Witness in House GOP impeachment inquiry says no evidence Joe Biden involved in family business dealings

WASHINGTON – Republican investigators leading the impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden interviewed another witness on Monday as they hunt for evidence showing the president financially benefited from his family’s business dealings.

The committee on Monday interviewed Carol Fox, a trustee for Americore, a now bankrupt healthcare company. She was asked about her knowledge of the president’s brother, James Biden, and a $600,000 loan Americore gave to James Biden.

Fox, according to three sources with direct knowledge of the interview, said she possessed no knowledge that the president was directly involved in those dealings.

The transcribed interview, which happened behind closed-doors, took place in Boca Raton, Florida, according to one of the sources.

House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., and House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, sent a letter to Fox in early November, requesting her testimony about James Biden and his business associate Michael Lewitt’s business dealings with Americore and the $600,000 loan.

Americore gave James Biden the loan, which is at the heart of Fox’s testimony, after he made a promise to the financially struggling company that he could secure funding from the Middle East by leveraging his family name.

Fox identified no services James Biden ever provided to Americore, according to a source familiar with the investigation, who also noted that investigators were already aware Fox, who was a bankruptcy trustee, would not know anything about the president.

After James Biden didn't follow through on that promise, Fox filed a lawsuit against him and alleged he "could 'open doors' and that he could obtain a large investment from the Middle East based on his political connections. The two parties eventually agreed on a $350,000 settlement.

"The Committees' objective with witnesses related to Americore has been to show that the Bidens contribute nothing but fraud. Carol Fox testified to just that," a spokesperson for the Oversight Committee said.

A part of the $600,000 loan that GOP investigators have zeroed in on was a $200,000 loan Americore deposited in the personal bank accounts of James Biden and his wife, Sara Biden, on March 1, 2018. On that same day, James Biden issued a check to the president of $200,000 noted as a “loan repayment.”

Fox, according to another source familiar with the investigation, had no role in tracking the money to subsequent transferors, in this case, Joe Biden in 2018.

Bank records previously reviewed by USA TODAY suggest that the payment was indeed a loan repayment. On Jan. 12, 2018, the president made a wire transfer of $200,000 to James Biden through a bank account maintained by his personal attorney.

Comer has contended that the president should provide additional documentation about the payment. He has scoffed at the suggestion it was for a loan repayment and argued the money’s dubious origins already implicate Biden in his family’s business dealings.

Fox’s testimony, which did not provide evidence implicating the president in his brother’s business ventures, follows a pattern from the probe which has failed to produce evidence directly establishing a link between Joe Biden and his family.

For instance, Devon Archer, a longtime business associate of one of the president’s sons, Hunter Biden testified under oath to the House Oversight Committee in August in a closed-door meeting that lasted more than five hours. In that meeting, Archer told investigators he never heard the president discuss business with his son.

While Hunter Biden would at times call his father and put him on speakerphone in business conversations, Archer told the committee that the president only exchanged pleasantries on the phone.

In another instance, in the House Oversight Committee’s first hearing – and so far the only open hearing on the matter – to justify the impeachment inquiry, Jonathan Turley, a constitutional law professor at George Washington University testified that while he believed the inquiry was justified, he saw no evidence to support drafting articles of impeachment.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: House GOP interviews new impeachment inquiry witness: What to know