Tag: Penn Biden Center

University of Pennsylvania Took Money from School That Settled with U.S. Gov’t over Alleged Hezbollah Ties

Pennsylvania Daily Star Staff

The University of Pennsylvania, which hosts the Penn Biden Center, took hundreds of thousands of dollars from the American University of Beirut (AUB) in 2022, roughly five years after AUB paid a settlement to the United States government in connection with its alleged ties to Hezbollah, a U.S.-designated terror organization.

UPenn received $474,947 from AUB in 2022, with the donations earmarked as “Education/Tuition/Scholarship,” according to a 2021-2022 foreign gift disclosure obtained via a Freedom of Information Act request. AUB settled a lawsuit with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan, paying $700,000 and promising to revise its policies, following a suit alleging the university assisted organizations linked to Hezbollah, Reuters reported.

Read More

Authors of Soros-Funded Biden Center Report Pushing More Refugee Resettlement into the U.S. Now Work at the White House

Admin

Several authors of a Soros-funded Penn Biden Center report advocating for increasing the number of refugees allowed into the country now work in the Biden administration, handling immigration and national security policy.

The Penn Biden Center and the National Conference on Citizenship published a 2020 report, which was funded by a $259,050 grant from Open Society Foundations, recommending increasing the number of refugees permitted to come to the U.S. and easing restrictions on refugee eligibility, actions the White House has since taken. The report was led by Ariana Berengaut, who now serves as senior adviser to national security adviser Jake Sullivan, and Eric Hysen, who was sworn in as chief information officer (CIO) for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in February 2021; Rosanna Kim, who serves as senior adviser for the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM) since January 2021, also contributed to the report.

Read More

National Archives Admits over 1,100 Biden Records Pages at Penn Office, Lacks Custody of Others

Just the News

The National Archives has admitted that approximately 1,170 pages of records from President Joe Biden’s time as vice president were found at the Penn Biden Center in November 2022, and the agency said it does not have custody of any records discovered at Biden’s homes in Delaware.

The America First Legal Foundation highlighted the revelation Thursday by publishing a letter that the National Archives sent to the conservative legal group in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.

Read More

Biden’s Second Home in Delaware Searched by FBI for Classified Documents

The Center Square

President Joe Biden’s personal residence in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, was searched by the U.S. Department of Justice on Wednesday as part of an ongoing probe into classified documents, according to a statement released by Biden’s personal attorney. “Today, with the President’s full support and cooperation, the DOJ is conducting a planned search of his home in Rehoboth, Delaware,” attorney Bob Bauer said in a statement. “Under DOJ’s standard procedures, in the interests of operational security and integrity, it sought to do this work without advance public notice, and we agreed to cooperate.”

Read More

Most Politicians’ Think Tanks Heavy on Research Output, in Contrast to Penn Biden Center

Bradley Vasoli

Numerous university think tanks have had national political leaders as figureheads. The University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement isn’t unique in that regard. What does set the center apart from similar institutions — besides its recent immersion in national scandal — is its limited research output. 

The Penn Biden Center is undergoing intense and somewhat bipartisan criticism for having housed nearly a dozen classified government records after Joe Biden used the space as his main D.C. office from 2017 to 2019 while also nominally working as a professor. The documents were discovered last November and other restricted federal materials turned up this month in the president’s Delaware home. Some of the records were generated when Biden served as a U.S. senator and others materialized when he was vice president. 

Read More

Penn Biden Center Hosted ‘Bootcamp’ for Congressional Staffers Promoting Closer China Ties

Bradley Vasoli

President Joe Biden’s D.C.-based think tank operated by the University of Pennsylvania reportedly held a two-day “bootcamp” last year during which congressional staffers were urged to support greater cooperation between the United States and China. 

The Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement has become the subject of heightened public attention in light of revelations earlier this month that Biden, who used the establishment as his main D.C. office, kept classified federal documents there. 

Read More

Democratic Congressman: ‘No One Can Defend Having Classified Documents’ at Penn Biden Center

Bradley Vasoli

A Democratic California congressman this week weighed in on President Joe Biden’s classified-document scandal, characterizing the president’s housing of restricted records in his University of Pennsylvania office and his Delaware home as indefensible. A member of the House Oversight and Armed Services committees, U.S. Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA-17) told Fox News that Biden warrants scrutiny for keeping numerous records he obtained during his earlier service as a U.S. senator and later as vice president. Khanna noted that the law requires classified federal documents to be kept in “sensitive compartmented information facilities” (SCIFs). While presidents can sometimes temporarily designate rooms within their personal properties as SCIFs, Biden has never suggested any spaces in his home or office were deemed to be such areas.

Read More

Commentary: Biden Document Discovery Doesn’t Add Up

RealClearWire

Last week, CBS “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan asked Democratic Rep. Dan Goldman why President Biden would dispatch his personal attorney, who didn’t have proper security clearance, to his Delaware home to search for classified documents. Presumably, Brennan believed that when searching for classified documents, one should have the credentials to actually read them. Brennan’s focus on who was reviewing Biden’s papers touched on a potentially interesting line of inquiry. The question hanging in the air, however, relates to the discovery that started this whole process: Why would lawyers be “packing up” Biden’s office in the Penn Biden Center in the first place?

