PRESS RELEASE Contact: press@congressionalintegrity.org
For Immediate Release
Date: March 16, 2022
Washington, DC – Today, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer released a memo on the so-called evidence they have gathered into the Biden family’s business and with it new despicable attacks on President Biden’s deceased veteran son, Beau, and his widow Hallie. Comer also once again demonstrated gobsmacking hypocrisy by focusing on unproven conspiracy theories about Biden’s family while ignoring the hundreds of millions of dollars Donald and Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner raked in while serving in the White House.
In response, Congressional Integrity Project Executive Director, Kyle Herrig, issued the following statement:
“This just shows how desperate James Comer is to find something to justify wasting taxpayer dollars going after President Biden. It was not enough for him to go after the legacy of the President’s deceased veteran son, now he is going after his widow. The American people have made clear they do not support these disgusting political stunts like these. And all of this comes after Comer and other MAGA Republicans spent years undermining legitimate investigations into corruption from Trump and his family, including their financial ties to countries like China, Saudi Arabia, and Russia. If Comer actually cared about potential conflicts of interest, he would be investigating how Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump, and Jared Kushner profited off their time in the White House rather than going after private citizens.”
Background:
- GQ: How Don Jr., Ivanka, and Eric Trump Have Profited Off Their Dad’s Presidency. “In April 2017, a real estate firm tied to the Kushner family made a direct appeal to the government of Qatar to invest…A month later, when a coalition of Persian Gulf states led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates organized a blockade of Qatar, Kushner was among its most vocal U.S. supporters.” […] In the months that followed, Kushner developed a close working relationship with Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman—close enough that bin Salman allegedly told confidants that the president’s son-in-law was ‘in his pocket.’ Fortunately, help for the Kushner family’s financial woes subsequently arrived in the form of Brookfield Asset Management, which acquired a 99-year lease on 666 Fifth Avenue for about $1 billion in April 2018. This miraculous timing allowed the Kushners to pay off its existing mortgage and buy out its partner in the venture, Vornado Realty Trust. The buyer was [funded by] the government of Qatar.” [GQ, 10/14/19, 3/22/18; Wall Street Journal, 8/3/18]
- Los Angeles Times: Trump’s Children Take In Millions Overseas As President Slams Biden’s Son. “Time and again, Trump’s children have blurred the lines of family, nation and business — essentially the charge the president makes against the Bidens as he battles a House impeachment inquiry focused on whether he improperly pushed Ukraine to investigate his political rivals for what he claims were shady dealings. Trump’s children ‘appear to people all over the world to be his bagmen,’ said Richard Painter, who served as White House ethics czar under President George W. Bush. ‘This is the Trump business empire. It’s owned by Donald Trump, the president, and they are managing it for him and collecting business on his behalf.’” [Los Angeles Times, 10/10/19]
- HEADLINE: Jared And Ivanka Made Up To $640 Million In the White House. “Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump reported between $172 million and $640 million in outside income while working in the White House, according to an analysis of financial disclosures by CREW. […] Both Kushner and Trump announced they would not take a salary while working for the government in an attempt to shut down nepotism concerns. While their supporters marked this as a public sacrifice, the massive amount of money they made on the side undercuts that argument, as government salaries would have been less than 1% of their income.” [CREW, 2/8/21]
- Ivanka Trump Obtained Three Preliminary Trademark Approvals On The Same Day She Dined With The Chinese President. “On the same day Trump and his daughter dined with Chinese President Xi Jinping at Mar-a-Lago in Florida in April 2017, China awarded her three preliminary trademark approvals for jewelry, handbags and spa services. In all, she has obtained more than a dozen Chinese trademarks since entering the White House, ensuring her access to the world’s second-largest economy if she goes back into business.” [Los Angeles Times, 10/10/19]
- Donald Trump’s Media Company Is Under Investigation Over Allegations of Russian Money Laundering. “Federal prosecutors in New York involved in the criminal investigation into Donald Trump’s social media company last year started examining whether it violated money laundering statutes in connection with the acceptance of $8m with suspected Russian ties, according to sources familiar with the matter. The company – Trump Media, which owns Trump’s Truth Social platform – initially came under criminal investigation over its preparations for a potential merger with a blank check company called Digital World (DWAC) that was also the subject of an earlier investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Towards the end of last year, federal prosecutors started examining two loans totaling $8m wired to Trump Media, through the Caribbean, from two obscure entities that both appear to be controlled in part by the relation of an ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin, the sources said.” [The Guardian, 3/15/23]
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- Don Jr. Knew About The $8 Million Loan From An Ally of Russian President Vladamir Putin. “Trump’s son Donald Trump, Jr., was reportedly aware of at least the first payment coming through, the Guardian reported, quoting an email sent to him about it to “keep [him] in the loop,” but the outlet noted it’s unclear if Trump—Trump Media’s chair—was aware of the payments and their origins, saying he “did not seem to be particularly interested in managing the day-to-day running” of the company.” [Forbes, 3/15/23]
- Trump’s Former CFO Expressed Concern Over Russian Money. “The obscure origins of the $8m loans caused alarm at Trump Media and, in the spring of 2022, Trump Media’s then chief financial officer Phillip Juhan weighed returning the money, according to Wilkerson. But the money was never returned, Wilkerson said, in part because losing $8m out of the roughly $12m cash that Trump Media had in its accounts at that time would have placed significant stress on its financial situation.” [The Guardian, 3/15/23]
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