President Biden‘s younger brother James B. Biden doesn’t seem within the headlines as a lot as his troubled nephew, the president’s son Hunter Biden.
A House Republican investigation, nevertheless, is poised to reveal how James Biden and eight different relations could have profited from his brother’s highly effective positions in authorities and maybe put nationwide safety in peril by compromising the president.
Court paperwork and congressional reviews present James Biden wasn’t shy about selling his brother’s affect, together with telling potential enterprise companions in 2019 that his brother Joe “was in the room with him” as he closed in on a profitable deal.
Seven years youthful than the president, James Biden, 73, by no means graduated from school however has made a profitable dwelling with a string of assorted enterprise ventures, among the most profitable offers secured with Hunter Biden.
The two Bidens not too long ago raked in seven-figure payouts from vitality firms linked to the Chinese Communist Party, financial institution data obtained by congressional Republicans present. The cash was wired in 2017 and 2018 to Hunter Biden‘s Owasco law firm and then distributed by Hunter Biden to associates and family members. Hunter Biden gave at least $1.4 million to Lion Hall Group, James Biden’s consulting agency primarily based in Merion Station, Pennsylvania. The president’s daughter-in-law, Hallie Biden, additionally acquired a minimize of the funds.
It’s not clear what providers James, Hunter or Hallie Biden offered for the cash, however Sen. Chuck Grassley, who has been investigating the Biden enterprise offers for years, mentioned the payout was to compensate for work serving to the CCP-backed firms “pursue deals and expand its reach in the energy sector.”
When James Biden’s financial institution questioned the big deposits, his spouse, Sara Biden, informed the financial institution it was for aiding Owasco with worldwide purchasers, in keeping with congressional investigators.
Sara Biden didn’t reply to an inquiry from The Washington Times, and a spokesman for James Biden had no remark.
In addition to huge funds from the Chinese corporations, James and Sara had been offered a $100,000 buying spree from Hunter and his enterprise affiliate Gongwen Dong, a Chinese nationwide. The two opened a line of credit score that James and Sara used to pay for journey, inns, eating places and Apple gadgets, in keeping with the financial institution data obtained by lawmakers.
Congressional investigators are delving into the overseas enterprise offers through Treasury Department suspicious exercise reviews generated by banks. Last week, the Republican main the trouble, House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer of Kentucky, mentioned he has recognized six different members of President Biden‘s household “who may have benefited from the Biden family’s businesses that we are investigating, bringing the total number of those involved or benefiting to nine.”
The president has repeatedly said that he knew nothing of his household’s enterprise offers and didn’t take part in any of them or revenue from them.
James Biden, nevertheless, has an extended historical past of utilizing his brother’s identify to bolster his credentials as an influential enterprise companion and investor, court docket paperwork present, and he has used his connection to his brother to acquire profitable contracts and loans.
“James Biden’s pattern of using his brother’s name and connections to induce business is troubling,” House Oversight and Accountability Committee Republicans mentioned in a report on Biden household enterprise offers. “That his promises of funding were apparently tied to the Middle East, Russia, or China raises further questions.”
The two brothers not solely look alike, however they’re additionally extraordinarily shut.
James Biden has served as his brother’s marketing campaign fundraiser and performed a pivotal position in launching his political profession.
He stays a trusted adviser, in keeping with the president.
In a 2022 speech on the Pacific Northwest Carpenters Institute in Portland, Oregon, President Biden informed the gang that he put his brother in control of organising the furnishings and historic artifacts within the Oval Office when he entered the White House in 2021.
“I asked my best friend, my buddy, Jimmy — my brother, my younger brother — will he take care of it for me,” Mr. Biden mentioned.
James Biden has typically relied on his older brother, too, or no less than his identify to assist advance enterprise offers, court docket data present.
In late 2017 and 2018, James Biden promised one potential well being care enterprise companion that his brother, who was then on the cusp of his profitable 2020 presidential bid, would assist broaden their senior care and rehabilitation mannequin nationwide along with his connections to labor unions and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
James Biden promised that Joe Biden would use their mannequin “as part of his campaign for president of the United States.”
The guarantees from James Biden surfaced in a 2019 lawsuit filed by Diverse Medical Management and Azzam Medical Services.
The enterprise companions had been searching for traders to broaden their mannequin for the remedy of substance abuse, senior care and different outpatient packages. In the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, they declare that Mr. Biden and his associates pitched themselves as traders, however then sought to steal their idea and drive them out of the enterprise. Mr. Biden countersued and the matter was later settled.
James Biden has been concerned in different lawsuits through the years, and in court docket paperwork, witnesses report his brother’s highly effective positions helped him land profitable jobs.
James Biden was on the middle of a 2021 lawsuit involving a dispute over a $140 million settlement between a U.S. building firm and the dominion of Saudi Arabia. The Alexandria, Virginia, legislation agency Lankford and Reed filed a lawsuit stating it was minimize out of a 2012 settlement with the Saudis it had been engaged on for years after James Biden was employed on the final minute to finish the deal partially as a result of his brother was the sitting vice chairman.
