FBI agents investigating a Mississippi attorney for bribery secretly recorded his conversations with Joe Biden’s brother James in the late 1990s, The Washington Post has revealed.
A report from the Post revealed on Monday that James Biden’s conversations with Richard Scruggs became part of a criminal investigation when Scruggs came under suspicion of bribing a local judge. Though Mr Biden was not directly involved in those accusations, his conversations with Scruggs about potentially starting a legal and consulting firm were nevertheless swept up in the recording of his would-be partner’s communications.
Mr Biden’s attorney confirmed as much to the Post, calling the discussions with Scruggs “serious” though they ultimately never led to a business venture.
The Post simultaneously reported that Scruggs had paid James Biden for consulting work as he lobbied Washington on a bill that would have waived antitrust provisions for tobacco companies and allowed for Scruggs to reach a major settlement with the companies; in total, he paid James Biden $100,000 in fees. His brother Joe, then a senator, became an ardent supporter of the bill supported by Scruggs, though James Biden’s lawyer denied that his client ever spoke to the senator regarding the issue.
Scruggs, for his part, told the Post that he hoped James Biden had indeed spoken with then-Senator Biden about the legislation.
“I probably wouldn’t have hired him if he wasn’t the senator’s brother,” Scruggs said of James Biden. “I hope he did” speak to his brother about it, he added.
Scruggs was sentenced to 7 years in jail after pleading guilty to judicial corruption charges.
The Post’s story could seemingly not have come at a worse time for the president.
As he begins campaigning in earnest for re-election next year, the president is beset by pre-existing concerns about his age and new discontent in his own party regarding his management of the US’s role in the conflict between Israel’s military and Hamas militants in Gaza.
Meanwhile, he faces an impeachment inquiry in the House of Representatives which, after months of investigating, has failed to convince anyone but far-right conservatives that the president definitively oversaw or benefited from his son Hunter’s foreign business affairs.
But this latest report, which deals directly with a piece of legislation about which Mr Biden went from expressing concerns to championing, presents an irrefutable truth: people and business interests pursued deals and financial relationships with Joe Biden’s family members due to the mere suggestion of influence or access, regardless of whether or not that suggestion was real.
The Post also encountered a separate lawsuit filed against Lion Hall, James Biden’s consulting firm, alleging that James had promised to “generate business for [the plaintiffs] through his family name and his resemblance to his brother”.
It’s the kind of situation that has dragged down the effectiveness of Democrats’ criticism of the Trump family, and in particular former President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, for supposedly profiting off of their time in the White House.
Polls indicate that Americans are broadly unhappy with the prospect of a rematch between Donald Trump and Joe Biden in 2024. Mr Biden currently trails his one-time opponent in surveys of most major battleground states.
Mr Trump remains charged with 91 felony counts relating to his attempt to overturn the 2020 election and other alleged crimes.
