{"id":1028091,"date":"2023-11-09T16:48:00","date_gmt":"2023-11-09T16:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/?p=1028091"},"modified":"2023-11-09T16:48:01","modified_gmt":"2023-11-09T16:48:01","slug":"icymi-daily-beast-james-comer-like-joe-biden-also-paid-his-brother-200k","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/democrats.org\/news\/icymi-daily-beast-james-comer-like-joe-biden-also-paid-his-brother-200k\/","title":{"rendered":"ICYMI: Daily Beast: James Comer, Like Joe Biden, Also Paid His Brother $200K"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/democrats.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/image-28-3.webp?w=1024\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1028092\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Key Point: <\/strong>\u201c[Comer] might want to consider a parallel inquiry into his own family\u2026 unlike with the Bidens, Comer\u2019s own history actually borders a conflict of interest between his official government role and his private family business\u2014and it\u2019s been going on for decades.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/james-comer-like-joe-biden-also-paid-his-brother-dollar200k\"><strong>Daily Beast:<\/strong><\/a><strong> James Comer, Like Joe Biden, Also Paid His Brother $200K<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By Roger Sollenberger<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>House Oversight Committee chair James Comer (R-KY) on Wednesday subpoenaed President Joe Biden\u2019s brother, James Biden, who Comer has implicated in unsubstantiated allegations of \u201cshady business practices\u201d in the Biden family.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong><mark class=\"has-inline-color has-black-color\">But if Comer genuinely believes these transactions clear the \u201cshady business practices\u201d bar, he might want to consider a parallel inquiry into his own family.<\/mark><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>According to Kentucky property records, Comer and his own brother have engaged in land swaps related to their family farming business.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In one deal\u2014also involving $200,000, as well as a shell company\u2014the more powerful and influential Comer channeled extra money to his brother, seemingly from nothing.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>&nbsp;Other recent land swaps were quickly followed with new applications for special tax breaks, state records show.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>But unlike with the Bidens, Comer\u2019s own history actually borders a conflict of interest between his official government role and his private family business\u2014and it\u2019s been going on for decades.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>While Comer and House GOP allies have tried to cast the Biden transactions as evidence of unsavory and possibly impeachable offenses, multiple news organizations\u2014including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2023\/10\/31\/politics\/fact-check-evidence-supports-democrats-case-that-joe-biden-made-a-personal-loan-to-his-brother\/index.html\">CNN<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/archive.ph\/AGbYi#selection-4503.68-4507.182\"><em>The Wall Street Journal<\/em><\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.factcheck.org\/2023\/10\/cherry-picking-influence-payment-from-james-to-joe-biden\/\">FactCheck.org<\/a>, and the conservative-leaning <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/house\/bank-records-show-joe-biden-paid-james-biden\">Washington Examiner<\/a>\u2014have all thrown cold water on the notion that the payments are evidence of anything other than a brother helping a brother.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>That hasn\u2019t stopped Comer. But hypocrisy hasn\u2019t stopped Comer before, either.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Comer\u2019s investigative efforts have so far failed to show that Joe Biden\u2019s loans have any connection to family business dealings\u2014let alone to actions while holding elected office. <strong>Comer, however, exercised government influence directly over his family\u2019s industry for nearly 20 years.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Comer\u2019s official positions afforded him both insight and power in the agriculture industry, and he held them while he and his family ran a multimillion-dollar farming business.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>But Comer\u2019s family company also has its own curiosities. For instance, it doesn\u2019t appear to exist on paper.<\/strong><br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>For years, the company Comer ran with his brother and father has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kentucky.com\/news\/politics-government\/article44419086.html\">identified<\/a> in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westkyjournal.com\/news.php?viewStory=3714\">news<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westkyjournal.com\/news.php?viewStory=3714\">reports<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kyagr.com\/Kentucky-Agnews\/pr\/newscenter\/Commissioner-Comer-to-address-Purchase-Area-cattle-producers.htm\">official statements<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/disclosures-clerk.house.gov\/public_disc\/financial-pdfs\/2018\/10026971.pdf\">Comer\u2019s financial disclosures<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/edjesales.com\/eberspacher\/backtobasics\/SaleReport_BackToTheBasics2014.pdf\">livestock sale<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/panewsarchive.qa.k8s.libraries.psu.edu\/lccn\/sn78001178\/1988-09-24\/ed-1\/seq-94\/\">bulletins<\/a> as \u201cComer Land &amp; Cattle.\u201d But there is no record of an entity by that name in business filings with the commonwealth of Kentucky\u2014or apparently with any other jurisdiction.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In another swap\u2014this one in April, 2019\u2014James Comer gifted his brother, via a $1 transaction, his share of two inherited tracts in Clay County, Tennessee, with a share value being $175,000, according to the deed of sale. The value of James Comer\u2019s share matches the value of the full property in 1994, when the brothers and their father first acquired it for $175,000, according to the deed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The same day that James Comer gave his brother that land, Chad Comer reciprocated with an apparently more valuable piece of property in Macon County, Tennessee\u2014except James Comer didn\u2019t disclose that value in the sale.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Instead, Comer appears to have whited that number out, writing \u201cexempt\u201d in its place on the deed, then signing below. However, the land\u2019s value can still be ascertained from the deed history in Macon County, where records show that their father had originally purchased the tract for $203,000 in 2015. That means that, while Comer appears to have netted a value of roughly $30,000 in the swap, he did not put that in the public record.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>While the amount of money involved in these transactions is not even in the millions, they\u2019re comparable to the Biden loans. And the largest of those two loans, $200,000, is less than the 2015 value of Comer\u2019s \u201cexempt\u201d purchase.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>It\u2019s unclear how Comer first came into the family business. \u2026 What is clearer, however, is that the family business has changed.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>He then breezed through the shift from active farming to real estate speculation, saying he sold timber off the farm, raised cattle and crops there, and eventually took a \u201ctobacco buyout\u201d from the government.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>What Comer didn\u2019t mention is that he had a government role related to that tobacco buyout.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>From 2005 to 2011, Comer served on the state legislature\u2019s Tobacco Settlement Agreement Fund Oversight Committee.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Comer\u2019s business focus has since shifted to real estate.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>While that may be true in the sense that Comer started out small, he also started out with the support of his father and his brother. <strong>He then rose to a position of considerable power and influence over his own industry, and\u2014contrary to his own statement\u2014he does appear to have inherited a great deal.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>\u201cYou read those real estate books, \u2018How To Get Rich In Real Estate.\u2019 I kind of\u2014I\u2019m not rich, but I accumulated wealth kind of that way,\u201d he said.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Key Point: \u201c[Comer] might want to consider a parallel inquiry into his own family\u2026 unlike with the Bidens, Comer\u2019s own history actually borders a conflict of interest between his official government role and his private family business\u2014and it\u2019s been going on for decades.\u201d Daily Beast: James Comer, Like Joe Biden, Also Paid His Brother $200K [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":263,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1028091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.0 - 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