OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Republicans are set to take the reigns in the House and that means the investigations into Democrat corruption are set to begin. One of those investigations is apparently going to be about Democrat New York Rep. Carolyn Maloney soliciting tickets to the Met Gala, the Washington Examiner reported.
The New York representative is set to leave Congress at the end of this term and is the current chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform. But a report from the Office of Congressional Ethics alleged that the representative “made a phone call to Witness A, a former president of the Met, to request an invitation to the Met Gala after the gala organizers had decided not to invite her to that year’s event.”
The report also pointed to emails between the congresswoman and a staffer requesting contact info for the former Metropolitan Museum of Art Chief Government Relations Officer after asking if she had received an invite for the 2020 star-studded event, which was later canceled that year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The OCE’s findings note that Maloney secured grants and federal funding that benefited the Met and pressed for the museum to remain in her district.
Current House gift guidance says that, in relation to charity events, members “may accept an unsolicited offer of free attendance for a charity fundraising event for you and a spouse or dependent child” but “emphasizes that solicitation of a gift is impermissible.” Tickets to the event cost around $30,000 and upwards of $200,000 for a table.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney under investigation after begging for Met Gala invite https://t.co/fsT6U9xDXr pic.twitter.com/58fOZHSbjp
— New York Post (@nypost) November 22, 2022
NEW – Office of Congressional Ethics report just released by House Ethics finds Rep. Carolyn Maloney "may have
solicited or accepted impermissible gifts associated with her attendance at the Met Gala." If she did so this could violate House rules, standards of conduct & the law pic.twitter.com/ph2nOnuMdF— Nicholas Wu (@nicholaswu12) November 21, 2022
“These efforts to gain free attendance may implicate the prohibition on solicitation of gifts under federal law and House rules and render inapplicable any otherwise applicable gift exception for attendance at charitable events,” the report said.
But when she was interviewed by the Office of Congressional Ethics the representative, who has denied any wrongdoing, said that she “did not recall a year in which she was not invited to the Met Gala. Specifically, Rep. Maloney stated, ‘[a]s I said, I was often invited. I was invited to more events at the Met than I ever went to because I live in Washington.”
In a press conference, Reps. James Comer of Kentucky and Jim Jordan of Ohio, the latter of whom is expected to take over the chairmanship of the House Judiciary Committee, said GOP investigators had a mountain of evidence, much of it supplied by whistleblowers, allegedly indicating ‘pay-for-play’ schemes spanning dozens of countries and allegedly involving Hunter Biden essentially selling access to his politically connected father, who spent decades in the Senate and two terms as vice president.
Rep. James Comer announces the Republican House Oversight Committee is launching an investigation into Joe Biden’s dealings with his son Hunter to determine whether the president “is compromised or swayed by foreign dollars.”
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) November 17, 2022
Here is a transcript of some of Comer’s remarks via Grabien:
Joe Biden claimed he did not have conversations with his family about their business dealings. That was a lie. Whistleblowers describe President Biden as chairman of the board for these businesses. He personally participated in meetings and phone calls. The document showed that he was a partner with access to an office. To be clear, Joe Biden is the big guy.
This evidence raises troubling questions about whether President Biden is a national security risk and about whether he is compromised by foreign government. Despite the president’s claim that he wasn’t involved in Biden family business schemes, these photos show Joe Biden meeting with his family associates while vice president. Four different pictures.
Committee Republicans have identified over 50 countries the Biden family sought businesses in on the international side of the Biden family business. The deals were often led by Hunter Biden. And that map there behind play shows all the countries where the Biden’s had a footprint in international business dealings.
The investigation reveals a family that engaged with some of America’s most powerful adversaries, planning the sale of one of the largest sources of cobalt for electric vehicles in the world to the Chinese, for example. The Bidens flourished and became millionaires by simply offering access to the family. Among the dozens of shell companies that Biden set up, there were millions of dollars of wire transfers, flights on Air Force Two to conduct personal business, and meetings with heads of state all while Joe Biden was aware of what was happening.
All the while, he turned a blind eye. Many transactions related to these businesses have raised red flags at U.S. banks. A suspicious activity report or SAR is a document a bank must file with the Treasury Department when a transaction is suspected to be related to money laundering, fraud, or other types of criminal activity. According to media reports, the Biden family accumulated over 150 SARs.
One SAR generated by an American Bank to the Treasury Department connects Hunter Biden and his business associates to international human trafficking, among other illegal activities. The money that was being made from foreign principals in the same room as Joe Biden was increasingly spent on furthering illegal activity. The SAR showed that Hunter Biden was conducting business with suspected human traffickers.
The money gained through influence peddling was function — was funneled to a suspected criminal enterprise. Again, one Link to human trafficking. We have repeatedly called on the Biden Treasury Department to release additional financial documents…
