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House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chair James Comer subpoenaed AT&T last week requesting a slew of phone records related to President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, documents obtained by The Washington Times show.
The subpoena, sent Wednesday, gave the telecommunications company until March 20 to supply the records the committees asked for, which include all text and calls relating to Hunter Biden and any of his accounts. Some go as far back as 2011.
The call and text log requests are the latest information lawmakers have sought in the impeachment inquiry into the president. In the subpoena cover letter, Mr. Comer, Kentucky Republican, said the committee identified a possible personal phone line used by the president when he was vice president and paid for by his son.
The cover letter said the phone line used by the president had been confirmed by a “close confidant” of the president and Hunter Biden, Eric Scherwin.
The inquiry opened in September by Republicans and run by the House Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways and Means committees has looked into ties between the president and his son’s foreign dealings. More than a dozen witnesses and thousands of pages of documents and bank records have been examined to find a connection.
Democrats have called on Republicans to stop the probe into the president, saying there clearly is no evidence of wrongdoing, but Republicans have forged on. The inquiry hit a new low when a paid FBI informant was indicted after prosecutors said he lied to the government about an alleged bribe paid to then-Vice President Biden and Hunter Biden by Ukrainian energy company, Burisma, seeking help shaking off a corruption probe.
Prosecutors say the ex-informant, Alexander Smirnov, received the information about the Biden family from Russian intelligence officials.
The committees maintain that Hunter Biden would call his father and have him talk to Burisma executives.
In his cover letter, Mr. Comer mentioned testimony given by Biden business associate, Devon Archer, who served on the Burisma board with Hunter Biden, that detailed the time Burisma officials asked Hunter Biden to help get them out of trouble. Mr. Archer said the president’s son said he “called D.C.,” which Mr. Archer interpreted as Hunter calling his father.
Hunter Biden was the latest person to testify before the committees last month. He told lawmakers that while his father was at business meetings, he wasn’t involved with any lucrative deals.
Lawmakers invited Hunter Biden to testify in public later this month alongside three former business associates — Mr. Archer, Tony Bobulinski and Jason Galanis.
The three business associates worked with the president’s son, and the president’s brother, James Biden, to secure deals with nationals from Ukraine, Russia and China dating to when the president was vice president.
The deals helped the family and associates rake in more than $20 million, according to bank records obtained by House investigators.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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