周三，众议院共和党人发布了一份19页的备忘录，上面写着“获得的新信息”在[监督]委员会的调查中到拜登家族的影响力兜售计划，”根据众议员詹姆斯·卡莫，R-Ky。，小组主席。
但对文件的初步审查表明，它描述的行为大量来自过去的国会报告和以前公布的证词。
新备忘录中强调的许多细节追溯到2020年的一份报告该报告由爱荷华州和威斯康星州的共和党参议员查克·格拉斯利和罗恩·约翰逊(Ron Johnson)发表，报告发现乔·拜登的儿子亨特·拜登的海外商业冒险对美国官员来说“尴尬”，有时“有问题”，但没有提供新的证据，也没有发现政府政策因此被改变的例子。
备忘录的其他部分于上周公开，当时监督委员会公布了完整的文字记录德文·阿彻的采访他曾是亨特·拜登的长期商业伙伴。
该委员会备忘录中最引人注目的内容可能是，它声称不需要找到证据，将乔·拜登(Joe Biden)与它所称的“拜登家族”的商业活动直接联系起来，就可以证明腐败。
自从共和党人去年重掌众议院以来，他们开展了多项调查工作旨在了解更多关于谁付钱给亨特·拜登在过去，什么时候，为什么，他们认为外国资金的漩涡玷污了乔·拜登本人。
在周三的备忘录中，监督小组的共和党人认为，批评者“声称委员会必须直接向总统支付款项，以显示腐败，从而声称辩护不力。”
“这是一个空洞的说法，如果他们的家庭成员接受外国付款或贿赂，任何其他美国人都不会得到这种说法。事实上，法律承认向家庭成员支付贿赂以影响他人可以构成贿赂，”该委员会的共和党人引用《反海外腐败法》继续写道。
该法律警告不要向亲属付款，如果他们被用作“间接影响腐败的方式”...一名官员，“共和党议员还没有证明。
在上周的闭门证词中，阿彻告诉监督小组，他没有看到乔·拜登在亨特·拜登的商业交易中有不当行为的证据，但向立法者描述了亨特·拜登如何通过推广“拜登品牌”向客户提供“接触的幻觉”
Devon Archer, Hunter Biden's former business partner, arrives on Capitol Hill to give closed-door testimony to the House Oversight Committee in the Republican-led investigations into President Joe Biden's son, July 31, 2023.
J.斯科特·阿普尔怀特/美联社
白宫一再驳回总统不当行为的指控，称没有证据表明乔·拜登与他儿子的商业工作有关联。总统也说过同样的话。
“众议院共和党人不能证明拜登总统做错了什么，但他们每天都在证明，他们没有切实帮助美国人民的愿景和议程。白宫法律顾问办公室发言人伊恩·萨姆斯(Ian Sams)周三在给记者的一封电子邮件中写道:“对他们来说，这完全是为自己服务的党派游戏和政治攻击，让自己受到右翼媒体的关注，而不是接受我们国家面临的重大挑战。”。
众议院民主党人同样抨击了新的备忘录，认为这是共和党人“为他们毫无根据的弹劾调查呼吁辩护的日益尴尬的尝试”的一部分。
“委员会的共和党人再次公布了不涉及总统的金融交易信息，”监督委员会的资深民主党人马里兰州众议员杰米·拉斯金说。"相反，他们重复了国会共和党人至少三年前认定的亨特·拜登商业交易."
在一份声明中，卡莫为他的小组的工作进行了辩护，他说:“众议院监督委员会将继续跟踪资金流向，并获得证人证词，以确定外国行为者是否以拜登为目标，拜登总统是否妥协或腐败，以及我们的国家安全是否受到威胁。”
下面是新备忘录中的一些细节。
在一个案例中，备忘录强调了前莫斯科市长的妻子在2014年向Rosemont Seneca Thornton LLC支付的350万美元，该委员会称该商业实体由亨特·拜登和阿彻共同创立。
这笔款项包含在参议院共和党人发布的2020年报告中，前总统唐纳德·特朗普在与乔·拜登的第一次辩论中强调了这笔涉嫌交易。
亨特·拜登的一名律师当时表示，这一说法是“错误的”，他告诉ABC新闻，在支付款项时，亨特·拜登对罗斯蒙特·塞内卡·桑顿没有兴趣，也不是共和党人所说的联合创始人。(这位律师区分了罗斯蒙特·塞内卡·桑顿律师事务所和罗斯蒙特·塞内卡律师事务所，后者实际上是亨特·拜登的联合创始人。)
政治据报告的特朗普还试图在任职前与这位前莫斯科市长接触，寻找商机。
共和党新备忘录中的另一项主要指控是，亨特·拜登接受了一名哈萨克斯坦富商14.23万美元的电汇，用于购买一辆跑车。
这也是2020年发表的参议院报告的一部分。
卡莫描述了阿彻的一项指控——在关于阿彻证词的报道中有所描述——乔·拜登于2014年与亨特·拜登的商业伙伴一起参加了在米兰咖啡馆举行的晚宴。
根据阿彻的证词，乔·拜登在2014年的晚宴上抵达并问候客人，坐下来“谈论了世界，我猜，还有天气，然后每个人都离开了。”
House GOP releases new memo on Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings, reviving old claims
House Republicans on Wednesday released a 19-page memo with "new information obtainedin the [Oversight] Committee's investigationinto the Biden family's influence peddling schemes," according to Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., the panel's chairman.
