The chairman of the House Oversight Committee, Congressman James Comer, is alleging that President Biden indirectly received money from Communist China in the form of a $40,000 “loan repayment” from his brother in 2017. The money, the chairman says, was sent by the president’s brother shortly after he received a $10 million payout from a Chinese energy company. 

In September 2017, the president’s sister-in-law, Sara — the wife of his brother James — sent him a $40,000 check with the subject line: “loan repayment.” Just months before that check was sent to the then-former vice president, his son Hunter and his brother received money from an energy company with links to the Chinese Communist Party. 

The money originated, Mr. Comer says, from a $10 million payment sent to the first son from a businessman, Raymond Zhao, who was an associate at an energy company based at Shanghai. The younger Mr. Biden and his uncle began working with Mr. Zhao during the president’s tenure as vice president, according to Mr. Comer. 

In June, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Congressman Jason Smith, disclosed that in 2017, the younger Mr. Biden sent a threatening text message to Mr. Zhao.

“I am sitting here with my father and would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled,” Hunter Biden reportedly wrote to his business partner. “I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.”

The president has consistently denied any wrongdoing or that he knew anything or influenced in any way his son’s and brother’s foreign business dealings. 

This comes after the Oversight Committee disclosed another loan that the president allegedly gave to his brother while a private citizen, which Mr. Biden’s brother later repaid. The total for that loan was $200,000 and it was sent to the future president in 2018 for another “loan repayment.”

The president has denied any wrongdoing in these loans. The White House’s spokesman for oversight and investigations, Ian Sams, asserted that “Comer’s lies and conspiracy theories are getting more desperate by the day.” Following the president’s departure from the vice presidency in January 2017, his net worth increased significantly, to $8 million in 2021. 

Mr. Comer recently asked the president to provide proof that he did, in fact, make short-term loans to his brother in 2017 and 2018, totaling $240,000. The Oversight Committee has yet to gain access to the president’s personal financial records. 

The chairman has also pointed out that federal law provides specific guardrails around offering below-market rates on loans, though the White House maintains that this was a short-term personal loan between brothers.

“If Joe Biden did personally loan James Biden an amount that was later repaid by the $200,000 check, please provide the loan documents, including the loan payment, loan agreement, and any other supporting loan documentation,” the chairman says. “As you may know, the Internal Revenue Code has specific requirements for delineating and reporting ‘below-market [rate] loans’ from gifts.”

These loans are likely to play a central role in Mr. Comer’s future impeachment inquiry hearings, which he plans to resume as the investigation enters its “downhill phase,” meaning the wrapping up of the investigative stage. 

Speaking with a conservative podcast host, Benny Johnson, on Tuesday, Mr. Comer said, “We know not only there were crimes, we know there are cover-ups.”

“We have mountains of evidence and now we’re ready to bring them in,” he said. “We’re in the downhill phase of this investigation now because we have so many documents and we can bring these people in for depositions or committee hearings, whichever they choose, and we can ask these questions with evidence.”