James Biden agrees to a private interview with House Republicans investigating the president

By FARNOUSH AMIRI
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — James Biden will appear before House Republicans for a private interview next month as lawmakers seek to regain some momentum in their monthslong impeachment inquiry into his brother, President Joe Biden.

The House Oversight and Accountability Committee announced on Wednesday that the Democratic president’s younger sibling will come to Capitol Hill on Feb. 21. The date was set after months of negotiations between the sides.

“We look forward to his interview,” the committee posted on X, the website formerly known as Twitter.

James Biden’s interview will take place just days before the president’s son Hunter Biden will be deposed in private by the Republican-run committee, which has been investigating the Biden family’s overseas finances for the past year.

Both James and Hunter Biden were subpoenaed by the committee in November. So far, the GOP investigation has failed to uncover evidence directly implicating the president in any wrongdoing.

A lawyer for James Biden said at the time that there was no justification for the subpoena because the committee had already reviewed private bank records and transactions between the two brothers. The committee found records of two loans that were made when Joe Biden was not in office or a candidate for president.

“There is nothing more to those transactions, and there is nothing wrong with them,” lawyer Paul Fishman said in a statement in November. “And Jim Biden has never involved his brother in his business dealings.”

Republicans say the evidence they have gathered paints a troubling picture of “influence peddling” by Biden’s family in their business dealings, particularly with international clients.

In recent weeks, the committee has deposed several former Biden family associates. In nearly every interview the witnesses have stated that they have seen no evidence that Joe Biden was directly involved in his son or brother’s business ventures.

Nonetheless, Republicans, led by the committee chairman, Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, are pushing ahead with an inquiry that could result in impeachment charges against Biden, the ultimate penalty for what the Constitution describes as “high crimes and misdemeanors.”

There had been private discussions about bringing articles of impeachment against Biden to the House floor for a vote in February but those conversations have since stalled. House Republicans have shifted their focus, for now, on impeaching Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas over his handling of the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border.