Key Hunter Biden associate cooperating with Congress, opening crucial window into Joe Biden dealings

Congressional investigators have scored a major breakthrough by securing cooperation from Eric Schwerin, a close business associate of Hunter Biden who also had dealings with Joe Biden's business and tax affairs.

"He is cooperating with us," House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) revealed Thursday evening on the "Just the News, No Noise" television show. "His attorneys and my counsel are communicating on a regular basis. Now, I feel confident that he's going to work with us, and provide us with the information that we have requested."

Comer added: "I think that Schwerwin is going to be a very valuable witness for us in this investigation." 

The announcement comes as the committee has gotten word that Hunter Biden and his uncle, presidential brother James Biden, don't intend to volunteer all the information Comer's committee has been seeking in its wide-ranging probe of the first family's overseas business dealings that collected millions from Ukraine to China.

Comer said his committee won't wait any longer and will begin issuing subpoenas immediately.

"We know individuals, many are cooperating with us now, but others, not so much," he said. "We're going to start subpoenaing people in the private sector, we're going to start subpoenaing financial institutions to get us the information. And then we'll go from there."

Comer also trolled Hunter Biden for refusing to fully cooperate, saying the lack of cooperation seemed to undercut his claims he had nothing to hide.

"If I were Hunter Biden, and I'm as innocent as his lawyers and the little hit guy that works in the White House and attacks me every day says he is, I would want to clear my name in front of the House Oversight Committee," he said.

"He could come in front of the House Oversight Committee right now and defend his good name," Comer said. "He would have 20 Democrats that would definitely support him, and he could make 26 Republicans look bad if all this information we have from his laptop, all the emails that were in his own words, all the audio that are in his own voice, if for some reason we're misinterpreting that, then he could make us look bad.

"But we all know that this family was involved in influence peddling. And this administration is doing everything in its ability to try to block oversight." 

Both Joe Biden and Hunter Biden have denied the family did anything wrong, although Hunter Biden has acknowledged he is under federal criminal investigation on tax issues.

Comer said while the committee battles the White House and the Biden family for information, Schwerin's cooperation was a breakthrough that could spur other key witnesses to cooperate.

"That's a very positive development, I believe that's going to lead to a few others coming forward," he said.

Emails on a Hunter Biden laptop that was turned over to the FBI in 2019 show Schwerin, a business executive at Hunter Biden's Rosemont Seneca investment firm, had close proximity to both Hunter and Joe Biden during most of the time the elder Biden was vice president and his son was pursuing international business deals.

For instance, Schwerin was involved in vetting and facilitating Hunter Biden's business dealings with the Chinese energy firm CEFC, a relationship that has raised questions about whether communist China has compromised the Biden family by providing it, as the emails show, an expensive diamond and a multimillion dollar, no-interest, forgivable loan.

"If we can make the connection [to CEFC] we can take a percentage of the sale," Schwerin wrote Hunter Biden on Aug. 22, 2016, explaining how they could profit. 

As early as 2010, Schwerin was also involved in discussing tax and financial matters with Vice President Biden.

"Your Dad just called me (about his mortgage) and mentioned he'd be out a lot soon and not really back until Labor Day," Schwerin emailed Hunter Biden on July 6, 2010. "So it dawned on me it might be a good time (also he could use some positive news about his future earnings potential!)."

The White House and Hunter Biden's lawyer were unavailable for comment.