James Biden, the younger brother of President Joe Biden, complied with a subpoena on Wednesday to provide sworn testimony in a closed-door deposition before the House Oversight Committee as part of House Republicans' ongoing impeachment inquiry against his elder brother.
Unsurprisingly, per his publicly released opening statement, the younger brother defended his older sibling and testified that the president had no involvement with or financially benefited from any of the family's lucrative business dealings, according to The Hill.
Yet, while the testimony may help solidify the president's support among those who already backed him, it seems unlikely to otherwise sway the majority of Americans who believe that the president was indeed involved in and benefited financially from his family's foreign business dealings and alleged influence-peddling.
Fox News reported that James Biden's opening statement sought to make four "critical" points unmistakably clear, the first of which was that in his "50-year career in a variety of business ventures," Joe Biden "has never had any involvement or any direct or indirect financial interest in those activities. None."
"Because of my intimate knowledge of my brother’s personal integrity and character, as well as my own strong ethics, I have always kept my professional life separate from our close personal relationship," he asserted as his second point, and stated for the third, "I never asked my brother to take any official action on behalf of me, my business associates, or anyone else."
"In every business venture in which I have been involved, I have relied on my own talent, judgment, skill, and personal relationships -- and never my status as Joe Biden’s brother," the younger Biden added. "Those who have said or thought otherwise were either mistaken, ill-informed, or flat-out lying."
The opening statement went on to gloss over some of the details of his various major business ventures, at each point making it clear that the president played no role and derived no financial benefit from any profits that accrued.
"It is difficult to open my personal and professional life to such intense public scrutiny, but I am doing so to comply with the Committees’ inquiry. And I have nothing to hide," James concluded. "With my appearance here today, the Committees will have the information to conclude that the negative and destructive assumptions about me and my relationship with my brother Joe are wrong. There is no basis for this inquiry to continue."
To be sure, some will accept James Biden's testimony at face value and will believe his repeated insistence both that President Biden was never involved in any of the business dealings and that James and other family members never exploited the fame and influence of the patriarchal politician for personal financial gain.
Yet, at least some of his testimony ran counter to the testimony provided by other former Biden family associates, not to mention bank records of financial transactions obtained by the House Oversight Committee that show how tens of millions of dollars were received from foreign nations and entities by way of "selling Joe Biden as ‘the brand’ around the world."
Of particular interest to the committee are supposed undocumented "loans" totaling at least $240,000 that were "repaid" to Joe by James using funds received from dubious business ventures that ostensibly only came about because of James' access to and the political influence of his older brother Joe.
Meanwhile, a majority of the American people are unlikely to be dissuaded by James Biden's testimony from their belief that President Biden "personally profited" from his family's business dealings, or that his family likewise benefited financially from their connection to the career politician, according to the New York Post.
A recent Emerson/YouGov poll of registered voters found that 53% believe the president profited from his son Hunter Biden's foreign business dealings while 69% believe that Hunter profited due to the influential political status of his father.
It seems likely that the committee with eventually release a transcript of the sworn deposition with James Biden, as they have done with the testimony of the other former associates who've already testified under oath, and it will be interesting to see if James stuck with his script under questioning or revealed potentially incriminating information that might lead to articles of impeachment against the president.
