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Republican committee chair trying to dig up dirt on Biden admits they’ve come up dry

James Comer tells CNN ‘we’ve found a lot that should be illegal’

Eric Garcia
Wednesday 19 April 2023 16:39 BST
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GOP Oversight Committee chair trying to dig up dirt on Biden admits they've come up dry

House Oversight & Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer admitted in an interview with CNN that the committee he leads has yet to find any criminal activity on behalf of President Joe Biden’s family.

CNN host Pamela Brown asked Mr Comer in an interview whether he had learned if Mr Biden had conducted any potential criminal activity when he was in office.

“Well, we’ve found a lot that’s certainly unethical, we’ve found a lot that should be illegal, though the line is blurry as to what is legal with respect to family influence-peddling,” he said in response. “I think people in both parties have argued for many years that family members of both Republicans and Democrats – especially family members of presidents – have benefited from our adversaries around the world.”

Mr Comer has vigorously pursued investigations into Mr Biden as well as his son Hunter Biden for influence peddling. But so far, most of the Oversight Committee’s investigations have come up short.

“I don’t think that anyone would dispute the fact that we need to increase the ethics law and disclosure laws,” he said. “But one thing that we’re concerned about is that President Joe Biden has said he didn’t have any knowledge of his family’s business dealings or whatever you want to call them. But we find more and more evidence every day that he was knowledgeable about what his family was doing.”

Brown asked if Mr Comer had seen any criminal activity during Mr Biden’s time in public office, noting how members of Mr Biden’s family had received money from China in 2017, when Mr Biden was not in office.

“It was, but the people that initiated the payments had met with Joe Biden while he was vice president,” Mr Comer said.

Mr Comer’s committee and the House Judiciary Committee will likely continue their investigations in the coming months.

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