WASHINGTON – A disbarred Mississippi attorney serving prison time for corruption told investigators in the House impeachment inquiry Thursday that he loaned first cousin James Biden $800,000, but only got $400,000 back – providing a new twist in the wide-ranging probe.
Joey Langston said in a closed deposition that “he does not have any documentation or record of such a loan,” according to a source familiar with his testimony.
Langston said he made four loans to James in 2016, one in 2017 and possibly another in overtime.
Langston tried unsuccessfully to overturn his corruption conviction in court in 2016. It is unclear whether he sought a federal pardon from then-President Barack Obama during Obama’s last year in office.
The massive financial aid from Langston to the second brother introduces a new element of intrigue into the impeachment inquiry into the Biden family’s alleged corruption.
Langston pleaded guilty in 2008 and was sentenced to three years in federal prison for being part of a conspiracy to bribe a judge in an asbestos legal fee dispute by promising to arrange favorable consideration for state legislators for federal judgeships.
An undisbarred attorney said Thursday he gave first cousin James Biden an $800,000 loan but only got $400,000 back. AP
Langston’s alleged co-conspirator in the case, fellow Mississippi attorney Dickie Scruggs, is involved in a second indictment for trying to bribe another judge with $40,000, also in a legal fee dispute.
James Biden was swept by the FBI in 2007 — while his brother was still a senator — as part of its investigation into a second corruption case, the Washington Post reported in December.
At the center of the corruption conspiracy James Biden, who was not charged in the case, was talking with Scruggs and conspirator Tim Balducci about setting up a law firm that would employ himself, his nephew Hunter Biden and James’ wife Sara.
James Biden is in talks to establish a law firm that will employ himself and Hunter Biden. AP
James Biden’s relationship with a crooked Mississippi attorney has raised eyebrows in the past.
Then-Sen. Biden switched from opponents of federal laws to condone tobacco companies for lying about the addictiveness of their products to supporters of the idea after Scruggs — the architect of the multibillion-dollar litigation plan — paid James Biden’s lobbying firm $100,000 in 1998, the Washington Post reported.
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“I probably wouldn’t have hired him if he wasn’t the senator’s brother,” Scruggs told the newspaper.
Langston, who testified Thursday to Congress, hosted a fundraiser for Joe Biden, ProPublica reported.
Scruggs flew Joe Biden to the fundraiser in his private plane, the Washington Post reported.
Fellow Mississippi attorney Dickie Scruggs flew Joe Biden to the fundraiser in his private plane. Annabelle Gordon / CNP / SplashNews.com
The blurring of the Biden family’s political and personal businesses in Mississippi echoes the more publicized aspects of the impeachment inquiry, which mostly focused on foreign ventures during Joe Biden’s vice presidency, as well as what two IRS whistleblowers said were Justice Department safeguards to protect Joe and the first child. Hunter from investigating tax fraud, money laundering and unregistered foreign lobbying.
Joe Biden has consistently claimed he “never” discusses business with his son or brother and said in December he “doesn’t” interact with their partners. Evidence including photographs, emails and witness statements show that Biden actually interacted with his son and his brother’s associates from two Chinese government-linked businesses and their clients from Kazakhstan, Mexico, Russia and Ukraine.
James Biden, who transferred $240,000 to Joe Biden in 2017 and 2018 in alleged murky loan repayments, allegedly did not understand the business services he was offering.
James Comer is the Chairman of the Oversight Committee. CQ-Roll Call, Inc. via Getty Images
“We have people all over the world who want to invest in Joe Biden,” James is said to have said in the early 2000s when he and nephew Hunter took over the failed investment bank Paradigm, according to a 2021 book by Politico reporter Ben Schreckinger.
A lawyer for James Biden did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
