White House declines Comer testimony invite, declaring impeachmentinvestigation ‘over’
BY REBECCA BEITSCH - 04/15/24 10:08 PM ET
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AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool, File
President Joe Biden speaks from the Treaty Room inthe White House on April 14, 2021, about the withdrawal of the remainder ofU.S. troops from Afghanistan.
President Biden declined to appear before House impeachmentinvestigators, writing in a Monday letter through an attorney that theinvestigation “is over.”
Though brief, theletter tears into the impeachment investigation being led in part by HouseOversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.), which has yet to uncover any wrongdoing by President Biden.
“Your Committee’spurported ‘impeachment inquiry’ has succeeded only in turning up abundantevidence that, in fact, the President has done nothing wrong. Yet rather thanacknowledge this reality, your March 28, 2024, letter contains the same litanyof false allegations that have been repeatedly debunked and refuted by the verywitnesses you have called before your Committee and the many documents you haveobtained,” Richard Sauber, special counsel to the president, wrote in a letterto Comer obtained by The Hill
“Your insistence onpeddling these false and unsupported allegations despite ample evidence to thecontrary makes one thing about your investigation abundantly clear: The factsdo not matter to you.”
CNN first reportedSauber’s response.
Comer’s Marchletter to President Biden contained numerous dubious claims in an effort to connect the president to various family members’ business dealings.
It also showcasedComer’s reliance on a line of inquiry related to President Biden’s work as vicepresident in Ukraine. Authorities recently arrested a former FBI informantindicted for lying to the bureau in fabricating allegations that Biden accepteda bribe in connection with his work there.
Sauber furtherpointed to discussions by Comer and other Republicans to make criminalreferrals from their investigation rather than pursue charges throughimpeachment, noting the chair also floated the pivot in a fundraising email.
“As our Office hasdemonstrated, and you acknowledged in a recent fundraising email, yourimpeachment investigation is over,” Sauber wrote.
The impeachment hastaken a back seat in the House in recent weeks, as the chamber prioritizes otherdeadlines and as support has fizzled among the GOP conference.
GOP colleagues havebecome more open in recent weeks in questioning whether Comer and the otherinvestigators have gathered enough evidence to build a case against PresidentBiden.
Democrats,meanwhile, have pressed Comer to name a crime President Biden could be accusedof.
The letter comes theevening before the date Comer suggested President Biden testify, though thechair had yet to schedule a hearing.
“The apple doesn’t fallfar from the tree in the Biden family. Like his son, HunterBiden, President Biden is refusing to testify in public about the Bidens’ corrupt influence peddling,” Comer said in a statement, nodding to Hunter Biden’s declination to appear at a hearing after testifying behind closed doors.
Comer went on tosuggest that President Biden was not being truthful about the extent heinteracted with his son’s business associates, listing off a number of names hewished to ask the president about. The list includes Mykola Zlochevsky, thehead of Ukrainian energy company Burimsa and the figure the now-indicted formerFBI informant accused of bribing the Biden family.
“It is unfortunatePresident Biden is unwilling to answer questions before the American people andrefuses to answer the very simple, straightforward questions we included in theinvitation. Why is it so difficult for the White House to answer thosequestions?” Comer said.
