Republican chair of House oversight committee subpoenas bank records of Hunter Biden associates

March 13 (UPI) -- The head of the House oversight committee has issued a subpoena for the bank records of business associates of Hunter Biden.

Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, is seeking records for three business associates of the president's son. The subpoena came to light in a letter from ranking committee member Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., to Comer on Sunday.

"I write to you to express my deep concern with the manner in which the Committee is conducting its investigation into presidential ethics," the letter states.

"You appear to have engaged in these efforts to prevent the production of evidence of former President Trump's misconduct during his time in office while simultaneously issuing an invasive and overbroad subpoena to private individuals as part of an investigation targeting the business dealings of family members of President Biden who have never held public office."

Raskin alleges that Comer has obtained thousands of pages of financial information from Biden's associates, including John R. Walker, who partnered with Biden on a "joint venture" with a now defunct Chinese energy company. The documents, Raskin said, included statements from a joint banking account owned by Walker and his wife over the course of a decade.

On Monday, Comer also penned a letter to William Pittard, an attorney Georges Bergès and the Georges Bergès Galleries LLC., an art gallery owned by Biden. Comer writes that Berges has refused to cooperate with the committee's request for information about "unidentified purchasers" of Biden's art.

"He has chosen to obstruct in an apparent effort to shield Mr. Biden and/or the purchasers' of Mr. Biden's art from congressional oversight," Comer wrote.

The committee launched a broad probe into the president and his son in January as the House returned to session under a GOP majority. Republicans have asserted that the investigations are meant to seek accountability for the president, while Democrats see the probe as an act of political revenge.