In an interview James Biden gave to a former Treasury official who was engaged on behalf of the aggrieved legislation agency, James Biden mentioned he was employed “as a settlement intermediary in order to capitalize on the influence and orchestration of the settlement by the then-vice president.”
Another lawsuit ties in Joe Biden extra on to one among his brother’s enterprise offers.
James Biden was sued in 2022 by Americore Health LLC, which had partnered with him in 2019 particularly to assist broaden the enterprise via his political connections.
According to court docket paperwork and House investigators, James Biden promised “access to a future Biden administration and the highest levels of government … and that his brother, Joe Biden, had been made aware of the business, which would be made profitable when it could become part of the Biden platform.”
The congressional investigators mentioned a witness within the lawsuit said that James Biden would, in telephone conversations with Americore executives, “explain that Joe Biden was in the room with him and James had been explaining the deal to him.”
Americore charged in court docket that James Biden by no means delivered on his promise to usher in massive investments from Saudi Arabia and Qatar, locations the place he allegedly developed relationships throughout his brother’s time as vice chairman.
The firm mentioned James Biden did not repay the $600,000 mortgage they offered him at his request. James Biden settled with Americore for $350,000.
Congressional Republicans are ramping up their investigation into James Biden’s involvement within the overseas enterprise offers orchestrated with Hunter Biden and are analyzing how the Biden household profited from Joe Biden‘s highly effective positions.
Like Hunter Biden, James has drawn scrutiny from Republicans and the information media over the looks of affect peddling involving the president, most not too long ago regarding enterprise offers involving Chinese firms.
James Biden is now one of many most important topics of a House investigation into the overseas enterprise offers of the Biden household and a bunch of shut associates.
Mr. Comer has requested James Biden, together with Hunter Biden and enterprise affiliate Eric Schwerin, handy over paperwork associated to any involvement President Biden had of their enterprise offers.
Mr. Schwerin is the one one cooperating with the investigation.
“James Biden is a key witness in our investigation of the Biden family’s influence peddling,” Mr. Comer mentioned. “We’ve requested that he provide documents, records and communications related to the Biden family’s foreign and domestic business transactions and practices. James Biden has not yet produced these records, but the committee’s investigation continues to move forward.”
The panel is concentrated on figuring out whether or not President Biden participated in, helped affect or had information of the enterprise offers his kinfolk secured with the assistance of his highly effective place and whether or not it has jeopardized nationwide safety.
Mr. Comer requested James Biden to show over any communication along with his older brother regarding greater than two dozen enterprise associates, amongst them Chinese nationals linked to the Chinese Communist Party, and any communications regarding the now-defunct, communist-backed CEFC China Energy or the Ukrainian Energy firm Burisma.
Burisma was paying Hunter Biden $83,000 a month to sit down on its board whereas his father was serving as vice chairman.
Senate Republicans, led by Mr. Grassley of Iowa and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, are additionally investigating the Biden household’s overseas enterprise offers and have additionally zeroed in on James Biden.
Mr. Grassley mentioned he believes the $1.4 million despatched from Hunter Biden to Lion Hall in 2017 and 2018 was a part of a $5 million fee from CEFC and one other Chinese Communist Party-backed vitality firm. The cash was meant for Hunter, James and different enterprise associates to pay for work that was “intentionally uncompensated” whereas Joe Biden was vice chairman, they mentioned.
According to a letter despatched from Mr. Grassley to the FBI and Justice Department, the senators have info that the large payout from the Chinese vitality corporations was for “assisting them with potential business deals and investments while Joe Biden was vice president.”
Mr. Grassley informed FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland: “Based on recent protected disclosures to my office, the FBI has within its possession significant, impactful and voluminous evidence with respect to potential criminal conduct by Hunter Biden and James Biden.”
Mr. Grassley mentioned the data additionally present “there can be no doubt that James Biden was financially connected to corporations and individuals with extensive links to communist China and that he and Hunter Biden were in it together, working to help a Chinese government-linked energy company pursue deals and expand its reach in the energy sector.”
Richard Painter, who served as an ethics czar within the administration of George W. Bush, mentioned James Biden isn’t breaking the legislation by touting his highly effective final identify.
“But if he’s saying, if you invest, my brother might do you a favor, if he’s going that route, then that needs to be shut down,” Mr. Painter mentioned.
Hans von Spakovsky, supervisor of the conservative Heritage Foundation’s Election Law Reform Initiative and a senior authorized fellow within the Meese Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, mentioned Congress should completely examine the Biden household enterprise offers if the U.S. is to protect its status as a authorities freed from rank corruption.
“Not only so that we know exactly how the Biden family may have profited from Joe Biden‘s various positions in the government, ” Mr. Von Spakovsky mentioned, “but because there’s a possibility that federal laws might have been violated, in particular, if his brother was acting on behalf of foreign entities.”
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