Politico national political correspondent Ben Schreckinger has changed his story from October to say that President Joe Biden was in fact involved in the family's Americore deal spearheaded by his brother James.
“Joe Biden’s name and inner circle were more involved with the company than has been understood,” Schreckinger admitted after the outlet reviewed new information about the deal.
He wrote,
In addition to the accounts provided by former executives, investor materials described Jim Biden as an adviser to his older brother. And on top of Joe Biden’s own previously reported encounter with the firm’s CEO, at least three of Joe Biden’s relatives did work with Americore. They include Jim Biden’s wife, Sara, and his son, Jamie. The president’s son, Hunter Biden also met with its CEO, and his personal doctor — current White House physician Kevin O’Connor — joined a meeting with Jim Biden and the president of a hospital being acquired by Americore, according to a former executive and emails obtained by POLITICO.
Americore was supposed to be a hospital empire built in the 2010s with the help of Jim Biden (and his brother, we now know). Instead, the company ended up accused of massive Medicare fraud and collapsed leaving patients in the lurch.
The company also failed to pay staff properly and was generally a failure after Jim Biden failed to get Middle Eastern investors as promised.
Jim Biden will face questions from House Republicans this week about the debacle, and sources told Politco that emails directly point to the president's involvement.
One such email quoted by Politico read, “This would be a perfect platform to expose my Brothers team to [your] protocol. Could provide a great opportunity for some real exposure.” It was written to a Tampa area CEO of a company with an experimental cancer treatment.
They also spoke to former Americore executives who said Jim Biden wanted to give his brother equity in Americore and install him on the board, and said that Biden said at the time that his brother could promote the group in his upcoming presidential campaign.
Jim Biden will also be asked about October findings that he loaned himself $600,000 from Americore as it was failing. When the company wired him $200,000, he wrote a $200,000 check to his brother the same day.
Jim Biden has said that the $200,000 was a repayment for money loaned to him by his brother, but loans need to have documentation and he has produced none.
James Comer said that wasn't an adequate explanation for the money transfer.
"Let’s say they pull something out of their rear end that says Joe Biden loaned Jim Biden money — either way, we have his [James Biden’s] personal bank records," Comer said. "I can say, with confidence, he had no money to pay Joe Biden back other than that 200,000-dollar wire that came from Americore Health company."
He continued, "So either Joe Biden was paid $200,000 as part of the influence-peddling scheme payback, kickback, dividend, or Joe Biden actually made a loan to his brother, and because his brother influence-peddled Americore Health, he paid him back $200,000."
