The White House dismissed a request by House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) seeking proof of President Joe Biden providing a loan to his brother James Biden amid concerns that the commander-in-chief may have profited off his family’s influence-peddling schemes.
Richard Sauber, special counsel to the president, wrote back to Comer on Friday in response to a letter from October 26 that sought documentation underlying a $200,000 check James Biden wrote to Joe Biden that was labeled as a “loan repayment” in 2018.
The letter “concerns a financial transaction between two family members at a time when both individuals were private citizens,” Sauber stated curtly in his reply, which was first reported by the Washington Examiner on Monday and later obtained by The Daily Wire.
Comer, who is leading a corruption-focused impeachment inquiry against Biden, is trying to get more information about a $200,000 check dated March 1, 2018, which he said bank records show James Biden issued from his personal account on the same day he received the same amount of money from Americore Health LLC.
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— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) October 20, 2023
That company, according to Comer, was going through bankruptcy proceedings to which James Biden made “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 insisted his committee has no records supporting the claim that Joe Biden provided a loan to his brother and the chairman requested “documentation clarifying the nature of this payment and whether all applicable documentation and IRS filings were properly made.”
Sauber disputed the assertion that there were no relevant documents in the panel’s possession as “incorrect,” pointing to a letter House Oversight ranking member Jamie Raskin (D-MD) wrote to Comer, and concludes by saying Comer’s “letter makes other statements that I will not address here except to express my strong disagreement with your factual assertions and characterizations.”
Raskin said the panel has documents that “clearly show that President Biden had $200,000 wired to his brother on January 12, 2018.” A “fact sheet” from House Oversight Democrats says bank records obtained via subpoena “show that in 2017 and 2018, while President Biden was not in office, he provided two short-term loans to his brother, James, who repaid each loan within two months.”
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But a GOP congressional aide told The Daily Wire that “contrary to the White House’s and Ranking Member Raskin’s claims, nothing within the Oversight Committee’s possession clearly shows that Joe Biden did indeed loan his brother large sums of money. The White House and Democrats have peddled a false narrative instead of providing the loan documents.”
Another payment that has attracted scrutiny is a $40,000 check from James Biden’s wife, Sarah, sent to Joe Biden that was also labeled as a loan repayment. Comer suspects that the money came from a Chinese enterprise. The foreign business dealings of President Biden’s son, Hunter, are also a significant area of inquiry for House GOP investigators.
“The White House today made clear to us that President Biden is refusing to hand over loan documents for any ‘loans’ he provided to his brother, James Biden,” the House Oversight Committee said in response to Sauber’s letter on Friday.
“We’ve exposed nearly a quarter of a million of dollars that James Biden sent to Joe Biden as ‘loan repayments’ that were funded by laundered China money and influence peddling schemes,” the panel added. “Is this what ‘the most transparent administration in history’ is supposed to look like? We won’t be stopped by the President’s stonewalling. We’ll continue to follow the money, expose President Biden’s corruption, and deliver accountability.”