The Republican chairmen of three House committees have filed criminal referrals to the Justice Department for Hunter Biden and James Biden, accusing the president's son and brother of lying to Congress in the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and special counsel David Weiss on Wednesday, House Oversight Chair James Comer, R-Ky., Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith, R-Mo., accused the two Bidens of making “provably false statements" about the impeachment inquiry, "in what appears to be a conscious effort to hinder the investigation’s focus on President Joe Biden.”
The referrals misrepresent some aspects of Hunter Biden's testimony, as The New York Times reported, and they come a week after Donald Trump became the first former president to be convicted of a crime.
The referrals are not binding. It's unclear if Garland will entertain them, considering that he himself is facing a potential contempt of Congress vote by House Republicans for not turning over a recording of the president's interview with special counsel Robert Hur.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., challenged Garland to open criminal investigations into Hunter and James Biden, going so far as to tell the attorney general that it would be proof that his agency is not being weaponized against the president’s opponents — a popular narrative among Trump and his GOP allies.
“If the Attorney General wishes to demonstrate he is not running a two-tiered system of justice and targeting the President’s political opponents, he will open criminal investigations into James and Hunter Biden,” Johnson said.
Paul Fishman, who represents James Biden, said it was "a transparent and cynical attempt to distract from and retaliate for Donald Trump’s recent criminal conviction." Hunter Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, accused Republicans of distorting his client's testimony. (Hunter Biden is currently on trial in Delaware on gun-related charges; he has pleaded not guilty.)
House Democrats have said the criminal referrals against the president's family members are a "last-ditch effort" by House Republicans to show that their efforts to impeach the president haven't been a total bust. As my MSNBC colleague Steve Benen wrote, despite launching multiple impeachment resolutions against Biden, House Republicans have been unable to come up with any significant evidence that Biden committed impeachable crimes.