Hearing Wrap Up: Witnesses Expose Joe Biden’s Involvement in His Family’s Corrupt Influence Peddling Schemes
WASHINGTON – The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability held a hearing today titled, “Influence Peddling: Examining Joe Biden’s Abuse of Public Office.” At today’s hearing, Biden family business associates Tony Bobulinski and Jason Galanis testified under oath Joe Biden knew about, participated in, and enabled his family’s corrupt influence peddling schemes. To date, the Oversight Committee has uncovered evidence showing the Bidens and their associates created over 20 shell companies, raked in over $24 million dollars from China and other foreign countries from 2014 to 2019, nine members of the Biden family participated or benefited from the business schemes, and Joe Biden closed business deals by attending meetings, speaking on speakerphone, and dining, and with his son’s foreign business associates.
Key Takeaways:
Biden family business associates Tony Bobulinski and Jason Galanis testified under oath President Joe Biden actively participated in his family’s corrupt business dealings and acted as the closer for deals with Chinese and Russian entities.
- Mr. Tony Bobulinski, Biden family business associate: “Joe Biden was more than a participant in and beneficiary of his family’s business; he was an active, aware enabler who met with business associates such as myself to further the business, despite being buffered by a complex scheme to maintain plausible deniability.”
- Mr. Jason Galanis, Biden family business associate: “During the May 4th party, we were told to go to an area of the restaurant to gather because Hunter was going to call his father. Hunter called his father, said hello and ‘hold on, Pops,’ then put the call on speakerphone and said, ‘I am here with our friends I told you were coming to town, and we wanted to say hello.’ The Vice President said hello and some pleasantries […] and then seemed like he wanted to bring the call to an end by saying, ‘Ok then, you be good to my boy.’ Hunter responded by saying, ‘Everything is good, and we are moving ahead.’ The Vice President said something about ‘being helpful,’ and Hunter ended the call by saying that he was going to call his father later. […] A few days after this May 4th party, an email my lawyer provided to this committee shows that Devon had confirmed Ms. Baturina was committed to a ‘hard order’ of $10-20 million in a Burnham investment banking client.”
The Bidens don’t sell a product or a service or a set of skills. President Joe Biden is “the brand” that the Biden family is selling for millions of dollars to those around the world willing to pay for it.
- Mr. Tony Bobulinski: “I want to be crystal clear: from my direct personal experience and what I have subsequently come to learn, it is clear to me that Joe Biden was ‘the Brand’ being sold by the Biden family. His family’s foreign influence peddling operation – from China to Ukraine and elsewhere – sold out to foreign actors who were seeking to gain influence and access to Joe Biden and the United States government.”
- Mr. Jason Galanis: “The entire value-add of Hunter Biden to our business was his family name and his access to his father, Vice President Joe Biden.”
- House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.): “The scam is simple. It’s done over and over again. The Biden family promises Joe’s power, Joe Biden shows up, and millions of dollars come into the Bidens’ pockets.”
- House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio): “Millions of dollars from foreign entities run through twenty different companies, for what? Devon Archer told us what it was for: Access to the brand. And the brand was Joe Biden. The brand that played rounds of golf, took calls and meetings, attended lunches and dinners with Hunter Biden and his business partners.”
Hunter Biden failed to appear alongside his business associates today because his testimony would not withstand public scrutiny when held up against witness facts and evidence uncovered showing Joe Biden’s involvement in the business schemes.
- Hunter for months has requested a public hearing, but when offered one alongside his business associates, he failed to show up.
- Mr. Bobulinski: “How are the American people supposed to get the unvarnished facts and truth when the son and brother of Joe Biden are willing to perjure themselves to protect the family?”
President Joe Biden continues to lie directly to the American people about the central role he played in his family’s corrupt influence peddling schemes.
