After months of stalling by the White House, three ranking House Republicans sent a letter to the Biden administration on Thursday demanding access to a 9-year-old speech then-Vice President Biden gave to Ukraine’s parliament, the Rada, in 2015.
House Oversight Committee Ranking Member James Comer, R-K.Y., Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jim Jordan, R-O.H., and Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Michael McCaul, R-T.X., requested the speech as a potentially critical part of the Republican investigation into the Biden family’s controversial business connections in Ukraine.
The lawmakers claimed drafts of the speech are important for examining the suspicion that Biden used his influence as vice president to aide his son Hunter’s business interests.
At the time of Biden’s speech to the Rada, Hunter served on the board of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma. In the letter, the lawmakers said their requests for the original speech had been ignored for five months.
Any revisions or input on Biden’s 2015 speech from Obama officials would be relevant to the impeachment probe into Biden, first authorized in December 2023 under House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-L.A.
The letter said —
For more than five months the White House has declined to authorize the production of these draft speeches to the Oversight Committee or to assert a valid privilege over them. Such a lengthy delay in processing a discrete and limited category of documents is unacceptable and appears to represent an attempt to obstruct the Committees’ legitimate investigation. These dilatory tactics must cease, and the White House must permit NARA to release these documents forthwith … If the White House does not permit the production of these documents, the Oversight Committee will consider the use of compulsory process to require the White House’s production of the speeches.
The White House has not yet responded to the request or indicated if it will provide the draft speeches.
Democrats have repeatedly insisted there is no proof Biden acted improperly as Vice President while his son’s held a lucrative position with Burisma.
This letter represents the latest effort by House Republicans in an ongoing investigation into Biden and his family’s international business dealings while he was in power.
The Horn editorial team