House Democrats belittled and chastised Tony Bobulinski, a former Hunter Biden business associate, during a closed-door interview with lawmakers assessing Bobulinski’s claims that Joe Biden and his son were involved in an influence peddling scheme.
Bobulinski testified to the House Oversight and Accountability Committee on Tuesday, asserting in his opening statement that Chinese interests successfully infiltrated and compromised the Biden family and the Obama White House. Democrats on the committee, including New York Rep. Dan Goldman and Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, were decidedly hostile to Bobulinski while questioning him, according to the interview’s transcript and sources who were in the room for the interview.
“We’ve never seen the Democrats act as absurd and childish as they did during that interview. It was truly an embarrassment to the institution and norms that Democrats claim to care about so much,” one GOP source who was inside the room for the interview told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “There was finger pointing, finger wagging, threats, wild gesticulations, and a downright chaotic mess during the Democrats’ period of questioning.” (RELATED: Attorney For Tony Bobulinski Accuses Democrats Of ‘Disingenuous Mischaracterizations’ To Defend Hunter)
Bobulinski Transcript by Nick Pope
The transcript also indicates that Goldman and Raskin got testy with Bobulinski.
Goldman asked Bobulinksi whether he visited the White House in October 2020 after he spoke with the FBI about the Bidens, to which Bobulinski answered in part: “I’ve never been to the White House. I wasn’t at the White House the next day. That’s my testimony … Does that answer your question?”
“It does answer my question,” Goldman responded. “And for the record, I don’t appreciate your tone either.”
As their exchange continued, Bobulinski maintained that he did not voluntarily provide false information to the FBI or otherwise change his story. The two went back and forth about FBI procedures for conducting interviews, which prompted Goldman to tell Bobulinski that he ought to “want to be a little careful” and that Bobulinski was “being incredibly disrespectful.”
Later on in Goldman’s line of questioning, the lawmaker pressed Bobulinski on whether he provided false information to the FBI, or whether FBI agents had made mistakes in their summary of the October 2020 interview.
“I would walk up in an interview of every FBI agent that was in that room that took my testimony that day, all of us under oath, walking through every one of these details. Okay?” Bobulinski said in response to Goldman’s suggestion that he had voluntarily provided false information to the FBI, according to the transcript. “I wish that they had reached out to my lawyers…”
“That’s good,” Goldman interjected, kicking off a brief period of cross talk in which Goldman thrice told Bobulinski “that’s not how it works,” according to the interview transcript. Goldman subsequently referred to Bobulinski as “this guy,” and a member of the Democratic team whose name was redacted apparently raised his voice shortly thereafter.
Raskin then chimed in and referred to Bobulinski as an “out-of-control witness” after telling Bobulinski that the Democrats were “hearing nothing” substantive in his answers and that “it goes a lot better if you answer the questions and otherwise not interject,” according to the interview’s transcript. Earlier in the interview, Raskin compared some of Bobulinski’s answers to a filibuster.
“Democrats treated the witness disrespectfully. A lot of unnecessary theatrics,” another GOP source who was in the room for the interview told the DCNF. “Finger pointing, finger wagging, admonishing like [Bobulinski] was a child or inmate.”
During his testimony, Bobulinski alleged that Joe Biden was “the brand being sold by the Biden family” to foreign business interests in places like Ukraine and China as part of a broad “foreign influence-peddling operation,” and that Joe Biden enabled the scheme, according to the interview’s transcript.
Bobulinski was involved with Hunter Biden in business dealings involving China in the 2010s, and he was a recipient of a May 2017 email describing a proposed joint venture equity split among Hunter Biden and his associates which would have designated “10 held by H for the big guy.” In his testimony, Bobulinski alleged that “the big guy” was in reference to Joe Biden, and that “H” referred to Hunter Biden, who would hold on to the 10% stake actually meant for his father.
Goldman’s office did not respond immediately to requests for comment. Raskin’s office referred the DCNF to the House Oversight Democrats’ communications team, which did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
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