Rep. Comer's blatant hypocrisy reaches new heights

An Associated Press investigation found that Rep. James Comer (R-KY), who has been leading the charge in the Joe Biden impeachment “scandal,” engaged in some of the same behavior that he has accused the president of. 

Comer, a multimillionaire who owns some 1,600 acres of farmland in his home state, appears to have put six of those acres — which he purchased for $128,000 from a key campaign donor in 2015 — into a shell company called Farm Team Companies.  

The use of shell companies is something that Comer has used as evidence to suggest the existence of the so-called “Biden Crime Family.” Such revelations come just a month after the Daily Beast reported that the Kentucky congressman, who has cited President Biden’s $200,000 loan to his brother James as evidence of corruption, engaged in a Russian nesting doll-style land swap with his own brother for almost the exact same amount as Biden — and without any meaningful financial records behind it. 

“But unlike with the Bidens, Comer’s own history actually borders a conflict of interest between his official government role and his private family business—and it’s been going on for decades,” the Beast’s senior political reporter Roger Sollenberger wrote. 

And this latest investigation into Comers’ financial dealings adds another layer to the story. 

“The AP found that Farm Team Properties functions in a similarly opaque way as the companies used by the Bidens, masking his stake in the land that he co-owns with the donor from being revealed on his financial disclosure forms,” AP’s Brian Slodysko explained in the original report. 

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

Financial experts consulted by the AP said that Comer’s refusal to disclose the five assets contained on the property is ethically murky — especially since over the past six years, the property has increased in value from between $50,000 to $100,000 in 2016 to as high as $1 million in 2022. 

“This is actually a real problem that anti-corruption activists would love to get legislative reform on,” one law professor with expertise in government ethics told the AP. “It is hard to trace assets held in shell companies. His is a good example.”