James Biden, the younger brother of President Joe Biden, is set to sit for a closed-door deposition before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday, days after a bombshell report gave more punch to the panel's impeachment inquiry into the family's alleged influence-peddling scheme.
James Biden's testimony was put on the docket Jan. 31, but that was before Politico reported Sunday that he invoked Joe Biden's name as an in to the now defunct hospital operator Americore.
James Biden's subpoena was issued in November as part of the committee's investigation into the president and his son, Hunter Biden. House Republicans were already interested in, among other things, a check for $200,000 James Biden wrote to his brother on March 2, 2018, the day Americore provided a personal loan of $200,000 to their bank account.
They now have more fodder, thanks to Politico, which reported James Biden used his famous ties to pitch deals to help Americore bring in money from lab testing, cancer treatments, and drug rehabilitation operations.
"This would be a perfect platform to expose my Brothers team to [your] protocol," James Biden wrote in one email to the CEO of a Tampa-area company that had controlled the licensing rights to an experimental cancer treatment Americore wanted to offer. "Could provide a great opportunity for some real exposure."
Oversight Chair James Comer, R-Ky., has told Newsmax repeatedly it adds up to Biden family influence-peddling.
"So his pitch to Americore ... was, 'Hire me, and I can use my brother's contacts in the Middle East to help you get all the money you need to get back on your feet,'" Comer said earlier this month. "And he said ... he apparently wanted the money in the form of a loan. And that was, of course, to deceive the IRS; that's another way the Bidens were laundering money."
In fact, James Biden's role at Americore was more extensive than had been thought, according to Politico. It reported that Joe Biden's name was deeply involved with the company, including investor materials describing James Biden as an adviser to his brother.
Joe Biden also had a previously reported encounter with Americore's CEO, the investigation shows, and at least three of Joe Biden's relatives worked with Americore, including James Biden's wife, Sara Biden, and his son Jamie Biden.
James Biden's testimony comes one week before that of the first son and his nephew, Hunter Biden.