No, James Biden’s $200,000 payment to his brother isn’t the proof of a mass “influence peddling scheme” far-right Republicans like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene would have you believe it is, a new FactCheck report finds.
FactCheck’s review of the House Oversight and Accountability committee’s case against the Biden family, based on a bank statement subpoena that found a 2018 payment between brothers, found more evidence of bombast than bribes, the organization said Thursday.
“As has been the case so often in the House investigation of the finances of Joe Biden’s family members,” the report states, “the claims have outpaced the evidence so far.”
POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?
The Biden nay-sayers, who also include Reps. James Comer and Lauren Boebert, contend James’ payment to Joe’s on the same day he received a $200,000 check from the for-profit hospital chain Americore Health proves what Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene called “money laundering.”
Yet as the FactCheck analysis found, it might also have been the struggling hospital’s last-ditch effort to hitch its wagon to a big political name, as they state in a bankruptcy court complaint filed in July 2022.
And a lawyer for James Biden says brother Joe — not yet a U.S. presidential hopeful, let alone president — was simply being paid back for a short-term loan he sent his brother.
That’s why committee Democrats accused Republicans of cherry-picking bank records and ignoring those that didn’t align with their conspiracy theory.
“These records actually show that President Biden was the one who stepped in to help family members when they needed support,” Rep. Jamie Raskin said on Oct. 20.
FactCheck confirmed the second half of this account with images of James and Sara Biden’s check to Joe entitled “loan repayment.”
Despite this evidence, Comer took to Fox News three days later to boast, “We just proved that Joe Biden benefited from his family’s influence peddling scheme.”
The FactCheck report notes it remains unclear which narrative is true, but that in a nation where you’re innocent until proven guilty, it’s up to Republicans to make a case.
“The records don’t prove one way or another if Joe Biden was involved in the Americore Health enterprise,” FactCheck states. “But the burden remains with Republicans on the oversight committee to prove their case.”
Read the full report here.