House Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-KY, released new financial records to support allegations that members of President Joe Biden’s family, including his son Hunter, received millions of dollars in payments from foreign entities in China and Romania.
The chairman released a 36-page memo on Wednesday, noting his committee had subpoenaed four banks and received thousands of records showing payments made to companies tied to Hunter Biden.
The memo states that “the Biden family, their business associates, and their companies received over $10 million” from companies belonging to foreign nationals, identifying payments to Biden family members from foreign companies while Joe Biden served as vice president under former President Barack Obama and after Joe Biden left public office in early 2017.
“The transactions in Romania and China show related but separate issues identified by the Committee that raise serious questions about financial disclosures and risks to national security,” Comer’s new memo alleged.
Comer said that the transactions in Romania show “evidence of influence peddling” and a web of LLCs created while Biden was vice president, but the bank records by themselves do not indicate the purpose of the payments that were made.
Furthermore, the memo alleges that while Biden was vice president, his son Hunter, through an associate, received more than $1 million from a company controlled by a Romanian official accused of corruption, according to the Washington Examiner.
Comer suggests that Biden may have been improperly influenced by the financial dealings. The committee intends to provide information about the Biden family’s payments with Ye Jianming and his company CEFC, to show the CCP’s growing interest in cultivating a relationship with the Biden family.
“The committee is investigating President Biden and his family’s shady business deals that risked our country’s national security,” he said at a press conference on Wednesday.
Additionally, the committee is evaluating the Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering laws to “determine whether financial institutions had the available tools and support from federal agencies to thwart illegal money laundering and foreign corruption activity,” Comer said in the memo.
There is no evidence in the latest report showing that payments were made directly to Joe Biden, either as vice president or after leaving office. Leading up to the press conference, Comer listed the nine Biden family members he believed received foreign-sourced payments.
Recipients included: Hunter Biden, Joe’s brother and Hunter’s uncle James Biden, James Biden’s wife Sara, Beau Biden’s widow and Hunter Biden’s ex-girlfriend Hallie Biden, Hunter Biden’s ex-wife Kathleen Buhle, Hunter Biden’s current wife Melissa Cohen, and three children of Joe Biden and/or of James Biden.
Comer said he is committed to root out “fraud, waste, and abuse that exist at the highest level of the government.”
Prior to the memo’s release, White House spokesperson Ian Sams said in a statement to CNN, “Congressman Comer has a history of playing fast and loose with the facts and spreading baseless innuendo while refusing to conduct his so-called ‘investigations’ with legitimacy.
“He has hidden information from the public to selectively leak and promote his own hand-picked narratives as part of his overall effort to lob personal attacks at the President and his family,” he said.
Federal prosecutors have considered charging Hunter Biden with three tax crimes and a charge related to a gun purchase. Two charges are misdemeanor counts for failure to file taxes, a single felony count of tax evasion to a business expense for one year of taxes and the gun charge, also a potential felony.
