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jonathanturley.com

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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.