A Republican aide for the House Oversight and Accountability Committee clarified Chairman James Comer’s (R-KY) statement that he was “on the phone” during the transcribed interview of Hunter Biden’s business associate, saying the chairman was “in constant communication by phone” with staff throughout the testimony.
On the day of Devon Archer’s transcribed interview, it was widely known that Comer would not attend as he was back home in Kentucky. Transcribed interviews are mostly handled by staff, though members of Congress can attend and participate in questioning the witness. On this occasion, Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Andy Biggs (R-AZ), and Dan Goldman (D-NY) were the only members in attendance.
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But after the Daily Beast reported that he was not there, Comer went on Fox News, saying he was “on the phone” during the testimony.
“I had the staff lead the deposition,” Comer told the hosts of Fox and Friends. “I didn’t want a lot of members in the room because that makes the witness uneasy. … I was on the phone.”
His claims received pushback from Goldman, who attended the testimony. In a social media post, Goldman said Comer “was neither present nor on the phone for the Devon Archer interview.” In addition, the transcript of Archer’s transcribed interview does not list Comer as a participant or an attendee.
The GOP aide for the committee with knowledge of the testimony clarified that Comer was on the phone with Oversight staff, getting updates throughout the transcribed interview, not on the phone for the entirety of Archer’s testimony.
On Thursday, the Congressional Integrity Project, a Democratic group tasked with pushing back on House Republicans’ investigations into the Biden family, filed a complaint with the Office of Congressional Ethics, asking it to investigate Comer’s claim that he was “on the phone,” saying it was “made in blatant disregard” of the House rules.
“In making these statements, Representative Comer has violated the public trust and distorted the truth in violation of the House Rules and U.S. House Committee on Ethics guidance,” Kyle Herrig, the executive director of the group, said in the letter. “Accordingly, I urge the OCE to immediately commence an investigation into Representative Comer’s actions.”
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In a statement, a spokesperson for the Oversight Committee pushed back on the ethics complaint, saying the Congressional Integrity Project “only cares about politics and keeping a corrupt president in office.”
“Democrat dark money groups are attempting to distract from the fact that then-Vice President Joe Biden allowed his family to sell him as ‘the brand’ to corrupt foreign oligarchs around the world so ‘people would be intimidated to mess with them,’” the statement said. “Those are facts from Devon Archer’s transcribed interview. If this Democrat dark money group truly cared about ethics, it would file complaints against President Biden for betraying the public’s trust for his family’s financial gain.”
