A Democrat member of Congress says that in light of revelations that President Joe Biden stored multiple batches of classified documents at his home, there must be an investigation into whether Chinese donations to the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Biden Center originated from entities connected to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
The statements were made by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) during a Jan. 23 appearance on Fox News’s America Reports, where host John Roberts asked the congressman about the most recent development in the Joe Biden classified document scandal.
On Jan. 21, CNBC reported the FBI conducted a 13-hour long search of Biden’s home in Wilmington, Delaware on Jan. 20, which uncovered a fourth batch of “classified records or material” found at a personal address controlled by the President.
CNBC added that the documents recovered in the latest round were especially old, dating back to both Biden’s time as a U.S. Senator from 1973 to 2009 and as Obama’s Vice President from 2009 to 2017.
Roberts asked Rep. Khanna, a member of the House Oversight Committee, “Congressman, what about the potential connections with China here and the tens of millions of dollars that China gave to the University of Pennsylvania at the same time these classified documents were sitting in the Penn Biden Center?”
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Khanna replied, “Well, we need to look at that, we need to know what the facts are, who was the money coming from, was it coming from private individuals, was it coming from people with ties to the Chinese Communist Party, what was the purpose of the funding, was it connected in any way to the Penn Center?”
“We can’t just have two facts out there without a deeper investigation of all the facts. But if you’re asking should all the facts come out, of course they should,” Khanna added.
Mounting pressure
On Jan. 18, Rep. James Comer (R-KY), Chairman of the Oversight Committee, wrote to University of Pennsylvania President M. Elizabeth Magill to demand information on “anonymous Chinese donations to UPenn and the Penn Biden Center.”
Chairman Comer’s letter summarized the controversy, “Recent reports reveal President Biden’s attorneys discovered Obama-Biden Administration documents in an unsecure closet at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement—a Washington, D.C.-based think tank affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania.”
“The Committee is concerned about who had access to these documents given the Biden family’s financial connections to foreign actors and companies,” Comer added.
Comer’s letter expanded, “The Committee has learned UPenn received millions of dollars from anonymous Chinese sources, with a marked uptick in donations when then-former Vice President Biden was announced as leading the Penn Biden Center initiative.”
The Congressman added, “Following the formation of the Penn Biden Center, donations originating from China tripled and continued while Joe Biden explored a potential run for President.”
“The American people deserve to know whether the Chinese Communist Party, through Chinese companies, influenced potential Biden Administration policies with large, anonymous donations to UPenn and the Penn Biden Center,” Comer stated.
Solid foundations
Despite the Oversight Committee being a GOP majority — with Comer seconded by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), lead House Manager of the second Impeachment Trial of former President Donald Trump — the allegations of a potential conflict of interest with the CCP are grounded in facts.
In December of 2020, shortly after the Presidential Election had concluded, Fox News published a series of emails from the Hunter Biden laptop scandal where Hunter, in connection with the Biden family joint venture SinoHawk Holdings, conducted close business relations with a Chinese enterprise with ties to the Communist Party and its People’s Liberation Army.
Hunter Biden did business with China Energy Company Limited (CEFC), where Joe Biden was directly implicated when SinoHawk rented an office from the House of Sweden building in Washington D.C. in 2017.
Emails showed Hunter contacting House of Sweden manager Cecilia Browning, asking, “Please have keys made available for new office mates.”
Hunter included a list of the following names to be provided with keys:
- Joe Biden
- Jill Biden
- Jim Biden
- Gongwen Dong (Chairman Ye CEFC Emissary)
“Chairman Ye” appears to refer to Ye Jianming, who in 2018 was arrested under Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption sweeps on charges of bribery.
Hunter further said he wanted the sign on the office to “reflect the following” names: “The Biden Foundation” and “Hudson West (CEFC US).”
In September of 2020, the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs released a report titled Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact On U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns, which confirmed that “Hunter Biden had business associations with Ye Jianming, Gongwen Dong, and other Chinese nationals linked to the Communist government and the People’s Liberation Army. Those associations resulted in millions of dollars in cash flow.”
Quite a coincidence
This aspect of the classified documents scandal became more pronounced when on Jan. 12, a photograph of a 2018 background check filled out by Hunter Biden for an alleged gun purchase was published on Twitter.
The document listed Hunter’s current address as Joe Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware residence, claiming a monthly rent payment of $49,910.
The veracity of the document was verified in a Jan. 20 “fact check” by The Washington Post that sought to debunk claims by Fox News that the background check was evidence that Joe Biden was using Hunter as an intermediary to sell access to classified documents to China.
The Post stated it was able to “independently confirm the authenticity of the…form, and that an assistant to Hunter Biden filled out the form.”
The fact check added that the background check was not for a gun purchase, but part of a rental application for an apartment in Los Angeles.
Although the claims that Hunter was laundering CCP money to President Biden via egregious rent payments to the family home appear to be purely speculation, Jan. 16 reporting by Breitbart News nonetheless showed an eyebrow-raising coincidence.
Relying on emails from the Hunter Biden laptop, Breitbart quoted Cecilia Browning in a December of 2017 email chain when Hunter was attempting to terminate the lease at House of Sweden.
“If you are willing to terminate the lease of #507 – the owners are willing to let you out of the lease as of December 31, 2017…Please note that there is a security deposit paid by you of $49,910 which will be returned within 15 days after the termination of the lease (after inspection of normal wear and tear).”
The sum happens to exactly match the amount Hunter Biden claimed he was paying for rent at the Biden family’s Wilmington address.
