Biden lied about family and China money: GOP House committee

WASHINGTON — House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said Wednesday that the White House is abusing federal resources by supporting President Biden’s “lie” that his family didn’t receive money from China.

“Instead of being honest with the American people, President Biden has claimed since the 2020 election that his family has not received money from China. That was a lie in 2020 and he continues to lie to the American people now,” Comer (R-Ky.) told reporters on Capitol Hill.

“The Bidens have received millions of dollars from China. It is inconceivable that the president did not know it,” he added. “The White House refuses to correct the president’s statement, showing the president is now using the federal government to run interference for his family and his own role in these schemes.”

Biden denied during a 2020 presidential debate, and more recently on the White House lawn, that his family received money from China — even though the president allegedly met with his relatives’ associates from two separate Chinese business relationships.

“That’s not true,” Biden said March 17 when asked for his reaction to a Comer memo that a journalist told the president showed “that Hunter Biden’s business associate sent over a million dollars to three of your family members.”

Despite the president’s denial that his family got money from China, first son Hunter Biden’s own legal team confirmed in March that the transfers from CEFC China Energy occurred in early 2017, months after Joe Biden left office as vice president.

On Wednesday, Comer unveiled a second memo showing how Hunter, now 53, and first daughter-in-law Hallie Biden received more than $1 million from corrupt Romanian businessman Gabriel Popoviciu between 2015 and 2017.

Popoviciu allegedly wired $3 million to Hunter’s business partner Rob Walker, who in turn passed on one-third of the haul to Hunter, Hallie and an unidentified Biden.

The funds appear to be part of a side arrangement outside of Hunter’s legal work for Popoviciu through the US-based law firm Boies Schiller Flexner.

Oversight Committee Republicans took turns asserting Wednesday that the Biden family had no legitimate business reason to be paid millions from countries where Joe Biden held sway as vice president.

“The Biden family doesn’t really have a business,” said Rep. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.). “There is no business structure around this family, except politics. And since Joe Biden has spent decades in the Senate, served eight years as vice president, and is now president of the United States, and the family is getting money from various countries and foreign businesses, through various shell companies and this web of LLCs — I mean, guys, you in the press, this is easy pickings.”

The memo included photos of bank records described in the March memo that showed a similar distribution of $3 million from Chinese firm CEFC, of which more than $1 million went to Hunter, Hallie, first brother James Biden and an unidentified Biden, who Hunter’s legal team previously asserted was one of the three.

Republicans frequently accuse Biden of being too soft on China on issues such as determining the origins of COVID-19, which killed more than 1 million Americans, and stopping fentanyl exports, which killed about 196,000 Americans between 2018 and 2021.

Last year, NBC News journalist Kristen Welker, who moderated the second and final 2020 presidential debate, pressed then-White House communications director Kate Bedingfield about the accuracy of Biden’s claim that “my son has not made money in terms of this thing about, talking about China.’”

“We absolutely stand by the president’s comment,” Bedingfield said.

One of the Hunter Biden laptop documents reported by The Post ahead of the final 2020 debate showed that Hunter and James Biden were brokering a deal with CEFC and appeared to cut in Joe Biden.

Joe Biden was referred to as the “big guy” in communications regarding the CEFC enterprise, according to two of Hunter’s former associates, and an email in May 2017 said he was due a 10% cut.

Former Hunter Biden business partner Tony Bobulinski alleges that he discussed the CEFC deal with Joe Biden in May 2017, and an October 2017 email from Hunter Biden’s laptop identifies Joe Biden as a participant in a call about CEFC’s attempt to purchase US natural gas. 

The CEFC relationship appears to have started around 2015 when Hunter connected with Vuk Jeremic, a former foreign minister of Serbia and president of the United Nations General Assembly who was running for UN secretary-general.

A Washington Post review of laptop and other records last year indicates that House Republicans have yet to acquire some bank records regarding the CEFC relationship.

“Over the course of 14 months, the Chinese energy conglomerate and its executives paid $4.8 million to entities controlled by Hunter Biden and his uncle, according to government records, court documents and newly disclosed bank statements, as well as emails contained on a copy of a laptop hard drive that purportedly once belonged to Hunter Biden,” the Washington Post reported.

Biden claimed in 2019 that he had “never spoken” with his son about “his overseas business dealings” and also that “I have never discussed, with my son or my brother or with anyone else, anything having to do with their businesses” — despite many examples of him meeting with his relatives’ overseas associates.

In an initial Chinese venture, Hunter co-founded investment fund BHR Partners with Chinese state entities in 2013 — just 12 days after joining then-VP Biden aboard Air Force Two for an official trip to Beijing, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Hunter introduced his dad to BHR CEO Jonathan Li during the trip to China’s capital and Joe Biden later wrote college recommendation letters for Li’s children. 

The current status of Hunter’s 10% stake in BHR, which says it manages nearly $2.2 billion in assets, remains unclear, though unconfirmed leaked corporate documents suggest Hunter’s “sugar brother” Kevin Morris, a wealthy Hollywood lawyer, may have taken the stake.

A leaked purported Suspicious Activity Report made by a bank to the Treasury Department describes $2.4 million in transfers relating to Biden’s relationship with BHR.

Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, who is a former UN ambassador, joined the Oversight Committee’s call for Joe Biden to come clean.

“Joe Biden must be transparent with the American people about what he knew, when he knew it, and every penny his family received from foreign countries,” Haley said Wednesday.

The White House and Hunter Biden’s legal teams did not respond to The Post’s requests for comment.