The Education Department has opened an investigation of the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) into “inaccurate and incomplete” disclosures of foreign donations to the institution. UPenn is the home of the Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, which opened in 2017, a year before Biden announced that he was running for president.
While we welcome this probe, it should be noted that we filed a complaint with the Education Department asking for this very investigation in May 2020 during the first Trump administration.
Click here to read the complaint.
Based on original research by the NLPC staff, the complaint detailed that since 2013, UPenn had received more than $67 million from China, of which $22 million was listed as “Anonymous.” Federal law requires the disclosure of the source of all donations over $250,000. The complaint also requested referral to the Department of Justice to file an enforcement action seeking compliance and to recoup all the costs of the investigation.
The complaint noted that the Biden Center co-sponsored the 2020 Penn China Research Symposium on January 31, 2020, that included opening remarks by Ambassador Huang Ping, Consul-General of the People’s Republic of China in New York, amid the coverup by China of the pandemic of the coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China. At the same time, the Biden Center publicly attacked both Hungary and Poland as being undemocratic for their efforts to control the spread of the virus even though their measures were similar to those taken by US governors, and by Biden himself when he became president.
The complaint also noted that the David L. Cohen, Chairman of the UPenn Board of Trustees, hosted a major fundraising event for Biden on the day he announced his candidacy.
On June 18, 2020, the General Counsel’s office of the Education Department issued a puzzling response to the NLPC Complaint. Signed by Chief Investigative Counsel Paul R. Moore, it read, “The Department appreciates the Center’s concern that universities meet their statutory disclosure obligations. However, the information you have provided to the Department is currently insufficient to justify further investigation.”
This brush-off was in the same letter in which Moore asserted, “The Department is committed to the enforcement of…clear statutory requirement that taxpayer-funded American universities disclose the identities of foreign donors for qualifying gifts and contracts.” The NLPC-provided information included the actual reporting schedules filed by the University, which identified donors as “Anonymous” and the country of origin as China.
After he left office, Moore testified before a Congressional committee in July 2023 that his office noticed a spike in Chinese donations after the Biden Center opened. He said, “It was particularly startling to see with UPenn what they had received. That was very notable.”
UPenn denied that the Chinese money went to the Biden Center, but went to general operations. Moore testified further, “Those funds were co-mingled, and certainly went to the general operations, and may have gone to the Biden Center.”
When asked why his office did not investigate UPenn, Moore claimed that there was no evidence that UPenn broke the law, notwithstanding NLPC’s clear evidence, drawn from UPenn’s own filings with the Education Department, that UPenn did not specify the source of millions in donations from China.
Finally, the Education Department may enforce the plain language of the law.
In 2018 and 2019, UPenn paid Biden more than $900,000 to serve as a “professor of practice.” He did not teach any courses, but a UPenn spokesman called the relationship “phenomenally successful.”
UPenn presidents Amy Gutmann (in photo with Biden) and her successor M. Elizabeth McGill consistently stonewalled demands that they identify the anonymous donors. Following his election, Biden appointed Gutmann ambassador to Germany. Gutmann was reportedly instrumental in opening the branch of the Biden Center in Washington, DC. At her confirmation hearings, she was asked about the anonymous donations and falsely stated that they were required to be kept anonymous.
In 2022, 150 UPenn faculty members signed a letter to then-Attorney General Merrick Garland demanding that he shut down the “China Initiative,” a law enforcement effort to root out Chinese espionage on college campuses, a huge problem. Garland soon after complied. The letter claimed that the Initiative was racist, notwithstanding the fact that UPenn and other Ivy League schools openly discriminate against Asians in admissions.
In November 2022, Biden’s personal attorneys “unexpectedly discovered” classified documents at the Washington, DC office of the Penn Biden Center. The presence of classified information at an entity so entwined with Chinese interests touched off extensive media coverage. NLPC Chairman Peter Flaherty was interviewed by David Asman on Fox Business Tonight. Asman said, “I’m glad that you guys exist, the National Legal and Policy Center.” He continued, “Who would have guessed that the work that you were doing three years ago would have been so important to what we’re dealing with right now at this moment in our history?”
When the news broke, NLPC Counsel Paul Kamenar called upon U.S. Attorney Robert Hur, who had been appointed Special Counsel, to investigate the Biden Center’s relationship with China. Kamenar filed Freedom of Information Act requests with the Department of Justice and the National Archives for any documents pertaining to how the documents ended up there. Kamenar told Fox & Friends, “We have to follow the money, and the money here is from China.” Hur apparently failed to follow the China money trail and famously punted on prosecuting Biden citing his age and failing mental facilities.
In January 2023, Rep. James Comer (R-KY), chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, demanded that UPenn identify the donors and logs of visitors to the Biden Center. He wrote Magill, “The American people deserve to know whether the Chinese Communist Party, through Chinese companies, influenced potential Biden Administration policies with large, anonymous donations to UPenn and the Penn Biden Center.”
Following the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack, UPenn became ground zero in the debate over campus antisemitism. On December 5, 2023, McGill testified before a Congressional committee, along with the presidents of Harvard and MIT. The hearing was a disaster for the presidents who evaded direct questions and seemed dismissive of antisemitism. At one point, McGill smirked during her testimony, fueling demands for her resignation that followed on December 9, 2023.
