(NewsNation) — President Joe Biden’s brother, James Biden, testified Wednesday in a closed-door meeting on Capitol Hill as House Republicans continue an impeachment inquiry into the president.
Lawmakers leading the investigation are said to have asked James Biden about whether the president was involved in any of the family’s business dealings and Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, is expected to testify next week.
James Biden’s long day of testimony included answering questions from both Democrat and Republican members of the House Oversight Committee. Republicans are specifically looking for evidence that implicates the President in any pay-for-play or influence-peddling schemes in his brother or son’s business dealings.
In an opening statement, James Biden denied any such activity.
“I’ve had a 50-year career in a variety of business ventures. Joe Biden has never had any involvement or any direct or indirect financial interests in those activities. None,” he said. “My intimate knowledge of my brother’s personal integrity and character and my own strong ethics, I’ve always kept my professional life separate from our close personal relationship and I’ve never asked my brother to take any official action on behalf of me, my business associates or anyone else.”
The impeachment inquiry has been flailing in the past few days after it was revealed that one of the key witnesses for the Republican case, someone former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., called a trusted informant, was indicted for lying to federal authorities. That indictment claims the informant lied about those allegations against President Biden, where he said there was a bribe paid to him.
That revelation is hanging over the proceedings, however, Republicans are continuing to dig. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said before the deposition the committee planned to focus on the time before Biden was a presidential candidate.
“You tell this story in three parts, three chapters. There’s before Joe Biden’s candidacy for president, there’s a time when he is a candidate for president and of course the things that have happened while he’s been president,” Jordan said. “I think today, we’re largely going to focus on that pre-candidate time. I call that the money, the business, the brand. That will be the focus.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the only Democrat in the room today, said so far the committee has heard nothing that implicates Joe Biden directly in anything.
Raskin, along with a number of Democrats and the White House, maintain there is no there there as Republicans continue the impeachment inquiry.
Next week, Hunter Biden is expected to testify and the questioning today could also be laying the groundwork for that deposition.