By JOSHUA GOODMAN, ALAN SUDERMAN and CHRIS MEGERIAN
ELLWOOD CITY, Pa. — When a health care startup dreamed of building a network of rural hospitals several years ago, it turned to Jim Biden.
Although he wasn’t a public health consultant or a medical expert, Jim Biden was the brother of Joe Biden, who had recently finished his term as vice president. The company’s chief executive believed Jim Biden would help provide the enterprise with “serious horsepower.”
But Jim Biden wasn’t the secret weapon that Americore Health Services was counting on. The company imploded in 2019, filing for bankruptcy amid a pile of lawsuits and a federal investigation into fraud allegations. Americore also accused Jim Biden of failing to repay $600,000 in loans.
Some of the Florida-based company’s hospitals closed, including one in Ellwood City, near the western edge of Pennsylvania, where medical equipment gathers dust and plywood covers broken windows. The only reminder of the bankrupt company’s brief tenure as the town’s biggest employer is a plaque honoring its donation to a nearby high school athletic field.
The fallout has extended to Washington, where Republicans are hunting for evidence that could be used to impeach Democratic President Joe Biden. It’s a playbook that they’ve already used on Joe Biden’s son Hunter, whose checkered history includes controversial overseas deal-making, accusations of tax evasion and a well-publicized struggle with addiction.
Republicans have not uncovered evidence directly tying the president to any wrongdoing. But his brother and son make attractive twin targets, having been close for decades and facing accusations of leveraging their last name into corporate paydays. House Republicans subpoenaed them on Wednesday as part of their investigation into a complicated web of transactions and relationships within the Biden family.
The latest focus has been on a series of payments that Republicans claim show the president…
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