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Biden announces blanket pardon for his brother James, burying family influence-peddling probe for good

US President Joe Biden speaks during a news conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. Biden sought to discourage Israel from attacking Iran's oil fields, even as he said the country has the right to respond after Tehran's ballistic-missile barrage earlier this week. Photographer: Shawn Thew/EPA/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Congressional Republicans subpoenaed James Biden, 75, along with first son Hunter Biden, 54, in 2023 to investigate their involvement in the family’s domestic and foreign business dealings — after evidence emerged that both men repeatedly involved Joe Biden in their lucrative relationships.

Republicans accused James of lying to Congress and requested criminal charges. They also suggested his dealings may have amounts to unregistered foreign lobbying, another crime.

“My family has been subjected to unrelenting attacks and threats, motivated solely by a desire to hurt me—the worst kind of partisan politics. Unfortunately, I have no reason to believe these attacks will end,” the outgoing president said in a statement minutes before leaving office. “I believe in the rule of law, and I am optimistic that the strength of our legal institutions will ultimately prevail over politics. But baseless and politically motivated investigations wreak havoc on the lives, safety, and financial security of targeted individuals and their families. Even when individuals have done nothing wrong and will ultimately be exonerated, the mere fact of being investigated or prosecuted can irreparably damage their reputations and finances.” Biden added: “That is why I am exercising my power under the Constitution to pardon James B. Biden, [his wife] Sara Jones Biden, [first sister] Valerie Biden Owens, [her husband] John T. Owens, and [first brother] Francis W. Biden. The issuance of these pardons should not be mistaken as an acknowledgment that they engaged in any wrongdoing, nor should acceptance be misconstrued as an admission of guilt for any offense.”

It’s unclear why Biden pardoned some of his relatives, though Sara Biden was involved with some of her husband’s business relationships, and Biden’s brother Frank allegedly used his brother’s name in business dealings. The timeframe covered by the clemency grants also was not immediately clear.

Biden previously issued an unprecedented pardon on Dec. 1 spanning 11 years of his son’s conduct — stretching back to 2014 when Hunter Biden joined the board of Ukrainian gas giant Burisma Holdings — heading off sentencing on gun and tax evasion convictions and potential additional charges.

James Biden, unlike his nephew, was not charged with committing any federal crimes, though his conduct was actively investigated by House Republicans and the press.

The pardon of James Biden, who struggled to manage his own finances despite earning large sums, indicates the president likely feared the incoming Trump Justice Department would further investigate his family’s dealings, as James was involved in many key initiatives that included the president and Hunter.

The first brother for decades monetized his proximity to power — dating to Joe Biden’s 36-year Senate tenure — and House Republicans turned up records that he sent $240,000 to Joe Biden in 2017 and 2018 from funds linked to alleged influence peddling, which James said were personal loan repayments.

In one of the earliest known instances of his dealings that garnered scrutiny, James in 2006 allegedly crowed, “don’t worry about investors, we’ve got people all around the world who want to invest in Joe Biden” when he and Hunter Biden were in the process of taking over a New York City hedge fund.

“We’ve got investors lined up in a line of 747s filled with cash,” Politico reporter Ben Schreckinger wrote in a 2021 book.

Joe Biden was the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at the time.

Law firm SimmonsCooper — associated with wealthy asbestos lawyer Jeff Cooper — invested $1 million in 2006 to that hedge fund. The same year, Congress considered asbestos reform legislation, in which then-Sen. Biden (D-Del.) played a pivotal role in blocking a change that could have limited funding for payouts after lobbying by Cooper’s firm.

A Biden spokesman claimed in 2008 that the money was unrelated to the bill and that the investment was later returned.

Law firm SimmonsCooper — associated with wealthy asbestos lawyer Jeff Cooper — invested $1 million in 2006 to that hedge fund. The same year, Congress considered asbestos reform legislation, in which then-Sen. Biden (D-Del.) played a pivotal role in blocking a change that could have limited funding for payouts after lobbying by Cooper’s firm.

Cooper subsequently partnered with the Biden family on business pursuits in Mexico during the Obama-Biden administration — and posed for a 2015 group photo with Mexican guests and Joe Biden at the official vice president’s residence and riding aboard Air Force Two for an official 2016 trip to Mexico.

James Biden was wiretapped by the FBI in 2007 — when his brother was still a senator — as part of a bribery investigation of Mississippi lawyer Dickie Scruggs, the Washington Post reported in 2023.

Biden, who was not charged in the case, was in talks with Scruggs and conspirator Tim Balducci about setting up a law firm that would have employed himself, his nephew Hunter Biden, and James’ wife.

Scruggs at one point flew Joe Biden to a fundraiser on his private plane, the Washington Post reported.

Then-Sen. Biden went from opposing federal legislation to punish tobacco companies for lying about the addictiveness of cigarettes to a supporter after Scruggs — the architect of a multibillion-dollar litigation plan — paid James Biden’s lobbying firm $100,000 in 1998, the Washington Post also reported.

“I probably wouldn’t have hired him if he wasn’t the senator’s brother,” Scruggs told the paper.

Another disbarred Mississippi attorney, Joey Langston, who was convicted in a different bribery case, told House impeachment inquiry investigators that he loaned James Biden $800,000 in 2016 and 2017 during Joe Biden’s final term in office, but only got $400,000 back.

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