Top Republicans on three key House committees have sent a letter to the president of the University of Pennsylvania, Amy Gutmann, inquiring about the school’s close relationship with the Biden family and its ties to China.
“Understanding whether the University of Pennsylvania’s Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement received funds from China or other adversarial nations at the behest of the Biden family or future Biden Administration officials will shed light on the depth and breadth of the potential improper influence these nations enjoy over the Biden family,” wrote GOP Reps. James Comer of Kentucky, Virginia Foxx of North Carolina, and Jim Jordan of Ohio. The three are, respectively, ranking members on the House Committees on Oversight and Reform, Education and Labor, and Judiciary.
The letter comes amid a criminal investigation into financial dealings with China by President Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.
The letter noted that the University of Pennsylvania announced the formation of the Biden Center on Feb. 1, 2017, less than two weeks after Biden finished his eight-year run as former President Barack Obama’s vice president. According to the lawmakers, the Ivy League university received millions of dollars in undisclosed funds from China prior to and after the formation of the Penn Biden Center, suggesting it is an example of Biden’s “illicit ties to foreign adversaries.”
The Republican members previously sent a letter to the University of Pennsylvania and other universities in early August, citing multimillion-dollar contributions from China and other rogue nations to higher education.
The donations are considered to be a mounting national security threat, with lawmakers asking whether institutions of higher education that receive federal taxpayer dollars should be legally allowed to accept money from foreign adversaries.
The Republican members gave Gutmann a deadline of Feb. 11 to deliver specific unredacted financial and communications records from the University of Pennsylvania’s Biden Center.
The Washington Examiner reached out to the University of Pennsylvania but did not receive a response.
Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, the top Republican on the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and previously its chairman, spearheaded the investigation into Hunter Biden’s overseas business transactions with foreign oligarchs. The younger Biden confirmed in December that he was under criminal investigation related to his taxes and China and other countries in a federal inquiry that was launched in 2018. Now in the minority, Johnson is doubtful he will be able to extract the necessary documents to continue his investigation.
“Am I going to get documents? I couldn’t get documents out of these agencies under the Trump administration, so I don’t have much hope of getting earth-shattering new information now. We got some stuff at the very end when President Trump just forced the agency to give up some information, but what does that tell you?” he told the Washington Examiner.
