It seems that a Biden family corruption scandal arises with each new day. Now it's new developments in the financial dealings of presidential brother James Biden, which came to light as part of a Kentucky bankruptcy case. James Biden was involved with Qatari officials who are helping him with fundraising for a healthcare startup - and with backing for loans.
New details about Jim Biden’s foreign fundraising efforts are spilling out in a Kentucky bankruptcy court, where recent testimony indicates that President Joe Biden’s brother partnered with Qatari government officials in his quest to find money for U.S. health care ventures.
The sworn testimony by fund manager Michael Lewitt, a former business partner of Jim Biden’s, attests that two companies that facilitated the efforts were part-owned by “members of the Qatari government.”
There's one part of this that may ring some bells with those who have been keeping track of the whole Biden family monetary transaction issue:
One company named in the testimony partnered directly with Jim Biden in the multi-year fundraising efforts.
The second company provided financial backing for a series of loans that a hospital chain paid Jim Biden to arrange, according to documents and testimony Lewitt submitted in the course of the federal bankruptcy proceedings.
Remember all those checks made out to Joe Biden with the memo "loan repayment?" What other loans have the Biden family been repaying, and why?
Qatar has had some... issues, of late. Cut off from financial and diplomatic ties by its neighbors over support for terrorism - Hamas leaders, among others, are known to keep homes in Qatar - they have descended into a crisis, and they've been looking for lifelines.
In response, the country’s rulers began showering well-connected Westerners with gifts and financial benefits, sometimes in the form of investment funding. The Qatari influence offensive strengthened the country’s ties to the U.S. and Europe but has also led to corruption scandals, including the European Parliament’s sprawling Qatargate fiasco.
Around the time of the blockade, Jim Biden was embarking on a foray into the health care business in which he worked closely with troubled hospital chain Americore.
What follows is a tangled web of investments, bridge loans, payments for arranging loans, transfers of at least $200,000 to then-unemployed Joe Biden, and more. At one point, the healthcare company at the heart of this mess, Americore, announced they were seeking $20 million in financing and described James Biden as "Brother and campaign finance chair of former Vice President Joe Biden."
If that's not trading on the Biden name, I don't know what is.
Power corrupts, they say, but it seems influence corrupts just as much. The Bidens have been banking on whatever influence old Joe can bring to bear for quite a while now; in fact, they are beginning to make the Clintons look, well, less horrible if only by comparison. Now, with Joe as President?
Of course, none of the Biden family members will see any consequences from this. They have, shall we say, insurance.
Corruption in politics is as old as, well, politics. Given the imperial colossus our federal government has become, with its tentacles in every aspect of our daily lives, there's a lot of influence to peddle. Politicians just have too much power, and faceless, un-elected bureaucrats even more.
Public service once attracted better people. People like Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, Calvin Coolidge, Theodore Roosevelt, and, yes, Ronald Reagan. Now?
We get people like Joe Biden.
Oh, yes, there is an impeachment inquiry, but even if the House impeaches Joe Biden, it won't go anywhere in the Senate. Hunter Biden could walk into the Senate, bare his soul (we can hope he only bares his soul, but given his history...), and spend days detailing his facilitating corruption and laying the blame at the feet of ‘The Big Guy,’ complete with emails, bank records, and whatnot, and the Senate still will not vote to convict. That's just how things are. But there's an awful lot of smoke around the Biden family for there not to be some fire there someplace.
Power corrupts. We need to look no further than the Biden family to understand that. The only way to address this is by returning the federal government to within the boundaries of the Constitution.
Unfortunately, it's looking a lot like that ship sailed, long ago.