"Senator MBNA:" Joe & Hunter's familiar Pay-4-Play MO's & Reade accusations full circle

TL/DR cliffs: MBNA exec buys Biden's house for $1.2M in 96 for well above FMV & MBNA paid that exec $330K for "moving expenses" related to that purchase.

Contemporaneous with sale, MBNA hires Hunter right out of law school at a top dollar salary.

MBNA execs have contributed heavily to Biden for many years. Biden later supports pro-creditor bankruptcy laws favored by MBNA.

MBNA execs now sit on the Board of the Unv. of Delaware which was donated Biden's senate records & are refusing to release records which could corroborate Reade's story.

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University Of Delaware board members, who are keeping Biden's Senate records secret, have close ties to the former VP

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EXCLUSIVE: Numerous top officials on the board of the University of Delaware, which is refusing to release Joe Biden's Senate records (which could corroborate Reade's account) despite an earlier promise to do so, have close personal and financial ties to the former vice president, records reviewed by Fox News show -- and the chairman of the board even bought Biden's house in 1996 for $1.2 million, reportedly a "top dollar" price given its condition.

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The current chairman of the board at the University of Delaware , John Cochran, is a longtime Biden donor and former CEO of MBNA.

In a January 2008 article entitled "The Senator from MBNA," columnist Byron York recounted how Cochran, then MBNA's vice chairman, paid "top dollar" for Biden's home in February 1996, just prior to his Senate re-election bid, and that "MBNA gave Cochran a lot of money—$330,000—to help with 'expenses' related to the move."

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The $1.2M sale was a "pretty darned good deal for Biden," York wrote, noting that "Cochran simply paid Biden’s full asking price" even though the "house needed quite a bit of work; contractors and their trucks descended on the house for months after the purchase."

York noted that nearby houses were selling below their appraised value at the time.... "In the case of Biden’s house, the appraiser compared the home to another large old house about a quarter of a mile away. That house—which was in similar condition—was judged to be worth $1,013,000. It sold in August 1995 for $800,000 (it should be noted that the house did not have a pool, which Biden’s does; on the other hand the house had central air conditioning, which Biden’s did not, and it was on a larger lot)."

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FWIW, I have always been told by appraisers that swimming pools do not add value to real estate.

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Asked how Cochran and Biden found each other for the sale, an MBNA spokesperson told York: "That’s a very personal question." Federal election records also showed top MBNA executives apparently made a "concerted" effort to donate to Biden's campaign, York reported.

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But what does Hunter have to do with all of this?

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Shortly after the house sale, Biden's son Hunter was hired on at MBNA. Rachel Mullen, a former senior personal banking officer at MBNA from 1994-2001 who later went into Republican politics, tweeted that managers referred to the younger Biden as "Senator MBNA" after he was hired into a lucrative management-prep track right after he graduated from Yale Law School.

An MBNA source who previously worked at the company told Fox News that other employees heard Biden boasting that his salary was unusually high, even for the management-prep track -- which was widely seen in the company as a way to groom and pamper well-connected executive candidates with powerful family members.

The source said Biden's "Senator MBNA" nickname was not politically motivated, but rather reflected a widely held belief among managers -- who did not work directly with Biden -- that he essentially was engaged in lobbying.

As Hunter cashed the checks, Biden was pushing successfully on the Senate floor for legislation that would make it harder for consumers to file for bankruptcy protection -- benefiting companies like MBNA.

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Middle class Joe and Hunter. Fighting for the blue-collar little guy.



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