As if the ability of a cohort of anti-government Republicans to keep the government from functioning isn’t frustrating enough, the GOP’s performative poo-throwers continue to make wild and unsupported accusations against Democrats–including Democrats who aren’t even government actors.
The consistent assaults on Hunter Biden are a case in point. Is he clearly a troubled individual? Yes. Is he now or has he been a government official? No. Was the Trump appointee investigating his activities pressured by the Biden Administration? Not according to that official.
The desperate attempt to find something–anything–to throw at Joe Biden has included various accusations leveled by Congressman James Comer. Comer heads up the House Oversight Committee, and his most recent accusations have revolved around the fact that–gasp!!–Joe Biden loaned his brother some money.
Rep. James Comer has claimed that President Joe Biden “laundered China money,” accused Biden of “influence peddling,” and issued subpoenas to members of Biden’s family. Comer has based these actions on the “discovery” of transactions that Biden made no effort to disguise, including a $200,000 loan Biden extended to his brother and which his brother later repaid.
As Heather Cox Richardson has written, Biden made no effort to conceal the transaction, and Comer has loaned a similar amount to his own brother. “Comer has continued to insist without any proof that Biden’s loan was illicit,” and Congressman Jared Moskowitz–a member of the Oversight Committee–“has repeatedly asked Comer to testify about his own loan.”
“That is bullsh*t,” Comer said of Moskowitz’s observation that the American people would like to know more about his own loan. Moskowitz answered: “Your word means nothing, Mr. Chairman…. I think the American people have lots of questions, Mr. Chairman, and perhaps you should sit maybe for a deposition.”
Comer responded by calling Moskowitz a “smurf.” (Don’t ask me what that’s supposed to mean….”smurf” seems like a strange insult, but then, Comer is strange. )
According to the Daily Beast,
Comer was engaged in a series of business dealings with his own brother. Those dealings, which included a $200,000 payment, were nowhere near as straightforward as the dealings between Joe and James Biden. Comer’s deal involved not only a big payment but multiple land swamps, shell companies, and requests for special tax breaks.
Comer evidently based his accusation that the Biden loan was “shady” on the fact that the repayment came from Jim Biden’s receipt of monies he was owed by a health care company. (Health care companies are regulated by the government, so…okay, I don’t get it either, but Comer is clearly not the sharpest tool in the box.)
Comer’s family has for years been identified in news accounts as owning “Comer Land & Cattle.” As of 2018, Comer listed this as an asset worth $3 million.
However, no such entity appears to exist in business filings. It reportedly did at one time, but there’s been no such business for years. At least, not legally. It’s not registered as a business in Kentucky. It’s not registered anywhere else. A past press release showed him as the owner of “James Comer Jr. Farms,” which also doesn’t appear on paper to be a business entity. Comer’s Facebook page also lists him as the owner of “Comer Family Farms,” which isn’t listed as a business entity in Kentucky, according to the secretary of state’s website.
Much of Comer’s business activity seems to follow inheriting land in Kentucky following his father’s death in 2019. But exactly what happened with that land is the opposite of transparent. In one case, Comer reportedly sold his interest in a piece of land to his brother, then bought it back five months later, slipping his brother $18,000 in the process. That purchase ran through a shell company owned by Comer, the value of which doubled in two years. That company appears to have dealt exclusively with agricultural land deals at a time when Comer was on the House Agriculture Committee.
Comer’s family also swapped large tracts of land in Tennessee. That includes handing his brother one tract valued at $175,000 as a “gift.” In exchange, Comer reportedly got another tract that The Daily Beast describes as “apparently more valuable” without recording the cost of that land. The value of these transactions appears to be larger than even the largest loan that Biden gave to his brother.
Comer also seems to have benefited directly from a “tobacco buyout” of land he purchased while serving on the Kentucky legislature’s Tobacco Settlement Agreement Fund Oversight Committee. This means that he helped set the rate for the purchase of his own property.
I’m beginning to understand why Comer is so suspicious of other people’s transactions. Unethical people tend to believe everyone is shady.
I still don’t understand what’s so terrible about being a smurf…
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