By: Brett Rowland
Members of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability said Wednesday the panel uncovered evidence of influence peddling and financial deception by the Biden family, claims the White House said lack merit.
"Many of the wire payments occurred while Joe Biden was vice president and leading the United States' efforts in these countries," House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said at a news conference Wednesday.
He said the payments show "a pattern of influence peddling."
The committee's memorandum said the Bidens and their business associates formed a series of companies, the majority of which were created while Joe Biden was the vice president. The memo said the Biden family, their associates and their businesses were paid more than $10 million by foreign companies, including companies in China and Romania.
"The committee has identified over 20 companies affiliated with certain Biden family members and their business associates, formed mostly in Delaware and Washington, D.C," according to the memo. "The services provided by some of these companies, the purpose for creating such a complicated corporate structure, and whether ethics/financial disclosure laws should require a public official to publicly disclose the identities of such companies remain under scrutiny by the committee."
The committee wants to change government ethics and disclosure laws to provide transparency regarding presidents and vice presidents immediate family members’ income, assets and financial relationships, the memo said.
Existing financial disclosure laws and regulations don't require non-dependent family members of senior elected officials to provide any information to the public. The committee plans to write legislation that would change reporting requirements related to some foreign transactions involving senior elected officials’ family members and financial disclosure requirements that show ownership of corporate entities, according to the memo.
The White House has dismissed the claims as baseless.
"They're really just microwaving old debunked stuff," White House spokesman for oversight and investigations Ian Sams said on Twitter.
Related Story: House GOP Now Investigating Nine Biden Family Members
