Comer demands White House provide records to prove $200K payment to Biden from brother was a loan
Comer, R-Ky., last week, said his panel had uncovered evidence that Joe Biden, in 2018, received a ‘$200,000 direct payment’ in the form of a ‘personal check’ from his brother James Biden and sister-in-law Sara Biden. The check was labeled ‘loan repayment.’
The White House last week 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 a record that he was repaid.
But on Thursday, Comer penned a letter to White House Counsel Edward Siskel requesting documentation on the payment.
‘The White House has claimed Joe Biden loaned James Biden $200,000, and this check was repayment,’ Comer wrote. ‘Records obtained by the committee do show numerous large incoming transactions into the personal accounts of James and Sara Biden from various entities.’
Comer, in September, had subpoenaed the personal and business financial records belonging to both James Biden and Hunter Biden.
‘Some of these transaction records may have obscured the identity of the true payer, but no records in the committee’s possession state that Joe Biden made a large loan payment to his brother,’ Comer wrote.
‘If Joe Biden did personally loan James Biden an amount that was later repaid by the $200,000 check, please provide the loan documents, including the loan payment, loan agreement, and any other supporting loan documentation,’ Comer wrote.
Comer flagged that the Internal Revenue Code has ‘specific requirements for delineating and reporting ‘below-market [rate] loans’ from gifts.’
‘While there are some exceptions, for example loans of $10,000 or less, the payment in question would not appear exempt from such requirements if it is a loan,’ Comer said. ‘Indeed, there appears to have been no interest paid on the ‘loan’ based upon the White House’s own representations.’
Comer said the ‘current lack of documentation’ leaves ‘reason to doubt claims that this transaction was repayment for a legal loan.’
Comer requested documentation ‘clarifying the nature of this payment and whether all applicable documentation and IRS filings were properly made.’
‘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,’ he said. ‘Even if the transaction in question was part of a loan agreement, we are troubled that Joe Biden’s ability to recoup funds depend on his brother’s cashing-in on the Biden brand.’
Comer 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 first made public the revelation of the $200,000 ‘loan repayment’ from James Biden to Joe Biden last week in a video posted to X, formerly known as Twitter.
In the video, Comer explains that in 2018, James Biden ‘received $600,000 in loans from Americore — a financially distressed and failing rural hospital operator.’
‘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.
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.’
The White House last week blasted the investigation altogether, calling it a ‘self-debunking wild goose chase that’s only turning up evidence that President Biden did nothing wrong.’
‘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,’ White House spokesperson Ian Sams said. ‘President Biden didn’t do anything wrong.’
Comer’s claims come amid his monthslong investigation. Comer, alongside House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and House Ways and 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.’