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 U.S. hospital chain by promising to land a Middle Eastern investor, bank records obtained by the US show. 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 on X.
Comer said James Biden wrote the check to his powerful brother as a “loan payment,” without providing further context.
“Even if this were a personal loan repayment, it remains concerning that Joe Biden’s ability to receive repayment from his brother depended on the success of his family’s shady financial dealings,” the president said.
James Biden received a total of $600,000 in loans from now-defunct rural hospital operator Americore Health in 2018.
The company’s bankruptcy trustees said in a July 2022 court filing that James Biden “obtained the $600,000.00 in loans from Americore…based on statements that his last name, ‘Biden,’ could ‘open doors’ and that he could obtain a large investment from the Middle East based on its 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 on X.James Comer/X James Comer announced today that the committee obtained bank records revealing a direct payment of $200,000 from James and Sara Biden to Joe Biden in the form of a personal check. Supervisory Committee
The records do not specify which Middle Eastern country James Biden was courting, although he was involved in a different business relationship involving Saudi Arabia around the same time.
It is unclear what progress James Biden made in securing foreign funds before Americore filed for bankruptcy in 2019.
James Biden received an initial tranche of $400,000 from Americore in January 2018 and the final tranche of $200,000, which was sent to Joe Biden, on March 1 of that year, according to Comer and court records.
The handoff to Joe Biden, who was not in elected office at the time, could be the strongest evidence to date that the 80-year-old president benefited financially from his involvement in his relatives’ businesses, including in foreign countries.
Biden claimed in 2019, when he was a presidential candidate, that he had “never argued with my son or my brother… anything that had to do with his businesses,” but significant evidence has since emerged that he regularly interacted with associates of his relatives from countries like China and Ukraine.
House Republicans launched an impeachment inquiry last month and issued subpoenas seeking the banking records of James Biden and his 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 U.S. hospital chain, according to bank records. AP
“We are still investigating evidence cited from bank accounts belonging to Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son, 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 specific information about the loan that James Biden said he was repaying on the day the $200,000 changed hands. .
“After digging through thousands of pages of a private citizen’s banking records, they have again found no evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden, and that’s because there isn’t any,” Sams said.
“This entire exercise has become a futile self-debunking quest that is only throwing up evidence that President Biden did nothing wrong.”
House Republicans have developed significant evidence that Joe Biden interacted with his relatives’ foreign associates (including those from China, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Russia and Ukraine) and have been investigating whether he received direct financial benefits from business dealings in abroad.
Hunter Biden wrote in a January 2019 message recovered from his old laptop that he had to give “half” of his income to Joe Biden, and the House Oversight Committee identified nine members of the Biden family in May. who supposedly received foreign income.
Comer said James Biden wrote the check to his powerful brother as a “loan payment,” 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 D.C. restaurant Café Milano in 2014 and 2015 with his son’s Eastern European clients. and Central Asia, including Vadym Pozharskyi, board advisor. of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings, which paid Hunter up to $1 million a year starting in April 2014 to serve on its board of directors while his father ran the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy.
Archer also testified that Hunter Biden walked away from a meeting at the Four Seasons in Dubai to “call DC” with Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky and Pozharsky in December 2015.
An FBI informant 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 help. of the then vice president to overthrow Ukrainian Attorney General Viktor Shokin, who was removed from office in March 2016 following a sustained campaign by Joe Biden.
The bribery allegation has not been proven.
James Biden and his wife Sara Biden attend a state dinner at the White House in 2011.AP
Joe Biden also spoke by phone while vice president during about 20 business meetings with Hunter’s foreign 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 mentions Joe Biden as involved in extortion of a company linked to the Chinese government.
IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley, who oversaw the Hunter Biden tax fraud investigation for more than three years, provided Congress with that message, in which Hunter wrote on July 30, 2017, that he was “sitting here with my father ” and warned of the consequences if a deal was called off.
“I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled,” Hunter Biden wrote.
“Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of control, and now means tonight,” the 53-year-old continued, warning that he would “make sure that the man sitting next to me and every person who “You know and my ability to hold a grudge forever, you will regret not having followed my instructions.”
“I’m sitting here waiting for my father’s call,” reiterated Hunter, who was at his father’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, on the same day of the message.
The transfer to Joe Biden, who was not in elected office at the time, could be strong evidence that the 80-year-old benefited financially from his involvement in his relatives’ businesses. ZUMAPRESS.com
Within two weeks of that threat, $5.1 million flowed from CEFC China Energy into accounts linked to Biden, in addition to more than $1 million transferred earlier in the year, according to a 2020 report by Senate committees led by by the Republicans.
James Gilliar, an associate of Hunter and James Biden, wrote in a May 2017 email that the partners were considering a 10% cut for Joe Biden and an October 2017 email identifies Joe Biden as participating in a call about CEFC’s attempt to buy American natural gas.
It was the Biden family’s second major venture in China, after the then-second son co-founded state-backed investment fund BHR Partners in 2013, just 12 days after Hunter joined then-Vice President Biden aboard the Air Force Two for an official trip to Beijing.
Hunter introduced his father to BHR CEO Jonathan Li during the trip to China’s capital, and Joe Biden later wrote college recommendation letters for Li’s children.
The terms of Hunter Biden’s reported divestment from BHR Partners remain unclear.
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