The House GOP committees conducting the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden are closing in on interviewing two associates of the president’s brother and son in the next two weeks.
Republican investigators are scheduled to depose Georges Berges, Hunter Biden’s art dealer, next week.
House Republicans also are in the advanced stages of planning a trip to Mississippi to hear from Joseph Langston, a debarred ex-lawyer who did business with James Biden. Republicans are currently in communication with Langston’s attorney to nail down a date.
The closed-door interviews show how the impeachment inquiry is progressing in the new year. House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) and Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) are looking to hear from those close to Hunter Biden and James Biden, even as they haven’t been able to depose the president’s son nor brother directly.
Hunter Biden’s testimony looks unlikely anytime soon, while Republicans continue to quietly work behind the scenes to set up a James Biden interview.
Here’s what to know about Langston and Berges.
Joseph Langston: Langston notably represented infamous trial lawyer Dickie Scruggs when Scruggs was charged — and convicted — of bribing a Mississippi judge. According to ProPublica, Langston also later pleaded guilty in another Scruggs-related bribery scandal.
Langston later became business partners with James Biden. And when Langston was appealing his own charges, his law firm wired hundreds of thousands of dollars to James and Sara Biden’s company, according to Comer.
“The Committee is interested in the nature and purpose of these payments, which totaled $187,000 while Joe Biden was serving as Vice President,” Comer and Jordan wrote to Langston on Nov. 9.
Georges Berges: In recent years, Hunter Biden has tried his hand as an artist in a career shift. Berges owns a gallery in New York City where he shows a number of Hunter Biden’s pieces.
Republicans have long sought to talk to Berges. Investigators want to probe whether any of the buyers of Hunter Biden’s art sought to curry favor with Joe Biden as a result.
Comer and Jordan sent a subpoena to Berges on Nov. 9 to appear for a transcribed interview.
House Republicans are probing whether any of Joe Biden’s actions as vice president were improperly influenced by the financial dealings of his family members. To date, the investigation has found no conclusive evidence of impeachable offenses.
— Max Cohen
