John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, denied on Monday the Biden family’s business schemes represent a national security threat despite admitting he had not read the House Oversight Committee report on the matter.
In May, the House Oversight Committee’s probe found the Biden family business over the course of several years received at least $10 million from business schemes in Romania and China in return for what appears to be influence peddling. In total, nine Biden family members received payments from the family foreign business ventures, including two of Joe Biden’s grandchildren, the investigation revealed.
“Have you read the report yourself and do you personally think there are any national security concerns here?” a White House Daily Caller correspondent asked Kirby during Monday’s White House press briefing.
“No, and no.” he responded.
The question on Monday was the second time in one week reporters raised the topic of the Biden family business during a White House press briefing.
Daily Caller WH Correspondent @DianaGlebova presses Kirby on national security concerns related to report alleging funneling of money to Biden from foreign entities while he was Vice President pic.twitter.com/J46orQYUGu
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) June 5, 2023
During last Wednesday’s White House press briefing, a reporter asked Kirby what he thought about a recent Harvard/Harris poll that found 53 percent of Americans, including a quarter of Democrats, believe Joe Biden “was involved with his son in an illegal influence peddling scheme.”
“What do you say to the majority of Americans who believe that the president is himself corrupt?” the reporter asked Kirby.
“Wow,” Kirby replied, pausing before claiming that “there’s nothing to these claims.”
The questions come as the House Oversight Committee opened a new line of investigation into an unclassified document that allegedly details an arrangement involving an exchange of money for policy decisions between now-President Joe Biden and a foreign national.
The FBI possesses the document from an interview the bureau conducted with the informant, who is reportedly a “highly credible” FBI source with a history dating back to the Obama administration era.
FBI Director Christopher Wray refused to hand over the subpoenaed record to the custody of the House Oversight Committee. On Monday, Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) announced the committee will move Thursday to hold Wray in contempt of Congress.
“FBI officials confirmed that the unclassified, FBI-generated record has not been disproven and is currently being used in an ongoing investigation,” Comer explained. “The confidential human source who provided the information about then-Vice President Joe Biden being involved in a criminal bribery scheme is a trusted, highly credible informant who is being used by the FBI for over ten years and has been paid over six figures.”
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
