Biden’s brother accuses House Republicans of ‘flat-out lying’ as he testifies in impeachment inquiry

James Biden, the brother of President Joe Biden, said in his opening statement as he testified in the Republican impeachment inquiry that those who argued that he used his connection to his brother to boost his business ventures are “either mistaken, ill-informed, or flat-out lying”.

“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,” he said in the statement on Wednesday.

Republicans have long argued that the entire Biden family is corrupt and that they have used Mr Biden’s political influence in their business schemes – but the GOP have struggled to substantiate their claims.

“It is difficult to open my personal and professional life to such intense public scrutiny, but I am doing so to comply with the Committee’s inquiry,” James Biden, the third of four Biden children, said. The president is the oldest of the siblings.

“I have nothing to hide. 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,” the 74-year-old James Biden added. “There is no basis for this inquiry to continue.”

The interview with James Biden on Wednesday in House Republicans’ so-far chaotic and lacklustre investigation comes after they brought forward a number of business and family associates who also testified that the president has not been a part of any of his family business dealings abroad – the main allegation that prompted the inquiry in the first place.

Republicans leading the probe are fighting against increasing dissatisfaction within their own party over the investigation,