WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON (AP) — James Biden arrived on Capitol Hill Wednesday for a private interview as part of House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into his brother, President Joe Biden.
The interview with the younger Biden is the latest in a series that Republican lawmakers have conducted recently in their effort to rebuild momentum for an impeachment trial over the Biden family’s foreign finances, which has stalled in recent months.
Criticism over the lack of evidence directly linking the president has grown even among those in the Republican Party who have thrown cold water on allegations that Biden was directly involved in his relatives’ alleged efforts to use the last name for corporate payments in at home and abroad. The GOP investigation was undermined again last week when an FBI informant who alleged a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving the president, his son Hunter and a Ukrainian energy company was charged with fabricating the story.
The informant’s claims were at the center of Republican efforts in Congress to investigate the president and his family. An attorney for Hunter Biden, who is expected to make a statement next week, said the charges show the investigation is “based on unfair, implausible allegations and witnesses.”
Both James and Hunter were subpoenaed by the committee in November. A lawyer for James Biden said at the time that there was no justification for the subpoena because the committee had already reviewed private banking records and transactions between the two brothers. The committee found records of two loans made when Joe Biden was not in office or running for president.
“There is nothing left in those transactions, and there is nothing wrong with them,” attorney Paul Fishman said in a statement in November. “And Jim Biden never involved his brother in his business dealings.”
Republicans have pushed back, saying evidence they have gathered since early last year paints a disturbing picture of “influence lending” by Biden’s family in their business dealings, especially with international clients.
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Associated Press video journalist Dan Huff contributed to this report.