Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) and fellow GOP committee members released findings and fielded questions from the media in a 44-minute news conference Wednesday morning. They described a vast network of more than 20 shell companies, most of them LLCs formed when President Joe Biden was vice-president from 2009-2017.
When the Post complains about the president, something is upSteve Jordahl, AFN.net After the liberal Washington Post slammed Biden for avoiding holding a news conference with White House reporters, a conservative newspaper columnist is asking if the knives have come out for the ailing president and his re-election plans. In an editorial published Monday, the Post suggested Biden is “afraid of press conferences.” It questioned why the President has become a “media evader” two years into his presidency. An editorial criticizing a Democrat in the White House is no small decision for the Republican-hating newsroom at the Post, so the article got the attention of Washington Times columnist Robert Knight. Nobody knows the motives of the Post, he tells AFN, but two motives might be at work. “I think they might be sensing the end of the Biden presidency,” he says, “and trying to clean up their act as journalists, posing as fearless defenders of open questioning of the presidency.” Biden did take questions from reporters in April but he flashed a cheat sheet showing a reporter’s name, the topic of her question, and the question itself. Last week, an ABC/Washington Post poll showed voters chose Donald Trump over Biden. |
The most prominent among the family members was son Hunter Biden though nine family members were named in all.
“The bank records show the Biden family, their associates, and their companies received over $10 million from foreign nationals and their companies,” Comer said. “The Bidens have received millions of dollars from China. It is inconceivable that the president did not know it.”
Comer singled out three individuals of highest concern including Gabriel Popovich, a Romanian real estate tycoon who is under investigation for corruption by his country. It is alleged he channeled more than $1 million in 17 payments to Biden family associates.
Vice President Joe Biden in 2014 made a trip to Romania, where he spoke out against corruption, then hosted the Romanian president in September 2015. Months before that visit, Republicans allege the Biden family began receiving payments from Biden associate Rob Walker with funds Walker received from Popovich.
The others named by the GOP lawmakers include Walker himself, who allegedly used his company as a middle man for Chinese payments to Biden family members, and a Chinese businessman who is believed to have close ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
Comer said the evidence has come from thousands of bank records from individuals and companies affiliated with the Bidens. He said the evidence was ignored by the 20 Democratic members of the committee who were in power until Republicans took control five months ago.
Comer said some on his committee denied the evidence.
“The Democrats on the Oversight Committee received the same records as the Republicans and they were able to verify the information," he complained. "They said all the bank records showed were Papa John's and Starbucks receipts. They deliberately chose to misconstrue and deny what was clearly in front of them."
Hunter Biden’s representatives claimed the money was “seed money” for future business proposals but could not explain why the money was received through an intermediary.
Comer called it an attempt to hide the transaction from the Chinese government.
Rep. Nancy Mace, a fellow committee member, said the Biden family’s repeated efforts to hide shady dealings equated to “financial gymnastics.”
“What we’re proving to do today is showing you actual bank records, actual evidence of shell companies and businesses and more Bidens involved than we knew of,” she said.
Mace challenged media in attendance to strengthen or begin their own investigations.
“I would hope that the media here today would put as much attention and interest and focus on this as they have a former president for years,” she said. “The Left has said, No one is above the law. Well, put your money where your mouth is and prove that because the American people do not trust the federal government, they don't trust Congress.”
The committee’s investigation shows no signs of slowing. Comer last week sent a subpoena to the FBI for a document he believes is in their possession based on information from a whistleblower.
“We hope the FBI will be transparent and forthcoming and provide the oversight committee with the 1023 form we have subpoenaed," Comer said. "If they do, the committee will assess the form It has subpoenaed from the FBI and has been my practice, we will report to you only facts when they are verified and indisputable."
Comer said he has complete trust in the information provided by this whistleblower and encouraged others with information to come forward.
“This committee will not pursue witch hunts or string the American people along for years with false promises of evidence that is beyond circumstantial evidence as Rep. Adam Schiff and the Democrats did for years,” Comer said, referencing the investigation into former president Donald Trump’s alleged ties with Russia.
The investigation will dive deeper into bank records, the committee chair promised, and more subpoenas are expected soon. In an answer to a reporter's question about a lack of bank records from Joe Biden and Hunter Biden, Comer said the Oversight Committee has records from four banks so far but 12 banks might be involved.
It’s also possible family associates could begin to make deals with investigators, specifically Walker and an “art gallerist” that Comer did not name.
Comer challenged Democrats to stop hiding the sins of the Biden family.
“Do you want to continue covering up the Biden's influence peddling schemes when the evidence is being placed right in front of you?” he asked.
