In the first hearing of the impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden, Republican members of the House Oversight Committee have made several false and misleading claims. Republican Rep. James Comer stated that the Bidens and their associates created over 20 shell companies and made over $20 million between 2014 and 2019. While the $20 million figure is accurate for Biden’s family and associates, there is no evidence that President Biden himself received any of this money. Additionally, a large portion of the funds went to Hunter Biden’s business partners, not Biden’s immediate family. Furthermore, Republican Rep. Jim Jordan repeated the false claim that Hunter Biden said he was unqualified to sit on the board of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company. In reality, Hunter Biden stated in a 2019 interview with ABC News that he was qualified to be on the board and defended his qualifications in detail. He did acknowledge that being a Biden likely contributed to his appointment but rejected claims of being unqualified.
Another misleading claim made during the hearing was that the Justice Department improperly blocked investigators from asking about Joe Biden in a 2020 search warrant related to Hunter Biden’s overseas dealings. The instruction to not mention Joe Biden’s name in the search warrant was given because there was no legal basis to do so. This occurred during the Trump administration and does not indicate any pro-Biden meddling by the Biden-era Justice Department. Lastly, Comer mentioned that the committee had uncovered two wire transfers sent to Hunter Biden from Chinese nationals during Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, with Joe Biden’s home listed as the beneficiary address. However, this does not prove that Joe Biden received any of the money, and there may be benign reasons for his address being included. Hunter Biden’s lawyer stated that the address was listed because it was the only permanent address Hunter Biden had at the time.
