Photo: Alamy
President Trump took to his Truth Social platform to respond to news that classified materials were discovered at Joe Biden’s think tank in Washington D.C. and questioned whether those documents were given to the Chinese government in return for anonymous donations to the Penn Biden Center.
The Wall Street Journal reported, “The documents, earlier reported by CBS News, were discovered in November by Mr. Biden’s personal lawyers as they packed files at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement in Washington, according to a statement by the president’s attorney, Richard Sauber.”
The University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Biden Center has long been scrutinized by watchdog groups who have claimed that the center is being funded anonymously by China.
Prior to Biden’s inauguration in January 2021, Just the News reported, “Last year[ 2020], a watchdog group called on the Department of Education to investigate the center, demanding that the feds look into ‘all monetary gifts and contracts that have been received by the University of Pennsylvania and its Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement from China sources.’”
From 2014 to 2019, the University of Pennsylvania received $54 million in donations from Chinese donors, according to the New York Post. However, a noticeable spike in anonymous Chinese donations occurred in 2017 and 2018 following the announcement of the creation of the Penn Biden Center, which opened its doors in February 2018, the outlet added.
Last year, the New York Post reported, “The Ivy League university received $15.8 million in anonymous Chinese gifts that year[2018], including one eye-popping $14.5 million donation in May 2018, records show.”
Some watchdog groups, including the National Legal and Policy Center, have speculated that the anonymous donations were related to Hunter Biden’s business interests in China. The group alleged as much in a 2020 complaint with the Departments of Education and Justice.
This information prompted Trump to write, “Wow! The Biden think tank is funded by China!” The 45th president added: “Also, a V.P. cannot declassify documents, which are covered by the Federal Records Act, which is criminal and much tougher than the Presidential Records Act, which is not criminal.”
Trump concluded by writing, “Biden giving China highly classified documents would be a bridge too far. I certainly wouldn’t do that. Not a good situation for our country to be in!”
