The Treasury Department has agreed to provide the House Oversight Committee with suspicious activity reports for the Biden family and their associates' business transactions, committee chairman James Comer (R., Ky.) announced on Tuesday.
Comer said in a statement to National Review that the department’s decision to share the reports — which financial institutions are required to file when they detect unusual transactions that could signal illegal activity — comes after Treasury officials previously spent two months "dragging their feet."
Comer first demanded information from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen about the Biden family and their associates' suspicious business transactions in a letter on January 11.
On March 7, Comer asked Jonathan Davidson, the department’s assistant secretary for legislative affairs, to submit to a transcribed interview with committee staff on March 14 to explain why the department had still not turned over the requested information weeks after the initial deadline of January 25. That interview is postponed now that the department is providing access to the reports, the committee said.
"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 Tuesday. "For over 20 years, Congress had access to these reports but the Biden Administration changed the rules out of the blue to restrict our ability to conduct oversight."
Comer goes on to note that bank documents the committee has already obtained reveal that a company owned by a Biden associate received a $3 million wire from a Chinese energy company just two months after Biden left the vice presidency.
"Soon after, hundreds of thousands of dollars in payouts went to members of the Biden family," Comer said. "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."
Comer concluded: "If Treasury tries to stonewall our investigation again, we will continue to use tools at our disposal to compel compliance."
In his January 11 letter, Comer noted Treasury refused to turn over suspicious activity reports “generated by banks that flagged the suspicious financial activities of Robert Hunter Biden, James Biden, Biden family associates, and their related companies” during the previous Democrat-controlled Congress.
“The Committee is investigating President Biden's knowledge of and role in these schemes to assess whether he has compromised our national security at the expense of the American people,” he wrote at the time. “Additionally, we will examine drafting legislation to strengthen federal ethics laws regarding employees and their families. We will also examine and make recommendations regarding federal laws and regulations to ensure that financial institutions have the proper internal controls and compliance programs to alert federal agencies of potential money laundering activity.”
Comer requested the reports, as well as all documents and communications from the time Biden took office to the present “relating to any policy or procedural changes regarding the treatment of SARs, their preservation, and their availability to Congress upon request.”
He noted that Treasury said in 2022 it "has made SARs available for every request we've received, regardless of party, and will continue to do so." Comer suggested Treasury “abandoned this policy at a similar time when we requested information regarding the Biden family.”
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