President Joe Biden possibly held back from Congress classified documents concerning family members' involvement with foreign countries, House Oversight & Accountability Committee chair James Comer, R-Ky., suggested Monday in a letter to special counsel Robert Hu.
Comer wrote Hu to request the special counsel hand over details about any documents relevant to the Biden family's businesses.
Hu, appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland, is probing Biden's mishandling of classified documents. The special counsel's team interviewed the president last week.
Comer's committee is investigating Biden's alleged influence peddling in the Biden family's foreign business dealings to "accumulate millions of dollars … for the benefit of his family and himself," according to Comer.
"Recent reports indicate you recently interviewed President Biden and other individuals involved in this matter, and the Committee now seeks information from your office to further our investigation," Comer wrote to Hu.
"If any of the classified documents mishandled by President Biden involved countries or individuals that had financial dealings with Biden family members or their related companies, the Committee needs access to that information to evaluate whether our national security has been compromised."
Comer said his committee is concerned that Biden may have "retained sensitive documents related to specific countries involving his family’s foreign business."
"President Biden's retention of certain classified documents begs the question as to why he kept these particular materials," Comer wrote Hu. "Of the many classified documents he reviewed over his lengthy career, why did President Biden keep these specific documents in his home and office?
"The sensitive nature of the information contained in the documents may answer that question for the Committee, which is why we seek to review those materials."
Comer also said he sought from Hu information on whether the White House or Biden’s personal attorneys "placed any limitations or scoping restrictions during the interview that would have precluded a line of inquiry regarding evidence (emails, text messages, or witness statements) directly linking Joe Biden to troublesome foreign payments."
Comer's committee last week released a new timeline on the discovery of the classified documents, which were located in several places associated with Biden, who has said he had no knowledge of or involvement in the documents.
In an opinion column in The Hill, law professor Jonathan Turley said it appeared that a claim, from the White House and Biden's counsel, that the National Archives was notified as soon as the documents were discovered at the Penn Biden Center not only was false but that they knew it was false.
The Oversight Committee claims the White House "omitted months of communications, planning, and coordinating among multiple White House officials, [Kathy] Chung, Penn Biden Center employees, and President Biden's attorneys to retrieve the boxes containing classified materials. The timeline also omitted multiple visits from at least five White House employees, including Dana Remus, Anthony Bernal, Ashley Williams, Annie Tomasini, and an unknown staffer."