WASHINGTON – A former Biden family business associate-turned-whistleblower alleged in explosive testimony ahead of a House impeachment inquiry Tuesday that the president was a “Brand” sold by relatives in their lucrative dealings in countries like China and Ukraine.
Tony Bobulinski — a former Navy officer who worked with first son Hunter Biden and first brother James on a venture with CEFC China Energy — is considered one of the Republicans’ best hopes to strengthen evidence linking the president to foreign deals.
“For nearly four years, I have tried to tell the American people the truth about serious corruption at the highest levels of their government,” Bobulinski said in opening statements to House investigators from both sides of the political aisle in closed session.
“The Biden family business is Joe Biden, period,” Bobulinski claimed.
“It is clear to me that Joe Biden is the ‘Brand’ that the Biden family is selling.
“The Chinese Communist Party through its successor, China Energy Company Limited, or ‘CEFC’ — a CCP-linked Chinese energy conglomerate — successfully sought to infiltrate and compromise Joe Biden and the Obama-Biden White House.
Tony Bobulinski is a former Navy officer who worked with first son Hunter Biden and first brother James on a venture with CEFC China Energy. AFP via Getty Images Bobulinski claimed in his testimony in the House impeachment inquiry that President Biden was a “brand” sold by his family. Shutterstock
“Joe Biden was aware of the CEFC transaction, enabled it, and had a constitutional responsibility and obligation to the American people to shut it down before it started,” Bobulinski said.
CEFC, a notorious cog in Beijing’s since-defunct “Belt and Road” foreign influence campaign, paid Hunter and James Biden more than $7 million in 2017 and 2018 for undisclosed business services, according to reports from congressional Republicans.
Since 2020, Bobulinski has been the most vocal former Biden family ally — publicly calling Joe Biden a liar for dismissing documents from Hunter’s laptop left behind as Russian disinformation ahead of Biden’s final debate against then-President Donald Trump.
Bobulinski has also repeatedly appeared on national TV to detail his interactions with the Biden family, including a pair of alleged May 2017 conversations with Joe Biden.
It’s unclear whether Bobulinski will provide any new information, but he is expected to act as a witness corroborating key facts outlined by other family friends — such as Devon Archer’s testimony about the Biden family selling their “brand” and Rob Walker’s date of the Biden family’s relationship with CEFC as early as 2015.
Joe Biden’s role in the CEFC has long been a source of intrigue.
A May 2017 email addressed the future president, referred to as a “big man,” for a 10% share of the planned joint venture with CEFC — though it’s unclear if he ever received a cut.
Joe Biden himself attended a meeting at DC’s Four Seasons hotel in early 2017 with CEFC chairman Ye Jianming, who has since disappeared in China amid corruption allegations, Walker told Congress in a Jan. 26 deposition.
“For nearly four years, I have tried to tell the American people the truth about serious corruption at the highest levels of their government,” Bobulinski said in opening statements to House investigators. AFP via Getty Images
Walker said the CEFC relationship began during Joe Biden’s vice presidency and distributed an initial tranche of more than $1 million to the Biden family beginning in March 2017 as a “thank you” for previous work — weeks after Joe Biden left the vice presidency in January.
Bobulinski is expected to face stiff criticism from Democrats in closed session after angering them in 2020 by sandbagging Biden moments before his final debate against Trump.
Biden’s defenders on the House panel are expected to try to flip the script by portraying Bobulinski as a disillusioned former partner after he claimed Hunter cheated on him in an effort that also included the president’s brother James Biden.
But Bobulinski describes himself as a patriotic truth teller.
“I am a proud American citizen who has served the United States of America honorably in several capacities. For over six years, I was an officer in the elite United States Naval Nuclear Training Command as a decorated Master Training Specialist Instructor. I then served as the Command’s Chief Technology Officer, where I held security clearances from the Department of Energy and from the National Security Agency,” he said in his opening statement Tuesday.
“I am here today to serve God and country impartially with only one side in mind, the party I serve with honor and gratitude: the United States of America. Although I have made several campaign contributions over the years to Democrats such as Congressman Ro Khanna, a member of the Oversight Committee, I am not a political person.”
Bobulinski worked with Hunter and James Biden on a venture with CEFC China Energy. AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana Bobulinksi claims that Biden “enabled” the CEFC deal. AP
READ BOBULINSKI’S OPENING STATEMENT
CEFC transferred $5.1 million to bank accounts linked to Hunter and James Biden within 10 days after Hunter wrote to CEFC’s China-based associate that he was “sitting here with my father” and warned of retaliation if the agreed-upon deal was not implemented.
Photos from Hunter’s laptop showed he was indeed at his father’s Delaware home that day, although IRS whistleblowers investigating the first son for failing to pay taxes on overseas income said they were blocked from collecting cellphone geolocation data.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
