James Biden says Joe Biden didn’t know source of funds used to repay loan

[RAY BOGAN]

President Biden’s brother James spent hours testifying to the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees Wednesday. The closed door interview was part of the impeachment inquiry into the President. Republicans are trying to prove that the President benefited from his family’s business dealings while he was vice president. 

James Biden addressed the overall inquiry and stated, “I have had a 50-year career in a variety of business ventures. Joe Biden has never had any involvement or any direct or indirect financial interest in those activities. None.”

“I have always kept my professional life separate from our close personal relationship,” Biden said in an opening statement. “I never asked my brother to take any official action on behalf of me, my business associates, or anyone else.” 

The president’s younger brother also directly addressed an accusation the committee made in November. 

The committee released bank documents that they said showed President Biden received $40,000 in laundered money from China in 2017. They published bank statements and a check which traced the money from the Chinese company CEFC, through a shell company, to James Biden’s bank account and then to Joe Biden via a check which stated loan repayment in the memo. 

James Biden said in his opening statement: 

[JAMES BIDEN]

“They were short-term loans that I received from Joe when he was a private citizen, and I repaid them within weeks. He had no information at all about the source of the funds I used to repay him. The complete explanation is that Joe lent me money, and I repaid him as soon as I had the funds to do so.” 

[RAY BOGAN]

But Republicans are still casting doubt on James Biden’s explanation. 

James Comer

“We asked what exactly did both Jim and Hunter do to earn the millions of dollars that they earned from CEFC and he said that they were always out scouting around trying to find them investments. And the next obvious question was well did you find them any investments? No,” Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said on Newsmax.   

{RAY BOGAN]

Democrats are calling for the impeachment inquiry to end.

Jamie Raskin

“Yesterday’s interview served only to corroborate the mountain of evidence that has proven time and time again that President Biden has committed no wrongdoing,” Oversight Ranking Member Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said in a statement. 

[RAY BOGAN] 

This isn’t the last we’ll hear of the Biden family’s business dealings. Hunter Biden is scheduled to testify Wednesday, February 28.