WASHINGTON – House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer on Thursday demanded that President Biden clarify why he received a $200,000 check from his brother on the same day James Biden received an identical transfer from a hospital company American by promising to use his “political connections” to find a Middle Eastern Investor.
Comer (R-Ky.) asked White House counsel Edward Siskel for details about what Biden allies say was a sibling loan payment after promising Thursday to bring Biden’s relatives before his panel. “too soon” to explain the president’s interactions with his associates from countries like China and Ukraine.
“If Joe Biden personally loaned James Biden an amount that was later repaid with the $200,000 check, please provide the loan documents, including the loan payment, the loan agreement, and any other documentation supporting the loan,” he wrote Eat Siskel.
The Oversight Committee chairman publicly mocked the six-figure check as a loan payment and wrote that there is no evidence that Joe Biden ever lent that amount to his brother, after Rep. Jamie Raskin ( Democrat of Maryland) said records show the loan occurred. about two months before March 1, 2018, please check.
“The White House has claimed that Joe Biden loaned James Biden $200,000 and that this check was a payment,” Comer wrote to Siskel.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer demanded that President Biden clarify why he received a $200,000 check from James Biden on the same day he received an identical wire to land a Middle Eastern investor. CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
“Records obtained by the Committee show numerous significant incoming transactions into the personal account of James and Sara Biden from various entities. “Some of these transaction records may have obscured the identity of the true payer, but no records in the Committee’s possession indicate that Joe Biden made a large loan payment to his brother.”
Comer also asked for “applicable documentation and IRS filings” that could show whether there was indeed a loan.
The check was made public on Friday and Republicans described it as irrefutable proof that Biden personally benefited from his family’s influence peddling.
Democrats said it showed the president was a generous member of the family and said it was not evidence of wrongdoing.
James Biden “obtained” $600,000 in loans from financially beleaguered rural hospital provider Americore “based on representations that his last name, ‘Biden,’ could ‘open doors’ and that he could secure major investment from the Middle East based on his political position. connections,” according to a court filing filed last year by the company’s bankruptcy trustee.
Comer asked White House counsel Edward Siskel for details after promising earlier Thursday to bring Biden’s relatives before his panel to explain the president’s interactions with his relative’s business partners in China and Ukraine.Getty Images
It’s unclear what James Biden did to try to land an investor, but the company said it never materialized.
Last year, the first brother agreed to refund $350,000 to Americore to settle a lawsuit that accused him of helping cause the company to go bankrupt — $250,000 less than he had received.
“Whether it was a loan or not, James Biden’s March 1, 2018 check to Joe Biden accurately demonstrates one way he personally benefited from his family’s shady influence peddling over and access to his name.” , wrote Comer a Siskel.
“Even if the transaction in question was part of a loan agreement, we are concerned that Joe Biden’s ability to recover funds depended on his brother profiting from the Biden brand.”
Contender he said in a podcast interview on Thursday that the $200,000 transferred to Joe Biden clearly came from Americore, which lent James Biden the $600,000 in two large tranches starting in January 2018, because he “never had more than $6,000 in his personal checking account for months.” .
Comer told host Chris Farrell that he plans to force Biden’s relatives to testify “very soon” about his role in overseas business ventures and that his staff is reviewing additional bank records requested by first brother and first son Hunter Biden. , who regularly involved their powerful relative in their overseas interests.
Comer wrote to Siskel: “If Joe Biden personally loaned James Biden an amount that was later repaid with the $200,000 check, please provide the loan documents.”
“The moment that everyone has been waiting for is quickly approaching, that the Bidens arrive and have to answer these questions,” Comer told Farrell.
“We’re going to track down every source of income that the Biden family had, and then we’re going to bring them in and say, ‘How did you get this $3 million from China?’ How did they get this million dollars from Ukraine? What did you do to get the $3.5 million from Russia?’” Comer said.
“We could have brought them in and asked them a bunch of questions and they would have said, ‘I don’t know.’ I don’t know.’ Most likely, we will have a chance to attack them,” Comer continued.
“We could have brought in the Bidens on the first day and had an audience, as you said, with Hillary [Clinton] about Benghazi and all that and not really accomplishing anything. But what we’ve exposed now, I mean, we’ve found criminal activity by several Bidens. “We have discovered where Joe Biden has benefited financially.”
“We put together a pretty good case and I think we will have some exceptional questions for the Biden family to answer,” Comer said.
The Oversight Committee chairman publicly scoffed that the six-figure check was a loan payment and wrote to Siskel that there is no evidence that Joe Biden ever lent that amount to his brother. The Washington Post via Getty Images
The White House did not immediately respond to The Post’s requests for comment.
House Republicans last month launched an impeachment inquiry into Biden’s role in dealings with his relatives, citing the 80-year-old president’s meetings and phone calls with Hunter and associates of James Biden from China, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Russia and Ukraine, as well as with American Associates.
“We are tracing all the cables. Hopefully in a few weeks we can have a graph showing where all the money the Bidens got came from and where it ended up,” Comer said.
The rare impeachment inquiry proceedings are led by the tax-focused Oversight, Judiciary and Ways and Means committees.
In the last century, all of these investigations led to presidents being impeached or resigning, although none of them were convicted by the Senate, which maintains a two-thirds vote threshold for conviction and removal from office.
Newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) “is very supportive of our work,” said Comer, who recently recalled having dinner with Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward, whose reporting with Carl Bernstein helped push forward the Watergate impeachment inquiry into President Richard Nixon. .
“[Woodward] said the difference [Watergate investigator] “Howard Baker had, unlike what I have, Howard Baker was blessed with a curious and aggressive press corps,” the Republican recalled.
“And he said, ‘You don’t have that.’”
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