Watchdog Calls on Biden Center to Disclose Foreign Donations While DOJ Investigates Classified Docs

After classified documents were found stored in a closet at the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Biden Center, a watchdog group is calling for the university to disclose whether any of the foreign donations it was given were channeled into the think tank.

The calls from the National Legal and Policy Center (NLPC) come amid reports that the Department of Justice is investigating how Biden’s classified documents ended up at the institute and could revive congressional probes into national security risks posed by the Penn Biden Center, the policy institute launched by Biden and the University of Pennsylvania in 2017.

In the two years since the think tank was opened, foreign donations to the University of Pennsylvania have more than tripled. The majority of the $61million in international donations came from China. Washington Free Beacon reported In 2021. Republican Legislators The foreign policy officials have warned about the Chinese government’s influence-buying operations on college campuses, while the Department of Justice has been cracking down on Chinese Espionage American universities

Tom Anderson, Director of the Public Integrity Project at NLPC, said that UPenn had shown anexemplary record in demonstrating integrity. “unwillingness to disclose what appears to be millions of dollars of foreign donations” raised following the creation of the Penn Biden Center, which may have been channeled into Biden’s think tank.

The funding “has potentially opened the door to national security issues related to the University providing undocumented access to what was then future high-level officials within the Biden administration and State Department,” Anderson said that Anderson had told the Free Beacon.

Stephen MacCarthy was a spokesperson for the University of Pennsylvania. He dismissed any notion of a link between the Penn Biden Center, and foreign donations to UPenn. These donations surged after the think-tank was launched. “One hundred percent of the budget for the Penn Biden Center comes from university funds,” He spoke to the Free Beacon Tuesday

The Penn Biden Center “has never solicited or received any gifts from any Chinese or other foreign entity. In fact, the University has never solicited any gifts for the Center.” MacCarthy claimed that the think-tank has received only unsolicited gifts from two donors. “which combined total $1,100.”

The NLPC says foreign donations to UPenn raise national security concerns, noting that the Penn Biden Center served as a national-security-council-in-waiting for the Biden administration and employed numerous Biden aides who now hold top foreign policy and defense positions under his presidency.

Tony Blinken was Secretary of State and served as Penn Biden Center’s Director from 2017 to 2019. He received $79,000 in salary according to financial-disclosure records. The Penn Biden Center also had a number of US officials, including U.S. Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Michael Carpenter and U.S. deputy ambasador to the United Nations Jeffrey Prescott. Biden appointed UPenn’s longtime former president, Amy Gutmann, as ambassador to Germany last year.

News of the Department of Justice’s probe into Biden’s classified records could reignite scrutiny of UPenn on Capitol Hill, where Republicans have promised to investigate foreign influence in the Biden administration. The classified material from Biden’s vice presidency was reportedly CNN reported that records related to Iran, Ukraine and the United Kingdom were found in a closet.

Rep. James Comer was the chairman of House Oversight Committee Questions about UPenn’s foreign funding, sending letters to the university requesting records and information about the donations in 2020 and 2021. On Tuesday, Comer criticized Biden for “inappropriately maintain[ing] classified documents in an insecure setting for several years.”