In a news conference Wednesday, the House Oversight Committee introduced evidence from recent subpoenas of the Biden family. As they were doing it, the Justice Department announced the 13-count criminal indictment of a Republican member of Congress.
Following days of teases, the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday introduced new evidence about alleged wrongdoing by members of President Biden’s family, “ revealing the Biden family and associates’ complicated network of companies set up during Joe Biden’s vice presidency and the millions the Bidens received from foreign sources.”
However, at the same hour that the Committee was introducing the evidence, the Department of Justice formally announced the indictment of Rep. George Santos (R-NY), a Republican member of the House of Representatives.
“The Bidens intentionally sought to hide, confuse, and conceal their influence-peddling schemes, but bank records don’t lie. The Bidens made millions from foreign nationals providing what seems to be no services other than access and influence. From the thousands of records we’ve obtained so far, we know the Biden family set up over a dozen companies when Joe Biden was vice president,” the statement from Rep. James Comer (R-KY), the committee’s chairman, said.
“The Bidens’ foreign entanglements are breathtaking and raise serious questions about why foreign actors targeted the Biden family, what they expected in return, and whether our national security is threatened.”
The committee alleges that Biden family members set up over 20 companies and that they earned millions of dollars from those companies. It also alleges that the family members received incremental payments over time, which “appear to be meant to conceal the source of the funds and reduce the conspicuousness of the total amounts made into the Biden bank accounts.”
In addition to business deals in China, the committee also lists Romania as a place where Biden family members did business.
“While Vice President Biden lectured Romania on corruption and ethics, the Bidens received over a million dollars from a company controlled by a Romanian individual accused of corruption, through a Biden family associate.”
The Committee, however, does not appear to have produced any type of smoking gun proving any type of wrongdoing by President Biden himself, that he himself received money, or that there is any connection between any of the president’s actions in office and the money his family members received from people in those countries.
It’s not clear if this is the same thing as the reported whistleblower complaint, revealed last week, alleging bribery of Biden while he was vice president.
At any rate, the actual indictment of Santos, the Republican Congressman who was elected in November and soon exposed for having lied about numerous aspects of his background, dominated political news on the same morning as the Oversight Committee’s supposed bombshell report.
In the 13-count indictment, Santos was charged in the Eastern District of New York with seven counts of wire fraud, three counts of money laundering, one count of theft of public funds, and two counts of making materially false statements to the House of Representatives.
News had broken of the impending charges on Tuesday night, and Santos surrendered to authorities on Wednesday morning.
“This indictment seeks to hold Santos accountable for various alleged fraudulent schemes and brazen misrepresentations,” United States Attorney Breon Peace said in a statement.
“Taken together, the allegations in the indictment charge Santos with relying on repeated dishonesty and deception to ascend to the halls of Congress and enrich himself. He used political contributions to line his pockets, unlawfully applied for unemployment benefits that should have gone to New Yorkers who had lost their jobs due to the pandemic, and lied to the House of Representatives.”
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Expertise and Experience: Stephen Silver is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive. He is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.
