James Comer demands Biden explain $200K from brother, vows to grill first family ‘soon’

WASHINGTON — House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer demanded Thursday that President Biden clarify why he got a $200,000 check from his brother on the same day James Biden received an identical transfer by promising to leverage his “political connections” to secure a Middle Eastern investor.

Comer (R-Ky.) asked White House counsel Edward Siskel for the details after vowing earlier Thursday to haul Biden’s relatives before his panel “very soon” to explain the president’s interactions with his relative’s business associates from countries such as China and Ukraine.

“If Joe Biden did personally loan James Biden an amount that was later repaid by the $200,000 check, please provide the loan documents, including the loan payment, loan agreement, and any other supporting loan documentation,” Comer wrote to Siskel.

The Oversight Committee chairman has publicly scoffed at the six-figure check being a loan repayment and wrote to Siskel that there’s no evidence that Joe Biden ever loaned his brother that amount — after Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said records show the loan occurred about two months before the March 1, 2018, check.

“The White House has claimed Joe Biden loaned James Biden $200,000, and this check was repayment,” Comer wrote to Siskel.

“Records obtained by the Committee do show numerous large incoming transactions into the personal account of James and Sara Biden from various entities. Some of these transaction records may have obscured the identity of the true payer, but no records in the Committee’s possession state that Joe Biden made a large loan payment to his brother.”

Comer also asked for “applicable documentation and IRS filings” that could show whether there was indeed a loan.

The check emerged Friday and was described by Republicans as damning evidence that Biden personally profited from his family’s influence-peddling.

Democrats said it showed the president being a generous family member and that it was not evidence of wrongdoing.

A court filing last year by Americore Health’s bankruptcy trustee said James Biden “procured” $600,000 in loans from the financially beleaguered rural hospital provider “based upon representations that his last name, ‘Biden,’ could ‘open doors’ and that he could obtain a large investment from the Middle East based on his political connections.”

It’s unclear what James Biden did to attempt to secure an investor, but the company said one never materialized.

Last year, the first brother agreed to repay $350,000 of the $600,000 provided by the firm.

“Whether it was a loan or not, James Biden’s March 1, 2018, check to Joe Biden aptly demonstrates one way he personally benefited from his family’s shady influence peddling of his name and their access to him,” Comer wrote to Siskel.

“Even if the transaction in question was part of a loan agreement, we are troubled that Joe Biden’s ability to recoup funds depended on his brother’s cashing-in on the Biden brand.”

Comer said in a podcast interview earlier Thursday that the $200,000 transferred to Joe Biden clearly came from Americore, which lent James Biden the $600,000 in two large tranches beginning in January 2018, because “he never had more than $6,000 in his personal checking account for months.”

Comer told host Chris Farrell that he plans to force Biden’s relatives to testify “very soon” about his role in foreign business ventures and that his staff are reviewing additional subpoenaed bank records from the first brother and from first son Hunter Biden — both of whom regularly involved their powerful relative in their overseas interests.

“The moment everybody’s been waiting for, for the Bidens to come in and have to answer these questions, is rapidly approaching,” Comer told Farrell.

“We’re going to trace every source of revenue the Biden family had, and then we’re going to bring them in and say, ‘How did you get this $3 million from China? How did you get this $1 million from Ukraine? What did you do to get the $3.5 million from Russia?'” Comer said.

“We could have brought them in and asked them a bunch of questions and they would have said, ‘I don’t know. I don’t know.’ More than likely, we’re going to get one crack at them,” Comer went on.

“We could have brought the Bidens in on the first day and had a hearing, like you said, with Hillary [Clinton] on Benghazi and all that and really not accomplish anything. But what we’ve laid out now, I mean, we have found criminal activity by multiple Bidens now. We have found where Joe Biden has benefited financially.”

“We put together a pretty good case, and I think we’re gonna have some exceptional questions for the Biden family to answer,” Comer said.

The White House did not immediately respond to The Post’s requests for comment.

House Republicans launched an impeachment inquiry into Biden’s role in his relatives’ dealings last month, citing the 80-year-old president’s meetings and phone calls with Hunter and James Biden’s associates from China, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Russia and Ukraine, as well as with American associates.

“We’re tracing all the wires. Hopefully in a few weeks, we’re gonna be able to have a chart to show where all the money the Bidens got came from and where it ended up,” Comer said.

The rare impeachment inquiry proceedings are led by the Oversight, Judiciary and tax-focused Ways & Means committees.

In the past century, all such inquires have led to presidents being impeached or resigning, though none of them were convicted by the Senate, which maintains a two-thirds vote threshold for conviction and removal form office.

Newly elected House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is “very supportive of our work,” said Comer, who recently recalled dining with Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward, whose reporting with Carl Bernstein helped drive the Watergate impeachment inquiry into President Richard Nixon.

“[Woodward] said the difference that [Watergate investigator] Howard Baker had, versus what I have, is that Howard Baker was blessed with a curious, aggressive press corps,” the Republican recalled.

“And he, and he said, ‘You don’t have that.'”