The new details surrounding Hunter Biden’s overseas business deals paint a picture of vast sums of money being dispersed to Biden family members who have no expertise in the subject areas for which they were paid. One such unqualified name that stood out from Wednesday’s report from the House Oversight Committee is that of Mr. Biden’s current wife, Melissa Cohen.
The second wife of the second son, Ms. Cohen, 35, was paid an undisclosed amount of money through one of the many shell corporations and limited liability companies set up by her husband and his associates.
The chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Congressman James Comer, listed Ms. Cohen as a recipient of these funds at a press conference on Wednesday.
Ms. Cohen, said to be a filmmaker from South Africa, dated the younger Mr. Biden for a short time before agreeing to marry him. Just six days after meeting in Los Angeles, they were married in May 2019, and Hunter got a tattoo on his arm of the Hebrew word Shalom, to match that of his new wife. Less than a year later, they welcomed a son, named Beau after Hunter’s late older brother.
It is unclear why a South African filmmaker would receive money for deals in energy markets or consulting in countries like China.
Mr. Comer also shared that one of Hunter Biden’s children — it is unclear which one — received money as a part of this shell corporation network. “That’s odd,” Mr. Comer told reporters. “Most people that work hard every day’s grandchild doesn’t get a wire from a foreign national.”
James Biden’s daughter, Caroline, also received money as a part of her father and cousin’s business deals overseas, also without an explanation. Previously, Caroline Biden had been convicted of charging more than $100,000 to a stolen credit card and was offered a job paying $85,000 a year, which she called “below minimum wage.”
These payments, the chairman said, were sent to a wide variety of shell companies and limited liability companies that were set up by Hunter Biden and his associate, Rob Walker.
The committee also explored further the first family’s relationship with Communist China. In the newly released memorandum, the committee ties the Biden family to two foreign nationals with close ties to the Chinese Communist Party — Ye Jianming and Gongwen Dong.
Mr. Ye — who works in close affiliation with the People’s Liberation Army — allegedly tried to contact the younger Mr. Biden in order to create better relations between the American government and the Communist Chinese energy market.
The other Communist Chinese official, Mr. Gongwen, identified himself as an “emissary” of Mr. Ye in an email obtained by the Washington Post. Mr. Gongwen and the younger Mr. Biden later co-owned a shell company called Hudson West III, which sent payments totaling $4 million to Mr. Biden and $75,000 to the president’s brother, James.
The committee also disclosed new business ties between the Biden family and a corrupt Romanian official. Congressman Kelly Armstrong told reporters that a Romanian man who was convicted of obstruction while under investigation for corruption, Gabriel Popoviciu, helped send 17 payments totaling millions of dollars during the elder Mr. Biden’s time as vice president.
Of those, “16 of 17 payments occurred while Joe Biden was vice president,” Mr. Armstrong told reporters. Those payments were made as Vice President Biden was making official diplomatic trips to Romania and making speeches there about corruption. Many of the payments were sent directly to Mr. Walker, who then dispersed one-third of all money to Hunter Biden.
Mr. Walker also dispersed money to Hallie Biden — Beau Biden’s widow, who for a time became Hunter Biden’s girlfriend. Ms. Biden received two payments totaling $35,000 from Mr. Walker’s limited liability companies that the GOP committee says were paid by a Chinese energy company, State Energy HK Limited. It is unclear what business services she provided to receive the money. Hallie Biden used to work as a school counselor, but now sits on the board of the Beau Biden Foundation.
Mr. Comer promised to send more subpoenas in the coming weeks for “specific targeted information” from banks that are tied to the Biden family and their associates. “The president continues to lie” about his family’s ties to foreign entities, Mr. Comer said.
Mr. Comer also highlighted a recent subpoena sent by the committee to the FBI demanding an unclassified version of a whistleblower report that allegedly shows a corruption scheme involving the president during his time as vice president.
In his May 3 subpoena, Mr. Comer and the ranking member of the Senate Budget Committee, Senator Grassley, asked the FBI to release the report that “allegedly details an arrangement involving an exchange of money for policy decisions.”
“The information provided by a whistleblower raises concerns that then-Vice President Biden allegedly engaged in a bribery scheme with a foreign national,” Mr. Comer wrote in a statement. “The American people need to know if President Biden sold out the United States of America to make money for himself.”
At the Wednesday press conference, Mr. Comer said: “We hope the FBI will be transparent and forthcoming” about this whistleblower report.
Despite these disclosures, there was no evidence presented that President Biden himself has received money or been involved in his son’s business dealings.
When asked about that, Mr. Comer said he believes “that the president has been involved in this from the very beginning. Obviously, we’re going to continue to look,” adding that it wasn’t a “coincidence” that the Biden family had received money over the course of Mr. Biden’s public life.
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