A top House Republican investigator is demanding that a Treasury Department official appear for a transcribed interview related to the department’s refusal to hand over suspicious activity reports on Hunter Biden.
Rep. James Comer (R-KY), chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, had set a hearing for this Friday for Treasury Department Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs Jonathan Davidson to testify, but the GOP investigator revealed that Davidson refused to appear, so Comer is now demanding that Davidson testify before his committee next Tuesday under penalty of perjury.
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“Treasury Department officials have repeatedly said that they are cooperating with the committee’s request but all we’ve seen is obstruction,” Comer said Tuesday evening. “We’ve offered multiple good faith accommodations, but Treasury continues to provide excuses and employ delay tactics. We are done with the excuses and calling on Assistant Secretary Jonathan Davidson to answer questions under the penalty of perjury next week.”
Comer spent much of 2022 and early 2023 repeatedly pushing Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to hand over the suspicious bank activity reports linked to Biden family businesses as he argued that the Treasury Department’s meager responses continued to stonewall his efforts to get answers on the financial transactions of President Joe Biden's son linked to China, Russia, and elsewhere.
Comer’s office said Tuesday that the Kentucky Republican was now “blasting the Department of Treasury for refusing to provide an official to testify.”
The House committee chairman said Davidson had on Monday declined to attend the Friday hearing, and so now Comer was telling the Treasury official to appear for a committee interview next week. Davidson had previously responded to Comer’s requests for information in September 2022, defending the department’s decision to keep a close hold on the suspicious activity reports.
“The Department deeply respects the critical oversight role of Congress and remains committed to responding to appropriate requests from committees of jurisdiction,” the Treasury official wrote, arguing that "safeguarding Bank Secrecy Act information is critical to law enforcement efforts to investigate money laundering, terrorist financing, and other illicit financial activity.”
"These suspicious activity reports and other BSA reports filed with the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network contain details of financial transactions and other sensitive, nonpublic information. This is preliminary and unverified tip-and-lead information on possible violations of law."
The Treasury Department claimed in May 2022 that it “has made SARs available for every request we’ve received, regardless of party, and will continue to do so.” Comer, however, said in July 2022: “This is not true.”
Comer wrote to Yellen in January 2023, again requesting access to these SARs, arguing that “during the 117th Congress, the Department of the Treasury refused our requests to provide information about the Biden family.” The Republican sent a follow-up letter to the Treasury Department last month, contending that the “Treasury has not provided the Committee any SARs to date” and claiming that the department has “made several excuses for Treasury’s delay regarding this production.” He suggested that the “Treasury may be delaying its production to hinder our investigation and operating in bad faith.”
“These suspicious activity reports are important to our investigation to help us follow the money and determine the national security implications of the Biden family’s shady business deals,” Comer said Tuesday. “Under previous administrations, Congress has been provided with prompt access to suspicious activity reports to inform congressional investigations, but the Biden administration has implemented a new policy to severely restrict Congress’s access to SARs. Biden’s Treasury Department’s obstruction will soon compel us to use the power of the gavel to obtain these documents.”
Hunter Biden controversially held a lucrative position on the board of Ukrainian energy giant Burisma while his father was vice president. The president’s son also pursued business deals in China and elsewhere during and after his father’s tenure as vice president, raking in millions thanks to these associations.
Comer has renewed his demand that Yellen hand over “all SARs generated in connection with” Hunter Biden, his uncle James Biden, the younger Biden’s business partners (including Eric Schwerin and Devon Archer), and his businesses. Comer also asked Treasury to provide any FinCen records tied to any banks related to Hunter Biden, James Biden, and others.
The renewed call for access to the suspicious activity records comes after a Washington Examiner investigation in 2022 found Hunter Biden disclosed in text messages to a woman named Eva, the go-between who served as his primary point of contact for the UberGFE escort service, that his accounts were frozen temporarily after his attempted payments to her "girls," who had Russian-linked email accounts, raised a "red flag" with his bank.
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