Biden bro paid him $200K while seeking Mideast investor for hospital firm

WASHINGTON — President Biden received a $200,000 check in 2018 from his younger brother James on the same day that he received the same amount from a US hospital chain by promising to secure a Mideast investor, bank records obtained by Congress show.

“This summer, Joe Biden said: ‘Where’s the money?‘ Well, we found some,” House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said in a video posted Friday afternoon to X.

Comer said James Biden wrote his check to his powerful brother as a “loan repayment,” without providing further context.

“Even if this was a personal loan repayment, it’s still troubling that Joe Biden’s ability to be paid back by his brother depended on the success of his family’s shady financial dealings,” the chairman said.

James Biden received a total of $600,000 in loans from since-defunct rural hospital operator Americore Health in 2018.

Bankruptcy trustees for the firm said in a July 2022 court filing that James Biden “procured the $600,000.00 in loans from Americore … based upon 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.”

The records do not specify which Middle Eastern country James Biden was courting, though he was involved in a different business relationship pertaining to Saudi Arabia at around the same time.

It’s unclear what progress James Biden made toward securing the foreign funds before Americore filed for bankruptcy in 2019.

James Biden received an initial $400,000 tranche from Americore in January 2018 and the latter $200,000, which was sent to Joe Biden, on March 1 of that year, according to Comer and court records.

The transfer to Joe Biden, who was not in elected office at the time, could be the strongest evidence to date that the 80-year-old president benefited financially from his involvement in his relatives’ business dealings, including in foreign countries.

Biden claimed in 2019 while a presidential candidate that he had “never discussed with my son, or my brother … anything having to do with their businesses,” but significant evidence has since emerged that he regularly interacted with his relatives’ partners from countries such as China and Ukraine.

House Republicans launched an impeachment inquiry last month and issued subpoenas for James Biden and first son Hunter Biden’s bank records.

“We’re still digging into evidence subpoenaed from bank accounts belonging to Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, and James and Sara Biden — the brother and sister-in-law of the president,” Comer said.

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