House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) put the committee's Ranking Member Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) on notice this week, demanding an apology for "spreading disinformation" and "lying to the American people" about President Joe Biden and his family's business dealings.
In a letter to Raskin, Comer noted the significant revelations Oversight Committee Republicans have brought to light about the Biden family "brand" and businesses and that Raskin has "been a spirited critic of the need to look into President Biden or his family. It is of course your prerogative to determine how best to serve your constituents, Abbe Lowell, and the American people," Comer added. "However, the Oversight Committee must not be used as a means to propagate false or deceptive information, and for that purpose, we must address public statements you have made that contradict facts and are, unfortunately, lies."
Specifically, Comer singled out Raskin's comments following a key revelation about the Biden family when the FBI-generated FD-1023 form containing informant reports about an alleged criminal bribery scheme involving then-Vice President Joe Biden was reviewed:
Pursuant to a Committee subpoena issued on May 3, 2023, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)—on June 5, 2023—produced an unclassified FD-1023 to the Committee that detailed an alleged bribery scheme involving Joe Biden and his son, Robert Hunter Biden, as reported to a confidential human source by a Ukrainian oligarch (and Hunter Biden’s business associate), Mykola Zlochevsky. The FBI also provided a briefing to Chairman Comer, yourself, and certain staff. The American people have—rightfully—since been given the opportunity to review this document for themselves. After the FBI briefing, you rushed to tell cameras outside the briefing room, “What I know is that the FBI, Department of Justice team under William Barr and Scott Brady in the Western District of Pennsylvania terminated the investigation. They said there were no grounds for further investigative steps.” This, of course, was not true.
This week, the Committee on the Judiciary conducted a transcribed interview of the former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania, Scott Brady. When asked about your characterization of his team’s work, he stated, “My understanding of Mr. Raskin’s public statements is that, based on the determination that I and my team found the allegations in the 1023 not credible or other information not credible, we did not escalate the assessment to a limited or full investigation.” Mr. Brady described your characterization as “not true.” After directly refuting your characterization, he added his team did find there to be sufficient “indicia of credibility in this 1023 to pass it on to an office that had a predicated grand jury investigation.”
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With that point, Comer and Oversight Committee Republicans note Raskin has been playing "defense counsel for the Biden family" to discredit new revelations and brush aside any developments that cast the Bidens in a negative light — even if that means making statements that are — as Comer pointed out — untrue.
"The Committee requests that you formally correct the record and apologize to the American people for spreading disinformation about evidence collected by the Committee during its investigation of President Biden," Comer's letter states. "Additionally, we ask, Mr. Raskin, that you take seriously your position as Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Accountability and its incumbent responsibility to be honest regarding facts learned in the course of investigations—even those that are inconvenient to your own political views. While we appreciate your role up to this point has been to play defense counsel for the Biden family, it is time to follow the evidence and speak the truth," Comer's letter concludes.
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