House Republicans plan to hold their first hearing on the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden on Thursday, and they are aiming for a number of other behind-closed-doors interviews and depositions in the days and weeks to follow.
The hearing, titled “The Basis for an Impeachment Inquiry of President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.,” will be conducted by the House Oversight Committee and focus on “constitutional and legal questions” related to allegations Biden was improperly involved in his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings, according to a committee aide.
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The committee has not publicly confirmed witnesses for the hearing yet.
Chairman James Comer’s (R-KY) office also said last week he planned to subpoena bank records of two of the president’s immediate family members, his son Hunter Biden and brother James Biden.
Comer, alongside two other chairmen, Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Jason Smith (R-MO), are leading the impeachment inquiry into claims that Joe Biden used his authority as vice president for his and his son’s personal financial gain. They are also looking into allegations from Internal Revenue Service whistleblowers that the Justice Department extended preferential treatment to Hunter Biden as it investigated him for tax and other crimes, leading key statutes of limitations to run out.
Jordan and Smith are leading the latter component of the investigation and identified in June 13 officials they wanted to question as part of it.
Four of those interviews, two with FBI officials and two with IRS agents, have already taken place. The interviews corroborated portions of the whistleblowers’ accounts, including that DOJ’s investigation into Hunter Biden moved noticeably slowly and that U.S. attorneys in Washington, D.C., and California would not work with now-special counsel David Weiss to bring charges against the first son, according to transcripts of the interviews obtained by the Washington Examiner.
Jordan subpoenaed two additional officials, both from DOJ’s Tax Division, for depositions scheduled for this Wednesday and Thursday.
The remaining seven officials, all of whom work for DOJ, have only tentative interview dates.
Jordan, who has been involved in back-and-forth negotiations with DOJ about the conditions under which he can interview the officials, sent a letter last week to Attorney General Merrick Garland memorializing some of those negotiations and specifying dates that he expected to meet with them.
The chairman said he was “willing” to interview on Friday Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf, who worked under Weiss and was named repeatedly in whistleblower testimony as someone who allegedly stood in the way of federal investigators in the Hunter Biden case.
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The chairman also said he intended to meet with Weiss himself on Oct. 11, as well as other key figures, including U.S. Attorneys Matthew Graves and Martin Estrada on Oct. 2 and 3, respectively.
A committee aide said negotiations for the interviews were “ongoing” but did not provide further clarity when asked whether any of the dates had been finalized. The DOJ did not respond to a request for comment.
