Amidst intense scrutiny, House Oversight Committee Chair, James Comer, on Monday announced that Republicans had uncovered evidence of direct payments from one of Hunter Biden’s businesses to his father.
Comer’s unconventional announcement seems to have spoken more about the ongoing effort to impeach President Joe Biden, rather than the alleged corruption of the president.
“Payments from Hunter’s business entity to Joe Biden are now part of a pattern revealing Joe Biden knew about, participated in, and benefited from his family’s influence peddling schemes,” Comer said in a press release.
The release conveniently omitted details such as the payment amounts and their apparent purpose. Instead, it linked to a grainy redacted document indicating that in September 2018, Hunter Biden set up a recurring transfer to his father for $1,380 per month ― a minuscule sum compared to the multimillion-dollar scale of the bribery and influence peddling schemes against Joe Biden.
Reports from past incidents, based on the contents of Hunter Biden’s hard drive, also indicated the same amount was for loan reimbursements; a 2019 email from his personal assistant suggested the payments were for “Reimbursement to JRB” for a Ford Raptor truck. (JRB stands for Joseph Robinette Biden.)
“The truth is Hunter’s father helped him when he was struggling financially due to his addiction and could not secure credit to finance a truck,” Hunter Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement. “When Hunter was able to, he paid his father back and took over the payments himself.”
According to Lowell’s office, only three payments were made in total.
The statements by Republicans insinuated that Joe Biden received millions in bribes through Hunter, who had financial dealings with foreign nationals in China, Ukraine, and others, particularly when his father was vice president and engaged in foreign policy.
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) attends a news conference on the impeachment inquiry of President Joe Biden in the U.S. Capitol on Nov. 29.
Comer, on Monday, painted the monthly payments as evidence of Joe Biden directly benefitting from his son’s business schemes, though he refrained from characterizing them as bribes or loan reimbursements. Nor did he debate that the monthly payments might have been loans. Instead, he suggested that any money from Hunter Biden was fundamentally illicit.
“There is now a pattern of members of the Biden family using their bank accounts that have been funded by Chinese and other foreign entities to send money to Joe Biden,” an Oversight Committee spokesperson said. “Based on witness testimony, Joe Biden knew and participated in his family’s influence peddling schemes. The checks and payments we’ve uncovered reveal Joe Biden benefited from them.”
Comer previously had accused Joe Biden of improperly receiving funds from his brother, who had himself been paid by a bankrupt healthcare company that hired him solely due to his last name. Records suggested those payments were loan reimbursements; Joe Biden made millions from a memoir after leaving the vice presidency.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said on social media that Comer is “digging up old public reporting, distorting the facts” and recycling theories about Joe Biden’s alleged corruption first promulgated by former president Donald Trump and his attorney, Rudy Giuliani.
“If Chairman Comer had any actual evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden, he would not repeatedly resort to distorting the facts and recycling Trump-Giuliani conspiracy theories,” Raskin said.
