Republicans are pointing out eyebrow-raising questions after $10 million magically appeared in President Joe Biden's bank account with no explanation.
Biden is facing scrutiny among allegations linking him to a bribery scandal in Ukraine when he served as vice president, which has brought unanswered questions to old Biden tax returns.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) demands transparency from the president, claiming Biden is guilty of committing a felony.
"You're looking at a tax return that has $10 million in cash that came from a mystery source," Cruz said during his podcast, Verdict with Ted Cruz. "We have utterly no idea where that $10 million came from."
According to reports, a whistleblower claimed that when Biden was vice president, a senior executive at Burisma offered him $5 million in bribery cash to make a deal and official decisions for Burisma. In 2017, when Biden ended his career as vice president, he reported over $10 million of income from two corporations he and First Lady Jill Biden set up, causing Republicans to question where that money initially came from.
"You know what anyone who gives a damn about integrity in government should say? 'We need the tax returns of CelticCapri Corp and GiaCoppa Corp,'" Cruz said. "Because, you know, what if half of that $10 million is the $5 million payment for Burisma for the bribe?"
Cruz aimed his remarks at Biden, saying the president should start "sizing up for an orange jumpsuit" because, after doing the math, the Texas congressman explained how Biden's book deal and speaking engagements do not account for the mysterious $10 million the corrupt family pocketed in 2017.
"So, let’s take Joe’s numbers. He’s claiming that Joe netted $12.2 million for a book deal. His book deal sold about 300,000 copies. Now, the $12 million, $4.2 million of that is allegedly from speaking, and I can believe that he probably got pretty good speaking fees, that that’s plausible. That means he’s claiming $8 million of income came from book royalties.
Now let’s do some math. His book had a retail price of $27 for hardcover, $18 for paperback. If you assume a reasonable mix of sales, the average price was $23. On 300,000 books sold, the gross revenue everyone makes is just under $7 million. What Joe is alleging is they paid him $8 million to generate $7 million. The book publisher lost a million dollars and got no money for printing the book. Typically, an author, if you were just receiving a royalty, would have received about 12%. For a typical blended royalty, you’d get about 15 percent. For hardcover, about 7.5 percent for paperback is typical. If Joe were receiving 12 percent of $7 million, he would have yielded about $800,000. He’s claiming he got $8 million."
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) also expressed concerns about where the sum of money came from, calling on Biden to stop lying to the American people.
"Biden should disclose, and every member of the press ought to hound him until he does," Johnson said.
Meanwhile, Mace warned Biden that the FBI couldn't protect him forever as the GOP closes in on their investigation.
"The President seems to find selling out our country funny. We don't," Mace said. "If he's serious about proving our allegations wrong, he should release his and his family's un-redacted bank records and show the American people where all this money is coming from."
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