President Joe Biden on Monday turned down an invitation from House investigators to testify in the corruption-focused impeachment inquiry into him.
In a letter sent to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) just a day before the proposed hearing which was meant to hold April 16, Biden’s special counsel Richard Sauber said that the president will not be honoring the invitation as the “impeachment investigation is over.”
According to Sauber, the oversight panel’s inquiry has “succeeded only in turning up abundant evidence that, in fact, the President has done nothing wrong.”
“Yet rather than acknowledge this reality, your March 28, 2024, letter contains the same litany of false allegations that have been repeatedly debunked and refuted by the very witnesses you have called before your Committee and the many documents you have obtained,” the letter read further.
Maintaining that the accusations against Biden are false, Sauber asked 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.”
US President Joe Biden declined a request by lawmakers to publicly testify as part of an impeachment inquiry focused on alleged criminal activity by his family, the US House Oversight Committee said.
"President Joe Biden formally refused our invitation to testify in public about… pic.twitter.com/mzyzIjQ5Tz
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The letter did not say whether Biden provided responses to a series of questions Comer asked him to respond to in writing. The Republican leader had asked the president whether he met or interacted with specific foreign business executives. Biden was also asked for details regarding the contacts.
According to the House Oversight Committee, Biden failed to answer the questions.
“The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree in the Biden family. 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,” Comer stated.
“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. Why is it so difficult for the White House to answer those questions? The American people deserve transparency from President Biden, not more lies,” he added.
Comer sent a formal invitation for the hearing to Biden on March 28. While he proposed April 16 as a date for his hearing, he added that the Oversight panel was “open to” another date that would better suit the president’s schedule.
In the letter, Comer noted that the panel has uncovered evidence including witness testimony and bank records that contradicts Biden’s denial of any involvement in his family’s business dealings.
“In light of the yawning gap between your public statements and the evidence assembled by the Committee, as well as the White House’s obstruction, it is in the best interest of the American people for you to answer questions from Members of Congress directly, and I hereby invite you to do so,” the letter read.
“The public is left with two irreconcilable narratives. The first — asserted by you — is that you did not engage in influence peddling in exchange for payments to your family. The second asserted by witnesses and a body of evidence … is that you were indeed involved in these pay-for-influence schemes and that you have been repeatedly untruthful regarding a matter relevant to national security and your own fitness to serve,” Comer added.
Prior to sending the letter, Comer had announced the effort, saying that Biden was either “complicit” or “incompetent” in his son Hunter’s shady business dealings.
