President Biden on Monday formally declined an invitation to testify in the Republican impeachment inquiry investigating him for alleged corruption.
“Your Committee’s purported ‘impeachment inquiry’ has succeeded only in turning up abundant evidence that, in fact, the President has done nothing wrong,” White House counsel Richard Sauber wrote in a letter to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.).
“It is past time for the House to focus on the issues that matter to the American people rather than continuing to waste time and taxpayer resources on this partisan charade,” Sauber added.
“Accordingly, we decline your invitation for President Biden to testify.”
Comer, who leads one of the three House committees handling the impeachment probe, had extended an invitation for the 81-year-old president to provide testimony to investigators last month – proposing an April 16 hearing date.
In his seven-page letter to the president, the Kentucky Republican wrote that evidence shows that he has “been repeatedly untruthful” by claiming he had no interactions with his son Hunter and brother James’ overseas business associates during and immediately after his vice presidency.
“I invite you to participate in a public hearing at which you will be afforded the opportunity to explain, under oath, your involvement with your family’s sources of income and the means it has used to generate it,” Comer wrote, indicating that the impeachment inquiry has thus far “accounted for over $24 million that has flowed from foreign sources to you, your family, and their business associates.”
Biden has repeatedly denied any role in his relatives’ dealings despite evidence that he did meet with associates from at least two Chinese government-backed ventures and their contacts from Kazakhstan, Mexico, Russia and Ukraine.
Republican lawmakers involved in the investigation allege that Hunter, 54, and James, 75, sold access to the now-president in countries where he held sway over US policy as Barack Obama’s No. 2.
“The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree in the Biden family,” Comer said in a statement after Biden’s lawyer informed him of the decision not to testify. “Like his son, Hunter Biden, President Biden is refusing to testify in public about the Bidens’ corrupt influence peddling.”
“This comes as no surprise since President Biden continues to lie about his relationships with his son’s business partners, even denying they exist when his son said under oath during a deposition that they did,” the Oversight Committee chairman added. “It is unfortunate President Biden is unwilling to answer questions before the American people and refuses to answer the very simple, straightforward questions we included in the invitation.”
Comer was referring to ten questions included in his invitation letter to Biden, requesting written answers to queries about alleged contacts between him and a number of his son and brother’s business associates, as well as his knowledge of the source of money used by James Biden to purportedly pay back a loan.
“Why is it so difficult for the White House to answer those questions? The American people deserve transparency from President Biden, not more lies,” Comer argued.
The invitation to the president was seen by many as a long shot to begin with, as no sitting president since Gerald Ford in 1974 has publicly testified before Congress.
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