Hunter Biden ‘gratuitously invoked’ father’s name in SEC inquiry, House Republicans say

House Republicans asked the Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday for records related to its inquiry involving Hunter Biden 's business associates in 2016 after the lawmakers found the first son had referenced President Joe Biden during the SEC's investigation.

Reps. James Comer (R-KY) and Jim Jordan (R-OH), who are leading an impeachment inquiry into the president, requested in a letter all SEC records connecting Hunter Biden to the commission's 2016 investigation, which resulted in the SEC charging seven people with fraud.

"To further the House's impeachment inquiry the Committees must determine the propriety with which SEC handled this matter," Comer and Jordan wrote.

They pointed to a subpoena Hunter Biden received in 2016 from the SEC seeking documents the first son had related to Rosemont Seneca Bohai, a company implicated in the SEC's fraud investigation.

When Hunter Biden replied to the subpoena with the requested material, the first son's attorney also asked the SEC to be particularly confidential about the matter because of how it could affect then-Vice President Joe Biden.

"It would be unfair, not just to our client, but also to his father, the Vice President of the United States, if his involvement in an SEC investigation and parallel criminal probe were to become the subject of any media attention," Hunter Biden's attorney wrote on April 20, 2016.

Comer and Jordan found it out of line for Hunter Biden to use his father as a reason to request confidentiality during the SEC's inquiry, an observation that comes after the Republicans found during their impeachment inquiry repeated instances of the first son wielding his father's name in business dealings.

"Mr. Biden's response gratuitously invoked his father's position as the Vice President in what could be interpreted as an effort to discourage further SEC scrutiny," the Republicans wrote. "And on May 11, 2016, the SEC published a press release — announcing the charging of seven individuals — with no mention or charging of Hunter Biden."

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The SEC at the time charged Hunter Biden's former business partner Devon Archer, a man the first son once worked with named Jason Galanis, and several others with participating in a scheme to invest $43 million in sham tribal bonds.

Hunter Biden was never implicated in the scheme despite Archer later testifying to Congress that the first son served as the "corporate secretary" of Rosemont Seneca Bohai, a company named in the SEC's complaint.