Republicans are claiming a stunning development in their attempt to prove potential wrongdoing by President Biden after the House Oversight Committee issued a subpoena for an FBI file that a whistleblower said links President Biden to a “criminal scheme”.
The tip-off is said to involve “money for policy decisions” during the President’s vice presidency and is a potential breakthrough for GOP investigators looking into Joe Biden’s role in his family’s business dealings in countries such as China, Mexico, Russia and Ukraine.
Reports say that Republicans claim the file pertains to potential wrongdoing by Joe Biden rather than possible criminal activity by son Hunter Biden or another relative that indirectly implicates the president.
The allegations are believed to involve a country other than China, according to the New York Post.
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It reports that two sources say the whistleblower is not the same person as the IRS agent who last month alleged a cover-up in the criminal investigation of the first son.
The document subpoenaed by the Oversight Committee was “created or modified in June 2020” and must be supplied at a meeting on May 10, the subpoena says.
Oversight Committee chairman James Comer said the tip “raises concerns that then Vice President Biden allegedly engaged in a bribery scheme with a foreign national”.
He told the Post: “The American people need to know if President Biden sold out the United States of America to make money for himself.”
In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray, Comer and Senate Budget Committee ranking member Chuck Grassley said they had received “legally protected and highly credible unclassified whistleblower disclosures”.
They added: “It has been alleged that the document includes a precise description of how the alleged criminal scheme was employed as well as its purpose.
“Based on the alleged specificity within the document, it would appear that the DOJ and the FBI have enough information to determine the truth and accuracy of the information contained within it.
“However, it remains unclear what steps, if any, were taken to investigate the matter.”
White House spokesman Ian Sams downplayed the news, saying: “For going on five years now, Republicans in Congress have been lobbing unfounded, unproven, politically-motivated attacks against the President and his family without offering evidence for their claims or evidence of decisions influenced by anything other than US interests.
“That’s because they prefer floating anonymous innuendo, amplified by the megaphone of their allies in rightwing media, to get attention and try to distract and deflect from their own unpopular ideas and lack of solutions to the issues the American people actually care about.”
He added: “When it comes to President Biden’s personal finances, anybody can take a look. He has offered an unprecedented level of transparency, releasing a total of 25 years of tax returns to the American public.”
