Republicans probe Biden administration after Assad’s cousin appeared in U.S.
QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – Republican lawmakers started probing the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden after the appearance of a relative of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on the American territory, Free Beacon reported on Tuesday.
The Republican lawmakers said they seek to determine if the Biden administration violated sanctions to allow Assad’s cousin, Mohammed Makhlouf, entry into the U.S. through granting him a visa.
Earlier in June, Makhlouf, son of Syrian businessman Rami Makhlouf, Assad’s maternal cousin, was seen on Instagram drinking at a bar in the Santa Monica area of California, according to two GOP lawmakers and Washington Free Beacon analysis on the photo. Reps. Kevin Hern (R., Okla.) and Joe Wilson (R., S.C.).
The Free Beacon said the picture initiated an investigation into how and why a member of Assad’s family was permitted into the country at a time when the Syrian president and his family members are under heavy U.S. sanctions.
“This is outrageous. This man’s father was sanctioned since the Bush administration for being the most corrupt oligarch in Syria,” Wilson, a member of the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committees, told the Free Beacon.
“The Assad family in the U.S. is a direct security risk, proving the Biden administration is asleep at the wheel on American national security,” Rep. Hern, chair of the Republican Study Committee, Congress’s largest GOP caucus, told the Free Beacon.