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WASHINGTON — Republicans introduced Friday that they’d uncovered a “direct payment” to President Joe Biden — precisely the form of proof they’ve sought linking Biden to his household’s international enterprise offers.
However the March 2018 fee got here from Joe Biden’s brother James, not a Ukrainian oligarch or Chinese language tycoon, and the test was marked as a “loan repayment.”
Nonetheless, Home Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.), who obtained the data through subpoena, mentioned the $200,000 test appears suspicious for the president.
“Does he have documents proving he lent such a large sum of money to his brother,” Comer mentioned in a video, “and what were the terms of such financial arrangement?”
Comer has been main Republicans’ investigation and impeachment inquiry into President Biden, which thus far hasn’t implicated Biden himself and in latest weeks has been overshadowed by infighting amongst Republicans that has paralyzed the Home of Representatives.
Democrats on the Oversight Committee say the non-public financial institution data lately supplied to the committee really do present that Biden loaned his brother the cash.
“These records actually show that President Biden was the one who stepped in to help family members when they needed support, including by providing short term loans to his brother,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), the committee’s high Democrat, mentioned in a press release.
Raskin added that the 1,400 pages of data Republicans acquired from their subpoenas, which requested banks for a number of years of data regarding the president’s brother and son, present no wrongdoing, however do reveal “payments for things like groceries, vet visits, and plumbing repairs.”
HuffPost obtained test photos and a spreadsheet reflecting wire switch data that largely corroborate Raskin’s declare in regards to the $200,000 transaction from March 2018. The paperwork recommend an account linked to Joe Biden despatched James Biden $40,000 in July 2017 and $200,000 in January 2018, and that James Biden paid the cash again with out curiosity. The wire switch data don’t say, nonetheless, that the funds to James Biden had been loans.
Paul Fishman, an legal professional representing James Biden, referred to as the Oversight Committee’s description of the $200,000 compensation test from his consumer to Joe Biden extremely deceptive.
“The Committee has the bank documents that show both the loan Jim received from his brother in January 2018 and the repayment by check six weeks later,” Fishman mentioned. “At no time did Jim involve his brother in any of his business relationships.”
Comer mentioned Friday he doesn’t imagine the president had given his brother a mortgage. He additionally mentioned that it didn’t matter as a result of James Biden was transferring cash round in a corrupt scheme that finally benefited Joe Biden.
“Even if this was a personal loan repayment, it’s still troubling that Joe Biden’s ability to be paid back by his brother depended on the success of his family’s shady financial dealings,” Comer mentioned.
The identical day James Biden repaid his brother $200,000, he obtained a fee for a similar quantity from a for-profit hospital chain referred to as Americore Well being. In a chapter submitting final yr, the corporate mentioned it had loaned James Biden $600,000 in two installments “based upon 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.”
The big funding from the Center East by no means materialized, and James Biden by no means repaid the loans, the corporate mentioned.
There’s little doubt that James and Hunter Biden traded on their well-known final identify in ways in which some ethics consultants take into account inherently corrupt, if not unlawful. State Division officers have mentioned that Hunter Biden’s place with a Ukrainian fuel firm created the looks of a battle of curiosity when Joe Biden oversaw Ukraine coverage as vice chairman.
Republicans have targeted most of their investigatory work on the accusation that as vice chairman, Biden pushed for the ouster of a Ukrainian prosecutor they declare was investigating the fuel firm. However the identical State Division officers who questioned Hunter Biden’s position with the corporate testified in 2019 and 2020 that they had been unaware of any such investigation and that Joe Biden hadn’t finished something to counterpoint his household.
Hunter Biden faces prison expenses for illegally shopping for a gun whereas hooked on crack cocaine in 2018 and for failing to pay federal taxes for a number of years. Democrats have conceded that the youthful Biden broke the regulation, however have aggressively defended Joe Biden from accusations that he was in on his relations’ schemes.
Comer didn’t accuse Joe Biden of taking any motion to learn Americore Well being.
White Home spokesperson Ian Sams mentioned Republicans ought to choose a Home speaker as an alternative of choosing on the president’s relations.
“After rummaging through thousands of pages of a private citizen’s bank records, they have again turned up zero evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden — and that’s because there is none,” Sams mentioned.
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