President Joe Biden's daughter-in-law Hallie Biden received $35,000 in payments from a Chinese energy company while she was dating her late husband's brother, Hunter Biden, the New York Post reported on Thursday.
House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R., Ky.) disclosed the transaction in a memo to committee members, according to the Post. News of the previously unknown payment comes as the committee has been investigating whether members of Biden's family were running an influence-peddling operation with the president's knowledge. Comer said earlier this week that the probe, which has focused on Biden's son Hunter's foreign business dealings, could ensnare six or seven members of his family.
The committee reportedly discovered the payment to Hallie Biden while examining suspicious activity reports this week from the Treasury Department, which flag potentially illegal transactions. There are reportedly over 150 reports related to Hunter and James Biden.
The transaction reportedly took place in March 2017, after a company called Chinese State Energy HK Limited—an affiliate of another Chinese energy company that Hunter Biden worked with—sent a $3 million wire transfer to a company owned by an associate of the Biden family. Over $1 million of those funds were reportedly disbursed to Biden family members, including Hallie.
Hallie Biden, the widow of President Biden's oldest son Beau, was in a romantic relationship with Hunter Biden at the time of the transaction. The two started an affair while Hunter was married to his first wife, Kathleen, and continued until 2019. Hunter has been accused of using his proximity and influence with his father to land lucrative positions on the board of Ukrainian oil company Burisma, a Chinese energy company, and a Chinese private equity firm.
Comer told Fox News’s Laura Ingraham on Wednesday that he believes there are "probably six or seven Biden family members that were involved in various business schemes around the world."
Other Biden family members, including the president’s brother James, have also been accused of leveraging Biden’s positions to pull in business.