White House Rebuffs Biden Family ‘Loan Repayment’ Inquiry

The White House dismissed a request by House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) seeking proof of President Joe Biden providing a loan to his brother James Biden amid concerns that the commander-in-chief may have profited off his family’s influence-peddling schemes.

Richard Sauber, special counsel to the president, wrote back to Comer on Friday in response to a letter from October 26 that sought documentation underlying a $200,000 check James Biden wrote to Joe Biden that was labeled as a “loan repayment” in 2018.

The letter “concerns a financial transaction between two family members at a time when both individuals were private citizens,” Sauber stated curtly in his reply, which was first reported by the Washington Examiner on Monday and later obtained by The Daily Wire.

Comer, who is leading a corruption-focused impeachment inquiry against Biden, is trying to get more information about a $200,000 check dated March 1, 2018, which he said bank records show James Biden issued from his personal account on the same day he received the same amount of money from Americore Health LLC.

That company, according to Comer, was going through bankruptcy proceedings to which James Biden made “representations that his last name, ‘Biden,’ could ‘open doors’ and that he could obtain a large investment from the Middle East based on his political connections.”

Comer insisted his committee has no records supporting the claim that Joe Biden provided a loan to his brother and the chairman requested “documentation clarifying the nature of this payment and whether all applicable documentation and IRS filings were properly made.”

Sauber disputed the assertion that there were no relevant documents in the panel’s possession as “incorrect,” pointing to a letter House Oversight ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) wrote to Comer, and concludes by saying Comer’s “letter makes other statements that I will not address here except to express my strong disagreement with your factual assertions and characterizations.”

Raskin said the panel has documents that “clearly show that President Biden had $200,000 wired to his brother on January 12, 2018.” A “fact sheet” from House Oversight Democrats says bank records obtained via subpoena “show that in 2017 and 2018, while President Biden was not in office, he provided two short-term loans to his brother, James, who repaid each loan within two months.”

But a GOP congressional aide told The Daily Wire that “contrary to the White House’s and Ranking Member Raskin’s claims, nothing within the Oversight Committee’s possession clearly shows that Joe Biden did indeed loan his brother large sums of money. The White House and Democrats have peddled a false narrative instead of providing the loan documents.”

Another payment that has attracted scrutiny is a $40,000 check from James Biden’s wife, Sarah, sent to Joe Biden that was also labeled as a loan repayment. Comer suspects that the money came from a Chinese enterprise. The foreign business dealings of President Biden’s son, Hunter, are also a significant area of inquiry for House GOP investigators.

“The White House today made clear to us that President Biden is refusing to hand over loan documents for any ‘loans’ he provided to his brother, James Biden,” the House Oversight Committee said in response to Siskel’s letter on Friday.

“We’ve exposed nearly a quarter of a million of dollars that James Biden sent to Joe Biden as ‘loan repayments’ that were funded by laundered China money and influence peddling schemes,” the panel added. “Is this what ‘the most transparent administration in history’ is supposed to look like? We won’t be stopped by the President’s stonewalling. We’ll continue to follow the money, expose President Biden’s corruption, and deliver accountability.”

jonathanturley.com

snip

House investigators discovered that, in 2018, the president’s brother, James, received two loans totaling $600,000 from Americore Health, which they described as “a financially distressed and failing rural hospital operator.” According to the company’s bankruptcy proceedings, it made the loans “based upon representations that his last name, ‘Biden,’ could ‘open doors’” to new overseas investors. On the day he received the second loan transfer, James Biden sent a check for the same amount — $200,000 — to Joe Biden as a “loan reimbursement.”

Recently, the House Oversight Committee revealed that just after Joe Biden announced his 2020 presidential candidacy, Hunter Biden received a $250,000 loan from a Chinese businessman using the address of his father’s Delaware home. The generous transfer of funds was from Xiangsheng “Jonathan” Li, a Chinese businessman connected to the investment fund Bohai Harvest RST. (President Biden reportedly later wrote a college-admission recommendation for Li’s daughter).

What happened next was vintage Biden family: A Hollywood lawyer, who had just met Hunter at a political gathering, reportedly suddenly took over the repayment of that loan, with no explanation, and later reportedly paid for some of Hunter’s tax bills and living expenses as well.

So, it appears that $250,000 went to Hunter, but the loan obligation was shifted to a Democratic political donor.

There is also a reference to another loan agreement with a Chinese company for $5.1 million. Notably, the loan was, again, “interest-free.” The source was CEFC China Energy headed by Ye Jianming. Text messages reportedly indicated plans for Joe Biden to meet with Jianming, who reportedly had close ties to the ruling Chinese Communist Party.

In addition to these loans, money seemed to move between myriad accounts connected to various Biden family members, according to House Oversight Committee findings. And we know from reports of some of Hunter Biden’s text messages that he complained about using money he acquired to pay for repairs to his father’s Delaware home.

None of this, however, appears to pique much of the media’s curiosity. Because the word “loan” was written on some of these documents, it is once again accepted by many at face value. In discussing a “loan” connected to one Hunter-connected company, Rosemont Seneca Bohai, IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley called this a classic tax-evasion move.

Shapley said that “when the money came back to him, he booked it as a loan. You then go on to testify that it should’ve been taxable as soon as it became income from Burisma to Hunter and whatever he did with it after that was really just a scheme to evade taxes for that year. You add that Rosemont Seneca Bohai did not book this as a loan, itself, so Biden is treating it differently than they did.”

Despite the Bidens’ denials about money, it seems to be everywhere and nowhere — metastasizing and spreading throughout the dozens of accounts, banks and family members identified by House investigators. Yet many in the media and most Democratic members of Congress appear to be firmly committed to assuring that all of this remains “a wonderful life” for Joe Biden and his family.

Jonathan Turley, an attorney, constitutional law scholar and legal analyst, is the Shapiro Chair for Public Interest Law at The George Washington University Law School.

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