James Comer used 'shady' shell company similar to Bidens, report finds

U.S. Rep. James Comer, the Kentucky Republican at the fore of the Joe Biden impeachment inquiry, has obscured his own business dealings, according to a scathing report from The Associated Press.

Comer, head of the House Oversight Committee, has attacked members of the president's family over their use of shell companies that Republicans say were used to shield payments from foreign entities and gain wealth by trading on the family name.

But the AP report found Comer is involved in a shell company with a political donor that "functions in a similarly opaque way as the companies used by the Bidens." It said the company, called Farm Team Properties, masks "his stake in the land that he co-owns with the donor from being revealed on his financial disclosure forms."

Those records describe Farm Team Properties as his wife’s “land management and real estate speculation” company without providing further details, according to the report.

Democrats have seized on the AP story, with Rep. Eric Swalwell of California saying on social media platform X that "we should have known this is what’s really been going on."

"After making so many false claims against President Biden, James Comer is the one with the shady finances," said Swalwell, who serves on the House Judiciary Committee.

On his most recent financial disclosure forms, Comer lists Farm Team Property's value as being as much as $1 million, but it is unclear what other assets the company owns, the AP says. House rules require members of Congress to disclose all assets held by such companies worth more than $1,000.

Comer declined to comment to The Associated Press through a spokesman and has denied wrongdoing.

The AP also said Farm Team Properties is co-owned by Darren Cleary, a political donor and construction contractor in Monroe County, which is in Western Kentucky. But, it noted, Comer went on Fox News on Thursday and said Cleary wasn't a donor when the company was formed.

The company was created in 2017 to hold Comer's stake in six acres purchased two years earlier in conjunction with Cleary, the report says. Cleary and his family have donated to Comer’s political campaigns since at least 2010 and have given roughly $70,000, the AP found.

Cleary did not respond to an AP interview request.

Cleary sold an acre of his family's land to Kentucky so it could build a highway bypass near Tompkinsville that was completed in 2020, the report says. He sold Comer a 50% stake for $128,000 in six acres he owned that would end up being adjacent to the highway, it says.

The partnership sold off about an acre of that land last year for $150,000, according to the report.

This is not the first time that Comer's financial dealings in Kentucky have been scrutinized as he helps lead the controversial investigation into the president's family.

Also read: Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg defends wife's role, files motion to dismiss ethics complaint

Last month Comer was questioned during a hearing by U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz about a reported $200,000 payment the Kentucky Republican made to his brother as part of a land swap. Comer responded vehemently, which has led to an ethics complaint against him. He called Moskowitz, a Florida Democrat, a "smurf" and liar while using an obscenity to describe the story about that deal. He added that his brother never borrowed one penny from him.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: James Comer, donor used shell company for Kentucky land deal