Amid an ongoing impeachment investigation of President Joe Biden, a new report reveals that his brother James was once secretly recorded by the FBI in a case involving bribery by a Mississippi trial attorney.
That attorney, Richard Scruggs, reportedly hired the D.C. consulting firm run by James Biden and his wife, Sara back in the late 1990s, paying the firm $100,000 for advice on getting Congress to pass tobacco legislation which was under consideration at the time, according to a report by The Washington Post.
While neither Joe Biden, who was a senator at the time, nor his brother were implicated in the bribery probe against Scruggs, the revelation of the events at the time have a timely impact amid the current Biden family drama.
“As FBI agents circled in on Scruggs and his associates over a plan to deliver $40,000 in bribes to a local judge, they also secretly recorded conversations with James Biden — who, at the same time, was trying to create a consulting firm with the Scruggs partners. Neither James Biden nor his brother was charged or accused of wrongdoing in the case, which led to prison for Scruggs and several of his associates, including James Biden’s would-be partners,” WaPo reported.
At the time that Scruggs was trying to get the tobacco measure through Congress, Joe Biden was the ranking member on the powerful Senate Judiciary Committee.
CORRUPTION: Newly discovered FBI recordings caught James Biden on wiretaps negotiating with law firm ensnared in bribery scheme. The firm had paid him $100K to lobby Joe Biden to vote for a bill (Joe did). At the time he was trying to start a joint venture with the firm. pic.twitter.com/Fc7fXOE5yl
— @amuse (@amuse) December 17, 2023
“Starting on April 9, 1998, Scruggs made a series of $10,000 payments to their firm, Lion Hall, during a year-long period. Those payments totaled $100,000, according to records that Scruggs provided to The Post,” the newspaper reported. “When a larger version of the tobacco settlement finally reached the Senate floor in June 1998, Biden had gone from being one of its biggest critics to becoming one of its leading defenders — a significant victory for Scruggs.”
Though the measure failed to pass in Congress, Scruggs was grateful for the Bidens’ assistance, telling the Post, “Jim was a help, and Joe gave us some good advice.”
The Post’s report includes many details about the connection between the famed Mississippi trial attorney and the Biden brothers. But Scruggs noted about James Biden in an interview with WaPo that, “I probably wouldn’t have hired him if he wasn’t the senator’s brother.”
“Jim was never untoward about his influence,” Scruggs said. “He didn’t brag about it or talk about it. He didn’t have to. He was the man’s brother.”
Though he was not sure if James ever spoke to or influenced his brother to back the bill at the time, Scruggs told The Washington Post, “I hope he did.”
According to The Washington Post:
Scruggs’s deal with James Biden highlights how President Biden’s brother has for decades benefited financially from his proximity to his powerful sibling, a relationship that is newly relevant today as congressional Republicans investigate whether President Biden assisted his family members’ business deals. During Joe Biden’s 36 years in the Senate, eight years as vice president and now three years as president, James Biden’s private business work — as a consultant for hire and behind-the-scenes political fixer — has often intersected with his brother’s public responsibilities.
“Jim Biden’s consulting work has never involved speaking with or providing access to his brother for this or any other client,” Paul Fishman, a lawyer for James and Sara Biden, told WaPo in an email.
He noted that “more than fifteen years ago, Jim and Sara Biden had serious discussions” with Scruggs’s associates “about starting a firm that would provide legal and consulting services. That venture never got off the ground. Jim and Sara were not aware of or involved in any unethical or illegal behavior” by the associates.
WaPo reviewed ” thousands of pages of court records and other material” in the archives of Curtis Wilkie, who wrote a book about Scruggs, “The Fall of the House of Zeus,” in 2010. Many of the recorded calls James Biden was on were related to the potential partnership which never materialized as the FBI blew open the case and arrests were made.
“Prosecutors never questioned James Biden, according to a former federal official familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation,” WaPo reported. “But the financial connection of key players in the case to Joe Biden’s campaign was widely noted in media reports at the time, and Joe Biden gave to charities $11,500 in campaign contributions that he had received from Scruggs, Patterson, Balducci and other associates.”
“The year after the arrests, Joe Biden dropped his presidential bid and Barack Obama picked him as a running mate,” the outlet added. “It’s not clear whether the case or James Biden’s other business ventures were discussed during the vetting process to add Joe Biden to the ticket — at the time, the existence of the FBI tapes of James Biden were not publicly known, and little attention had been paid to his business ventures.”
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida. Powers also contributes to BizPac Review.
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