Impeachment investigators “need answers” on President Joe Biden‘s tax returns, according to a top House Republican.
In an interview that aired on Sunday, Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO) explained to Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo how his panel’s “tax focus” is part of the impeachment inquiry against Biden.
“We have now seen checks going to President Biden of $240,000 as loan repayments to” his brother James Biden, Smith said on “Sunday Morning Futures.”
“But if you look at the president’s tax returns that he has released publicly, there’s no documentation of any interest income that he has received for any loans that he had granted towards anyone,” he added. “So, we need answers to those questions to make sure that people are being accurate on their tax forms.”
Republican lawmakers allege a pair of “loan repayment” checks to Joe Biden, one for $200,000 from James Biden in 2018 and another $40,000 from James Biden’s wife Sarah in 2017, could have been funded by laundered Chinese money and influence peddling schemes.
Democrats claim bank records “show that in 2017 and 2018, while President Biden was not in office, he provided two short-term loans to his brother, James, who repaid each loan within two months.”
But the White House rebuffed a request by House Republicans seeking further documentation underlying the larger payment, stressing the financial transaction took place “between two family members at a time when both individuals were private citizens.”
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Evidence conflicting with President Biden’s denials about his family’s business dealings, particularly when it comes to his son Hunter Biden earning money from China, has fanned suspicions among Republicans.
One area of interest is a 2017 WhatsApp message in which Hunter Biden pressed a Chinese business partner for payment by invoking his father sent just weeks before the date of the $40,000 “loan repayment” check.
Smith lamented how the Department of Justice has pushed back on efforts to get some officials to testify, including from the agency’s Tax Division, which he said is “quite important.”
The chairman also noted that subpoenas have been issued to Hunter and James Biden, as well as others, to testify in the coming weeks. “Hopefully, they will come forward, because we have to get answers to numerous questions that still are left out there,” Smith said.