But an initial review of the document indicates that the conduct it describes draws heavily from past congressional reports and previously released testimony.
Many of the details highlighted in the new memodate back to a 2020 reportpublished by Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson, of Iowa and Wisconsin, which found that Joe Biden's son Hunter Biden's overseas business ventures were "awkward" and at times "problematic" for U.S. officials but provided no new evidence and found no instance of government policy being altered as a result.
Other parts of the memo were made public last week, when the Oversight Committee released the complete transcriptof its interview with Devon Archer, a longtime former business associate of Hunter Biden.
The most notable element of the committee's memo could be its claim that it does not need to find evidence directly connecting Joe Biden to what it described as "Biden family" business efforts in order to demonstrate corruption.
Since Republicans retook the House last year, theyhave launched multiple investigative effortsaimed at learning moreabout who paid Hunter Bidenin the past, when and why, and they have contended that the swirl of foreign money sullies Joe Biden himself.
In Wednesday's memo, Republicans on the oversight panel argued that critics "purport a weak defense by asserting the Committee must show payments directly to the President to show corruption."
"This is a hollow claim no other American would be afforded if their family members accepted foreign payments or bribes. Indeed, the law recognizes payments to family members to corruptly influence others can constitute a bribe," the committee's Republicans went on to write, citing the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.
That law warns against payments to relatives if they are used "as an indirect way of corruptly influencing ... [an] official," which GOP lawmakers haven't proven.
In closed-door testimony last week, Archer told the oversight panel that he saw no evidence of wrongdoing by Joe Biden in connection to Hunter Biden's business dealings but described to lawmakers how Hunter Biden offered clients "the illusion of access" by promoting the "Biden brand."
The White House has repeatedly dismissed claims of misconduct by the president, saying there is no evidence that Joe Biden was or is connected to his son's business work. The president has said the same.
"House Republicans can't prove President Biden did anything wrong, but they are proving every day they have no vision and no agenda to actually help the American people. For them, it's all about partisan games and political attacks that serve themselves and get themselves attention on rightwing media – not about taking on the big challenges facing our country," White House counsel's office spokesperson Ian Sams wrote in an email to reporters on Wednesday.
House Democrats likewise pounced on the new memo, contending it is part of Republicans' "increasingly embarrassing attempt to justify their baseless calls for an impeachment inquiry."
"Committee Republicans have once again released information on financial transactions that do not involve the President," said Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, the ranking Democrat on the Oversight Committee. "Instead, they rehash the same Hunter Biden business dealings that Congressional Republicans identified at least three years ago."
In a statement, Comer defended his panel's work, saying in part: "The House Oversight Committee will continue to follow the money trail and obtain witness testimony to determine whether foreign actors targeted the Bidens, President Biden is compromised or corrupt, and our national security is threatened."
Here is a closer look at some of the details in the new memo.
In one case, the memo highlights a $3.5 million payment in 2014 from the wife of the former mayor of Moscow to Rosemont Seneca Thornton LLC, the business entity the committee says was co-founded by Hunter Biden and Archer.
This payment was included in the 2020 report issued by Senate Republicans, and former President Donald Trump highlighted this alleged transaction in his first debate with Joe Biden.
An attorney for Hunter Biden at the time said the claim was "false," telling ABC News that Hunter Biden had no interest in Rosemont Seneca Thornton when the payment was made and was not, as Republicans claimed, a co-founder. (This lawyer made a distinction between Rosemont Seneca Thornton and Rosemont Seneca Partners, which Hunter Biden actually did co-found.)
Politicoreportedthat Trump also sought to engage the former Moscow mayor for business opportunities prior to his time in office.
Another major claim in the Republicans' new memo is that Hunter Biden accepted a $142,300 wire transfer from a wealthy Kazakh businessman for a sports car.
This, too, was part of the Senate report published in 2020.
Comer describes an allegation from Archer -- which was described in reporting about Archer's testimony -- that Joe Biden attended a dinner in 2014 at Washington eatery Café Milano with business associates of Hunter Biden's.
According to Archer's testimony, Joe Biden arrived and greeted guests at the 2014 dinner, sat down and "talked about the world, I guess, and the weather, and then everybody left."
