House lawmakers seek Biden’s public testimony in corruption probe

House lawmakers asked President Biden on Thursday to testify at a public hearing next month about his involvement in a string of family business deals that witnesses say he helped secure by wielding his powerful position.

The request, which Mr. Biden is almost certain to reject, is the culmination of a monthslong impeachment inquiry into the president that investigators say yielded evidence that Mr. Biden engaged in influence-peddling schemes with his brother, son and a handful of business associates dating back to his vice presidency.

House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer, Kentucky Republican, sent the invite to Mr. Biden in a letter that outlined witness testimony and bank records that he suspects connect Mr. Biden’s actions with $24 million in profits secured by family members and associates from Russia, China, Ukraine and other countries.

Mr. Comer proposed the president provide his public testimony on April 16.

The letter also asks Mr. Biden to answer a list of questions about his involvement in the business schemes, mainly his interactions with the foreign company executive who paid millions of dollars to the Biden family and associates.

Mr. Comer invited Mr. Biden to testify publicly after signaling that Republicans may abandon plans to impeach the president and would instead send criminal referrals to the Justice Department.

Impeachment inquiry witnesses say Mr. Biden phoned into his son’s business meetings or appeared in person, which lawmakers say established Mr. Biden as “the closer” for the lucrative deals.

Mr. Biden has repeatedly denied playing a role in the deals. Hunter Biden said his father was merely maintaining close communications with him by calling and stopping by his meetings.

Mr. Comer wants Mr. Biden to explain it all at a televised hearing.

“The public is left with two irreconcilable narratives,” Mr. Comer wrote to Mr. Biden. “The first — asserted by you — is that you did not engage in influence peddling in exchange for payments to your family. The second — asserted by witnesses and a body of evidence … is that you were indeed involved in these pay-for-play schemes and that you have been repeatedly untruthful regarding a matter relevant to national security and your own fitness to serve as President of the United States.”

White House spokesman Ian Sams responded to Mr. Comer’s invitation on X with an “LOL” emoji.

“Comer knows 20+ witnesses have testified that POTUS did nothing wrong. He knows that the hundreds of thousands of pages of records he’s received have refuted his false allegations. This is a sad stunt at the end of a dead impeachment. Call it a day, pal,” Mr. Sams posted.

Sitting presidents rarely testify before Congress. The last was President Ford, who appeared before a House Judiciary subcommittee in 1974 to explain his pardon of former President Richard Nixon. President Wilson testified to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1919 about establishing the League of Nations.

In 2022, a Democratic-led committee examining the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol subpoenaed former President Donald Trump to appear before the panel but later dropped the request.

Mr. Comer said Mr. Biden’s public testimony is necessary for lawmakers to complete the impeachment inquiry.

Lawmakers have interviewed a string of witnesses and scoured thousands of pages of documents and bank records that they say provide evidence of the scheme.

Former business associate Jason Galanis described a 2014 business meeting at a restaurant in Brooklyn, New York, where Hunter Biden called his father.

Hunter Biden had invited Yelena Baturina, a wealthy Russian real estate investor seeking a financial foothold in the United States, and her husband, a former mayor of Moscow.

Mr. Biden, then the vice president, picked up the call from his son and exchanged pleasantries with the group, said Galanis, who testified from prison where he is serving a sentence for securities fraud.

Mr. Biden ended the call with, “OK then, you be good to my boy,” and Hunter Biden responded, “Everything is good, and we are moving ahead,” Galanis testified.

A few days later, Ms. Baturina agreed to pump $20 million into one of Hunter Biden’s business projects.

In the letter to Mr. Biden, Mr. Comer questioned a meeting with Ye Jianming, then chairman of the energy firm CEFC, which was tied to the Chinese Communist Party and was conducting business with Hunter Biden.

“Your son and business associates began courting business from Ye while you were Vice President. You then met Ye in 2017 in Washington, D.C., and his company wired $3 million to a Biden business associate days after you met him, which was shortly after you publicly signaled your intention to run for the presidency in 2020,” Mr. Comer wrote to Mr. Biden.

Despite a web of evidence pointing to Mr. Biden’s connection to the deals, it appears increasingly unlikely that House Republicans — with their razor-thin majority and an election looming — have the votes to impeach him.

Mr. Comer has diminished the importance of an impeachment vote. He said securing a conviction would be impossible in the Democratic-led Senate.

Instead, Mr. Comer announced plans to refer Mr. Biden and others involved in the scheme to the Justice Department, where an investigation and prosecutions could be carried out if Mr. Trump wins reelection in November.

“This is the best way to hold the Biden’s accountable for their crimes, as it’s now clear the Democrats will do anything to hold onto power,” Mr. Comer wrote in a political email to constituents.