Originally Authored at TheFederalist.com
Republicans on the House Oversight Committee are demanding the White House forfeit information regarding a $200,000 check President Joe Biden received from his brother, James Biden.
In a letter sent to the White House Counsel on Thursday, House Oversight Chair Rep. James Comer probed the administration on the circumstances surrounding a $200,000 payment James made to Joe on March 1, 2018. As The Federalist’s Mark Hemingway reported, the check was issued “the same day James Biden’s health care company, Americore, wired a loan of the same amount into the personal bank account of James and his wife Sara.”
Americore CEO Grant White contends that James regularly employed Joe’s political influence to financially benefit the Biden family. During a previous interview with The Federalist, White said that “[James Biden told him] there’s not a single door in the country that we can’t open” and “[h]e always represented himself as the fundraiser for his brother’s campaigns … he was the guy raising the money and so he knew everybody.”
While the White House claimed the check from James was a “repayment” of a loan Joe gave his brother, Comer noted on Thursday that no records obtained by the Oversight Committee “state that Joe Biden made a large loan payment to his brother.”
“Records obtained by the Committee do show numerous large incoming transactions into the personal account of James and Sara Biden from various entities. 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,” the letter reads.
To determine the validity of the White House’s claims that the check was a loan repayment, Comer is asking the administration to provide the committee with “the loan documents, including the loan payment, loan agreement, and any other supporting loan documentation.”
“The current lack of documentation leaves reason to doubt claims that this transaction was repayment for a legal loan,” the letter reads. “We request documentation clarifying the nature of this payment and whether all applicable documentation and IRS filings were properly made.”
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood