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       The GOP-led House Oversight and Accountability Committee issued subpoenas for Hunter Biden and James Biden on Wednesday, requesting that the president’s son and brother appear for depositions as part of the committee’s investigation into the Biden family’s finances, according to a spokesperson for the committee.

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       Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) has raised questions about a 2018 personal check Joe Biden received from his brother James. The check obtained by the committee showed the words “loan repayment” written on the front, and documents provided to The Washington Post showed that Biden transferred $200,000 to his brother on Jan. 12, 2018.

       Comer, however, has continued to dispute that the check was a loan repayment. He said in a statement on Wednesday that the committee is ready to question members of the Biden family about evidence the committee has collected about the “complicated financial transactions” made by the Bidens and their associates. Comer has claimed that those transactions were “designed to conceal the source and total amount of money they received from foreign nationals and companies.”

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       The committee is asking James Biden to appear for an interview on Dec. 6 and Hunter Biden to appear on Dec. 13.

       The Oversight Committee has ramped up their investigative work into Hunter Biden’s work as a consultant and lawyer after then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) launched an impeachment inquiry into President Biden in September, centered on whether the president benefited from his son’s business dealings, among other issues.

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       Investigators have obtained more than 12,000 pages of financial records and have conducted interviews with individuals who worked closely with the president’s son in various capacities. While the committee has discovered evidence and testimony that Hunter Biden tried to leverage the Biden family name, it has not found any evidence that Joe Biden himself benefited from his son’s business dealings, nor has the president been linked to any potential wrongdoing in the congressional probe of the Justice Department’s investigation of Hunter Biden.

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       Since assuming his perch as the House speaker last month, Mike Johnson (R-La.) has taken a reserved approach to the inquiry and has urged members to conduct a thorough and fair investigation, with no predetermined outcome. Comer said he has not spoken with Johnson about his position on the inquiry, but he added that ultimately it will be up to the speaker and the conference to decide whether to move forward with formal proceedings.

       On Wednesday morning, before the subpoenas were announced, Hunter Biden lawyer Abbe Lowell sent a letter to Johnson outlining the ways in which they view the GOP-led committees have been acting in bad faith. In the 12-page letter, Lowell referenced the possible subpoenas and noted several instances where Republicans had mislead the public using some of the materials the committee had gathered.

       “We write today to urge you, Mr. Speaker, to use your newly minted leadership post responsibly and ask you to think twice before joining this spectacle,” Lowell wrote, in a letter obtained by The Post. “Before you cast your lot with and cede additional authority to those who have betrayed the trust placed in their offices by the Constitution, you should consider the numerous lies, falsehoods, and fabricated illustrations by your chamber’s chairmen in the course of peddling baseless allegations of misconduct by our client or his family that now will form the basis for them abusing their power with improper demands for records and testimony.”

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       In response to the subpoena, Lowell called the request a “political stunt,” but said in a statement: “Hunter is eager to have the opportunity, in a public forum and at the right time, to discuss these matters with the Committee.”

       Comer also issued a subpoena for Rob Walker, a former Hunter Biden business associate, and requested that other Biden family members and business associates appear before the committee for transcribed interviews. The list of those whom the committee is seeking those interviews includes: Hallie Biden, the widow of President Biden’s son Beau; Sara Biden, James Biden’s wife; Elizabeth Secundy, the older sister of Hallie Biden; and Melissa Cohen, Hunter Biden’s wife.

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