Hunter Biden is requesting Biden-appointed U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves investigate former business associate Tony Bobulinski, NBC News reports.
Biden’s defense attorney, Abbe D. Lowell, wrote a letter to Graves on Oct. 7 accusing Bobulinski of making false statements to the FBI, NBC News reported Friday, citing a letter obtained by the outlet.
NBC News: Hunter Biden asks U.S. prosecutor to investigate former business associate, Tony Bobulinski.
Story and details here w/ @RebeccaShabad https://t.co/GhGSzgKHLn
— Tom Winter (@Tom_Winter) November 3, 2023
“Specifically, we recently received information demonstrating that numerous statements made by Mr. Bobulinski in Washington, D.C. during an interview with the FBI on October 23, 2020, concerning our client, Hunter Biden, are false,” Lowell alleges in the letter. (RELATED: ‘Demonization’: Hunter Biden Uses Past Drug Addiction To Attack Political Opponents In Latest Op-Ed)
Joe Biden appointed Graves after he worked for Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign as an unpaid policy advisor, a Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire shows. Federal Election Commission (FEC) records indicate Graves donated to Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign when he was a private sector attorney.
Graves testified to the House Judiciary Committee in October and confirmed he refused to partner with Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss on potentially charging Hunter Biden for alleged tax offenses, according to a transcript reviewed by the Daily Caller. (RELATED: Biden-Appointed Prosecutor Ignored Potential Conflict Of Interest In Hunter Biden Case, Testimony Shows)
Bobulinski’s FBI interview in October 2020 was summarized by an FBI FD-302 form released in September by the House Ways and Means Committee as part of a trove of documents supporting testimony from IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler.
Lowell disputes Bobulinski’s claim to the FBI that he was present in Miami for a meeting Hunter Biden held with Chinese business associate Ye Jianming, the chairman of Chinese infrastructure company CEFC, NBC reported.
Bobulinski told the FBI he was at the Miami meeting and the parties discussed the work Hunter and James Biden conducted for CEFC beginning when Joe Biden was vice president.
“CEFC had used its relationship with HUNTER BIDEN and JAMES BIDEN – and the influence attached to the BIDEN name – to advance CEFC’s interests abroad. HUNTER BIDEN and JAMES BIDEN did not receive any monetary compensation for their assistance in these projects. HUNTER BIDEN and JAMES BIDEN did not receive any compensation because JOSEPH BIDEN was still VPOTUS during this time period,” the document reads.
“There was a concern it would be improper for payments to be made to HUNTER BIDEN and JAMES BIDEN by CEFC due to its close affiliation with the Chinese government. HUNTER BIDEN and JAMES BIDEN both wanted to be compensated for the assistance they had provided to CEFC’s ventures; in particular, they believed CEFC owed them money for the benefits that accrued to CEFC through its use of the BIDEN family name to advance their business dealings.”
Bobulinski was one of the business associates who discussed a joint venture with CEFC called “sinohawk” that Joe Biden was potentially going to be involved with, according to the FD-302 form. Bobulinski told the FBI he met with Joe Biden to discuss the business deal in Beverly Hills, California.
The proposed joint venture with CEFC appeared to be the subject matter of an infamous email thread where business associate James Gilliar referred to Joe Biden as “the big guy” in a message about potential equity distribution.
“10 held by H for the big guy?” Gilliar asked his colleagues, the email shows. He suggested making Hunter Biden chair of the company and Bobulinski the CEO.
The “sinohawk” venture appeared to fall through, and instead Hunter Biden and James Biden set up a joint venture with CEFC called Hudson West III in August 2017, according to bank records released Wednesday by the House Oversight Committee.
Hunter Biden and Jianming appeared to change the terms of the joint venture at the Miami meeting, emails released by the Ways and Means Committee show.
READ THE EMAILS:
“My Understanding is that the original agreement with the Director was for consulting fees based on introductions alone a rate of $10M per year for a three year guarantee total of $30M. The chairman changed that deal after we me in MIAMI TO A MUCH MORE LASTING AND LUCRATIVE ARRANGEMENT to create a holding company 50% percent owned by ME and 50% owned by him,” Hunter Biden emailed Chinese business associate Gongwen Dong on Aug. 2, 2017.
“Consulting fees is one piece of our income stream but the reason this proposal by the chairman was so much more interesting to me and my family is that we would also be partners inn the equity and profits of the JV’s investments,” he continued. “Hence I assumed the reason for our discussion today in which you made clear that the Chaireman [sic] would first get his investment capital returned in the profits would then be split 50/50. If you saying that is not the case then please return us to the original deal 10M per year a guaranteed 3 years plus bonus payments for any successful deal we introduce.”
The Ways and Means Committee also released Hudson West III’s LLC agreement showing Hunter and James Biden were both “managers” of the company alongside CEFC business associates. Hunter Biden’s failed guilty plea with the Department of Justice (DOJ) indicates he made just under $1 million in 2017 from the Hudson West venture.
Biden admitted in court to partnering with Jianming on the business arrangement and making about $1 million from the venture in its first year. The bank records released by the Oversight Committee show Biden withdrew $400,000 from the Hudson West II venture immediately after it began and $40,000 of the money ended up in Joe Biden’s bank account.
A company affiliated with Gilliar received roughly $1 million in 2017 from State Energy HK, a different CEFC account, through payments from former Hunter Biden business associate Rob Walker, according to bank records released in March by the Oversight Committee. Walker wired roughly $1 million of the State Energy HK money to the Biden family, the bank records show.
Walker interviewed with the FBI in December 2020 and said Joe Biden met with CEFC associates, an interview transcript released by the Ways and Means Committee shows.
The Hudson West III arrangement ended up bringing in $3.7 million for all parties involved, Ziegler testified publicly in July. Shapley and Ziegler testified to the Ways and Means Committee in May and June accusing the DOJ of giving Hunter Biden special treatment during its ongoing investigation.
The Biden family and its business associates hauled in more than $24 million from Ukraine, Russia, China, Romania and Kazakhstan, according to a House memo circulated in September.
Lowell’s letter to Graves states Hunter Biden never engaged in “formal business operations” with Bobulinski, per NBC. His letter also references an interview Gilliar gave in which he said Joe Biden was not involved with the business venture.
“The materials reveal the extraordinary lengths Mr. Bobulinski and other individuals were willing to go to implicate Mr. Biden or members of his family in some false and meritless allegations of wrongdoing,” Lowell wrote.
“Even in an era in which people peddle knowing lies with the goal of their falsehoods being repeated and disseminated for their political advantage, these statements by Mr. Bobulinski cannot and must not go unchecked.”
Lowell previously demanded Weiss investigate IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler for purportedly making illegal disclosures. He also wrote a letter to Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith in June that appeared to contain numerous falsehoods surrounding Shapley’s testimony. Hunter Biden is now suing the IRS for what his legal team believes to be illegal disclosures by the IRS whistleblowers.
Weiss is serving as special counsel overseeing the ongoing DOJ investigation into Hunter Biden’s taxes and firearms possession. Biden was indicted in September on three federal gun charges and pleaded not guilty at an arraignment in early October.
Weiss is scheduled to testify before the Judiciary Committee about the Hunter Biden case Nov. 7.