WASHINGTON – President Biden received a $200,000 check in 2018 from his younger brother James on the same day he received the same amount from a US hospital chain promising to get Mideast investors, according to bank records obtained by Congress.
“This summer, Joe Biden said: ‘Where’s the money?’ Well, we found some,” House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said in a video posted Friday afternoon to X.
Comer said that James Biden wrote the check to his powerful brother as “loan repayment,” without providing further context.
“Although this is a personal loan repayment, it is still troubling that Joe Biden’s ability to be repaid by his brother depends on the success of his family’s financial affairs,” the chairman said.
James Biden received a total of $600,000 in loans from defunct rural hospital operator Americore Health since 2018.
The firm’s bankruptcy trustee said in a July 2022 court filing that James Biden “obtained a $600,000.00 loan from Americore … based on the assertion that his last name, ‘Biden,’ could ‘open doors’ and that he could secure large investments from the Middle East based on his political connections. “
“This summer, Joe Biden said: ‘Where’s the money?’ Well, we found some,” House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said in a video posted Friday afternoon to X.James Comer/X James Comer announced today the committee obtained bank records revealing a $200,000 direct payment from James and Sara Biden to Joe Biden in the form of a personal check.Oversight Committee
The records do not specify which Middle Eastern countries James Biden is interested in, although he was involved in different business relationships related to Saudi Arabia at the same time.
It is unclear what progress James Biden made toward securing foreign funding before Americore filed for bankruptcy in 2019.
James Biden received the first tranche of $400,000 from Americore on Jan. 12, 2018, and the last $200,000, which was sent to Joe Biden, on March 1 of that year, according to Comer and court records.
The move to Joe Biden, who was not elected at the time, could be the strongest evidence yet that the 80-year-old president benefited financially from his involvement in his relatives’ business dealings, including in foreign countries.
Biden claimed in 2019 while running for president that he “never discussed with my son, or my brother … anything to do with their business,” but substantial evidence has emerged that he regularly interacts with his brother’s partners from countries such as China and Ukraine.
House Republicans launched an impeachment inquiry last month and issued subpoenas for the bank records of James Biden and first son Hunter Biden.
President Biden received a $200,000 check in 2018 from his younger brother James on the same day he received money from a US hospital chain, according to bank records. AP
“We are still digging through subpoenaed evidence from bank accounts belonging to Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, and James and Sara Biden — the president’s brother and sister-in-law,” Comer said Friday.
James Biden finally agreed in September 2022 to repay $350,000 of the $600,000 loan to Americore’s creditors.
White House spokesman Ian Sams said in a statement that “President Biden did nothing wrong,” without offering more specifics about the loan James Biden said he repaid the day the $200,000 changed hands.
“After sifting through thousands of pages of private citizen bank records, they again show zero evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden — and that’s because there isn’t any,” Sams said.
“This entire exercise has been a self-defeating wild goose chase that has only produced evidence that President Biden did nothing wrong.”
Top Oversight Committee Democrat, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, said Friday afternoon that James Biden’s bank records “show that in 2017 and 2018, when President Biden was not in office, he made two short-term loans to his brother, James, who repaid each loan within two months. “
House Republicans have developed significant evidence that Joe Biden interacted with his brother’s foreign associates — including those from China, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Russia and Ukraine — and have investigated whether he received direct financial benefits from those foreign dealings.
Hunter Biden wrote in a January 2019 message taken from his former laptop that he needed to give “half” of his income to Joe Biden, and the House Oversight Committee in May identified nine members of the Biden family who allegedly received foreign income.
Comer said James Biden wrote his check to his powerful brother as “loan repayment,” without providing further context.AP
Hunter Biden’s former business partner Devon Archer revealed in Oversight Committee testimony released in August that Joe Biden attended two dinners at the DC Cafe Milano restaurant in 2014 and 2015 with his son’s clients from Eastern Europe and Central Asia, including Vadym Pozharskyi, a board adviser Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings — which paid Hunter up to $1 million a year starting in April 2014 to serve on its board when his father led the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy.
Archer also testified that Hunter Biden left a gathering at the Four Seasons in Dubai to “call DC” with Burisma owners Mykola Zlochevsky and Pozharsky in December 2015.
An FBI whistleblower file released in July by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) says Zlochevsky complained in 2016 that he was “forced” to pay $10 million in bribes to Joe and Hunter Biden in exchange for the then-vice president’s help in ousting prosecutors Ukrainian Prime Minister Viktor Shokin, who was ousted from office in March 2016 after a sustained campaign by Joe Biden.
Claims of corruption have not been proven.
James Biden and wife Sara Biden attend the White House State Dinner in 2011.AP
Joe Biden was also put on speaker phone while the vice president during about 20 business meetings with foreign Hunter associates, including French and Chinese nationals, Archer told the House Oversight Committee in a July 31 interview.
A text message released in June by House Republicans directly accused Joe Biden of engaging in the destruction of Chinese government-linked businesses.
IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley, who oversaw the Hunter Biden tax fraud investigation for more than three years, provided Congress with the message, in which Hunter wrote on July 30, 2017, that he was “sitting here with my father” and warned of the consequences if an agreement has been cancelled.
“I sit here with my father and we want to understand why the commitments that were made are not being fulfilled,” Hunter Biden wrote.
“Tell the director that I want to finish it now before it gets out of hand, and now that means tonight,” the now 53-year-old continued, warning he would “make sure that between the guy sitting next to me and everyone he knows and my ability to hold a grudge forever that you will regret not following my orders.”
“I’m sitting here waiting for a call with my dad,” said Hunter, who was at his father’s Wilmington, Del., home the same day as the message.
The move to Joe Biden, who was not elected at the time, could be strong evidence that the 80-year-old benefited financially from his involvement in his relatives’ business affairs. ZUMAPRESS.com
In the two weeks after the threat, $5.1 million flowed from China Energy’s CEFC to Biden-related accounts — in addition to more than $1 million transferred earlier in the year, according to a 2020 report by a Republican-led Senate committee.
Hunter and James Biden associate James Gilliar wrote in a May 2017 email that partners were considering a 10% cut for Joe Biden and an October 2017 email identified Joe Biden as a participant in a call about CEFC’s attempt to buy US natural gas.
It was the Biden family’s second major venture in China — after the then-second son founded government-backed investment fund BHR Partners in 2013, just 12 days after Hunter joined then-Vice President Biden on Air Force Two for an official trip to Beijing.
Hunter introduced his father to BHR CEO Jonathan Li during a visit to the Chinese capital and Joe Biden later wrote college recommendation letters for Li’s children.
The terms of Hunter Biden’s alleged release from BHR Partners remain unclear.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
