(Headline USA) The Treasury Department has agreed to give House Republicans access to suspicious activity reports related to Hunter Biden and the Biden family’s business dealings, according to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky.
Comer requested the reports from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen in January, arguing that information about the Biden family and their associates’ business transactions, especially those that were flagged by U.S. banks, is vital to his investigation. This week, Yellen informed Comer that his committee would have “in camera access” to the requested documents.
“After two months of dragging their feet, the Treasury Department is finally providing us with access to the suspicious activity reports for the Biden family and their associates’ business transactions,” Comer said. “It should never have taken us threatening to hold a hearing and conduct a transcribed interview with an official under the penalty of perjury for Treasury to finally accommodate part of our request.”
Hunter Biden has been under federal investigation since 2018 for his tax affairs — an investigation that was launched, in part, because of suspicious activity reports regarding his foreign transactions with “China and other foreign nations.”
Comer pointed out that Congress normally has direct access to all suspicious activity reports. But the Biden administration “changed the rules out of the blue to restrict our ability to conduct oversight,” he said.
The Treasury Department denied that it was trying to block Comer’s investigation.
“All of these processes—which are designed to ensure proper protection of potential or ongoing investigations and other law enforcement interests—are already well underway for your request, but they take time,” Treasury Department official Jonathan Davidson wrote in a letter to Comer.
“The Department is working to complete these processes as soon as possible and consistent with the timeframes for processing similar requests in the past, including requests received from committee chairs in the prior Congress that took months to complete,” he added.
