WASHINGTON — President Biden’s brother James will not appear Wednesday as specified in a House Oversight Committee subpoena — after his legal team argued there was “no justification” for the demand.
House Republicans believe that James Biden, 74, ultimately will comply with the subpoena, but it’s unclear when that might happen — while first son Hunter Biden’s legal team has yet to say if he will appear for a scheduled Dec. 13 interview.
“It’s not happening tomorrow, but we are in communication with his attorney about scheduling a time for him to come in,” a committee spokesperson said of James Biden’s potential appearance.
James Biden attorney Paul Fishman, however, did not specifically commit to complying with the subpoena, telling The Post in a terse statement: “We have been in contact with the Oversight Committee staff about their requests.”
In a Nov. 8 statement, Fishman argued that “there is no justification for this subpoena” and that “Jim Biden has never involved his brother in his business dealings.”
The White House has argued that the impeachment inquiry has no legal authority because of the lack of an authorizing House floor vote — prompting Republicans to consider retroactively doing so as soon as this week.
White House counsel Richard Sauber wrote in a Nov. 17 letter to GOP leaders that “you should reconsider your current course of action and withdraw these subpoenas and demands for interviews” — calling them “irresponsible.”
The subpoenas to Hunter and James Biden were issued under the authority of the Oversight Committee, which has its own ability to summon witnesses and evidence independent of the impeachment inquiry.
Witnesses who refuse to comply with subpoenas can be prosecuted.
Stephen Bannon, the former chief strategist to President Donald Trump, was sentenced last year to four months in prison for refusing to comply with a subpoena issued by the House select committee that investigated the 2021 Capitol riot.
Peter Navarro, another former Trump adviser, also was convicted of contempt of Congress in September for not cooperating with the House panel. He is awaiting sentencing.
James Biden has been accused of repeatedly leveraging his brother’s political power in business dealings and the Oversight Committee previously acquired his bank records through subpoenas.
He worked with his nephew Hunter, now 53, on business pursuits involving China and Mexico, according to files from Hunter’s abandoned laptop — in addition to other ventures, such as a project in Saudi Arabia which he allegedly said he secured due in part to “the name” Biden.
James allegedly attended a May 2017 gathering of business associates involved in a venture with Chinese government-linked CEFC China Energy alongside Hunter and Joe Biden. An email the same month penciled in Joe Biden, who had recently left office as vice president, for a 10% cut of the deal.
James ultimately received nearly $2 million from the CEFC dealings and the Oversight Committee last month alleged that he used $40,000 of the sum to pay his elder brother.
Biden defenders say that James Biden was simply repaying a loan made 37 days prior, but Republicans point to the lack of evidence of a loan agreement and the fact that the original funds said to be a loan came from a law firm, clouding the picture.
The Biden family received a windfall of $5.1 million in payments from CEFC within 10 days of a threatening WhatsApp message sent in late July 2017 by Hunter to a China-based associate, warning he was “sitting here with my father.”
A separate $200,000 transfer from James to Joe Biden — on March 1, 2018 — came the same day that James received a $200,000 transfer from troubled rural hospital company Americore by pledging to use his political connections to secure a Middle Eastern investor, according to the firm’s bankruptcy filings.
The Bidens say that in that case, James was also repaying a short-term loan, though the original funds were routed from the same law firm.
James Biden’s business overlapping with his brother’s political career allegedly dates back to Joe Biden’s time as a US senator.
In 2006, when Joe Biden was the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, James Biden boasted about selling influence on his brother as he and Hunter sought to take over a hedge fund based in New York, according to the book “The Bidens: Inside the First Family’s Fifty-Year Rise to Power” by Politico reporter Ben Schreckinger.
“Don’t worry about investors,” James Biden allegedly told a corporate executive. “We’ve got people all around the world who want to invest in Joe Biden … We’ve got investors lined up in a line of 747s filled with cash.”