The $200,000 Check

Yesterday the Comer committee released a copy of a $200,000 personal check from Joe's younger brother Jim to Joe himself, characteied as a "loan repayment". Per the committee,

In 2018, James Biden received $600,000 in loans from, Americore—a financially distressed and failing rural hospital operator.

According to bankruptcy court documents, James Biden received these loans “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.”

On March 1, 2018, Americore wired a $200,000 loan into James and Sara Biden’s personal bank account – not their business bank account.

And then on the very same day, James Biden wrote a $200,000 check from this same personal bank account to Joe Biden.

There's less to this than meets the eye. There's no specific quid pro quo involved, at least from what we can see now, and Joe was out of office at the time. Both Joe and Jim can claim it was what it said it was, just a loan repayment, nobody's business but theirs. On the other hand, it does reflect a mingling of family finances that we've seen especially in Joe and Hunter's dealings with each other. The committee continues,

Even if this was a personal loan repayment, it’s still troubling that Joe Biden’s ability to be paid back by his brother depended on the success of his family’s shady financial dealings.

Some immediate questions President Biden must answer for the American people:

Does he have documents proving he lent such a large sum of money to his brother and what were the terms of such financial arrangement?

Did he have similar financial arrangements with other family members that led them to make similar large payments to him?

Just the News provides additional context to the Jim Biden deal. In 2018, Jim received a total of $600,000 in loans from Americore, which the committee characterizes as "a financially distressed and failing rural hospital operator" that eventually declared bankruptcy.

After Americore Health declared bankruptcy, a Chapter 11 trustee sued James Biden alleging that the company loaned him $600,000 while it was struggling to stay afloat.

"Instead, of complying with his fiduciary responsibilities, Defendant helped Debtors procure an ill-advised bridge loan from a hedge fund that had a deleterious impact on the financial affairs of the Debtor and ultimately forced Debtors into bankruptcy, as he never delivered the promised the large investment from the Middle East," the bankruptcy court document reads. "And worse, Defendant never repaid the Loans to Americore Health, including during the time that Debtors were strapped for cash."

The plaintiff claims that it did not receive an equivalent value in services for the payments to James Biden and that the company was "Was insolvent on the dates that such transfers were made, or became insolvent as a result of such transfers."

. . . Americore has faced its own legal troubles and accusations from employees of improper management that are separate from James Biden's relationship with the company.

The UK Daily Mail has the best account of how these circustances affect Joe:

In an exclusive interview with DailyMail.com, Bush administration White House ethics chief Painter said that the President could face serious consequences if he can't produce evidence the supposed loan is real, and demanded his aides show the receipts.

'What is absolutely critical here is to find documentation of the original loan from the President to his brother, and the President should produce that,' Painter said.

'If there was no loan, there are serious questions about whether this was income for tax purposes in 2018. That's really a huge problem.

. . . When he announced his bid for President in 2019, he was required to file a statement with the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) listing his income, assets and liabilities dating back to 2017.

OGE rules say Joe did not have to report the loan itself on his disclosure forms. But Painter said interest earned on the loan could be reportable as an income source for the then-presidential candidate.

On his form, filed in July 2019, Joe listed income ranging from tens of thousands of dollars from speaking engagements dating back to November 2017, to a $950 distribution from a retirement account.

But there were no entries for interest payments from his brother James – who goes by the nickname 'Jim'.

'I think that would have to go on the form, if you got interest from your brother. And it certainly would have to go on the tax forms,' Painter said.

'If it was not a loan, then there would be serious problems over why it wasn't reported on the 2019 candidate disclosure form, as well as for income tax.'

IRS rules say loans between family members must charge a minimum interest rate in order to not be considered gifts or income. At the time, the minimum rate was around 3%, which would be $6,000 for a year-long $200,000 loan.

One thing that's significant for me is that, in addition to showing more widespread commingling of family business interests and at least one payment directly to Joe, we're starting to see amounts that would be more worth Joe's time. Five-figure payments here and there, which we've seen via Hunter, won't support the Biden family lifestyles. A six-figure payment comes closer, but we'd have to see a lot more of this kind of thing to make the whole idea credible.

What works in our favor at this point is that Jim is simply not the sharpest knife in the drawer. That he would write a $200,000 personal check to Joe and call it a "loan repayment" suggests this won't be the only clumsy move we'll find -- it llooks like Hunter, his partners, and other family retainers were much more circumspect. Jim juist wrote personal checks.

But again, this is just another episode that will keep Joe from ever holding a traditional press conference with freewheeling questions from reporters.