New details emerged about the House Oversight Committee’s new investigation into the Biden family’s business dealings for possible corruption. The Committee chair James Comer asked the Treasury Department to produce bank Suspicious Activity Reports on Hunter Biden, James Biden, Biden family associates, and related companies.
Comer explained the purpose of the investigation this way:
“For years, the Biden family peddled influence and access around the world for profit, often at the expense of our nation’s interests. The American people must know the extent of Joe Biden’s involvement in his family’s shady business deals and if these deals threaten national security and his decision-making as president.”
One subject under investigation is whether Joe Biden lied about not being involved in family member business. At the end of the investigation, we should know for a fact whether or not there really was ‘ten percent for the Big Guy’.
We also learned yesterday that the University of Pennsylvania – which housed the Penn Biden Center where classified documents were found and which received $47.7 million from China in the years Joe Biden was associated with it – was part of the successful effort to end President Trump’s China Initiative. The Initiative was a successful FBI and Justice Department program to root out Chinese influence and espionage at U.S. institutions of higher learning. Penn faculty signed a letter criticizing the program for – get this – ‘racial profiling’ – and begged the feds to keep the Chinese gravy train rolling.
Wait, the swamp gets deeper.
Lobbyists for TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance visited the White House eight times between July 2021 and August 2022, White House visitor logs show. Biden reversed Trump’s ban on TikTok operating in the U.S. in June of 2021. Technically, it is unknown whether the lobbyists went to the White House on TikTok business or for other clients. Two lobbyists clammed up when asked for comment and another denied the visits were on behalf of TikTok, but plenty of other things have happened recently that raise concerns about U.S. officials giving away the store to China, perhaps for personal gain.
A program started by President Bill Clinton placed Chinese military scientists in U.S. military research centers. The crown jewels of our military biodefense program are in Ft. Detrick Maryland where Chinese scientists are employed to this day without scrutiny of their ties to the Chinese military. What’s up with that?
Then we have the Biden administration approving Chinese purchases of land near U.S. air force bases. National security experts warn such proximity could allow China to conduct espionage, disrupt military communications, and sabotage military operations. The latest purchase approved by the Biden administration is in North Dakota, but another worrisome purchase is in Texas. There was legislation in the last Congress to stop the practice, but it didn’t go anywhere. Swamp rats strike again.
American hypersonic missile technology is ending up in the hands of the Chinese military, through straw purchases by nominally private Chinese companies in a scheme designed to evade U.S. export controls.
This includes technology based on Pentagon research grants funded by U.S. taxpayers. I’m tempted to ask how stupid we can be, but I just read a thriller where a similar straw purchase involving a lobbyist put weaponry in the hands of jihadis in the Middle East. [Jack Carr True Believer]
So the right question to ask in all these situations – missile technology, land sales, Chinese scientists inside the wire, TikTok getting to operate in the U.S. again, American universities on the Chinese dole, Hunter Biden’s Chinese business deals – is one I find myself asking more and more these days: Who benefits? Who is getting paid, under the table or otherwise? Who is willing to sell out their country for a few renminbi? Before the Republican investigation ends, I hope we found out just how much ‘ten percent for the Big Guy’ ended up being. Hillary Clinton sold her office for $100 million, it is widely believed, so Joe Biden has some catching up to do.
