President Joe Biden's younger brother, James Biden, accused his Republican critics of "flat-out lying" about his brother's involvement in his business dealings during Wednesday's closed-door meeting with the House Oversight and Judiciary Committee.
In his opening statement to the panel, James Biden said his brother "never had any involvement or any direct or indirect financial interests" over his 50-year career as a businessman and that anyone who has suggested that he used his status as the president's brother to advance his career has been "either mistaken, ill-informed or flat-out lying."
James became the first member of the Biden family to testify before House Republicans on Wednesday. The president's son, Hunter, is scheduled to appear before the committees next week on February 28.
Their testimonies come amid the House GOP's impeachment inquiry into the president, which has recently been undermined by the indictment of one of their key sources of information. Last week, Alexander Smirnov was charged with making false statements to the FBI about Joe Biden.
Congressional Republicans have accused the president of having benefitted from his brother and son's business dealings. They have cited payments that James made to Joe Biden in 2018, although the White House has repeatedly said that he was repaying his brother for money that he had lent him.
"Because of my intimate knowledge of my brother's personal integrity and character, as well as my own strong ethics, I have always kept my professional life separate from our close personal relationship," James told lawmakers. "I never asked my brother to take any official action on behalf of me, my business associates, or anyone else."
The president is the oldest of four children. He has a younger sister, Valerie, and two younger brothers, James and Francis. James previously worked on his brother's original Senate campaign in 1972, before moving into owning nightclubs and other businesses after his brother was elected.
"It is difficult to open my personal and professional life to such intense public scrutiny, but I am doing so to comply with the committee's inquiry," the president's brother said on Wednesday.
"I have nothing to hide," he added. "With my appearance here today, the committees will have the information to conclude that the negative and destructive assumptions about me and my relationship with my brother Joe are wrong. There is no basis for this inquiry to continue."
Update 02/21/24 2:12 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
Update 02/21/24 2:24 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
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Katherine Fung is a Newsweek reporter based in New York City. Her focus is reporting on U.S. and world politics. ... Read more
