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Ever since the GOP took control of the House, Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) has doggedly pursued evidence of a foreign influence peddling scheme implicating President Biden. Team GOP has combed through bank records and tax receipts, compelled witness testimony and pawed through the digital wreckage of the president’s son’s life to find evidence that Joe Biden benefited from family members’ business dealings.

But things kept blowing up in committee members’ faces. There was the time they hyped a witness appearance as incredibly damaging, only to have the transcript reveal that their own witness contradicted their claims in the hearing. They waved around record of a payment received by Joe Biden from his brother as evidence that Biden was profiting from his brother’s business dealings, only to have it revealed that the brother was repaying a loan — without interest.

But today, finally — finally! — a committee member submitted solid evidence of presidential corruption. Unfortunately for Comer and crew, the committee member is Rep. Jamie Raskin, and the president whose corrupt as fuck activities are documented in the report is Donald J. Trump. NYT gift link:

Donald J. Trump’s businesses received at least $7.8 million from 20 foreign governments during his presidency, according to new documents released by House Democrats on Thursday that show how much he received from overseas transactions while he was in the White House, most of it from China.

The transactions, detailed in a 156-page report called “White House For Sale” that was produced by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, offer concrete evidence that the former president engaged in the kind of conduct that House Republicans have labored, so far unsuccessfully, to prove that President Biden did as they work to build an impeachment case against him…

House Democrats highlighted the transactions on Thursday as a counterweight to Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into Mr. Biden, which has sought to tie him to international business deals by his son Hunter Biden before his father became president in a bid to prove corruption or influence peddling. They have so far failed to show that President Biden was enriched in any way by any of those transactions.

”By elevating his personal financial interests and the policy priorities of corrupt foreign powers over the American public interest, former President Trump violated both the clear commands of the Constitution and the careful precedent set and observed by every previous commander in chief,” Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Oversight Committee, wrote in a foreword to the report.

Cue the sad trombones!

Look, this isn’t in the least bit surprising. Trump was flagrantly corrupt before, during and after his single embarrassing term. The idea that the lunkhead sons were actually running the family con without Trump’s input was always absurd. Even gross hangers-on like in-laws on the Kushner side eagerly peddled influence, and Kushner enriched himself to the tune of billions-plural on the strength of his relationship with Trump and position as a White House nepotism hire.

So the Biden impeachment fishing expedition was always an elaborate “I know you are, but what am I?” taunt. But still, it’s gotta stick in Comer’s craw that a member of the committee he chairs so easily produced scads of evidence of Trump’s corruption (from incomplete records!) even as the GOP side fruitlessly beats the bushes for proof that Biden acted improperly.

Maybe it will inspire the hopping-mad GOP committee members to redouble their efforts to hold a speculative and meaningless impeachment exercise. That couldn’t possibly go wrong in an election year.

Open thread.

House Oversight Committee (Finally!) Submits Solid Evidence of Presidential CorruptionPost + Comments (74)