What Is Hunter Biden Accused of? Suspicious Activity Reports Explained

House Republicans announced on Thursday that they were planning to open an investigation aiming to tie President Joe Biden to the alleged finances and business dealings of his son, Hunter Biden.

During a press conference, Republican Representative James Comer spoke about "suspicious activity reports," or "SARs," and said that they are documents a bank must file with the Treasury Department when a transaction is "suspected to be related to money laundering or fraud, or other types of criminal activity."

"According to media reports, the Biden family accumulated over 150 SARs," Comer said. "One SAR generated by an American bank to the Treasury Department connects Hunter Biden and his business associates to human trafficking, among other illegal activities....The SAR shows that Hunter Biden was conducting business with suspected human traffickers."

The announcement comes shortly after Republicans secured a majority in the House of Representatives following the midterm elections.

During the press conference on Thursday, Comer further spoke about the probe and said, "As part of our investigation, we have evidence that the finances, credit cards, and bank accounts of Hunter and Joe Biden were co-mingled, if not shared.

"And on some accounts at least, red flags were raised by banks to the account owner or owners indicating suspicious or illegal activity," Comer added.

In a statement sent to Newsweek on Thursday, Ian Sams, a spokesperson for the White House Counsel's Office said, "Instead of working with President Biden to address issues important to the American people, like lower costs, congressional Republicans' top priority is to go after President Biden with politically-motivated attacks chock full of long-debunked conspiracy theories."

In September, Comer criticized the U.S. Treasury Department, saying that it "refused to provide" suspicious business transactions between "Hunter Biden and other Biden associates and family members."

"It's unacceptable that the Treasury Department continues to run cover for the Biden family and possibly hide information about whether Joe Biden benefited financially from his family's business transactions," Comer said in a statement at the time.

In October, Comer spoke about the planned investigations during an interview on Fox & Friends, saying, "Look, this Biden family investigation's only going to ramp up in a Republican majority.

"There are a lot of questions that Joe Biden is going to have to answer with respect to his son and his brother's influence peddling that's happened over the past decade. So all of this together, I put the odds of Joe Biden even seeking the Democrat nomination, very, very low," he added.

Last month, The Washington Post reported that investigators concluded that they had evidence of Hunter Biden's tax crimes as well as false statements he made while attempting to purchase a gun, citing sources familiar with the case.

The Washington Post also conducted a fact-check on Comer's claims of the number of SARS that were concerning Hunter Biden and found that further confirmation was needed.

Since Hunter Biden is a private citizen, Comer explained on Thursday that the investigation will be focused on if Joe Biden was involved in his son's business deals.

"That's our investigation," Comer said.

Update 11/17/2022, 12:45 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.