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Biden’s brother tells impeachment probe he kept family and business separate
© Reuters. The House Oversight and Accountability Committee holds an impeachment inquiry hearing into U.S. President Joe Biden, focused on his son Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings, on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., September 28, 2023. REUTERS/Jim Bourg/Fi
By Makini Brice
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden’s brother on Wednesday told lawmakers pursuing an impeachment inquiry that their relationship had nothing to do with his business career, as a top Democrat said the probe is based on Russian disinformation and should be dropped.
In closed-door testimony, James Biden, 74, told investigators in the House of Representatives that he never asked Biden for official favors, or relied on his status as the sibling of a prominent politician to advance his interests.
He said Biden had no involvement or financial interests in any of the ventures he has pursued over the past 50 years.
“Those who have said or thought otherwise were either mistaken, ill informed, or flat-out lying,” he said in a prepared statement.
Republicans have spent months investigating whether Biden improperly benefited from family members’ foreign business ventures, but have so far failed to turn up evidence of wrongdoing.
The inquiry is facing new headwinds as prosecutors have charged a former FBI informant with lying about the Bidens’ alleged business dealings in Ukraine, a central focus of the probe. Republicans have repeatedly cited that informant’s claims to bolster their accusations.
In a court filing on Tuesday, prosecutors said the informant had admitted to contacts with “officials associated with Russian intelligence.”
U.S. Representative Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Oversight Committee, said that should be reason to drop the probe.
“This impeachment investigation is nothing but a wild goose chase that is based on Russian disinformation and propaganda,” he told reporters. “I don’t really know why we need to continue this charade any longer.”
Republicans leading the inquiry have downplayed the role that the informant’s claims have played and vowed to continue.
James Biden is the first member of the Biden family to testify in the investigation, which has so far failed to turn up evidence that the president improperly profited from his family’s business ventures.
Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, is due to speak to investigators next week.
House Republicans allege that the president and his family, including James, improperly profited from policy decisions Biden participated in as vice president in President Barack Obama’s administration in 2009-2017.
Multiple witnesses have said in their interviews with lawmakers that Biden was not involved with his family’s business activities. The White House has denied wrongdoing and dismissed the inquiry as a partisan attack.
James Biden has worked with Hunter Biden on past business ventures.
Hunter, who has worked as an artist, lawyer and investor, faces criminal tax and firearms charges. In court filings on Tuesday, he argued that those cases had been “infected” by the false claims of the former FBI informant, Alexander Smirnov.
Former President Donald Trump, the leading Republican contender to challenge Biden in the November election, has cheered on the investigation. Trump was impeached twice by the House, though he was acquitted by the Senate both times.
Hard-right Republicans have clamored for the impeachment of Biden and several of his cabinet officials since shortly after his election.
House Republicans last week narrowly voted to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas, Biden’s top border official, for failing to curb record crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border. The Democratic-majority Senate will take up the Mayorkas case next week, though it almost certainly will vote to acquit him.
(Reuters) -Private equity firm Insight Partners is on the brink of closing a new $10 billion-plus fund, roughly half the amount originally targeted, the Financial Times reported on Sunday, citing five people with knowledge of its plans.
Insight will not formally close its 13th fund until early next year, the report said, adding that the final figure may be closer to $12 billion.
Insight Partners declined to comment on the report.
The report said Insight is using a private equity-style structure to sell more than $1 billion worth of stakes in start-ups and to free up cash to return to investors.
One of the start-ups is Israeli cybersecurity firm Wiz, which had called off a $23 billion deal with Google parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:) in July, the report said.
New York-based Insight raised $20 billion for its 12th flagship fund in 2022, aiming to ramp up investments in software and technology companies.
JERUSALEM (Reuters) -Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would inflict a “heavy price” on the Iran-aligned Houthis who control northern Yemen, after they reached central Israel with a missile on Sunday for the first time.
Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said the group struck with a new hypersonic ballistic missile that travelled 2,040 km (1270 miles) in just 11 1/2 minutes.
After initially saying the missile had fallen in an open area, Israel’s military later said it had probably fragmented in the air, and that pieces of interceptors had landed in fields and near a railway station. Nobody was reported hurt.
Air raid sirens had sounded in Tel Aviv and across central Israel moments before the impact at around 6:35 a.m. local time (0335 GMT), sending residents running for shelter. Loud booms were heard.
Reuters saw smoke billowing in an open field in central Israel.
At a weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said the Houthis should have known that Israel would exact a “heavy price” for attacks on Israel.
“Whoever needs a reminder of that is invited to visit the Hodeida port,” Netanyahu said, referring to an Israeli retaliatory air strike against Yemen in July for a Houthi drone that hit Tel Aviv.
The Houthis have fired missiles and drones at Israel repeatedly in what they say is solidarity with the Palestinians, since the Gaza war began with a Hamas attack on Israel in October.
The drone that hit Tel Aviv for the first time in July killed a man and wounded four people. Israeli air strikes in response on Houthi military targets near the port of Hodeidah killed six and wounded 80.
Previously, Houthi missiles have not penetrated deep into Israeli air space, with the only one reported to have hit Israeli territory falling in an open area near the Red Sea port of Eilat in March.
Israel should expect more strikes in the future “as we approach the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 operation, including responding to its aggression on the city of Hodeidah,” Sarea said.
The deputy head of the Houthi’s media office, Nasruddin Amer, said in a post on X on Sunday that the missile had reached Israel after “20 missiles failed to intercept” it, describing it as the “beginning”.
The Israeli military also said that 40 projectiles were fired towards Israel from Lebanon on Sunday and were either intercepted or landed in open areas.
“No injuries were reported,” the military said.
PARIS (Reuters) – Eight people have died trying to cross the Channel from France to England, French authorities said on Sunday, confirming earlier media reports.
This latest incident follows the deaths of 12 people earlier this month when their boat capsized in the Channel on its way to Britain and highlights the pressure on the British and French governments to find ways to tackle the boat crossings.
Jacques Billant, the Prefect of the Pas-de-Calais region, said that rescue crews were alerted that a boat with 59 people onboard was in difficulty in waters off the coast of Ambleteuse in the Pas-de-Calais area.
“A new drama took place around one in the morning and we deplore the death of eight people,” he told a news conference, adding that the other 51 onboard were now in the care of rescue and medical crews.
The dead were men from Eritrea, Sudan, Syria, Egypt, Iran and Afghanistan, he added.
The Channel is one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes and currents are strong, which makes crossing on small boats dangerous.
The latest incident brings to 46 the number of people who have died trying to cross the Channel from France since the start of the year, Billant said.
On September 14 alone there were eight attempts to cross the Channel from France and some 200 migrants were rescued, he said.
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