As always, the first step in any political scandal is — follow the money. The House Oversight Committee under Republican chair James Comer has spent several months doing just that with the Biden family’s archipelago of limited-liability corporations (LLCs) and strangely generous oligarchs in eastern Europe and Central Asia — and they have struck gold, almost literally.

According to Fox News, the committee has tracked $20 million in payments to Biden Inc, and have at least correlated those transactions to curiously coincidental actions of family members — including “squeaky clean” Joe himself:

Comer also released the new report this morning, detailing the transactions. The summary looks shocking enough:

• Committee Staff is Releasing Payments from Russia, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine that Occurred During Joe Biden’s Vice Presidency: The Committee has now identified over $20 million in payments from foreign sources to the Biden family and their business associates.

• Hunter Biden and Devon Archer Used Rosemont Seneca Entities to Bring in Millions from Oligarchs in Europe and Asia:  Using accounts nominally tied to Devon Archer (but using the familiar “Rosemont Seneca” branding), Hunter Biden received incremental payments originating from foreign sources, attempting to hide the source and size of the payments.

• In February 2014, a Russian Oligarch Sent $3.5 Million to a Shell Company Associated with Hunter Biden and Devon Archer: Russian billionaire Yelena Baturina transferred $3.5 million to Rosemont Seneca Thornton, a shell company. Approximately $1 million was transferred to Devon Archer, and the remainder was used to initially fund a new company account, Rosemont Seneca Bohai, which Devon Archer and Hunter Biden used to receive other foreign wires.

• In Spring 2014, a Ukrainian Oligarch Placed Archer and Biden on the Burisma Board of Directors and Agreed to Pay them $1 Million Each per Year: Burisma Holdings’ (Burisma) corporate secretary, Vadym Pozharsky, worked on behalf of the Ukrainian oligarch and owner of Burisma, Mykola Zlochevsky. Hunter Biden was initially hired by Burisma to work as counsel for the company, and Pozharsky and Zlochevsky met with Hunter Biden at a conference in Lake Como in Italy where they decided Hunter Biden would work on the board of directors with Devon Archer. Then-Vice President Joe Biden visited Ukraine soon after their first payments. Payments from Burisma for both Devon Archer and Hunter Biden were wired to Rosemont Seneca Bohai.  Payments were transmitted in incremental amounts to Hunter Biden’s different bank accounts.

• In April 2014, a Kazakhstani Oligarch Wired the Exact Price of Biden’s Sportscar to a Bank Account Used by Archer and Biden: In February 2014, Hunter Biden met with Kenes Rakishev at a Washington, D.C. hotel. Rakishev worked closely with the prime minister of Kazakhstan, Karim Massimov. In April, Rakishev, a Kazakhstani oligarch, wired $142,300 to Rosemont Seneca Bohai. The next day, a payment was made from Rosemont Seneca Bohai for a sportscar for Hunter Biden in the amount of $142,300.  Archer and Biden then arranged for Burisma executives to visit Kazakhstan in June 2014 to evaluate a three-way deal among Burisma, a Chinese state-owned company, and the government of Kazakhstan.

• Hunter Biden received millions of dollars in payments from Yelena Baturina, Burisma, and Kenes Rakishev. Vice President Biden had dinner with them in the spring of 2014 and 2015 in Washington, D.C.

But what about Joe Biden? Comer’s report argues that Joe was “the Brand” for which all of the payments were made. These payments were clearly bribes, and Joe was the only value for which any bribes would have been made at all:

