House GOP touts Hunter Biden payments; Counsel says they were for truck

House Republicans ramping up their impeachment inquiry are touting subpoenaed financial records that show President Biden received monthly payments from a business account for his son Hunter Biden in between his time as vice president and president. 

But Hunter Biden’s attorney is pushing back at the House GOP, saying that the monthly $1,380 transfers were made to repay his father for a truck payment that Hunter Biden was unable to finance himself.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), who is leading an impeachment probe into Biden based in part on his family’s foreign business dealings, released subpoenaed bank records showing monthly direct payments to Joe Biden from Hunter Biden’s Owasco PC business account, noting that the company did business with “Chinese-state linked companies and other foreign nationals and companies.”

“This wasn’t a payment from Hunter Biden’s personal account but an account for his corporation that received payments from China and other shady corners of the world,” Comer said in a video alongside the release of the subpoenaed records.

The Hill is told that the committee is aware of three monthly payments of $1,380 each to Joe Biden from the Owasco PC account, on Sept. 17, 2018; Oct. 15, 2018; and Nov. 15 2018 — all after Biden’s time as vice president and before he announced his 2020 presidential bid.

House GOP leaders, who are preparing for a formal impeachment inquiry vote in the coming weeks, shared the news of the payments to argue that Joe Biden had knowingly benefited from his family’s foreign business dealings. 

“Joe Biden and the White House can’t continue to claim he wasn’t involved with his son’s shady businesses now,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.

But Hunter Biden’s legal counsel, Abbe Lowell, pushed back.

“There Chairman Comer goes again — reheating what is old as new to try to revive his sham of an investigation,” Lowell said in a statement. “The truth is Hunter’s father helped him when he was struggling financially due to his addiction and could not secure credit to finance a truck. When Hunter was able to, he paid his father back and took over the payments himself.”

Reporting from the New York Post in April 2022, based on leaked emails from a hard drive purportedly belonging to Hunter Biden, had previously highlighted a list of Hunter Biden’s bills that his then-personal assistant said in an email would temporarily be covered by Joe Biden as Hunter “transitions in his career.” Included in that was a regular $1,380 payment for a 2018 Ford Raptor truck.

“Payment to JRB from RHB – autopay owasco acct,” said notes on the 2019 spreadsheet reported by the New York Post. “Purchased June 2018 after selling Silverado & Colorado trucks,” it added, along with “Insured by Chubb; JRB’s policy.”

Oversight Committee ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) pointed to the New York Post story in response to Comer’s release.

“Chair Comer is digging up old public reporting, distorting the facts, and presenting it as ‘breaking news,’” Raskin wrote in a post on X. “As a private citizen, Joe Biden made car payments for his son, who paid him back—it’s right here in the NY Post.”

Oversight Republicans and Comer did not mention anything about a truck when they released records of the payments. But they argue that the records are adding to their overall goal of showing that the current president benefited from his family’s foreign business dealings.

“There is now a pattern of members of the Biden family using their bank accounts that have been funded by Chinese and other foreign entities to send money to Joe Biden,” an Oversight Committee spokesperson said in a statement. “Based on witness testimony, Joe Biden knew and participated in his family’s influence peddling schemes. The checks and payments we’ve uncovered reveal Joe Biden benefitted from them.”

Release of the records comes as Comer and Hunter Biden’s legal counsel are tangling over a subpoena for him to sit for a closed-door deposition before the committee next week. Hunter Biden’s legal counsel has said he could testify only publicly for fear of the Republicans trying to “manipulate” his testimony, but Republicans have rejected that offer — saying a closed-door deposition is necessary before a public hearing.

The White House did not immediately comment on Comer’s release. 

Updated at 4:14 p.m.