Biden Refuses to Appear Before House Oversight Panel

President Joe Biden refused the House Oversight Committee's invitation to testify as part of the panel's impeachment inquiry into him and his family's business affairs.

Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., late last month sent a letter to the president inviting him to sit for a public hearing to "explain, under oath," his involvement in the Biden family businesses.

Republicans have accused Biden, while he was vice president, of influence peddling in his family's business dealings.

On Monday, Biden's counsel gave Comer the president's response.

"As our Office has demonstrated, and you acknowledged in a recent fundraising email, your impeachment investigation is over. It is past time for the House to focus on the issues that matter to the American people rather than continuing to waste time and taxpayer resources on this partisan charade," Richard Sauber, special counsel to the president, wrote in a letter to Comer.

"Accordingly, we decline your invitation for President Biden to testify."

Comer blasted Biden's decision.

"The apple doesn't fall far from the tree in the Biden family," Comer said in a statement. "Like his son, Hunter Biden, President Biden is refusing to testify in public about the Bidens' corrupt influence peddling. This comes as no surprise since President Biden continues to lie about his relationships with his son's business partners, even denying they exist when his son said under oath during a deposition that they did.

"It is unfortunate President Biden is unwilling to answer questions before the American people and refuses to answer the very simple, straightforward questions we included in the invitation. Why is it so difficult for the White House to answer those questions? The American people deserve transparency from President Biden, not more lies."

Sauber accused Comer and the House Republicans of promoting a "litany of false allegations."

"Your Committee's purported 'impeachment inquiry' has succeeded only in turning up abundant evidence that, in fact, the President has done nothing wrong," Sauber wrote. "Yet rather than acknowledge this reality, your March 28, 2024, letter contains the same litany of false allegations that have been repeatedly debunked and refuted by the very witnesses you have called before your Committee and the many documents you have obtained.

"Your insistence on peddling these false and unsupported allegations despite ample evidence to the contrary makes one thing about your investigation abundantly clear: The facts do not matter to you."