• President Biden Lied About His Family’s Business Deals. The Committee has revealed millions of dollars have come into the Biden family’s bank accounts from foreign sources, including China, Romania, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine. Independent whistleblowers’ sworn testimony from the criminal investigation into Hunter Biden has corroborated the Committee’s financial investigation. Testimony from Hunter Biden’s former business partner, Devon Archer, also supports the Committee’s findings. No one in the Biden Administration or in the Minority has explained what services, if any, the Bidens and their associates provided in exchange for the over $20 million in foreign payments.
• Joe Biden was “The Brand” sold around the world to enrich the Biden family and he was used to “signal” their access, influence, and power. The Committee’s investigation has shown that money was transferred to the Bidens from foreign nationals or entities based in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine when Joe Biden was Vice President. Then-Vice President Biden met—in person, for significant periods of time—with those individuals or their representatives. Then-Vice President Biden joined approximately 20 phone calls on speakerphone with Hunter Biden’s foreign business associates and attended dinners with foreign oligarchs who paid huge sums of money to Hunter Biden.2 Joe Biden, “the brand,” was the only product the Bidens sold.
• President Biden’s Family is the Vehicle to Receive Bribery Payments. President Biden’s defenders purport a weak defense by asserting the Committee must show payments directly to the President to show corruption. This is a hollow claim no other American would be afforded if their family members accepted foreign payments or bribes. Indeed, the law recognizes payments to family members to corruptly influence others can constitute a bribe.3

For this last claim, Comer quotes from the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act:

“Companies also may violate the FCPA if they give payments or gifts to third parties, such as an official’s family members, as an indirect way of corruptly influencing a foreign official.” FCPA – A Resource Guide to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (Second Edition), U.S. Dep’t of Justice (Criminal Division) & U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (Enforcement Division), p. 16 (emphasis added).

Don’t be fooled by the title of the law. It works bidirectionally and applies in this alleged instance.

The question is: does it apply to the Bidens? There do seem to be multiple incidents where the money bought access to Joe himself:

• After Yelena Baturina wired $3.5 million to Rosemount Seneca Thornton in 2014, then-VP Joe Biden had dinner with her, Hunter, Devon Archer, and others in Washington DC. “Notably,” the report states, Baturina remains off the list of sanctioned Russian oligarchs to this day.
• In the same year, VP Biden dined with Baturina again and with Kazakh oligarch Kenes Rakishev and the-Kazakh PM Massimov in DC along with Archer and Hunter, after Rakishev wired $142,300 to Rosemount so that Hunter could buy a sports car. Biden later dined with Massimov, Hunter, and Archer the following year as well.
• Also in 2015, VP Biden had dinner with Burisma corporate secretary Vadim Pozharsky along with Massimov, Hunter, and Archer. This was a year after both Hunter and Archer had joined the Burisma board at a salary of $1 million a year.

Does that prove a pay-to-play for access to the American vice-president? It certainly would for any other instance under the FCPA or other bribery/influence-peddling statutes. If any of us engaged in this level of corruption, the Department of Justice certainly wouldn’t be shy about pursuing a prosecution.

Besides, what defense could the Bidens provide? What other purpose would foreign oligarchs spend these fortunes? Neither Hunter nor Archer had any special expertise in any of their fields. The only possible asset they could sell for the sums involved was access to The Big Guy — and VP Biden made sure they could make the sale.

This smells to high heaven, and thus far, so does the media response to it. American media outlets spent years chasing their Russia-collusion tales only to come up entirely empty. Here we have ample evidence of foreign corruption, and most of the media simply yawns at it.

Andrew Malcolm and I discuss that in today’s Ed Morrissey Show episode, based on the laughable NBC News spin that this is nothing more than Republicans pouncing on Biden’s “brand.” Today’s show also features:

• Do revisionists have a point about the Japanese surrender?
• Andrew Malcolm spent years in Japan and offers his own unique perspective on the annual August debate, made more acute by the release of Oppenheimer.
• We also discuss the strange new direction taken by the New York Times. Are they now the experts in sex toys — and “vulva owners”?

The Ed Morrissey Show is now a fully downloadable and streamable show at  Spotify, Apple Podcasts, the TEMS Podcast YouTube channel, and on Rumble and our own in-house portal at the #TEMS page!