President

Joe

Biden has never had any involvement in the business dealings of other members of his family, his brother James Biden testified Wednesday as he appeared for a voluntary private interview on Capitol Hill as part of House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry.

I have had a 50 year career in various business ventures. Joe Biden has never had any involvement or any direct or indirect financial interest in these activities. None, the younger Biden said in an opening statement obtained by the Associated Press.

The interview with James Biden is the latest in a series that Republican lawmakers have conducted recently in their effort to rebuild momentum for an impeachment trial over the Biden family’s finances, which has stalled in recent months.

Criticism over the lack of evidence directly tied to the president has grown even among Republicans, some of whom have thrown cold water on allegations that Biden was involved in his relatives’ alleged efforts to use their last names for corporate payments. The GOP investigation was undermined again last week when an FBI informant who alleged a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme involving the president, his son Hunter and a Ukrainian energy company was charged with fabricating the story.

Speaker McCarthy launches an impeachment inquiry into Biden without a vote in the House of Representatives

The informants’ claims were at the center of Republican efforts in Congress to investigate the president and his family. An attorney for Hunter Biden, who is expected to make a statement next week, said the charges show the investigation is based on unfair, unbelievable allegations and witnesses.

Both James and Hunter Biden were subpoenaed by the committee in November. Lawyers for James Biden have said there was no justification for the subpoena because the committee had already reviewed private banking records and transactions between the two brothers. The committee found records of two loans made when Joe Biden was not in office or running for president.

“As I am here today, the committees will have the information to conclude that the negative and destructive assumptions about me and my actions with my brother Joe are wrong,” James Biden said in his speech.

his opening statement

. There is no basis to continue this investigation.

But Republicans have pushed back on the Biden family’s defense, saying evidence they have gathered since early last year paints a disturbing picture of the influence exerted over the family’s business dealings, especially with international clients.

Associated Press video journalist Dan Huff contributed to this report.