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WASHINGTON — House Republican-led committees issued subpoenas Monday to five current and former aides to President Biden — including ex-White House counsel Dana Remus — to discuss Biden’s alleged mishandling of classified records and his role in his family’s foreign business dealings.
The Judiciary and Oversight committees also issued the legally binding demands for testimony to director of Oval Office operations Annie Tomasini, Jill Biden adviser Anthony Bernal, chief of staff aide Katharine Reilly and special assistant Ashley Williams.
“The Committees are also investigating whether sufficient grounds exist to draft articles of impeachment against President Biden for consideration by the full House,” House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) wrote to the five.
The impeachment inquiry, launched Sept. 12, focuses primarily on Joe Biden’s role in his son Hunter and brother James Biden’s business deals in countries such as China and Ukraine during his vice presidency.
The new subpoenas indicate that Republicans are considering impeachment counts that cite his handling of government documents.
Comer said last month that the Oversight Committee obtained evidence that Biden’s aides began inspecting classified material at his private post-vice presidency office in DC nearly 20 months before the sensitive papers were said to be found last year.
In a letter to an attorney for Remus, Comer and Jordan wrote that the former top White House lawyer “has knowledge of why White House personnel began to visit with frequency Penn Biden Center in 2022, where classified materials, including materials related to Ukraine, were later discovered.”
“Therefore, your client is in a position to provide information related to whether, among other things, Joe Biden, as Vice President and/or President: (1) took actions to hide or cover up his improper possession of classified materials; (2) abused his office of public trust by knowingly using Executive Branch employees to attempt to ameliorate any political repercussions of having been discovered to have improperly possessed highly sensitive classified materials; or (3) knowingly maintained improper possession of classified materials related to countries from which his family received millions of dollars.”
CNN reported in January that around 10 classified documents, some marked “top secret,” were found at Biden’s office at the Penn Biden Center relating to the United Kingdom, Ukraine and Iran.
First son Hunter Biden earned up to $1 million per year serving on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma, beginning in 2014 when his father was vice president. His pay was cut in half two months after his dad left office.
Burisma’s owner Mykola Zlochevsky allegedly told an FBI informant in 2016 that he was “coerced” into paying Joe and Hunter Biden $10 million in exchange for help in forcing out the country’s top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, who seized the energy executive’s assets in a corruption investigation.
In addition to his former DC office, other classified documents were recovered from Biden’s Wilmington, Del., home — where images from Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop show a beaten up box of “Important Doc’s” and indicate Hunter had access to the family garage where documents were stored.
“Facts continue to emerge showing that the White House’s narrative of President Biden’s mishandling of classified documents doesn’t add up,” Comer said in a statement.
“It is imperative to learn whether President Biden retained sensitive documents related to any countries involving his family’s foreign business dealings that brought in millions for the Biden family. The Oversight Committee looks forward to hearing directly from Dana Remus and other central figures to further our investigation into President Biden’s mishandling of classified documents and determine whether our national security has been compromised.”
The issuance of the subpoenas coincided with the National Archives’ release of 73 pages of emails dating to the November 2022 reporting to archivists of the discovery of the documents.
Special counsel Robert Hur is investigating Joe Biden’s alleged mishandling of the documents.
Hunter Biden’s business dealings and allegations of Joe Biden’s involvement, meanwhile, were delegated to the US attorney’s office in Delaware, which has conducted a long-running and controversial investigation focused on tax fraud and related crimes.
Biden’s likely 2024 challenger, former President Donald Trump, is scheduled to go on trial in May for allegedly improperly handling sensitive records after he left office. A potential Biden impeachment vote and subsequent Senate trial could offset the political damage to Trump of a conviction in that case and three unrelated criminal prosecutions.
Jordan said Sunday on Fox News that House GOP leaders will decide “early next year” on whether to bring forward formal articles of impeachment.
Congressional Republicans last week subpoenaed testimony from Hunter and James Biden and from a slew of other figures close to the family, including Hunter’s art dealer George Bergès, who reportedly managed the sale of Hunter’s novice works for at least $1.3 million, and presidential appointee Elizabeth Naftal, who reportedly bought at least one piece.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre declined to comment on the latest subpoenas during her regular press briefing Monday.
The White House counsel’s office did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
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