ranking Member Raskin (above) for President Comer to publicly release the transcript and allow the American people to draw their own conclusions based on all the facts, President Comer waited four weeks to publish the transcript and only did so after first providing it to Fox News,’ the memo reads.
The unusual interview attempt took place during the Trump administration, when U.S. Attorney David Weiss of Delaware was overseeing the Hunter Biden case. Weiss has since been appointed special counsel on the case, giving him greater independence from the main Justice Department.
When asked if he had “ever known US Attorney David Weiss to make prosecution decisions based on political influence,” the agent replied “no.”
The Hunter Biden case is still ongoing after a plea deal exploded when the judge advised Hunter that pleading guilty to tax and gun crimes would not protect him from future charges, specifically mentioning not not register as a foreign agent.
Meanwhile, Archer’s testimony, which was filed the day of Trump’s impeachment, revealed that Joe Biden spoke with Hunter’s Business associates about 20 times in 10 years. Archer did not claim to have ever heard Biden discuss business directly, but said having a then-vice president father on the phone sold the idea of having access to foreign leaders.