Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that Rep. Jared Moskowitz has subpoenaed for Rep. James Comer today.
According to Kentucky property records, Comer and his own brother have engaged in land swaps related to their family farming business. In one deal—also involving $200,000, as well as a shell company—the more powerful and influential Comer channeled extra money to his brother, seemingly from nothing. Other recent land swaps were quickly followed with new applications for special tax breaks, state records show. All of this, perplexingly, related to the dealings of a family company that appears to have never existed on paper.
Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the ranking member of the Oversight panel, added in a press statement, “The more than 1,400 pages of additional bank records just show what these witnesses and thousands of prior pages of records have already established: that the President was not involved in and did not profit from his family members’ business ventures.”
Republicans nevertheless continued to treat this as fascinating — I’m honestly not sure why — acting as if the loan and repayment were evidence of something nefarious. The claims have never made much sense, and after seeing this Daily Beast report, the GOP’s line of attack suddenly looks worse.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer’s crusade against President Joe Biden has struggled mightily all year, but Republicans’ hopes were buoyed last month by a new revelation.
“We have found a $200,000 DIRECT payment to Joe Biden,” the Kentucky Republican’s panel declared in a message via social media.
The facts proved to be far less interesting than the GOP hoped. Based on the information Republicans uncovered, Joe Biden — in his personal capacity, two years after serving as vice president — loaned his brother James Biden some money. Then, his brother paid him back. In case there were any ambiguities about the purpose of the no-interest repayment, James Biden literally wrote on the check itself, “Loan repayment.”
But unlike with the Bidens, Comer’s own history actually borders a conflict of interest between his official government role and his private family business—and it’s been going on for decades.
While Comer and House GOP allies have tried to cast the Biden transactions as evidence of unsavory and possibly impeachable offenses, multiple news organizations—including CNN, The Wall Street Journal, FactCheck.org, and the conservative-leaning Washington Examiner—have all thrown cold water on the notion that the payments are evidence of anything other than a brother helping a brother. Comer has in particular been trying to make hay out of two personal loan repayments from James Biden to his brother, for $40,000 and $200,000—with all transactions occurring in 2017 and 2018, when Joe Biden was neither in office nor a candidate.
But if Comer genuinely believes these transactions clear the “shady business practices” bar, he might want to consider a parallel inquiry into his own family.