Lawmakers question President Biden’s brother about family business deals

President Biden’s brother, James Biden, arrived at an office building near the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday to begin a day of closed-door testimony and questioning from lawmakers who are investigating whether the president played a role in his family’s lucrative business deals. 

James Biden, 74, is the younger brother of the president and was involved in several domestic deals, and at least one deal with a Chinese energy company, that were secured in part by showcasing his powerful brother’s name, according to witness testimony and court documents.

The younger Biden did not speak to reporters as he entered the room. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Ohio Republican, and the top Democrat on the Oversight and Accountability Committee, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, were among the lawmakers who plan to question the president’s brother.

Mr. Jordan said the questioning will focus on James Biden’s business deals secured months before President Biden announced his 2020 White House run.

The timeline coincides with James Biden’s 2019 partnership with the now-failed hospital venture, Americore Health LLC.

According to court documents and House investigators, James Biden promised the company “access to a future Biden administration and the highest levels of government … and that his brother, Joe Biden, had been made aware of the business, which would be made profitable when it could become part of the Biden platform.”

Lawmakers also want to question James Biden about his involvement in CEFC, an energy company linked to the Chinese Communist Party that paid the Biden family and close business associates millions of dollars as it sought their help gaining entry into the U.S. energy market. James Biden used some of the money he secured from Americore and CEFC to write checks to his older brother, which he labeled as loan repayments. 

“The money, the business, the brand,” Mr. Jordan said. “That will be the focus of today’s questioning, specifically relative to James Biden’s involvement in CEFC and Americore.” 

The closed-door questioning of the president’s brother follows the indictment of a paid FBI informant whom prosecutors say lied to the government about an alleged bribe paid to then-Vice President Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, by a Ukrainian energy company seeking help shaking off a corruption probe.

Prosecutors say the ex-informant, Alexander Smirnov, was fed the bribery claim about the Bidens from Russian intelligence officials.  

Mr. Smirnov has not been included in the House GOP’s inquiry into Mr. Biden, but Democrats say his arrest should end the impeachment probe.

“The whole impeachment inquiry has been built on the foundation of a lie and conspiracy theories, propaganda and disinformation promoted by Russian intelligence agents,” Mr. Raskin said as he entered the closed-door inquiry.