Democrats were at one time laser-focused on public corruption allegations that involved former President Donald Trump — but not when it comes to President Biden.
Now that Mr. Biden occupies the Oval Office, their interest in fighting corruption has disappeared despite new evidence suggesting the Biden family was engaged in a multimillion dollar influence peddling scheme.
Democrats quickly dismissed charges made by a team of House GOP lawmakers whose analysis of thousands of pages of bank documents uncovered evidence that Biden family members and business associates received $10 million from foreign business deals, much of it during Mr. Biden’s time as vice president in the Obama administration.
House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer said the deals suggest corruption because they involved locations where Mr. Biden was “leading the United States’s effort in these countries.”
Mr. Comer criticized Mr. Biden’s actions after taking office to end a policy meant to stop Chinese intellectual property theft on college campuses as evidence he has been influenced by his family’s business deals with China.
But Democrats say Mr. Comer has no specific proof anyone in the Biden family, including President Biden, has done anything wrong.
“Comer is asked for a single Joe Biden policy they believe has been unduly influenced,” White House spokesman Ian Sams tweeted. “He cannot name a single one. Incredible.”
Rep. Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat who is the ranking member on the House Rules Committee, chalked up Mr. Comer’s allegations to “crazy talk” by GOP lawmakers focused on conspiracy theories.
The House Oversight panel, Mr. McGovern said, is no longer credible now that it is under the leadership of Mr. Comer.
“His role is to do a hatchet job,” Mr. McGovern said. “He never deals with facts.”
Representatives for former President Barack Obama did not respond to a request for a comment about the allegations against Mr. Biden that took place during his administration.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, New York Democrat, also did not respond to a request for a comment about the new Biden allegations, nor did Rep. Adam B. Schiff, California Democrat and the former head of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence that spearheaded the corruption investigation of President Trump that led to his first impeachment.
Democrats are still eager to pursue corruption charges, but not allegations involving Mr. Biden.
Democrats on the Oversight panel did address the new allegations. They said the GOP probe into the Biden family business deals has come up empty and is only aimed at damaging President Biden politically.
Instead, they say, Republicans should be investigating the children Mr. Trump, who they accused of using their time in public office to reap profits from their private businesses.
“Once again Chairman Comer has failed to provide factual evidence to support his wild accusations about the president,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, who is the top Democrat on the oversight panel. “He continues to bombard the public with innuendo, misrepresentations, and outright lies, recycling baseless claims from stories that were debunked years ago. Unable to implicate the president directly, committee Republicans have resorted to using cherry-picked bank records, misrepresentations about confidential and unverified bank reports known as SARs, and baseless conspiracy theories to attack the president’s family, including his grandchildren.”
• Kerry Picket contributed to this report.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
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