When news broke that James Biden, the younger brother of Joe Biden, had received a direct payment of $200,000 from the Biden 2020 campaign coffers in 2018, it raised many eyebrows among political observers.
The payment came a few months before James Biden’s communications job at the University of Delaware ended, raising further questions about the validity of the payment. While the Biden campaign has maintained that the payment was for legitimate campaign expenses, the circumstances surrounding the transaction have caused some to wonder if it was simply a favor to Joe Biden’s brother.
To shed more light on what exactly happened, a deeper dive into the payments is needed. According to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records, James Biden was paid for “strategic consulting and communications services.” The Biden campaign claims the $200,000 payment was for “strategic advice” received by James Biden during the 2018 midterm election cycle, although the exact nature of the advice has not been revealed.
The payment was first reported back in August 2018, when the Washington Free Beacon noted the expenditure in FEC filings. But there has been little follow-up into the details of the transaction since then, despite the lingering questions about the payment.
The Biden campaign has defended the payment, saying it was for “legitimate campaign expenses” and that “all campaign expenses are vetted and paid in accordance with the law.” But that hasn’t stopped critics from pointing out that these types of payments are typically made in the spring and summer of election years, not the fall.
It’s important to note that there is no evidence of any wrongdoing on the part of either the Biden campaign or James Biden. But in an election year where questions of political favoritism and special interests are at the forefront, it’s understandable why many are questioning the legitimacy of the payment.
At this point, the only way to adequately address these questions is for the Biden campaign to be completely transparent about what the payment was for and why it was made when it was. Until then, the questions surrounding the $200,000 payment from the Biden campaign to Joe Biden’s brother will continue to swirl.