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WASHINGTON — President Biden received $40,000 in “laundered” funds from Chinese government-linked CEFC China Energy, according to a memo released Wednesday by the House Oversight Committee.
The 2017 transfer from first brother James Biden and his wife Sara to the future president allegedly involves the same business deal in which Joe Biden was called the “big guy” and penciled in for a 10% cut — and would be the first proven instance of the commander-in-chief getting a piece of his family’s foreign income.
The $40,000 went through a “complicated financial transaction” just weeks after first son Hunter Biden threatened his father’s wrath in a July 30, 2017, text message to a CEFC employee, the Republican-led Oversight Committee said in the memo.
The money ended up in Joe Biden’s bank account on Sept. 3, 2017, via a check labeled “loan repayment” from his younger brother, who partnered with Hunter in the venture.
“Remember when Joe Biden told the American people that his son didn’t make money in China?” Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said in a video posted to X. “Well, not only did he lie about his son Hunter making money in China, but it also turns out that $40,000 in laundered China money landed in Joe Biden’s bank account in the form of a personal check.”
Comer, a leader of the House impeachment inquiry into Biden’s role in his relatives’ foreign dealings, said, “Even if this $40,000 check was a loan repayment from James Biden, it still shows how Joe benefited from his family cashing in on his name — with money from China no less.”
Bank records released this year by Comer show that CEFC — a since-defunct reputed cog in Beijing’s “Belt and Road” foreign influence campaign — paid Hunter and James Biden at least $6.1 million in 2017 and 2018 — about $1 million in March 2017 shortly after Biden left office as vice president and the remainder within 10 days of Hunter’s threat invoking his dad.
A $5 million wire was sent on Aug. 8, 2017, to “Hudson West III, a joint venture established by Hunter Biden and CEFC associate Gongwen Dong,” a committee synopsis of the memo says.
“That same day, Hudson West III sent $400,000 to Owasco, P.C., an entity owned and controlled by Hunter Biden. On August 14, 2017, Hunter Biden wired $150,000 to Lion Hall Group, a company owned by President Biden’s brother James and sister-in-law Sara Biden,” it goes on.
“On August 28, 2017, Sara Biden withdrew $50,000 in cash from Lion Hall Group. Later the same day, she deposited it into her and James Biden’s personal checking account. On September 3, 2017, Sara Biden cut a check to Joe Biden for $40,000 for a ‘loan repayment.'”
The memo argues that the balances of the respective accounts make clear that the funds flowed from CEFC directly to Joe Biden.
White House spokesman Ian Sams directed The Post to his tweeted response that, “Comer’s lies and conspiracy theories are getting more desperate by the day.”
“This has been widely debunked for more than a week now,” Sams added, linking to an article in The Messenger that said the publication had reviewed bank records proving that the $40,000 was a short-term loan from Joe to James that was repaid in less than two months.
Earlier this month, the Oversight Committee revealed that James Biden paid Joe Biden $200,000 on March 1, 2018 — the same day that James received a $200,000 transfer from troubled rural hospital company Americore by pledging to use his political connections to secure a Middle Eastern investor.
The top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), alleged that James Biden was repaying a $200,000 loan that Joe Biden had made that January, but did not provide proof, and Comer said Republicans couldn’t find evidence that the elder brother had made a loan.
The Messenger said that “an account maintained by Joe Biden’s attorney” sent $200,000 to James Biden in January 2018 before he repaid the sum directly to his brother.
Comer argues that even if James Biden was repaying loans, he was doing so by cashing in on his brother’s power and congressional Republicans pointed Wednesday to Biden’s 2020 campaign claim that “I have not taken a penny from any foreign source ever in my life.”
Joe Biden allegedly met with his son and brother’s CEFC associates in May 2017 and was referred to in an email that month as the “big guy” due a potential 10% cut.
Joe Biden also was listed as a participant in an October 2017 call about the firm’s attempt to purchase US natural gas.
Comer’s allegation could push forward House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry, which is focused on alleged corruption involving the Biden family in countries including China and Ukraine.
Hunter Biden wrote in a January 2019 message retrieved from his former laptop that he had to give “half” of his income to Joe Biden, and the Oversight Committee in May identified nine Biden family members who allegedly received foreign funds.
During his 2020 campaign, Biden said “I have never discussed, with my son or my brother or with anyone else, anything having to do with their businesses,” but evidence has emerged that he interacted while vice president with their associates from Kazakhstan, Mexico, Russia and Ukraine, as well as from another Chinese government-linked venture called BHR Partners.
Biden is expected to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping in San Francisco later this month.
His Republican detractors say he’s compromised in his ability to deal with China by his family’s financial connection to state-backed entities.
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