Republicans on the House Oversight and Reform Committee are probing into a “secret” deal that was allegedly made between the Biden administration and Saudi Arabia to boost production from the oil-producing alliance OPEC+. Reportedly the deal was never fully realized.
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), a ranking member on the committee, sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken looking to gain further information about the deal. This deal was supposed to increase oil production before the midterm elections.
In the letter, he wrote that the Committee was responsible for looking into any “backdoor deals cut by President Biden or his emissaries.” In the letter, he also added that Biden was looking at foreign sources instead of domestic sources. He added that “if his Administration is engaging in backdoor market manipulations with adversarial nations while jeopardizing our national security for the sake of securing more favorable election conditions for Democrats,” then the American public should be informed of this.
Comer in his letter also pointed to an October story from The New York Times in which the agreement between White House officials and Saudi Arabia was outlined.
In July, Biden traveled to Saudi Arabia where he met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. This trip took place at a time when gas prices were reaching an all-time high.
Saudi Arabia has previously been accused of a number of human rights violations, including the allegations that the crown prince ordered Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi to be murdered in 2018.
