House GOP digs in on China-linked payments to Biden family members in new memo

By Annie Grayer, CNN

House Oversight Republicans said in a new memo issued Thursday that members of President Joe Biden’s family received just over $1 million indirectly from a Chinese company — the committee’s latest disclosure in its investigation into the Biden family’s business dealings.

The memo, which representatives for the White House and Hunter Biden’s legal team quickly dismissed, does not provide any evidence tying the payments directly to President Joe Biden, which Republicans have said is the purpose of their investigation.

The memo names Hallie Biden, the widow of the president’s son Beau Biden, as a previously unknown recipient of payments from Biden family associate John Robinson Walker, who wired members of Biden’s family money after receiving $3 million a China-based company. Hallie Biden and Hunter Biden, the president’s younger son, were romantically involved for a period after Beau Biden’s death. The House Oversight Committee quietly subpoenaed Bank of America for the financial records of three of Hunter Biden’s associates, including Walker, on February 27, which is how it obtained these records.

“It is unclear what services were provided to obtain this exorbitant amount of money,” Republican Oversight Committee Chair James Comer said in a statement.

Comer told Fox News’ Sean Hannity on Thursday that his committee planned to subpoena additional bank records.

“We’re going to do everything in our ability to follow every bank trail,” Comer said.

Comer requested that Walker sit for a transcribed interview, according to a letter obtained by CNN on Friday. CNN has reached out to Walker for comment.

House Oversight Republicans claim that these transactions raise questions about foreign influence over the Biden family, but there is still no conclusive evidence that Joe Biden was involved in his son’s business matters and there is no indication he abused his powers in public office to help his family make money. President Biden has previously denied any involvement in his son’s overseas business dealings.

A spokesperson for Hunter Biden’s legal team dismissed the memo.

“Here we go again as Rep. Comer takes something old and tries to make it new by wrapping it in a wild and baseless right-wing conspiracy,” the spokesperson said. “Hunter Biden, a private citizen with every right to pursue his own business endeavors, joined several business partners in seeking a joint venture with a privately-owned, legitimate energy company in China. As part of that joint venture, Hunter received his portion of good faith seed funds which he shared with his uncle, James Biden, and Hallie Biden, with whom he was involved with at the time, and sharing expenses.”

Senate Republicans in 2020 first detailed how Walker made wire transfers to Hunter Biden and president’s brother, James, after receiving a $3 million wire from the Shanghai based company, State Energy HK Limited.

The House GOP compiled the memo after receiving bank records from a Biden family associate as the result of a subpoena in its investigation. Comer earlier this week teased some of the findings, saying that a third Biden family member had been identified as part of the family’s overseas business dealings, in apparent reference to Hallie Biden. Hallie Biden received two separate payments from Walker totaling $35,000 in 2017, according to the memo, but only one of those installments came after Walker had received the wire from the Chinese company, multiple sources with knowledge of the transactions told CNN.

White House spokesperson Ian Sams accused Comer of deciding to “go after” Beau Biden’s widow.

“Instead of bizarrely attacking the President’s family, perhaps House Republicans should focus on working with the President to deliver results for American families on important priorities like lowering costs and strengthening health care,” Sams said.

The GOP memo reveals that Walker and his company Robinson Walker, LLC received a $3 million wire from a Chinese company in March 2017 and then transferred approximately $1,065,692 to various bank accounts associated with members of the Biden family over a three-month period.

The memo also attempted to raise questions about a wire transfer that Hunter Biden received when Joe Biden was vice president. According to the memo, Walker received a $179,836.86 wire from a company with an overseas bank account in November 2015, transferred $59,900 of that money to one of his personal checking accounts, and sent Hunter Biden that same amount.

The memo also pointed to a bank account identified as only as “Biden” that also received wire transfers, which the GOP vowed to investigate further. In a statement, a spokesperson for Hunter Biden’s legal team said, “The accounts so dramatically listed by Rep. Comer belonged to Hunter, his uncle and Hallie – nobody else.”

In response to Thursday’s memo, ranking Democratic member Jamie Raskin of Maryland raised questions about why Comer will not investigate foreign influence in the Trump administration. He said in a statement to CNN, “Chairman Comer’s memo proved once again that, after four years of investigations by Senate and House Republicans into Hunter Biden, they have found no connection to the President of the United States or indeed any government official at all.”

Raskin first disclosed the subpoenas earlier this week and raised questions about their broad scope, but did not mention the Walker payments to the Biden family.

“They intrude into private details of Mr. Walker’s and his family’s finances: how much he pays for his child’s dance lessons, when he has been to the hospital, how many parking tickets he has paid, how often he eats at Papa John’s or has coffee at Starbucks, and how much he spends on groceries at Safeway,” he wrote Sunday.

This story has been updated with additional developments.

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