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House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) has made a habit out of distorting the facts of the GOP’s investigation of Hunter Biden and cherry-picking “evidence” that supports his version of events but runs counter to reality.
Now he has been called out on it.
On Thursday, Kevin Morris, a benefactor and friend of the president’s son, testified before the panel about the relationships and loans he made to Hunter Biden.
Soon after, Comer was at it again, issuing a statement that, according to Morris’s attorney Bryan Sullivan, is highly misleading. In a letter to the lawmaker that was obtained by Politico, Sullivan issued a blistering response.
“When we started today’s interview of my client Mr. Kevin Morris, I specifically pointed out the practice of Republicans in making partial leaks of witness’ statements rather than releasing the actual transcript so the public would know the truth and not your often inaccurate spin and misstatements. I specifically asked that this not to be done with Mr. Morris’ transcript and, if such were done, that the entire transcript be released,” he wrote.
Sullivan added that committee staff assured him that Morris would be treated fairly. That, he now argues, did not happen.
“[You] engaged in your standard practice of partially and inaccurately leaking a witness’s statements,” Sullivan wrote. “Not two hours after we left Mr. Morris’ transcribed interview, you issued a press statement with cherry‐picked, out of context and totally misleading descriptions of what Mr. Morris said.”
The attorney then demanded that the entire transcript of the testimony be released in its entirety and provided some of the examples of how Comer distorted the truth.
“In your statement, you used quotes around the words ‘loaned’ and ‘loans’ to give the impression that Mr. Morris’ loans to Mr. Hunter Biden were somehow not real,” he wrote. “To the contrary, Mr. Morris repeatedly testified he actually loaned the money to Mr. Hunter Biden, that these loans were reviewed by lawyers for each of them, that they have proper loan terms such as interest and a term, and that he expected Mr. Hunter Biden to repay these loans.”
Of course, the goal of Comer’s zealous pursuit of Hunter Biden is to incriminate the president in some kind of influence-peddling scheme for which, it bears repeating, House Republicans have failed to provide evidence.
In this case, here is how Comer tried to spin the testimony:
Since Kevin Morris has kept President Biden’s son financially afloat, he’s had access to the Biden White House and has spoken to President Biden. This follows a familiar pattern where Hunter Biden’s associates have access to Joe Biden himself.
However, Sullivan pointed out that this statement is “intentionally misleading” to insinuate there is some sort of deeper relationship between Morris and the president.
“Mr. Morris testified that he has only had cursory communications with President Biden at public events like Mr. Biden’s daughter’s wedding, and said basic courtesy things as ‘hello’ and ‘how are you’ and President Biden making comments about Mr. Morris’ unkempt hair style that lasted a few minutes.”
In addition, he testified that he has only been to the White House a few times, namely for a short tour, a wedding, and the July 4th picnic.
“These minimal interactions and attendance at large events are hardly the impression that you intended with your false and misleading description,” Sullivan wrote.
It’s certainly welcome news that somebody is calling out Comer for using these types of deceptive practices. However, as long as somebody from Fox News puts a microphone in front of his face, don’t expect the lawmaker to stop now.