- Mr. Tony Bobulinski: “Why is Joe Biden blatantly lying to the American people? Why has he not simply leveled with the American people about all of the meetings, phone calls, emails and handshakes he has had with the Biden family’s U.S. and foreign business partners, including players from some of America’s most challenging adversaries such as China and Russia, as well as Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Romania and others. If he were doing nothing wrong, why go through this insane exercise of obstructing and denying obvious facts?”
- The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability released a video exposing Joe Biden’s repeated lies about his family’s influence peddling business. The video uses new footage from recent transcribed interviews with key witnesses who testified today.
Chairman Comer calls on President Joe Biden to provide testimony to the Oversight Committee explaining why his family received tens of millions of dollars from foreign companies with his assistance.
- “As I said at the beginning of this hearing, Joe Biden was either used by his family over and over again and paraded in front of his business partners to rake in millions of dollars or he knew exactly what he was doing to enrich his family. Joe Biden was either complicit or incompetent, and the American people deserve to know which one it was,” Chairman Comer said in closing remarks.
Member Highlights:
Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer emphasized that the Bidens sold access to Joe Biden to enrich themselves and described how Joe Biden acted as the business closer by dining, attending meetings, speaking on speakerphone, and having coffee with his son’s foreign business associates as they funneled millions to the Biden family.
Chairman Comer: “We have learned that Joe Biden has taken action after action to further his family’s plans to get rich. He shows up to meetings, gets on phone calls, shakes hands and tells people to ‘look after my family.’ He goes to dinners with foreign oligarchs and a Ukrainian executive paying his son millions of dollars. He gets paid with money from Chinese businessmen who he has meetings with and tells other business associates he’ll see what he can do to help their situations. He writes letters of recommendation for foreign business associates’ children. Joe Biden is the Biden family’s closer.”
During Chairman Comer’s questioning, Biden family business associates Tony Bobulinski and Jason Galanis confirmed Joe Biden was involved in his family’s influence peddling schemes.
Rep. Comer: “During the 118th Congress, this Committee has investigated Joe Biden’s involvement in his family’s influence peddling schemes around the world. Mr. Bobulinski, was Joe Biden involved with any of your business dealings with Hunter Biden and James Biden?”
Mr. Bobulinski: “Yes he was.”
Rep. Comer: “Mr. Galanis, are you aware of any times Hunter Biden used Joe Biden, with Joe Biden’s knowledge, to benefit their business?
Mr. Galanis: “Yes.”
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio.) highlighted Joe Biden joined a pre-arranged phone call in an effort to impress Russian investors and send signals of access.
Rep. Jordan: “I think you referenced a phone call that took place. Tell the committee what happened with that phone call. Who was involved in that phone call?”
Mr. Galanis: “It was Russian Oligarch Yelena Baturina, her husband, myself, Hunter initiating it, Joe Biden on the speaker phone, and Devon Archer.”
Rep. Jordan: “So there was a pull aside, where that group of people you just described were pulled aside and Hunter Biden called the Vice President. Is that accurate?”
Mr. Galanis: “That’s accurate.”
Rep. Jordan: “Let me ask you this, did you get the impression Joe Biden was expecting the call?”
Mr. Galanis: “Yes, to me it was clear they set it up ahead of time. This was an arranged call.”
Rep. Jordan: “So this was arranged, this was coordinated. Hunter Biden calls his father then-Vice President and I think in your deposition you said he said this, ‘I’m here with our friends that I told you were coming to town.’ So, it’s our friends and I told you this was going to happen. Which suggests that it was most definitely coordinated.”
Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Ala.) pointed out Joe Biden personally met with Biden family business associate Tony Bobulinski, alongside Hunter Biden and Jim Biden, to discuss a business venture related to CEFC, a Chinese energy company.
Rep. Palmer: “You have met Joe Biden, is that correct?”
Mr. Bobulinski: “Correct.”
Rep. Palmer: “What was the purpose of that meeting?”
