China, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Turkey have reportedly funneled millions of dollars into the University of Delaware since the college launched President Joe Biden's domestic policy think tank, the Biden Institute, led by his sister, Valerie Biden Owens, according to a report by the Free Beacon.
According to records from the United States Department of Education, following the establishment of the Biden Institute in 2017, the University of Delaware received around $6,704,250 from China, $23,610,996 from Saudi Arabia, $2,513,646 from the Gulf State of Oman, $1,673,847 from Turkey.
“I am not surprised. There is a pattern here that spans administrations. Aspiring presidents set up foundations and, while they have in theory a charitable or academic focus, they are essentially pay-to-play money laundering machines. This was the case with the Clinton Foundation. It is the case with the Biden Institute. And, from a business angle, it was also the case with the Trump Hotel,” said Michael Rubin, a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).
Rubin noted that “China is the most concerning” of the donations and not only that but “many of Biden's key national security staff participated in WestExec Advisors, which sought to use the influence of their time in government to help clients like China and perhaps Russia as well skirt U.S. national security regulations. That WestExec has scrubbed its client listings suggests they have something to hide.”
Regarding the donations from Saudi Arabia and given the administration’s cold shoulder to the Kingdom in favor of Iran, Rubin described the revelations of Saudi donations as “tricky” given that the President “may have a figure in mind, but he can't tell the Saudis what it is.”
“The Saudis simply have to guess. Also, while Biden dug himself into a deep hole, the Saudis are guessing that they might need to curry favor at some point over the next two years and so could figure the price they are paying is worth it,” explained Rubin.
The revelations of the foreign funding come as Congressional lawmakers have called for an investigation into the President's private documents housed at the University of Delaware after federal authorities uncovered classified documents at Biden's home and at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement of the University of Pennsylvania. The University of Pennsylvania has faced questions from Congress about foreign donations it received after its launch in 2018.
In 2020, the University of Delaware told reporters that the records of the Biden Institute's donors are not subject to public information laws because the organization itself obtains its funds through private donations.
According to government watchdogs, the University of Delaware's secrecy over the Biden's Institute's cash flow has raised questions about whether foreign funds have gone to the think tank, chaired by the President's sister, and has hired some of his top White House sides and political friends.
“Given the history of the Biden family mixing business, influence, and politics, it should be on everybody's radar. If this were occurring in a different country, we would be writing reports about their corruption. Nor is it relevant to point fingers at Trump and some of his business connections. Two wrongs do not make a right,” Rubin said to the Foreign Desk.
Speaking to the Washington Free Beacon, Paul Kamenar, counsel to the National Legal and Policy Center, an ethics and government watchdog group that has investigated both organizations, said, "the secrecy surrounding the suspected foreign funding of the Biden Institute at the University of Delaware is on a par with that of the Penn Biden Center of the University of Pennsylvania…The House oversight committees need to uncover the dark money sources in both cases, particularly from China."
In late January, lawmakers like Texas Conservative Senator Ted Cruz called on the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Department of Justice to search the several hundreds of boxes of records that the President donated to the University of Delaware library several decades ago, which are closed to the public's view. The Texas Senator explained that officials needed to know if any other classified documents in the donated records. According to Cruz, based on the President's previous pattern, "we should have zero reasons [to] have any confidence that there are not multiple classified documents," said Cruz on his podcast.
In January of this year, House Republican Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee from Texas, Michael McCaul, launched an investigation into foreign funding of the University of Pennsylvania, which has obtained $61 million from prominent Chinese funders in the past several years following the launch of the University of Pennsylvania's Biden Center in 2017.
According to records from the Department of Education obtained by the Free Beacon, since the President's inauguration in 2021, the university continues to accept an additional $14 million from unnamed donors in China and Hong Kong, raising concerns that the Chinese government spread its influence in one of America's most prominent universities and people who have the President's ears.
Related Story: House Oversight Chair Says China’s Donations to Penn Biden Center May Have Influenced Administration
