Susan Shelley: It’s time for Americans to be honest about a certain sketchy president

With the start of the 2024 primaries less than a year away, it really is time to be honest, and to come to terms with the former president’s record.

Certainly it was an unhappy event to read this in a report from one of the many investigations: Evidence indicates he “personally participated in and benefited from these financial ventures, leaving him open to influence, blackmail, or extortion by malign or foreign entities” including, most concerningly, an open adversary of the United States.

The evidence includes a “suspicious activity report,” or SAR, filed by JP Morgan Chase. According to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, “SARs are generated by American banks and submitted to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) within Treasury when customers engage in a range of activities outside the normal course of business, including large, suspicious transactions that may indicate criminal activity.”

This report is honestly devastating. The SAR details 93 wire transfers over a period of several years totaling $2,461,962.60  between businesses and associates linked to his family and to an investment fund linked to a foreign-owned bank. The SAR filed by JP Morgan Chase identifies his son as a “politically exposed person.” Banks use the acronym “PEP.”

I wasn’t pleased to see that the Treasury Department stonewalled investigators, obstructing their investigation by refusing to turn over 150 SARs related to the family businesses. I certainly was not happy to read that his “personal participation in his family’s global business ventures—committed through and by a complex network of relatives and associates” had not only enriched the family, but had “exposed the United States to national security risks that could be leveraged by our enemies to undermine the Office of the President.”

I was sincerely shocked to see that a company with foreign ties sent his son detailed maps of U.S. energy resources in a PowerPoint presentation, the title of which, when translated, turned out to be “Overview of the U.S. Natural Gas Industry Chain.” It included maps that showed the topography of the United States and the state capitals of energy-producing states. Investigators obtained a 2017 email in which the son wrote to an executive of a company linked to an adversarial foreign government, “I hope that you have received the information I sent regarding the LNG [liquified natural gas] opportunities in the state of Louisiana,” noting that it would be good for both countries “simultaneously.”

Millions of dollars were flowing to members of the family, and there is evidence that sometimes the bills of one were paid from the account of another, indicating that funds were effectively co-mingled.

And it wasn’t just his son. His brother was in on the action, too, hired to negotiate a $140 million deal with Saudi Arabia. According to one report, documents show that the brother told a U.S. Treasury Department investigator he was hired “because of his position and relationship.”

We still don’t have a good explanation for classified documents, never declassified, scattered all over the place.

And beyond all of that, there is the troubling conduct. A serious accusation of sexual harassment in the workplace simply can’t be ignored. And it gives me no pleasure to relate that he used the term “the boy” to refer to Maryland’s first Black governor, Wes Moore.

It’s very disappointing, but it has to be faced.

Every word you just read is absolutely true.

Except that he’s not the former president yet.

Yes, everything I’ve just reported to you is about Joe Biden, not Donald Trump.

The remark about Gov. Wes Moore was made just last week, during remarks about the economy to an audience of union electrical workers in Maryland. Referring to the governor, who once played college football, Biden said, “the boy looked like he could still play.”

The sexual harassment allegation was made by Tara Reade, a former Senate aide who described how then-Senator Biden assaulted her against a wall in a hallway in 1993.

Classified documents have so far been found in different rooms of Biden’s home, his garage, and his former office at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, a Washington think tank that was heavily funded by donors from China. According to the House Oversight Committee, “donations originating from China tripled and continued while Joe Biden explored a potential run for President.” Some of the documents, Biden’s lawyers have said, date to his time as a U.S. Senator and as Vice President. (While presidents have the power to declassify documents, senators and vice presidents do not. President Obama signed an order allowing the vice president to declassify only documents that the VP himself had classified.)

The role of President Biden’s brother, James Biden, in the Saudi deal was described in a May 2022 affidavit and was related to a February 2011 contract, as reported by DailyMail.com.

The suspicious activity report filed by JP Morgan Chase reported 93 wire transfers between February 3, 2014, and August 2, 2019, totaling $2,461,962.60 between Hunter Biden and his associates and affiliated companies, and Burisma Holdings Limited, and Bohai Harvest RST (Shanghai) Equity Investment Fund Management Company Ltd. “The SAR is being filed to report wire activity involving parties linked to a Politically Exposed Person (‘PEP’) with negative media for possible political corruption; as well as alleged business conflicts involving related companies and individuals,” the bank reported.

The report on the Biden family’s business activities, including a copy of the “suspicious activity report” and the maps of U.S. energy resources with notations in Mandarin Chinese, was released on November 17 by the House Oversight Committee Republican staff. You can read it for yourself.

Susan Shelley can be reached at Susan@SusanShelley.com and you can follow her on Twitter @Susan_Shelley