Read More

Penn Biden Center Inactive and Seemingly Leaderless for Nearly a Year

Bradley Vasoli

The Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy & Global Engagement, the University of Pennsylvania think tank of which President Joe Biden was once the de facto leader, has had no publicized activity for nearly a year and its future is uncertain. Biden reportedly used the Washington, D.C.-based center as his main D.C. office for much of the time between the end of his vice presidency in 2017 and his presidential run in 2020. From 2017 to 2019, Biden received approximately $900,000 in salary for a Penn professorship that did not require him to teach regular classes.

Read More

Texas Representative Gooden Calls on Administration to Investigate Gifts to Penn from China

Bradley Vasoli

A Texas congressman is asking the U.S. Department of Education (DoE) to investigate funding that foreign entities have bestowed on the University of Pennsylvania.

Read More

Amid Renewed Controversy, Penn Scholars Defend Opposition to China Initiative to Catch Spies

Bradley Vasoli

Revelations that President Joe Biden kept classified federal documents at his University of Pennsylvania office in Washington, D.C., have brought renewed scrutiny to his relationship with the university — and the role many Penn professors had in persuading his administration to kill a Justice Department project combatting Chinese espionage.

Read More

Biden Has No Answers on Chain of Custody for Classified Documents from His Time as VP Discovered in His Residence and Penn Biden Center Offices

Laura Baigert

President Biden has failed to provide an explanation for the chain of custody for classified documents from his time as vice president discovered at three locations in his private residence in Wilmington, Delaware – in his library, in a room adjacent to the garage, and in a box and his garage where he keeps his Corvette–and at the Penn Biden Center offices in Washington, D.C., his base of operations during 2018 and 2019.

Read More

Penn Biden Center Appears to Have Published Little to No Original Scholarship

Bradley Vasoli

A review by The Pennsylvania Daily Star of output from the Penn Biden Center, the foreign-policy think tank established in 2017 to coincide with the start of Joe Biden’s professorship at the University of Pennsylvania, suggests the center has produced little to no original scholarly work. The Washington, D.C.-based center has drawn heavy media scrutiny after news came out earlier this month that nearly a dozen classified federal documents were housed there until last November. Biden reportedly used the location as his main D.C. office after his vice presidency ended and before he became president.

Read More

University of Pennsylvania Continues to Boast of Relationship with China After Money from the Communist Nation Rolled In

Bradley Vasoli

“Today, Penn’s relationship with China is strong, and continues to grow.”

That’s how the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Global website still refers to the Philadelphia-based Ivy League school’s association with the communist-run nation. 

Read More

Penn Biden Center Had UPenn Interns Running Around 13,800-Square-Foot D.C. Offices

Bradley Vasoli

President Joe Biden’s former private office in Washington, D.C., where roughly a dozen classified documents were discovered earlier last November, was recently a site for high-profile University of Pennsylvania internships. 

Administrators of the Philadelphia-based Ivy League school brought the former vice president aboard as a professor in the winter of 2017 to coincide with the “soft opening” of the 13,800-square-foot Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement. Just under a year later, the think tank officially commenced operations with a stated aim of engaging “our fellow citizens in shaping this world, while ensuring the gains of global engagement are widely shared.” 

Read More

Star News Network’s Kittle on Bannon’s WarRoom: No Action Taken on 2020 Complaint that Multi-Million Dollar ‘Anonymous’ Gifts from Chinese Sources to PennBiden Center Violated Federal Reporting Requirements

Julie Carr

Friday on WarRoom: Battlefield, host Bannon welcomed National Political Editor at The Star News Network to the show to discuss the anonymous donations received by the Penn Biden Center and other higher learning institutions linked to the Chinese Communist Party.

Read More

Biden Aides Discovered More Classified Documents at Second Location: Report

Just the News

Aides to President Joe Biden have reportedly discovered a second batch of classified documents stored at a separate location, according to NBC News, which cited a “person familiar with the matter.”

Reports emerged earlier this week that a lawyer clearing out Biden’s office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington had discovered a set of classified documents which reportedly included intelligence on Ukraine, Iran and the UK. The documents were discovered in November and handed over to the government. The National Archives has asked the Department of Justice to investigate the matter.

Read More

Biden Says He Was ‘Surprised’ to Learn of Classified Documents at His Former Office

Just the News

President Joe Biden indicated that he had been unaware of the classified documents found at his former office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C.

After repeatedly maligning former President Donald Trump for his alleged mishandling of classified documents, Biden appeared to have ink on his face when reports emerged that the National Archives had asked the Department of Justice to investigate his own handling of classified materials found at his private office.

Read More

New Book Reveals Chinese Dollars to University of Pennsylvania Tripled After Biden Center Founding

Bradley Vasoli

As President Joe Biden’s nomination of University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann as ambassador to Germany proceeds in the U.S. Senate, a new book reveals that financial support from communist China to her university nearly tripled after the school established its Biden Center four years ago.

The flow of dollars from People’s Republic of China entities to Penn has already fueled contentiousness about Gutmann’s nomination. In a November letter to Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sens. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) expressed their concern regarding the amount of money the university has accepted from Chinese institutions and companies. Committee Ranking Member Jim Risch (R-ID) has since come out against Gutmann’s prospective appointment and has cited the $86 million in Chinese contributions and contracts that Penn has received since 2014.

Read More