House Oversight Democrats say Chairman Comer held back evidence, misled on witnesses

House Oversight Democrats on Thursday accused Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) of withholding evidence or misleading the public about the witnesses Republicans have spoken with in their investigation into President Biden’s family.

Ranking Member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said in a letter to Comer that he was troubled by the chairman’s recent claims that Republicans had spoken with four witnesses in the Biden family investigation.

“Your repeated statements about ‘four people’ suggest that either you have intentionally misrepresented the Committee’s investigative progress to your conservative audience or that key investigative steps have been deliberately withheld from Committee Democrats,” Raskin said in Thursday’s letter.

“In either case, this failure to act transparently and candidly, and to provide the Minority with equal access to Committee information, undermines your pledge to pursue ‘a credible investigation based on facts that is fair and balanced,’” he added. 

Raskin claimed that Democratic staff had asked Comer’s staff about any new witness information following the first media appearance in which he claimed Republicans had spoken with “four different people.”

However, Comer’s staff reportedly said there was no new witness information and suggested that the chairman’s comment referred to two witnesses, Eric Schwerin and Kathy Chung, about whom Democrats had already been informed.

Comer reiterated the claims earlier this week, telling Fox Business that he was “in communication with four former Biden family business associates” who are cooperating with the investigation.

Raskin also slammed Comer’s refusal to share a copy of the hard drive reportedly obtained from Hunter Biden’s laptop with Oversight Democrats.

“Indeed, your misrepresentations and refusal to disclose relevant information to the Committee call into serious question your investigative techniques, the ‘facts’ you have uncovered, and the narratives you appear intent on composing,” Raskin added.

Comer hit back at the ranking member in a statement on Thursday, accusing him of lodging “baseless accusations.” However, the chairman did not respond to Raskin’s specific concerns.

“Multiple individuals have approached the Oversight Committee as whistleblowers with a desire to share information confidentially. It should be no surprise that whistleblowers do not trust Ranking Member Raskin,” Comer said, without specifying whether such information had been shared with Oversight Democrats.