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Americans in Nashville weigh in on Hunter Biden's business dealings and whether the first family did anything illegal
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said his panel has uncovered evidence that Joe Biden, in 2018, received a "$200,000 direct payment" from his brother James Biden and sister-in-law Sara Biden, and is demanding the president answer questions about "financial arrangements" with members of his family.
Comer, R-Ky., has been leading an investigation into the Biden family’s business dealings since January and whether President Biden was involved in those ventures or "personally benefited" from them.
Comer, in September, issued three subpoenas for the personal and business bank records belonging to both Hunter Biden and James Biden.
Comer, in a video posted to "X," formerly known as Twitter, detailing his committee’s latest findings. Comer said the check was written by James Biden to President Biden as a "loan repayment," but questioned the timing.
"Bank records obtained by the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability have revealed a $200,000 direct payment from James and Sara Biden to Joe Biden in the form of a personal check," Comer states.
Comer explains that in 2018, James Biden "received $600,000 in loans from Americore —a financially distressed and failing rural hospital operator."
Chairman James Comer, R-Ky. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
"According to bankruptcy court documents, James Biden received these loans 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," Comer said.
"On March 1, 2018, Americore wired a $200,000 loan into James and Sara Biden’s personal bank account—not their business bank account," he continued. "And then, on the very same day, James Biden wrote a $200,000 check from this same personal bank account to Joe Biden."
Comer said James Biden "wrote this check to Joe Biden as a ‘loan repayment.’"
"Americore—a distressed company—loaned money to James Biden who then sent it to Joe Biden," Comer said.
But Comer said even if the payment 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."
James Biden headshot, brother of US President Joe Biden (AP)
"Some immediate questions President Biden must answer for the American people: Does he have documents proving he lent such a large sum of money to his brother and what were the terms of such financial arrangement?" Comer asked. "Did he have similar financial arrangements with other family members that led them to make similar large payments to him?"
Comer also demanded Biden answer whether he knew that the same day he received the $200,000 check, "James Biden had just received a loan for the exact same amount from business dealings with a company that was in financial distress and failing."
U.S. President Joe Biden boards Air Force One for travel to Alabama from Delaware Air National Guard Base in New Castle, Delaware, U.S. March 5, 2023. (REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst)
"The House Oversight Committee will soon announce our next investigative actions and continue to follow the money," he said. "The bank records don’t end here. There is more to come."
But White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations Ian Sams told Fox News Digital that the committee has "turned up zero evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden--and that's because there is none."
"As even some House Republicans themselves have said, this is ‘failure theater’ that is intended to be a ‘shiny object’ to distract people from how they are incapable of doing the basics of governing," Sams said. "It’s no coincidence they rushed out a new distraction mere minutes after yet another failed Speaker vote."
"Instead of getting their act together and doing the work of the American people, they are pushing out more false smears against President Biden – despite their own evidence yet again debunking their false claims. 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 continued. "President Biden didn’t do anything wrong."
President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden joined by Hunter Biden and Ashley Biden attend their granddaughter Maisy Biden's graduation from the University of Pennsylvania at Franklin Field on May 15, 2023 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
Sams said that the investigation "has become a self-debunking wild goose chase that’s only turning up evidence that President Biden did nothing wrong."
"House Republicans need to look in the mirror, realize there are real issues that need to be addressed in this country, elect a Speaker, get to work for the American people – and stop these silly political stunts," he said.
Ultimately, the White House said, the committee found that as a private citizen, the president loaned his brother his own money when his brother needed it, and after reviewing bank records, there is record that he was repaid.
Committee Ranking Member Jamie Raskin, D-Md., blasted Comer and the GOP investigation.
"As everyone knows, Committee Republicans have uncovered no evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden, and, last month, even their hand-picked witnesses at their first impeachment hearing testified that they saw no evidence of a crime, much less an impeachable one," Raskin said. "Nothing has changed. The more than 1,400 pages of additional bank records just show what these witnesses and thousands of prior pages of records have already established: that the President was not involved in and did not profit from his family members’ business ventures. 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.
"Committee Republicans’ most recent subpoenas are comically abusive in their breadth and scope, blindly seeking a decade’s worth of private citizens’ financial records. While not a single transaction shows any wrongdoing by the President, they do reveal personal transactions of the President’s family members that have no relevance to any legitimate congressional inquiry, including payments for things like groceries, vet visits, and plumbing repairs, and include multiple college savings accounts and one youth bank account for grandchildren of the President. It’s time to end this embarrassing and privacy-violating wild goose chase."
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Comer's claims come amid his months-long investigation. Comer, alongside House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and House Ways & Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., is leading the House impeachment inquiry against Biden.
So far, during his committee's investigation, Comer said he has found that Biden family members, their business associates and their "related companies" received "significant payments from individuals and companies in China, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Romania."
Comer said the House Oversight Committee has learned throughout its investigation that the Biden family and their business associates brought in more than $24 million between 2014 and 2019 by "selling Joe Biden as ‘the brand’ around the world."
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