James Comer Is Mad

WASHINGTON Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) this week came up with a new excuse for why reporters keep writing hes found no evidence incriminating President Joe Biden.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, Comer told a Fox News radio host , is working with the Deep State whos working with the liberal mainstream media to try to indoctrinate into peoples minds that theres no evidence.

Comer has griped about the media coverage of his impeachment inquiry all along, but describing it as a deep state conspiracy is new. Its also telling, because its ridiculous and it shows his tendency toward exaggeration, which is why reporters are always pointing out that actually, hes got no evidence.

And thats why hes so mad. 

To take one example, Comer complained Monday on Fox News that he had proven Biden received $250,000 thanks to global influence peddling by his family members cashing in on the last name hed made famous. 

The committee revealed in October that it had obtained bank records showing two payments, one for $200,000 and another for $40,000, from James and Sara Biden, the presidents brother and sister-in-law, to an account connected to Joe Biden, in 2018. 

Comer trumpeted evidence of a direct payment to Joe Biden. He claimed it was dirty money James Biden only earned because his brother was in on the scheme.

But the checks said loan repayment on the memo line, and, as HuffPost reported at the time , other records in the committees possession suggested Joe Biden had previously sent the same sums to James and Sara Biden. So what it really looked like was Comer caught Joe Biden loaning his brother money at a time when he was flush with cash from his 2017 memoir. 

Comer refused to accept that the money was a repayment, because the initial transfers from Joe Biden to his brother arent marked as loans, there is no written loan agreement, and no interest was charged. As Comer put it to HuffPost in November, Loan my ass.

Last month, lawmakers asked James Biden about the payments during a closed-door interview as part of the impeachment inquiry.

I repaid two loans that I secured from my brother, James Biden said, according to a transcript , adding that he needed the money for outstanding bills that I had. He said he knew he could ask his brother because of the millions hed earned from his book. 

Republicans obtained bank records showing James Biden received $200,000 from Americore, a bankrupt health care company that hired him as a consultant, on the same day he repaid the same amount to brother. (As part of a settlement stemming from the firms bankruptcy proceedings, James Biden agreed to pay back $350,000 of the $600,000 the company paid him .)

Lawmakers also interviewed Carol Fox, Americores bankruptcy trustee, who said she had no evidence that Joe Biden had been involved in his brothers work with the company, or that the two had even spoken about it.  

A staff attorney asked Fox if she had seen anything where James Biden informed Americore that he was going to take the $200,000 that was purportedly a loan and give it to Joe Biden?

Fox said, I did not. 

Regarding the $40,000 James Biden repaid his brother, Republicans have called it the proceeds of Hunter Bidens $5 million deal with a Chinese energy conglomerate, arguing James Biden was only able to make the payment because weeks earlier he had received  $150,000 from his nephew, who said he paid him as a consultant on the project. And theyve suggested Joe Biden knew where the money was coming from because he briefly met one of the Chinese nationals involved. Rob Walker, a former business partner of Hunter Bidens, testified in a closed-door interview that Joe Biden met the executive in 2017 at a group lunch in a Washington hotel.

Heres the rub: Walker said Joe Biden popped in for 10 minutes, and the Chinese nationals present might have been impressed, but the elder Biden had a habit of checking in on his son, whose life at the time was falling apart under the weight of a crack cocaine addiction. 

I think that from time to time he liked to lay eyes on his son who was in and out of sobriety, Walker said. 

He told lawmakers he didnt think Joe Biden even really knew why they were there and that the elder Biden said, Good luck in whatever you guys are doing. 

Several other former business partners testified to a similar pattern. Hunter Biden would get a call from his dad, and instead of leaving the room, he would put him on speakerphone, even if business associates were present, and Joe Biden would talk about the weather. None have said they observed Joe Biden actually talk business or express any familiarity with what his son or brother were doing. 

In his own deposition, Hunter Biden furiously rejected the idea he had funneled money through his uncle to his father.

Youre acting as if theres, like, a dollar here that somehow was traced all the way down to here to repay a loan that you guys say that my father made to him, Biden told lawmakers. All I know is this: My father was never involved in any of my business, ever. Never received a cent from anybody or never benefited in any way. Never took any actions on behalf in any way.

On Fox News radio this week, Comer described the money Joe Biden received from his brother as part of the familys global grift without even bothering to ridicule the idea that Joe Biden had previously lent his brother the money.

This all revolves around Joe, because not only have we proven Joe got $250,000, a quarter of a million dollars of that money, but Joe met with all the people that were wiring the Bidens money, even though he lied and said he never met with any of them, Comer said. Theyre bad people in bad countries who were being investigated for corruption. 

(Joe Biden has denied that he ever discussed business with his son and his sons associates, according to Republicans own rundown of his past statements . Comer and his colleagues maintain that Joe Biden saying good luck to a family members business associate is tantamount to talking business with that person.) 

Comer went on to suggest all the money Joe Bidens family members received amounted to foreign bribes. He did not mention that Republicans main bribery allegation against Joe Biden that he received $5 million from a Ukrainian oligarch evaporated last month when the Justice Department said an FBI informant with ties to Russian intelligence had made it up . It had been Republicans most compelling piece of evidence. 

In addition to calling the media part of a deep state conspiracy to defend Joe Biden, Comer lashed out at reporters whove traveled to his Kentucky district to report stories about his own use of Hunter Biden-style shell companies to make financial transactions . The reporters visiting Kentucky, Comer claimed, wore effete footwear and walked in a dainty manner. 

They stand out like a sore thumb, they can tell when they get out of the car and see their little Gucci slippers that theyre not from my Red Wing boot-wearing hometown, Comer said. They waddle in there, you know, tiptoe in there to the court, and they do all these open records requests and they wont do anything on Biden.