Beau Biden’s widow, Hallie, who was in a romantic relationship with Hunter Biden after Beau’s death, is now a “person of interest,” House Republicans say, in their investigation of Chinese-linked payments to Hunter and other Biden family members.

Congressman James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, says that over the course of three months in 2017, the Biden family collectively received more than $1 million in payments from a business associate of Hunter’s who worked with him in the Chinese energy market, Rob Walker. 

Of that money, Hallie Biden received two payments totaling $35,000 from Mr. Walker’s limited liability companies that the GOP committee says were paid by a Chinese energy company, State Energy HK Limited. It is unclear what business services she provided to receive the money. Hallie Biden used to work as a school counselor, but now sits on the board of the Beau Biden Foundation. 

The committee says Hallie Biden is “a new person of interest in the Biden Business Scheme.”

“The Oversight Committee is concerned about the national security implications resulting from President Biden’s family receiving millions of dollars from foreign nationals. We will continue to follow the money trail and facts,” the committee said in a statement.

The payments were made through a shell corporation to Hunter as well as to the president’s brother, James, and to Hallie. The committee is investigating a fourth Biden family member who received money and has yet to disclose that person’s identity. 

Hunter and James Biden have long been in the news for their allegedly sordid business dealings, but the disclosure that Hallie Biden also received money is the first example of another family member being brought into the story. 

In a statement to NBC News, House Oversight Committee Democrats defended Hallie Biden and claimed she was sent the $35,000 one month before Mr. Walker received his payments from the Chinese energy company. “Concealing this context paints a typically distorted picture and marks another depressing low for this investigation,” the statement said.

The White House has said that bringing Hallie Biden into the story is a bridge too far. In a statement to Fox News, the White House spokesman for oversight, Ian Sams, said that the congressman has “decided to go after Beau’s widow,” adding that Republicans are “bizarrely attacking the President’s family.”

Democrats launched a similar investigation into President Trump’s family. Last year, House Democrats sought records from the former president’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner. After leaving the White House, Mr. Kushner received a $2 billion check from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund to kick off his own investment firm, Affinity Partners.

Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney — then the chairwoman of the committee Mr. Comer now leads — asked for “all communications” between Mr. Kusher and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman or other Saudi officials between January 2017 and 2022. 

The drama of Hunter and Hallie’s relationship was made public in sordid detail via texts and emails from Hunter’s laptop, which he abandoned at a computer repair store while in active addiction to drugs and alcohol. Hunter and Hallie began dating in 2017, during which time Hunter was going through a divorce from his first wife, Kathleen, who accused him in court papers of squandering the family’s money on drugs, prostitutes, and expensive jewelry, presumably for Hallie.

Hunter and Hallie’s romance could not survive the pressures on President Biden’s younger son, and they broke up  in 2019.