Criminal Referrals for false testimony coming in Biden probe

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer candidly admitted Friday night that House passage of impeachment articles against President Joe Biden won’t deliver any accountability to the first family because of a Democrat Senate blockade, and he is exploring other punishments such as criminal referrals that a future Justice Department could pursue for issues like false testimony to Congress.

“We can impeach, and we may impeach. But the Senate’s not going to convict,” Comer said in an interview with the Just the News No Noise television show. “So impeachment really doesn’t hold anyone accountable. I want accountability. And what I want to do is have criminal referrals.

“We want to provide the truth to the American people. But we also want to hold people accountable for wrongdoing, not just the Bidens but people in the government, the deep state actors who have been part of the coverup,” he said.

In a wide-ranging update on the impeachment inquiry, the Kentucky Republican made clear he is playing a long game. He said he is convinced that both Hunter Biden and James Biden gave false accounts to Congress in their transcribed interviews but the next part of the process is to hold public hearings with key witnesses.

“We’re going to press him, give him one more opportunity to come clean. And then you will see referrals,” he said of Hunter Biden.

“I think that (Attorney General) Merrick Garland is going to, or (Special Counsel) David Weiss, either one will have the first crack at it,” he added. “If they don’t do it, then hopefully the next president of the United States will have a new attorney general in the Department of Justice that will hold people accountable.…If we have a new president, the new attorney general, then I’m pretty confident that we will have accountability of this family. That’s the moment.”

Hunter Biden and his lawyers have relentlessly criticized the Comer-led impeachment inquiry, suggesting the first son was subjected to false allegations and Russia disinformation. For instance, in his deposition, Hunter Biden blasted Republicans for pursuing a “destructive political charade” and using “innuendo, distortion, and sensationalism, all the while ignoring the clear and convincing evidence staring you in the face.”

But in their depositions, both Hunter Biden and his uncle, presidential brother James Biden, confirmed key evidence against the first family, including that Joe Biden met with their business partners when he was vice president and that the first family received millions from firms in China and other foreign countries.

Comer said he did not believe the first son and first brother gave accurate answers when it came to issues like a payment from a Kazakh businessman that investigators believe was used to buy Hunter Biden a luxury car, the receipt of a diamond from a Chinese businessman and a text message where Hunter Biden invoked his father in a play to pressure a Chinese energy firm for millions in payments.

“The list goes on and on and on with the preposterous answers to the questions they gave,” he said.

More importantly, Comer said the impeachment inquiry had developed evidence that Joe Biden made false claims repeatedly during the 2020 election and since he became president.

“Joe Biden lied – I think we have him over a dozen times. He said he never met with any of these people who sent his family money. We’ve proven he met with them,” he said. “He said his family never got my money from China. They got millions and millions of dollars from China. He said none of this happened while he was vice president. And most of it happened while he was vice president.

“We know that Joe Biden did participate in just about every shady deal. I would say his role John was the person who closed the deal,” he added. “Hunter and Jim would initiate the deal. They would make their pitch: their business model was to be able to what I call influence pedal.”

Comer said he also believed Hunter Biden gave bold answers that sometimes conflicted with public evidence, like others’ testimony or contemporaneous emails.

“He sure was very bold in his answers. You know, one would assume that to answer those questions the way he answered him, that he was pretty confident he had a pardon in his back pocket,” Comer said.

The White House has said Biden has no intention of pardoning his son, who faces numerous tax evasion and gun charges in two separate cases. A spokesman for the White House did not respond to a request for comment Friday night.