Raskin accuses Comer of withholding information and misrepresenting witnesses
Misty Severi
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Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) accused House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) of withholding information from committee Democrats or misrepresenting the committee’s findings in the probe into the Biden family.
Comer has claimed multiple times on national television that there have been four “whistleblowers” regarding the investigation into whether President Joe Biden or his family are involved in an influence-peddling scheme.
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Raskin claimed, however, that he was told that the only two people to come forward with information about the investigation were Eric Schwerin, the president of Hunter Biden’s investment firm, and Kathy Chung, an executive assistant to Joe Biden while he was vice president.
“As you are aware, Mr. Schwerin and Ms. Chung, the two individuals your staff specifically identified as the individuals they understood to have been referenced during your March 6 Fox News interview, are not whistleblowers,” Raskin wrote in a letter to Comer. “Your repeated statements about ‘four people’ suggest that either you have intentionally misrepresented the Committee’s investigative progress to your conservative audience or that key investigative steps have been deliberately withheld from Committee Democrats.”
Comer most recently appeared on Fox News last month, where he touted that four “different” people had come forward, but he admitted to only meeting two. It is not clear whether the two he met were Chung and Schwerin.
House rules require that committee records are made available to every member of the committee, regardless of party affiliation. However, it is common for committee staff members to handle whistleblowers and their information cautiously.
Comer responded to the letter, blasting Democrats in the committee as being “openly hostile to [the] investigation,” and he confirmed to the Washington Post that multiple people came forward as whistleblowers to Republicans on the panel.
“As Ranking Member Raskin well knows, the Oversight Committee has a responsibility to protect whistleblowers,” Comer said. “The Oversight Committee’s investigation remains focused on suspicious activity reports held by the Treasury Department and Biden family members’ and associates’ bank records we’ve obtained.”
Comer has diverted most of his committee’s attention to foreign donations and financial documents that Comer alleges come from the Biden family. But other efforts of the committee include examining the handling of classified documents that were found at the president’s home and the Penn Biden Center. The documents exist from when Biden was vice president.
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Raskin additionally complained about a lack of access to physical evidence, citing a lack of access to Hunter Biden’s laptop, and he claimed they were not given notice about subpoenas that Republicans have sent out.
Comer has sent out six subpoenas so far to friends of Hunter Biden’s, requesting banking information from the individuals.