The Treasury Department will provide members of the House Oversight and Government Accountability Committee to study Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) documenting Hunter Biden’s bank records, committee chairman James Comer of Kentucky announced on Tuesday.
The Oversight Committee first sought Biden’s SARs from Treasury officials in January. SARs are required by federal law when deposits or withdrawals exceed $10,000 or may be indicative of criminal conduct. Jonathan Davidson, Assistant Treasury Secretary for Legislative Affairs, answered that the Oversight Committee did not provide a reason for the request. Comer thinks that the Treasury has more than 150 Biden-related reports.
“After two months of dragging their feet, the Treasury Department is finally providing us with access to the suspicious activity reports for the Biden family and their associates’ business transactions. It should never have taken us threatening to hold a hearing and conduct a transcribed interview with an official under the penalty of perjury for Treasury to finally accommodate part of our request,” Comer said in a statement.
🚨 🚨 🚨
@USTreasury is finally providing access to the suspicious activity reports for the Biden family & their associates’ business transactions.We’ll continue to follow the money trail to determine the extent of the Biden family’s influence peddling.https://t.co/k1P3W61pJN
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) March 14, 2023
Comer alleged in July 2022 that the Treasury Department amended a regulation to restrict the capacity of minority party members to obtain SARs. He asserted that the agency made the adjustment in order to restrict Republican investigations of Hunter Biden.
“We are going to continue to use bank documents and suspicious activity reports to follow the money trail to determine the extent of the Biden family’s business schemes, if Joe Biden is compromised by these deals, and if there is a national security threat. If Treasury tries to stonewall our investigation again, we will continue to use tools at our disposal to compel compliance,” Comer said.
The corporation run by Hunter’s uncle James Biden, the Lion Hall Group, gave Hunter Biden a monthly retainer of $100,000. According to reports, these donations were highlighted, as was a $100,000 payment from Chinese billionaire Ye Jianming to Hunter Biden’s legal business, Owasco.
Christopher Wray, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, said in August 2022 that large payments to “politically-exposed people” like Hunter Biden might be part of “malign foreign influence campaigns.”
“It starts to shade into a blend of what we call malign foreign influence with potential public corruption. And it’s something we take seriously,” he told Iowa Republican Senator Chuck Grassley.