House investigators asked the White House on Thursday for proof that a $200,000 check given to President Biden in 2018 by his brother was a loan repayment and not a payoff from a business deal.
House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer wrote to White House Counsel Edward Siskel seeking loan documents, including the loan payment from the president to his brother James Biden.
Mr. Biden received the $200,000 check after his younger brother secured a business deal with a rural hospital operator. Mr. Biden had left the vice presidency by that time and had not yet announced he was running for president.
James Biden wrote “loan repayment” on the check to his brother.
But according to House investigators who have gained access to James Biden’s bank records, “no records in the committee’s possession state that Joe Biden made a large loan payment to his brother.”
Mr. Comer, Kentucky Republican, told Mr. Siskel in the letter that such documentation would have been kept for the IRS, which has specific requirements for reporting and distinguishing “below-market loans” from gifts.
“The payment in question would not appear to be exempt from such requirements if it is a loan,” Mr. Comer said. “The current lack of documentation leaves reason to doubt claims that this transaction was repayment for a legal loan.”
Mr. Comer has been scouring bank records in search of payments to Mr. Biden, who, according to witnesses, played at least a passive role in helping his family secure lucrative business deals.
James Biden received $600,000 in loans from Americore, a struggling rural hospital operator, by promising the Biden name could “open doors” and help obtain a large investment in the Middle East, according to court records.
Mr. Comer said Americore wired a $200,000 loan into James and Sara Biden’s personal bank account on March 1, 2018. The same day, James Biden wrote a $200,000 check from the same personal bank account to Mr. Biden.
“Whether it was a loan or not, James Biden’s March 1, 2018, check to Joe Biden aptly demonstrates one way he personally benefited from his family’s shady influence peddling of his name and their access to him,” Mr. Comer wrote to Mr. Siskel. “Even if the transaction in question was part of a loan agreement, we are troubled that Joe Biden’s ability to recoup funds depended on his brother’s cashing-in on the Biden brand.”
Mr. Biden has repeatedly denied participating in business deals with his family, but witness testimony and court records show he was indirectly and directly involved in some of them. James Biden and the president’s son Hunter Biden leveraged the “Biden brand,” specifically a reference to Mr. Biden, to secure lucrative deals. And Mr. Biden phoned in or dropped by some of Hunter Biden’s business meetings.
But Mr. Biden and his defenders say there is nothing directly connecting him to any of the profits.
“Where’s the money?” Mr. Biden said in June when he was asked about allegations he accepted a bribe from the president of Burisma Holdings, a Ukraine gas company that employed son Hunter Biden.
Democrats say the Republican-led probe of Mr. Biden has been a bust.
“The voluminous evidence they have gathered, including thousands of pages of bank records and suspicious activity reports and hours of testimony from witnesses, overwhelmingly demonstrates no wrongdoing by President Biden and further debunks Republicans’ conspiracy theories,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, top Democrat on the Oversight panel.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
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