It has been a constant refrain among defenders of President Joe Biden that his family benefiting from foreign influence-peddling abroad took place without his knowledge and participation.
A new report from Politico, as establishment a publication as one can find, shatters that already precarious defense.
While the president’s defenders have often pointed to Joe Biden’s involvement in the troubled affairs of his son Hunter Biden as illustrating a case of a father’s love, rather than the aiding and abetting of illicit activity that compromises national security, the new report involves a different and often-overlooked person in the Biden corruption scandal: The president’s brother, James Biden.
The Politico report comes ahead of an expected interview of James Biden on Feb. 21. The critical implication of the report is the “central” involvement of Joe Biden in his brother’s scheme to profit off a troubled medical conglomerate, now bankrupt, called Americore.
As the layers of activity that occurred in and around Americore are peeled back in a federal prosecution in Pennsylvania, a bankruptcy court in Kentucky, and tense witness interviews on Capitol Hill, a POLITICO investigation renders the most detailed picture to date of the ways in which Joe Biden’s relatives leveraged his public stature to advance a private business venture.
The investigation — based on public records, court filings, dozens of interviews and hundreds of exclusively obtained internal documents — reveals that Jim Biden’s role at Americore was larger than previously reported: In some internal documents and investor materials his name is included among its top handful of leaders. He also helped the company seal regulatory approval to acquire the Pennsylvania hospital and personally fired Americore’s chief financial officer, according to the emails obtained by POLITICO.
Documents obtained by Politico show that there was extensive participation by Joe Biden and his family’s inner circle in Americore, which is under federal investigation for allegedly fraudulent operations.
This Americore involvement included Jim Biden, his wife Sara, his son Jamie, Hunter Biden, and Joe Biden himself.
The investigation also reveals that Joe Biden’s name and inner circle were more involved with the company than has been understood: In addition to the accounts provided by former executives, investor materials described Jim Biden as an adviser to his older brother. And on top of Joe Biden’s own previously reported encounter with the firm’s CEO, at least three of Joe Biden’s relatives did work with Americore. They include Jim Biden’s wife, Sara, and his son, Jamie. The president’s son, Hunter Biden also met with its CEO, and his personal doctor — current White House physician Kevin O’Connor — joined a meeting with Jim Biden and the president of a hospital being acquired by Americore, according to a former executive and emails obtained by POLITICO.
The most damning paragraphs of Politico’s report indicate that Joe Biden’s name was a “central element” of Jim Biden’s pitch to potential partners and investors.
While the extent to which Joe Biden’s relatives have invoked their ties to him to advance their business careers has been a subject of ongoing controversy, the documents obtained by POLITICO demonstrate that Joe Biden was a central element of Jim Biden’s pitch to potential partners and investors during this period.
None of these Biden family members would answer specific questions related to Americore. The White House did not respond to detailed requests for comment.
This is relevant in the context of a “$200,000 direct payment from James and Sara Biden to Joe Biden in the form of a personal check,” released by House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) in October.
“In 2018, James Biden received $600,000 in loans from, Americore—a financially distressed and failing rural hospital operator,” press release stated. “According to bankruptcy court documents, James Biden received these loans ‘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’.”
“On March 1, 2018, Americore wired a $200,000 loan into James and Sara Biden’s personal bank account – not their business bank account,” the statement added. “On the same day, James Biden wrote a $200,000 check from this same personal bank account to Joe Biden.”
As reported by the Associated Press, James Biden’s lawyer has provided a now dubious defense for his client’s invocation of his brother Joe Biden in his business affairs.
“A lawyer for James Biden said at the time that there was no justification for the subpoena because the committee had already reviewed private bank records and transactions between the two brothers,” the AP reported. “The committee found records of two loans that were made when Joe Biden was not in office or a candidate for president.”
“There is nothing more to those transactions, and there is nothing wrong with them,” lawyer Paul Fishman said in a statement in November. “And Jim Biden has never involved his brother in his business dealings.”
This now appears to be patently false. Republicans are now pointing to the federal proceedings against Americore as yet more evidence of “influence peddling” by Biden’s family in their business dealings, particularly with foreign actors.
As noted by Politico’s report, James Biden heavily relied on reference to his brother, a former senator and former vice president at the time, to court Middle Eastern investors.
Jim Biden spoke of plans to give his brother equity in Americore, according to one former Americore executive, and install him on its board, according to a second. He also said that if Americore could find a winning business model for rural health care, his brother could promote the company in a future presidential campaign, a third former executive told POLITICO. All were granted anonymity to discuss a company mired in legal and political controversy
In order to fund Americore’s expansion, Jim Biden offered to secure capital from investors in the Middle East, according to the emails and executives. When the expected money did not arrive, it aggravated Americore’s preexisting financial issues. The company collapsed, leaving behind unpaid bills and neglected patients.
The human wreckage resulting from the Biden family’s exploitation of Joe Biden’s political connections for financial gain is a critical aspect of the story. Americore’s malfeasance not only lined the pockets of Biden family members, but it also devastated families that relied on the now-defunct medical provider to care for their loved ones in times of need.
Biden family corruption thus is not only a grave matter of national security, but it is also one of personal family tragedy for many Americans who were exposed to their unethical and potentially illegal activities.
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