WASHINGTON – The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee released a report Thursday that found $7.8 million in foreign government payments for hotel stays and office rentals during President Donald Trump's four-year term as president, and Biden He is trying to counter a Republican impeachment inquiry into the president's role. His relatives' overseas dealings.
Congressman Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) 156 page report “While in office, Donald Trump used his business entities to extort millions of dollars from foreign nations and royal families.”
Republicans say tens of millions of dollars in cash flows from countries including China, Kazakhstan, Romania, Russia and Ukraine to President Biden's son Hunter, his brother James, and other relatives were leaked during and immediately after his vice presidency. The president has repeatedly lied. He interacted with foreign allies while guiding U.S. policy toward those countries.
But Raskin, who has been leading Democrats in trying to shift the direction of the Biden impeachment inquiry by raising questions about President Trump's conduct, said his report “gives America a glimpse into the rampant illegality and corruption of the Trump era.” I can do it,” he wrote.
The document is likely to be cited frequently by Democrats in a debate expected later this year on articles of impeachment against Biden on charges of corruption and obstruction of a congressional investigation. Republicans countered that Trump, unlike the Bidens, appears to be offering tangible business services in exchange for income.
China
Like the Biden family, the Trump Organization's largest source of overseas income is China, with $5.6 million in payments from Beijing-related companies, according to the report, citing records obtained through a lawsuit with accounting firm Mazars USA. It says it will go up nearby.
Nearly $5.4 million of the Chinese funds (more than two-thirds of the total foreign funds tracked in the report) came from a $1.9 million annual lease in Manhattan's Trump Tower by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China that began in 2008. ing. It expired in October 2019 during President Trump's term.
The report also found that in August 2017, a Chinese embassy delegation spent more than $19,000 to stay at then-President Trump's D.C. hotel near the White House, and that a state-owned Chinese airline It also cited spending more than $195,000 to stay at the president's Las Vegas hotel. It lasted from 2016 to 2018, before his inauguration as president.
Before taking office in 2017, Trump promised to donate all profits from foreign governments from his businesses to the U.S. Treasury, but it is unclear whether he actually did so. President Trump has rejected his $400,000 annual salary as president.
Other Trump-China business interactions are also listed in the report but not counted in the total. This includes income from state-owned Chinese company CEFC China Energy, which bought a section of Trump Tower in 2012 and sold it in October 2020.
“Assuming the base price, [at Trump Tower] Nothing has changed during the four years of President Trump.
Presidency, [CEFC subsidiary] “Hong Kong Huaxin Oil Co., Ltd. paid at least $152,505 for Trump World Tower during the four years of President Trump,” the report said.
CEFC is best known for paying millions of dollars to Hunter Biden and James Biden in 2017 and 2018, with Joe Biden allegedly meeting twice with his business partner and several others. It is said that he was directly involved in their business through written communications.
A May 2017 email suggested Joe Biden cut his family's CEFC business by 10%, and an email a few months later said he was involved in U.S. natural gas talks. It was listed. Hunter Biden's name was also confirmed in a July 2017 text message to a China-based official in which his eldest son said, “I'm sitting here with my father.'' '' and threatened to incur the wrath of his family if an agreement was not reached. . The message was released just before $5.1 million was sent to the Biden family group after an initial $3 million payment was made several months ago. An additional $1 million was reportedly transferred after that.
Hunter Biden co-founded Beijing-backed investment fund BHR Partners in 2013 as part of the Biden family's early business relationships in China. It was just 12 days after he boarded the second Air Force flight with his father for his official visit to Beijing.
Joe Biden had coffee with BHR's incoming CEO Jonathan Lee during his trip and later spoke on speakerphone during his then-second son and Hunter Biden's former business partner Devon Archer's visit to China. I had a conversation with Mr. Said Oversight Committee during July deposition.
Hunter held a 10% stake in BHR through at least part of his father's first year in office, but the terms of the sale remain unclear.
Saudi Arabia and others
Another source of revenue for Trump's business is Saudi Arabia, which Raskin's report said includes Saudi Arabia's ownership of the 45th floor of Trump Tower and fees related to Trump's stay at a DC hotel in March 2018. Including, he paid more than $615,000 over four years.
If Trump returns to the White House, his Saudi business dealings with the Trump family after leaving office are expected to be a key issue. The country partnered with President Trump's golf course by hosting the LIV Golf Tournament and invested $2 billion in 2021 with President Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Qatar paid more than $465,000 in connection with Trump Tower, and the Doha government was involved in a controversial Manhattan office deal with Kushner's family.
Kuwait, the third Middle East country, paid more than $303,000 for hotels in Trump Tower and Washington, D.C.
Other high-spending countries include India (about $283,000 for Trump Tower and the Trump Hotel in Washington, D.C.), Malaysia (about $249,000 for hotels in Washington, D.C.), and Afghanistan (about $249,000 for Trump Tower and the Trump Hotel in Washington, D.C.). (approximately $155,000).
Comer: “Beyond Parody”
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) dismissed Raskin's report as having nothing to do with Biden's misconduct allegations.
“The Democrats' continued obsession with former President Trump is beyond parody. Former President Trump is running a legitimate business, and the Bidens are not,” Comer said.
“The Bidens and their associates used the Biden name to make more than $24 million in China, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Romania. No goods or services other than Joe Biden and access to the Biden network It was not provided.”
President Trump's press secretary did not immediately respond to The Post's request for comment.
Joe Biden attended about 20 of his son Hunter's overseas business meetings on speakerphone during his time as vice president, and in 2014 and 2015 at D.C.'s Café Milano he attended his son Hunter's Kazakh, Russian, and Ukrainian business meetings. Archer told the oversight committee that he attended two dinners with patrons. July..
Dinner guests included former Moscow first lady Elena Baturina, who transferred $3.5 million to Hunter Biden-related companies in early 2014 and, separately, Invested $100 million in Archers Rosemont Realty, which was affiliated with.
Kenneth Rakishev, a Kazakh businessman who bought his second son at the time a $142,000 sports car, also dined with Joe Biden and posed for a group photo.
Vadim Pozharskiy, an adviser to the board of directors of Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Holdings, paid Mr. Hunter up to $1 million a year starting in 2014, when his father took control of U.S. policy toward Ukraine, but the next day Mr. I sent an email to thank him for giving me this opportunity. meet his father.
In December 2015, Hunter Biden left a rally at the Four Seasons in Dubai to “call DC” with Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky and Pozharskiy, Archer said.
According to an FBI informant file released in July, Zlochevsky was hired by Joe Biden in 2016 in exchange for the then-Vice President's help in ousting Viktor Shokin, Ukraine's fired prosecutor general. He is said to have “coerced” him and Hunter Biden into paying $10 million in bribes. He retired in March 2016 after Joe Biden's election campaign. His bribery claims have not been proven.
In other contacts, Joe Biden hosted Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim and members of the wealthy Mexican Aleman family for a White House tour in November 2015, while Hunter Biden and his colleagues Jeff Cooper courted them with energy and technology.
Joe Biden meets Cooper, Hunter Biden, Carlos Slim, Miguel Aleman Velascoand his son, Miguel Aleman Magnani, founder of the airline Interjet.
