FBI agents secretly recorded James Biden, who is President Joe Biden‘s younger brother, as part of a bribery investigation into a group of Mississippi lawyers more than 15 years ago, according to a report published on Sunday.
The Washington Post detailed how the FBI caught James Biden on tape in 2007 chatting about possible deals with associates of Mississippi trial attorney Richard “Dickie” Scruggs, including the creation of a new consulting firm. By 2008, in the months before Joe Biden was elected vice president, Scruggs and his associates pleaded guilty to charges in a scheme to pay a $40,000 bribe to a state judge and they served prison time.
Neither Joe Biden nor James Biden ever faced accusations of wrongdoing or charges in the case, emphasized the report, which relied on interviews, court records, and materials collected by “The Fall of the House of Zeus” author Curtis Wilkie. The FBI declined to comment on the report when pressed by The Daily Wire.
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Still, the revelations come as House investigators examine the business dealings of President Biden’s family members as part of a corruption-focused impeachment inquiry. James Biden, along with Joe Biden’s son Hunter, has been subpoenaed for a deposition. President Biden, who is seeking re-election next year, has accused House Republicans of “attacking me with lies” and “choosing to waste time on this baseless political stunt” that is “not supported by facts.”
The ties between Scruggs and the Bidens stretch back several years, per the Washington Post report, including a boat trip with James Biden and flying Joe Biden on his private plane to a fundraiser. Scruggs paid a firm run by James Biden and his wife Sara $100,000 in 1998 for advice on passing a tobacco bill. Though Joe Biden, then a U.S. senator from Delaware, threw his support behind the legislation, it did not pass through Congress.
Paul Fishman, a lawyer for James and Sara Biden, told the news outlet, “Jim Biden’s consulting work has never involved speaking with or providing access to his brother for this or any other client.” Scruggs reportedly claimed he did not know whether James Biden discussed the tobacco legislation with his brother. “But I hope he did,” he added. And though Scruggs insisted Jim Biden was “never untoward about his influence,” Scruggs conceded he “probably wouldn’t have hired him if he wasn’t the senator’s brother.”