Jacqueline Sweet Profile picture
Investigative journalist. “You’re not God, my father or my boss.” Work in @TheIntercept, @GuardianUS, @POLITICO, @MotherJones, @BusinessInsider

Aug 5, 14 tweets

SCOOP: Close relatives of the fiancé of Ellen Greenberg, whose 2011 death was controversially upheld as a suicide by then-PA attorney general Josh Shapiro’s office in 2022, have several social ties to not only Shapiro and his family, but also to the Biden family, according to multiple reports and an analysis of social media postings. Greenberg’s family believes she was murdered and last month the PA Supreme Court announced it will hear their wrongful death civil appeal. 🧵

The 27-year-old teacher was discovered stabbed 20 times (10 to the back of her neck) in January 2011 in her apartment by her fiancé Samuel Goldberg, according to his 911 call. Goldberg said the door to their shared Manayunk, PA apartment was locked and he was forced to break in, finding Greenberg on the ground with a knife still embedded into her chest.

Goldberg’s cousin attended a small elite private school in Bryn Mawr, PA with Shapiro and his wife Lori, one of several family ties between the two families.

Shapiro would later become head of the office tasked with reevaluating the strange circumstances around Greenberg’s death and investigation, first ruled a homicide and then a suicide in a reversal by the local police examiner.

That cousin, Kimberly Schwartzman Kimmel, is married to venture capitalist Wayne Kimmel, described as Hunter Biden’s childhood friend, and also as a longtime friend of both Biden sons, and President Joe Biden. Kimberly Kimmel is seen here in this photo at Ashley Biden’s 2013 wedding to Howard Krein.

Wayne Kimmel was on the board of Krein’s company StartUpHealth that raised questions about Krein’s access to Biden while the company angled to work with the federal government on the pandemic response. Kimmel can be seen in a photo golfing with President Biden in 2015 in a Beau Biden memorial event.

Kimmel and his wife appear to be very close to Sam Goldberg, his current wife, his sisters and his parents, based on years of social media posts and photographs. Goldberg’s parents were photographed hugging the Kimmels’ daughter at her 2019 high school graduation, and the Kimmels sent warm wishes to Goldberg on social media when he married in 2014.

The families regularly comment on each other's photos and appear in photos together dating back to 2010. Sam's mother appears in these photos with the Kimmels, and another in-law, who is married to a prominent local judge and former U.S. attorney.

Shapiro described Kimmel and his wife as his friends in a 2010 tweet, just one year before Greenberg died. Kimmel also co-chaired a campaign event for Shapiro at a country club in 2009. The Kimmels have both donated to Shapiro’s campaigns, with one pair of donations dating back to 2009, when he ran for reelection as a PA state rep.

Kimmel’s son is friends on Facebook with Shapiro’s daughter, one of only 102 friends, as is Kimmel’s daughter. The Kimmel and Shapiro children all attend and play sports at that same small private school, Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy (formerly called Akiba Hebrew Academy) which has a tiny graduating class of approximately 60 students.

Shapiro’s brother and sister and parents also attended the small school. Kimberly Schwartzman Kimmel graduated in 1988, while Shapiro graduated in 1991 and played on the school’s basketball team with another famous alum’s brother: CNN’s Jake Tapper.

In 2017, Wayne and Kimberly Kimmel and Josh and Lori Shapiro were all part of a committee for the school’s 70th anniversary gala celebration, a few months after Shapiro took office as PA Attorney General, and two years before his office would first review Greenberg’s case and determine it to be a suicide, according to multiple reports.

Kimberly Kimmel served on the school’s board from 2011 until 2018. Shapiro’s father Steven Shapiro was once president of the school’s board and served on the board until 2015, overlapping three years with Kimmel.

Shapiro has been criticized for not recusing himself from the Greenberg case and her family accused him of “sitting” on it for four years as attorney general. The family claims in their civil suit they have found new evidence that at least one of Greenberg’s stab wounds happened after she died.

Goldberg’s uncle, Judge James Schwartzman and his son Kaiman Schwartzman, an attorney, visited Greenberg’s apartment after she died and took Greenberg’s laptop before handing it over to police, a Goldberg family attorney confirmed to media outlets. Kaiman Schwartzman and his wife also appear close to the Goldberg family in social media posts.

Kaiman’s wife is friends with Josh Shapiro’s sister on Facebook—the two graduated the same year, 1994, from Jack M. Barrack Academy.

Wayne Kimmel attended elite prep school the Tatnall School with Hallie Biden in New Castle, Delaware, where Sam Goldberg’s father owned All Star Shredding, “a confidential document destruction and recycling company,” until he sold it in 2012.

In 2009, the Kimmels sponsored a 2009 “Inaugural Breakfast at Washington's Oval Room,” for then Vice President-elect Joe Biden. Hunter and his wife Kathleen were co-sponsors.

"It's just a private event for friends and family and a lot of people who've supported Joe along the way," Kimme’s partner in his venture capital fund Tony Bifano told the Philly Inquirer at the time.

Sam Goldberg, who works as a sports producer for LIV Golf, has not been charged with any crimes in connection to the case. Greenberg's family has not named him as a suspect in their filings, alluding to an unknown assailant as responsible for her death.

Note: I would have published this formally in an outlet, but there was just no time.

pennlive.com/crime/2023/05/…

Share this Scrolly Tale with your friends.

A Scrolly Tale is a new way to read Twitter threads with a more visually immersive experience.
Discover more beautiful Scrolly Tales like this.

Keep scrolling