President Biden’s brother testifies to House Oversight, Judiciary committees

James Biden on Wednesday testified in a closed-door deposition for the Republican-led committees. WORLD obtained James’ 10-page opening statement as prepared for the hearing. According to the statement, James Biden said his brother, President Joe Biden, had never had any connection to or profit from his business ventures that spanned more than 50 years.

Didn’t the accusations against the Biden family get debunked? The Justice Department last week indicted an FBI informant, Alexander Smirnov, for lying to his handler—and fabricating information supporting those lies—about Hunter and Joe Biden’s connection to the Ukrainian industrial company Burisma Holdings. The DOJ alleges Smirnov made up reported conversations with Burisma officials about how they hired Hunter Biden—“Businessperson 1” in the indictment—to use his dad—“Public Official 1”—to protect the company from “all sorts of problems.” The department also alleges he made up reports about phone calls where a Burisma official admitted to making payments to both Bidens. Smirnov’s claims mirror allegations by House Republicans that the president had improper connections to his son Hunter’s business dealings with Burisma.

What have Republicans had to say about that? The House Oversight and Accountability Committee on Wednesday questioned on social media how the Justice Department handled the informant. But House Republicans have continued their impeachment inquiry—which has its own website purporting to track updates on the investigation—into President Joe Biden. They allege that the president profited from his family members’ business ventures, and participated in an “influence peddling” scheme to make money off his position in the government.

Dig deeper: Read Carolina Lumetta’s report on the Justice Department’s indictment of Smirnov.