More than 50 years ago, when young Joe Biden embarked on his first political career, it was his younger brother Jimmy who dropped out of college and crisscrossed the country to raise money for his candidacy.
A few months later, when Joe Biden's wife and 13-month-old daughter are killed in a car accident, Jimmy ends up going to the hospital to help identify the bodies.
And as Joe Biden rose to political prominence, it was Jimmy who took his brother's two surviving children under his wing, forming an especially strong bond with his younger brother Hunter, with whom he had much in common. Built. That relationship eventually morphed into a business partnership that netted both men millions of dollars from overseas deals and is now under the scrutiny of Congressional Republicans bent on impeaching President Biden.
On Wednesday, James Biden, known to his family as “Uncle Jimmy,” told the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees leading the impeachment inquiry that his business ventures are legitimate and that his brother had no involvement in them. He testified that he had done nothing wrong. And if anything, he said it was the older Biden who helped him financially, not the other way around.
In a 10-page opening statement obtained by The New York Times, James Biden also denied the allegations against him, but also said that he was a loyal but sometimes troubled man who made sacrifices to support his family during the tragedy. He painted a portrait of himself as a brother with a child. He tried to use his access to his younger brother to enrich himself.
“I have a 50-year career in various business ventures,” James Biden said in his opening statement during a private interview in the House office building. “Joe Biden has never been involved in any of these activities and has no direct or indirect financial interest in them. None.”
The prepared testimony further details how James Biden is a pivotal figure in the president's life, and like his nephew Hunter, has gained financial support from the cash and connections that come with a politically prestigious family name. He is clearly a man who owes a lot to the world, but he also considers himself a great man. An anchor for families in difficult situations.
Hunter Biden called James Biden his “best friend in the world” for taking him in during the worst of his drug addiction. His uncle told deputies that he, too, once struggled with alcoholism, although he has been sober for more than 40 years.
On Wednesday, James Biden also reversed one of the Republicans' central allegations against the president, saying that payments to Joe Biden that Republican lawmakers claim were a means to launder money from China were actually He said it was to repay a loan taken out by an elder. Biden extended it when he was short on funds.
“These are short-term loans that I received when Joe was a civilian, and I paid them back within weeks,” James Biden said. “He had no information at all about the source of the funds that I repaid him. The full explanation is that Joe lent me the money and I repaid it as soon as I had the funds. .”
Biden's testimony comes at a critical time for the Republican investigation, after a wave of witnesses has undermined Republican claims about the involvement of President Biden's son and brother in the business.
At least three associates of Hunter Biden denied Joe Biden's involvement in Hunter Biden's financial dealings in recent interviews. One of them, James Gillier, said he was “not aware at any point that the former vice president had any involvement.” Another person, Eric Schwerin, who worked as Joe Biden's bookkeeper when he was vice president, called the Republican claims “ridiculous.”
“I have no knowledge of any financial transactions or compensation that Vice President Biden received in connection with any business conducted by his family or any of their associates, or any involvement by Vice President Biden in their business,” Schwerin said in a statement. .
The Republican investigation dealt another blow last week when a former FBI informant whose claims Republicans had touted was indicted on charges of fabricating claims that President Biden and his son solicited bribes from a Ukrainian energy company. I received it. According to a court filing Tuesday, the informant, Alexander Smirnov, claimed to have received information from Russian intelligence.
Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the oversight committee, called on Republicans to halt the investigation.
“The impeachment inquiry effectively ended yesterday in substance, if not form, with the explosive revelation that Mr. Smirnov's allegations about Ukrainian Burisma payments to Joe Biden were fabricated with Russian agents.” said Mr. Raskin. “Not only is everything patently false and fraudulent, it appears to be the product of Russian disinformation and propaganda.”
Raskin described the atmosphere in the interview room as “calm.”
“It feels as if everyone knows the impeachment inquiry is over,” Raskin said.
South Carolina Republican Congressman William R. Timmons IV said there remains “vast circumstantial evidence that Hunter and Jim sold the brand and that Joe Biden profited financially from it.” He claimed that there was.
“So we're going to find out if that's true,” Timmons said. “That's why we're here. And for a ranking member to say it's not there is to go after President Trump for far less.”
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said Smirnov's indictment “does not change the fundamental facts” of the Republican case against Joe Biden.
Republicans point to testimony from Hunter Biden's former colleague Tony Bobulinski, who told lawmakers that “Joe Biden was the 'brand' that the Biden family was promoting.” “Even though he was buffered by complex planning, he was an enabler,'' he was quoted as saying. This is to maintain plausible deniability. ”
Democrats counter that Mr. Bobulinski has raised many allegations, but is unhappy that he was terminated from business deals, and that his claims were not supported by direct evidence against the president.