Mr. Bobulinski: “I wish Hunter Biden was sitting next to me and he could under oath describe it, but I was meeting with Joe Biden and the only reason why I was there is because I was the CEO of the enterprise that they were putting together with the Chinese company CEFC… At a high level, Hunter actually introduced me to Joe because before Joe came and sat down with us, Hunter said ‘hey give me five to ten minutes, I need to read my father in on it.’”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) exposed President Biden continues to lie to the American people about his role and participation in his family’s corrupt influence peddling schemes. In addition, Rep. Greene noted Joe Biden directly met with CEFC Chairman Ye Jianming, who Jim Biden described as the prodigy of Xi Jinping, the leader of China and the Chinese Communist Party.
Rep. Greene: “Joe Biden continues to lie to the American people about his role in his family’s businesses. In 2020, he stood up on stage of a presidential debate and told the American people that his family didn’t take any money from China. That was a lie. Not only was it a lie, he knew it was a lie. He knew it because he met with his son Hunter Biden’s Chinese business associates. Jim Biden told the FBI and IRS that Chairman Ye was the prodigy of Xi Jinping, the leader of China and the Chinese Communist Party. Mr. Bobulinski, Rob Walker told this Committee that Joe Biden met Chairman Ye. Are you aware of that? Yes or no.”
Mr. Bobulinski: “I am now. I wasn’t at the time.”
Rep. Michael Cloud (R-Texas) emphasized subpoenaed bank records show the Bidens created 20 shell companies and the Bidens and their associates then raked in over $24 million through these shell companies from China, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and Romania.
Rep. Cloud: “We’ve uncovered 20 shell companies, and we have the bank records… What’s interesting about all this of course is that each of these not only flowed money through the shell companies to Hunter Biden, but each of them also involved important meetings with, of course, President Joe Biden. Mr. Galanis, you said at the beginning that Hunter didn’t really provide any sort of intellectual propriety asset value or anything of the sort – that his entire value was the brand. Is that correct?”
Mr. Galanis: “We didn’t rely on him for any work product other than delivering the Biden lift.”
Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) shined a light on the Biden family’s influence peddling schemes operation and noted that no one has been able to determine what actual services the Biden family provides.
Rep. McClain: “I want to talk about examples of Biden’s influence peddling scheme. This time, it was Romania. It follows the same general pattern as we have seen with other countries like China, Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan. Here’s the pattern. It’s really simple. A corrupt foreign oligarch needs access to the U.S. government. Hunter Biden sells influence to the U.S. government. The oligarchs pay up. Hunter stopped getting paid as soon as his father leaves office… Seriously, what services was Hunter Biden providing to the Romanian oligarchs for millions of dollars? We’ve yet to hear it!”
Rep. Jake LaTurner (R-Kansas) received confirmation from Tony Bobulinski that the “big guy” is President Joe Biden. Emails between the Chinese company CEFC and Biden family business associates show 10 percent was held for the “big guy.”
Rep. LaTurner: “Mr. Bobulinski, you created two companies with the Bidens. I want to show you an infamous email discussing the ownership structure of one of those companies – CEFC. Mr. Bobulinski, who is the Big Guy?”
Mr. Bobulinski: “The big guy is one hundred percent Joe Biden.”
Rep. LaTurner: “Mr. Bobulinski, Hunter Biden didn’t respond saying, ‘knock it off. We can’t include Joe Biden.’ Did he?”
Mr. Bobulinski: “No, and that’s actually a critical point.”
Rep. LaTurner: “Hunter Biden begged for a public hearing, but it turns out he was too afraid of accountability to show up and tell the truth to the American people. But Americans don’t need Hunter’s testimony to know they are being gaslit by this president. It’s blatantly obvious to anyone paying attention that Joe Biden is the Big Guy.”
READ MORE:
Comer: The Bidens Sell Joe Biden
Oversight Committee Releases Biden Family Influence Peddling Timeline