The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability is kicking its investigation into questionable business dealings of Joe Biden’s brother, James, and son, Hunter, into high gear, pressing the Treasury Department to respond to the committee’s outstanding requests for Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) pertaining to Biden family members. (And there appear to be quite a few of those.)

According to media reports, more than 150 of Hunter Biden and the Biden network’s international business transactions have generated suspicious activity reports (SARs) by U.S. banks for further review by the Treasury Department to determine if there is illegal activity or a threat to national security. The Treasury Department’s longstanding practice was to provide these reports to Congress, but the Biden Administration has restricted access to them, raising questions about a possible effort to hide the Biden network’s suspicious business dealings.

House oversight investigation into Hunter, James Biden business deals escalates. Hearing March 10 on documents status. https://t.co/QResKvlCxA

— Catherine Herridge (@CBS_Herridge) February 27, 2023

On Friday, Rep. James Comer (R-KY), Chairman of the committee, directed a letter to Isabella More, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Oversight at the Treasury Department, noting prior correspondence to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and requests stretching back to the 117th Congress that have gone unanswered.

In the letter, Comer outlines the accommodations the committee has made to afford the department time to respond, as well as the ongoing failure of the department to meet deadlines or respond in any substantive way:

“The Committee wrote to Treasury in January with specific requests for SARs and over a month later, Treasury has provided nothing to the Committee. Treasury has been made aware of the Committee’s interests in these SARs since the 117th Congress, as Committee Republicans wrote to Treasury on May 25, 2022, July 6, 2022, July 14, 2022, and November 17, 2022, with requests for SARs connected to the Biden family. Nonetheless, you waited to transmit Treasury’s response to the Committee’s January 11 letter on the day of the deadline—January 25, 2023—with a form letter that provided none of the information requested by the Committee.

The Committee has made multiple accommodations to Treasury regarding this matter:

• The original deadline for the production was January 25, 2023 (over four weeks ago);

• On January 30, 2023, Committee staff offered to review SARs in camera at Treasury;

• Also on January 30, 2023, Committee staff offered to accept a rolling production of SARs being made available to it (for in camera review) by Treasury;

• On February 1, 2023, Committee staff emailed Treasury with a prioritized list of SARs for certain companies and individuals, scoping its initial request and reiterating that Committee staff would review SARs in camera and on a rolling basis; and

• On February 6, 2023, Committee staff indicated it would accept from Treasury as evidence of a good faith effort to cooperate with the Committee’s request a production of SARs previously made available to another congressional office.”

Comer acknowledges Treasury’s excuses explanations for the delay, to which he replies: “Treasury’s excuses and delay tactics are unavailing given you have known about our request since last year and previously produced relevant SARs to others.”

And to the non-response response of “[W]e do hope to have additional information for you soon,” Comer says: Great! We’ll see you at a hearing before the full Committee on March 10th.

The letter further outlines the scope of the anticipated questioning, noting:

“This hearing will examine the various justifications you have provided the Committee regarding Treasury’s failure to produce documents requested of it, including SARs. The hearing will provide the Committee invaluable information regarding Treasury’s approach to congressional oversight, as the Committee considers legislation that codifies what was once regular congressional access to SARs.”

In other words, it’s time for Treasury to stop stonewalling. Whether they will, of course, remains to be seen — one shouldn’t hold one’s breath on that. But keep an eye on this hearing — it should prove interesting.