James Biden

James Brian Biden (born May 16, 1949) is an American former nightclub owner, insurance broker, and political consultant. Biden is a brother of Joe Biden, the 46th President of the United States. He was his brother's chief fundraiser for his 1972 Senate campaign. His financial relationship to members of his family, particularly Joe Biden, made him a subject of Republican-led House committee investigations of the Biden family.

Early life and education

James Biden studied at the University of Delaware for over four semesters but left without earning a degree.

Business activities Shortly after his brother's first Senate victory, he went into the nightclub business. He and four partners ran a restaurant-lounge called Seasons Change. Finding success, he then opened another club called The Other Side. The issuance of the subpoenas came as House Republicans looked for evidence of influence-peddling within the Biden family. An attorney for James Biden said the subpoenas were not justified, while an attorney for Hunter Biden called them a "political stunt" based on "debunked claims." The meeting had a focus on two loans given by Joe Biden in 2017 and 2018 to James, and the financial situations surrounding the loans. James Biden also maintained that Joe was not involved in his business activities.

On June 5, 2024, the Republican-led committees involved in the impeachment inquiry of Joe Biden issued criminal referrals of James Biden and Hunter Biden to the Department of Justice. They recommended that the DOJ look into charging James Biden for allegedly making a false statement to congressional investigators. The committee chairmen wrote that in his prior testimony to Congress, James Biden falsely stated that as a private citizen, Joe Biden did not meet with family business associate Tony Bobulinski. This assertion was contradicted by other witnesses, with the committees finding it to be false. Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin, then the Ranking Member of the Oversight Committee, called the referrals "last-ditch...'gotcha' accusations" to distract from what he viewed as "the exoneration" of Joe Biden from wrongdoing. The President stated that he did not believe anyone in his family was guilty of wrongdoing, but pardoned them due to his fear of future political attacks onto his family from Donald Trump, who would ascend to the Presidency on the same day. The preemptive pardons were sweeping, covering all nonviolent crimes dating back through 2014. The pardons were criticized by Republicans as an abuse of power, and contradicted past criticism of familial and preemptive pardons by Joe Biden.