New York Times on Biden Family Corruption: ‘No Evidence of Wrongdoing’ by President

The New York Times covered Wednesday’s revelations by the House Oversight Committee of a broad scheme of influence-peddling by Joe Biden by declaring Republicans found “no evidence of wrongdoing” by the president.

As Breitbart News reported, Committee chair Rep. James Comer (R-KY) laid out the committee’s findings thus far that then-Vice President Biden and his family, including his son Hunter Biden, had set up a network of shell companies that took money from foreign business partners and distributed it to various Biden family members. It was not clear what business purpose these transactions served or what foreign partners received in return.

Breitbart News noted:

On April 17, Comer announced a total of nine Biden family members profited from the family’s international business schemes, six more than disclosed. Those identified on the payroll were Hunter, James, Hallie Biden — and a fourth unidentified Biden.

…

“The inclusion of Biden grandchildren in the list of family Biden members has not been previously disclosed,” Jonathan Turley posted on Twitter. “The spread of transfers to nine family members and the use of a complex array of LLC companies raise obvious concerns over an effort to conceal influence peddling.”

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In total, Comer said the Biden family business — over the course of several years — received over $10 million from schemes in Romania and China. The Biden family business received some of that money, totaling $179,836.86, when Joe Biden was vice president, Comer revealed in March.

The mainstream media largely avoided coverage of the press conference, focusing instead on the indictment of Rep. George Santos (R-NY). And the Times sought to spin the findings as an exoneration:

Republicans described the transactions as proof of “influence peddling” by Mr. Biden’s family, including his son Hunter Biden, and referenced some previously known, if unflattering, details of the younger Mr. Biden’s business dealings. Those included an episode in which he accepted a 2.8-carat diamond from a Chinese businessman. G.O.P. lawmakers also produced material suggesting that President Biden and his allies had at times made misleading statements in their efforts to push back aggressively against accusations of wrongdoing by Hunter Biden.

But on Wednesday, the Republicans conceded that they had yet to find evidence of a specific corrupt action Mr. Biden took in office in connection with any of the business deals his son entered into. Instead, their presentation underscored how little headway top G.O.P. lawmakers have made in finding clear evidence of questionable transactions they can tie to Mr. Biden, their chief political rival.

The existence of a complex scheme to facilitate and conceal potential bribery seems to have elicited no interest from the Times — which sets the standard for the rest of the media — beyond a chance to attack Republicans.

News reports suggest that Hunter Biden faces imminent indictment, though possibly on minor charges such as falsifying information on a gun application, failing to register as a foreign agent, or improperly reporting taxes.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.