The GOP-led House Oversight Committee delivered a combative response to a Democrat who demanded the release of a transcript from an interview with a former business partner of Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden.
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY), a member of the panel who served as lead counsel in the first Trump impeachment, disputed characterizations his Republican colleagues have made about the closed-door interview with Devon Archer on Monday and urged Chairman James Comer (R-KY) to put out a transcript during an appearance on CNN.
Lawmakers have said Archer divulged that Hunter Biden put his father — then the vice president — on speaker phone roughly 20 times during meetings with business associates to sell the “brand” and the “illusion of access.”
While Comer went as far as to say Archer’s testimony “confirms Joe Biden lied to the American people when he said he had no knowledge about his son’s business dealings and was not involved,” Goldman insisted the conversations were purely casual, focusing on innocuous topics such as the weather, and argued the transcript would not lead anyone to believe the elder Biden benefited financially from his son’s dealings.
Goldman: I would urge Comer rather than to continue to send out misinformation about what transpired in the interview… put out the transcript. pic.twitter.com/tHzaO6iiug
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 1, 2023
After Goldman repeated his demand in a post to X, the verified account for the House Oversight Committee fired back.
“Democrats can’t explain President Biden’s lies about talking with Hunter’s business associates so they are now pretending not to know how congressional transcripts work,” the panel said.
Release the transcript. https://t.co/v3nnxRt0ur
— Rep. Dan Goldman (@RepDanGoldman) August 1, 2023
Goldman “was a staffer not long ago and knows that every transcribed interview goes through the same process. First we need to receive it from the court reporters (we haven’t yet!), and then the witness gets the chance to review it,” the committee added. “Once that process has happened, we will release the transcript. Also, no one believes Joe only talked about the weather.”
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Democrats engaged in a similar line of attack on the House Oversight panel, which is investigating the Biden family’s financial arrangements, after an interview with a former FBI supervisory agent in the middle of last month.
Ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) condemned Comer for not releasing the transcript, claiming the chairman was using the vacuum to perpetuate a “troubling pattern of concealing key evidence in order to advance a false and distorted narrative.”
Democrats should check their email before launching baseless accusations.
Tonight, Ranking Member Raskin accused us of "concealing" the former FBI Special Agent's transcript.
We emailed the transcript to Democrat staff the day after the interview on July 18 at 7:17pm ET,… pic.twitter.com/cfP6z42Dug
— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) July 28, 2023
The critique appeared in a letter about 10 days after Comer emerged from the interview and said the FBI veteran confirmed “key” aspects of whistleblower testimony by a pair of Internal Revenue Service agents who have come forward with claims that the Hunter Biden criminal probe led by Delaware’s U.S. Attorney David Weiss had been slow-walked.
“Democrats should check their email before launching baseless accusations,” the House Oversight Committee said in response to Raskin.
“Tonight, Ranking Member Raskin accused us of ‘concealing’ the former FBI Special Agent’s transcript. We emailed the transcript to Democrat staff the day after the interview on July 18 at 7:17pm ET, shortly after we received it ourselves,” the panel continued. “The transcript is going through the normal review process where the witness reviews it and makes any corrections needed. Once that process has been completed, we will release it.”