Democrats on the House Oversight Committee are sparring with their Republican counterparts over the credibility of a key witness in the Republicans' investigation into Hunter Biden's alleged business dealings with China.
Ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and Rep. Daniel Goldman (D-NY) announced Wednesday that they sent a letter to Republicans on the committee to request information on key witness Gal Luft, who was indicted by the Justice Department on Monday.
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“We are concerned that an official committee of the House of Representatives has been manipulated by an apparent con man who, while a fugitive from justice, attempted to fortify his defense by laundering unfounded and potentially false allegations through Congress,” the congressmen wrote. “As recently as Friday, you described Mr. Luft as ‘a very credible witness’ about matters relating to the President’s son’s financial dealings with Chinese companies."
Luft has recently come forward to allege that he had evidence of the Biden family's involvement in bribery and payments connected to Chinese military intelligence but was indicted on Monday for allegedly "willfully" failing to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
He has also been charged with arms trafficking, violations of Iranian sanctions, and "making false statements to federal agents."
Although he was officially indicted on Monday, Luft was initially arrested on Feb. 17 in Cyprus but has been on the run since he was released on bail. Luft was allegedly working with Chinese energy company CEFC.
“Gal Luft is a credible witness to the Bidens’ influence peddling schemes because he too was getting paid by the same shady company. If Democrats deem Mr. Luft as untrustworthy because he was getting money from CEFC, then why should we trust the Bidens who also received money from CEFC?” Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said in a statement.
“Democrats have either been duped by the Bidens, or they are intentionally misleading the American people," Comer said. "Democrats should join us in requesting the FBI’s record memorializing its interview with Gal Luft to get to the bottom of his claims about the Bidens.”
Luft has denied all accusations against him and claimed the arrest in Cyprus was to stop him from testifying about the bribery allegations against President Joe Biden and his son.
"Let me be clear: I am not a Republican or a Democrat. I have no political motive or agenda. I did it out of deep concern that if the Bidens were to come to power, the country would be facing the same traumatic Russia collusion scandal — only this time, it would be China," Luft said in a 14-minute video last week. "Because of the DOJ’s cover-up, this is exactly what happened."
Raskin and Goldman claimed the use of Luft's testimony as a key witness in the case undermines other whistleblowers that Comer's team has attempted to use in its investigation.
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“These recent revelations naturally raise broader concerns about the credibility and motivations of other purported whistleblowers that Congressional Republicans have relied on to support unfounded and baseless allegations," the congressmen wrote. "Sadly, the Luft episode severely undermines the credibility of the critical function of whistleblowers in this body.”
Comer has relied on tips from whistleblowers for a lot of the Biden family case, but it includes unverified information that the FBI was not able to corroborate.