Comer: Anonymous Chinese Donations to UPenn Potentially Influenced Biden Administration Policies

Calls on the university to provide all documents and communications related to donations originating from China to UPenn and the Penn Biden Center

WASHINGTON—Today, House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) is calling on University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) President M. Elizabeth Magill to provide information about anonymous Chinese donations to UPenn and the Penn Biden Center. Given the Biden family’s financial connections to foreign adversaries and the recent discovery of classified documents stashed in an unsecure closet at Penn Biden Center, Chairman Comer is requesting all documents and communications related to donations originating from China and a list of all Chinese donors—and the individual amount donated—to UPenn.    

“The Committee on Oversight and Accountability is investigating President Biden’s possible illegal handling of sensitive, highly classified documents.Recent reports reveal President Biden’s attorneys discovered Obama-Biden Administration documents in an unsecure closet at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement—a Washington, D.C.-based think tank affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania,” wrote Chairman Comer. “President Biden’s pattern of mishandling classified documents is alarming. The Committee is concerned about who had access to these documents given the Biden family’s financial connections to foreign actors and companies. The American people deserve to know whether the Chinese Communist Party, through Chinese companies, influenced potential Biden Administration policies with large, anonymous donations to UPenn and the Penn Biden Center.”

The Committee has learned UPenn received millions of dollars from anonymous Chinese sources, with a marked uptick in donations when then-former Vice President Biden was announced as leading the Penn Biden Center initiative. Following the formation of the Penn Biden Center, donations originating from China tripled and continued while Joe Biden explored a potential run for President. In addition, the Committee is concerned that UPenn officials offered lucrative, foreign-funded salaries to President Biden’s closest political allies to secure senior posts in a future Biden Administration and foreign actors funded those salaries to influence a future government.   

“The Penn Biden Center appears to have acted as a foreign-sponsored source of income for much of a Biden Administration in-waiting,” continued Chairman Comer. “Between 2017 and 2019, UPenn paid President Biden more than $900,000, and the university employed at least 10 people at the Penn Biden Center who later became senior Biden administration officials. This level of access and opportunity raises questions about who had access to the classified documents found at the Penn Biden Center. It is imperative to understand whether any Biden family members or associates gained access to the classified documents while stored at the Penn Biden Center.”

Read the letter to UPenn President Magill here.