REPORT: Biden administration secretly funneled $90M to Planned Parenthood

According to The Daily Wire, the Biden administration used the code word "Benghazi" to ensure Planned Parenthood kept $90 million in small business loans that it wrongly accepted during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Key Takeaways:

• During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Small Business Administration gave loans to small businesses, and Planned Parenthood 'self-certified' itself as a small business to receive loans.

• Planned Parenthood received $90 million in SBA loans, but was later deemed ineligible by the SBA and was told it would need to repay the loans. It never did.

• Now it appears that the Biden administration used the code word "Benghazi" to secretly discuss forgiving the loans, allowing Planned Parenthood to fraudulently keep $90 million.

The Backstory:

At the start of the pandemic in 2020, businesses were forced to shut down, leaving small business employers with limited funds and difficulty paying employees. The Small Business Administration (SBA) began issuing Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans to small businesses, and Planned Parenthood took $90 million in such loans after self-certifying that it was eligible.

More than 90 members of Congress wrote to the SBA, arguing that “under the rules of the CARES ACT, a nonprofit that exceeds 500 employees, as Planned Parenthood did, was not a small business and should be deemed ‘disqualified from PPP loans.'” While Planned Parenthood has hundreds of affiliates, under SBA rules, those affiliates are not individual small businesses.

The SBA later determined that, since Planned Parenthood has over 500 employees, the abortion giant had not been eligible to receive those loans, and it warned the abortion giant of "potential repayment." However, the funds had still not been returned by the time Biden took office.

Under the Biden administration, more PPP loans were issued, and the $90 million that Planned Parenthood owed was forgiven.

The Details:

Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), chair of the committee overseeing the SBA, said that in April of 2021, Republicans inquired about "the steps the agency took once Planned Parenthood affiliates were deemed ineligible for SBA loans."

Ernst stated that later in April 2021, SBA attorney Peggy Hamilton sent an email to select legislators with the subject "Benghazi (PPP/PPH) Decisions." Hamilton asked recipients to "review[...] loans to non profit PPP applicants to decision whether affiliation bars eligibility... WH has been engaged. Need to inform WH as decisions are made."

In addition, Hamilton wrote to a colleague, asking, "Can I schedule a meeting so we can decision Benghazi (Planned Parenthood)?"

The recipient replied, "Yes, let's talk Benghazi."

Ernst commented:

"It strains credulity to think SBA's General Counsel Peggy Hamilton was doing anything other than hiding her Planned Parenthood records from Congressional and public scrutiny and oversight. That's not something she is allowed to do under federal law, and, as a lawyer for almost three decades, she knew that."

Then, at a May 2021 hearing, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) asked SBA Administrator Isabella Guzman about $17 million that had been given to Planned Parenthood affiliates even after the SBA had deemed it ineligible, alleging, “You believe you are above the law … It looks like you are specifically hiding this information from us.”

It was just two days later that SBA officials sent a "Benghazi" email to "set up a meeting to discuss forgiveness."

And in June 2021, Guzman ran a meeting on Microsoft Teams called "Benghazi (PPP/PPH Decisions."

Ernst noted:

"We now know that after the SBA Biden officials met, planned and strategized (over 'Benghazi'), keeping the White House involved, approximately $90 million in Planned Parenthood SBA PPP loans and interest on the loans were forgiven by the Biden administration."

The Bottom Line:

Ernst has asked the Department of Justice to investigate SBA and other government officials, as they may have been in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2071, which deals with concealment, removal, or mutilation of records filed within a federal agency.