Rep. James Comer (R-KY), the House Oversight Committee chairman, demanded on Wednesday transparency from the Penn Biden Center on a wide range of concerns related to President Joe Biden’s classified documents found stashed in the building, including the center’s security and sources of foreign funding.
Since Biden assumed office, the University of Pennsylvania has reportedly received donations worth $52 million from anonymous sources, including from China and Saudi Arabia, raising concerns of compromised national security.
On November 2, 2022, shortly before the midterm elections, Biden’s personal attorneys found classified top secret documents at the Biden Penn Center in Washington, DC, a fact that was not made public until January 9, 2023. It’s unclear why the attorneys initially sought the documents, but the attorneys, who did not have security clearances, were reportedly allowed to conduct the search by the Justice Department anyway, without the FBI present.
In a letter to the Biden Penn Center, Comer demanded the organization come clean about the source of the at least $54 million donated from Chinese Communist Party-linked individuals or entities between 2014 and 2019. Comer also demanded all documents related to the Chinese donations, a list of Chinese donors, a list of all center employees, a list of individuals who had keycard access to the building, and visitor logs of everyone with whom Biden met at the center.
The building that housed office space of President Joe Biden’s former institute, the Penn Biden Center, is seen at the corner of Constitution and Louisiana Avenue NW, in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP)
Comer asked the center to respond no later than February 1.
In addition to the funding before 2019, UPenn has received $51 million in foreign donations since Biden’s inauguration, the Washington Free Beacon reported. About $15 million has come from anonymous donors in China and Hong Kong, along with $2.4 million in anonymous donations from Saudi Arabia.
Since Biden Inauguration, Anonymous Chinese Donors Poured Millions Into University That Houses His Think Tankhttps://t.co/OqxFrcHqz4
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) January 18, 2023
Comer outlined who might have improperly had access to the classified information, including at least “10 people at the Penn Biden Center who later became senior Biden administration officials—including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl. Financial disclosures filed with the Office of Government Ethics reveal UPenn paid these Biden associates between $79,000 and $208,000.”
“The Committee is concerned top UPenn officials offered lucrative, foreign-funded salaries to President Biden’s closest political allies to secure senior posts in a future Biden Administration and foreign actors funded those salaries to influence a future government,” the letter continued.
Comer also noted Joe Biden might have met with his family’s business partners at the center and given members of the family business access to the classified material.
“This level of access and opportunity raises questions about who had access to the classified documents found at the Penn Biden Center,” Comer writes. “It is imperative to understand whether any Biden family members or associates gained access to the classified documents while stored at the Penn Biden Center.”
In total, about 25 classified documents have been found by Biden’s personal attorneys between the locations at the Biden Penn Center and the president’s personal residence in Delaware.
Comer believes nobody would have heard of the unearthed documents in the Biden Penn Center or Biden’s home if CBS News had not first reported the scandal. The White House claimed total transparency after the scandal broke.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
