The House Oversight Committee has subpoenaed Bank of America for records related to Hunter Biden’s business dealings, Fox News has learned, and is already receiving documents from the bank that have “opened new avenues of investigation about the Biden family’s business schemes.”
Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., subpoenaed Bank of America for “all financial records” from three of Hunter Biden’s business associates dating from Jan. 20, 2009 to the present.
“The Oversight Committee has subpoenaed and obtained financial records related to the Biden family’s influence peddling,” a committee spokesperson told Fox News Digital. “These documents solidify our understanding of several areas of concern and have opened new avenues of investigation about the Biden family’s business schemes.”
Hunter Biden’s laptop was at the center of a Big Tech censorship campaign in 2020. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
The news of the subpoena first surfaced in a letter sent this week by committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin, D-Md., to Comer, alleging that Republicans on the panel are not conducting a fair investigation and instead are conducting “political opposition research on behalf of former President Trump.”
Raskin said the GOP subpoena “required Bank of America to produce ‘all financial records’ for three private individuals from January 20, 2009, to the present — a staggering 14-year period.”
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“To justify this roving congressional inquisition into the affairs of at least one private American citizen, you have offered that, ‘[b]y 2017, Biden family members and their associates, including John R. Walker, formed a joint venture with CEFC China executives,’ a reference to a now-bankrupt Chinese energy conglomerate,” Raskin wrote. “Despite this limited justification, you compelled the production of and obtained thousands of pages of Mr. Walker’s private financial information, including statements of his and his wife’s joint checking account for a decade.”
Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., prepares for a television interview in the U.S. Capitol on Thursday, Jan. 12, 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
Raskin’s letter said Bank of America is turning “thousands of pages” of financial information belonging to Hunter Biden business associate John R. Walker, known as Rob Walker. The identity of the other two people whose records are being turned over to the committee is unclear at this time.
Walker worked with Hunter Biden, President Biden’s brother Jim, their business associate James Gilliar and Tony Bobulinksi in a joint-venture called Sinohawk Holdings, which was meant to be a partnership with Chinese energy firm CEFC.
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“I fear this wildly overbroad subpoena suggests that your interest in this investigation is not in pursuing defined facts or informing public legislation but conducting a dragnet of political opposition research on behalf of former President Trump,” Raskin wrote.
A GOP committee spokesperson told Fox News that Raskin’s letter is simply to “try to get ahead of the information the Oversight Committee is receiving in its investigation of the Biden family’s influence peddling.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., on Capitol Hill, Thursday, June 9, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
“Ranking Member Raskin may want to have his staff conduct another review of the records obtained by the committee, as there are several quite notable developments that have both solidified the committee’s understanding of several areas of concern and opened new avenues of investigation about the Biden family’s business schemes,” the spokesperson said.
Bank of America declined to comment.
Last month, Comer sent requests to President Biden’s brother and Hunter Biden’s business partner, Eric Schwerin, for records as Republicans probe whether members of the Biden family leveraged Joe Biden’s position as vice president to “sell access around the world.”
President Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, step off Air Force One, Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023, at Hancock Field Air National Guard Base in Syracuse, New York. The Bidens are in Syracuse to visit with family members following the passing of Michael Hunter, the brother of the president’s first wife, Neilia Hunter Biden. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
The committee’s investigation comes as the federal investigation into Hunter Biden continues into its fifth year.
Hunter Biden has been under federal investigation since 2018 for his tax affairs – an investigation that was predicated, in part, by suspicious activity reports (SARs) regarding some foreign transactions. Those SARs involved funds from “China and other foreign nations,” according to sources familiar with the investigation.
Fox News first reported the existence of some type of investigation involving Hunter Biden in October 2020, ahead of the last presidential election. It became known then that the FBI had subpoenaed the laptop purportedly belonging to Hunter Biden in the course of an existing money laundering investigation.
Hunter Biden confirmed the investigation into his “tax affairs” in December 2020, after his father was elected president.
The investigation is being led by Trump-appointed Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss.
