House Oversight chair says China's donations to Penn Biden Center may have influenced administration

The House Oversight and Accountability Committee on Wednesday demanded the University of Pennsylvania release information about anonymous donations from China to the Penn Biden Center, where classified documents were found, over concerns the Chinese Communist Party may have influenced Biden administration policies through the contributions.

"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," the GOP-led committee said. "Following the formation of the Penn Biden Center, donations originating from China tripled and continued while Joe Biden explored a potential run for President."

The statement follows a letter committee Chairman Rep. James Comer sent to university President M. Elizabeth Magill requesting the information and a story about the donations by Just the News.

The committee is already investigating now-President Biden's possible mishandling of classified documents from his time as vice president. While some of the documents were discovered in November in Biden's former Washington, D.C., office at the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, news about the records did not surface until this month.

"The Committee is concerned about who had access to these documents given the Biden family’s financial connections to foreign actors and companies," wrote Comer, of Kentucky.

The classified documents included materials related to Iran and Ukraine, according to media reports.

More classified documents were found at Biden's home in Wilmington, Delaware. 

"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," Comer wrote.

At least 10 Penn Biden Center employees became senior White House officials and Biden himself made more than $900,000 at the center from 2017 through 2019, Comer said. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who served as the Penn Biden Center's managing director, said Tuesday that he "had no knowledge" of the classified documents while he worked there.