The referrals, which accuse the president’s son and brother of lying about his involvement in their business dealings, carry no force of law but are the latest bid by Republicans to target the Biden family.
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Hunter Biden this week outside the federal courthouse in Wilmington, Del., where he is on trial on gun-related charges.
House Republicans on Wednesday urged the Justice Department to charge Hunter and James Biden, the president’s son and brother, with making false statements to Congress in the impeachment inquiry against President Biden.
The chairmen of three House committees recommended the action in a criminal referral sent less than a week after the conviction of former President Donald J. Trump on 34 felony counts in New York. Their allegations, which assert that both men made false statements to Congress about President Biden’s involvement in his family’s business dealings, appear to include misrepresentations of Hunter Biden’s testimony.
They also accused Hunter Biden of perjury.
The referrals carry no force of law, but House Republicans are hoping to influence the Justice Department, particularly if Mr. Trump takes it over, to carry out more prosecutions of the Biden family. And since his conviction last week, they have been searching for ways to use their majority in the House to retaliate and undercut the two federal indictments of the former president.
In a statement, Speaker Mike Johnson said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland, whom Republicans have accused of anti-conservative bias, should prove his independence by taking immediate action on the accusations.
“If the attorney general wishes to demonstrate he is not running a two-tiered system of justice and targeting the president’s political opponents, he will open criminal investigations into James and Hunter Biden,” Mr. Johnson said.
Hunter Biden has already been indicted by two federal grand juries in different jurisdictions and is currently on trial in Wilmington on charges of lying about his drug use on a federal form when he purchased a gun.
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