Watchdog Calls on Biden Center to Disclose Foreign Donations as 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 2021 Republican Legislators 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 at the NLPC’s Public Integrity Project, stated that UPenn has demonstrated an “unprecedented level of 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 spoke to 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.

Secretary is one of these officials

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