WASHINGTON – A key Biden family associate on Friday revealed new details about Joe Biden’s alleged involvement in foreign business relations, saying the future president met in 2017 with the leader of a company linked to the Chinese government that paid millions to his son Hunter Biden and brother James Biden. .
Rob Walker noted in a prepared opening statement that he intended to claim that Biden, 81, did nothing wrong regarding his relatives’ businesses abroad, only to provide surprising new evidence, The Post has learned. .
Walker testified in his deposition as part of the House impeachment inquiry into the president that shortly after Joe Biden stepped down as vice president, he attended a meeting involving about 10 people involved with CEFC China Energy, including company president Ye Jianming said a source familiar with Walker’s testimony.
The encounter at DC’s luxurious Four Seasons hotel was previously described by Walker, without naming Ye as a participant, in an FBI interview that was released by the House Ways and Means Committee.
Walker described Joe Biden’s appearance before the FBI as a visit to a luncheon between Hunter and his CEFC associates.
Rob Walker noted in a prepared opening statement that he intended to claim that Joe Biden did nothing wrong regarding the foreign ventures of Hunter Biden and his first brother James Biden. AFP via Getty Images
Joe Biden “greeted everyone” and then “literally sat down.” I don’t even think he drank water. I think Hunter said, um… ‘Maybe he’s trying to start a company,’ oh, or he tried to do something with these guys and could you… and [I] “I think he was like ‘if I’m around’… and he’d show up,” Walker told the office.
White House spokesmen, Walker’s lawyer, Edward McAndrew, and a representative of the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, did not immediately question Walker’s naming of Ye as an aide during his interview on Friday.
Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said in a statement Friday night: “Today we learned that Joe Biden met with now-defunct CEFC Chairman Ye Jianming, while Hunter Biden and his associates received 3 million dollars from a Chinese bank. entity controlled by CEFC. “The evidence continues to reveal that the Bidens sold the ‘Biden Brand’ to enrich the Biden family.”
However, a second source familiar with Walker’s testimony said Walker described Joe Biden’s appearance as innocent.
“Walker told the Committee that he believes Joe Biden stopped by briefly because Joe Biden simply wanted to see his son, who was in and out of sobriety,” the second person said.
Other business associates of the Biden family have described a number of Joe Biden’s ties to their family businesses. AP
Walker distributed millions of dollars from China and Romania to Hunter, James and his first daughter-in-law, Hallie Biden, during and immediately after Joe Biden’s vice presidency.
In a brief opening statement, Walker signaled that he would support the Biden family’s denials of influence peddling.
“President Biden, while in office or as a private citizen, never participated in any of the business activities we conducted. Any statement to the contrary is simply false,” Walker stated in his comments.
“In business, the opportunities we pursued together were varied, valid, well-founded and within the bounds of legitimate business activities,” the statement added.
But Republicans came armed with questions to Walker about what services were being provided in exchange for the lucrative ventures, following statements from other former Biden family associates that Joe Biden was indeed in communication with his family associates and that his relatives they were effectively selling access.
Walker’s best-known role in the Biden family companies was distributing more than $1 million to Romanian businessman Gabriel Popoviciu’s Hunter between November 2015 and May 2017.
Walker’s best-known role in Biden family businesses was distributing more than $1 million from corrupt Romanian businessman Gabriel Popoviciu to Hunter between November 2015 and May 2017 (even as Vice President Biden was criticizing corruption in that country). and pass more than $1 million to Hunter. Hunter, James and Hallie Biden from a CEFC affiliate as of March 2017.
In each case, Walker received about $3 million from the foreign party and then appeared to keep a third of the amount before passing a third to the Bidens and another third to his partner James Gilliar.
One of the potentially most significant lines of questioning concerned when exactly the relationship with the CEFC began, as the money began flowing less than two months after Joe Biden left the vice presidency.
The first source familiar with Walker’s statement said he testified that the $3 million was compensation for tasks performed while Biden was still vice president, amounting to a “thank you” for that previous job.
“In business, the opportunities we pursued together were varied, valid, well-founded and within the bounds of legitimate business activities,” Walker’s statement added. AFP via Getty Images
It is unclear when exactly Joe Biden allegedly met with Ye, although it would be his third alleged meeting with an associate involved in the CEFC.
Former Biden family associate Tony Bobulinski previously alleged that he met with the now-president twice regarding the company.
Before the second and final presidential debate of 2020, Bobulinski said at a press conference: “On May 2, 2017, the night before Joe Biden appeared at the Milken conference, I was introduced to Joe Biden by Jim Biden and Hunter Biden. . . In my roughly hour-long meeting with Joe that night, we discussed the Bidens’ history. [and] “The Bidens’ family business plans with the Chinese, which he was clearly familiar with, at least at a high level.”
Bobulinski later told then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson that he met with Joe Biden again the next day.
“We were backstage in a small space and he asked me to walk him to the car… He kind of asked me to keep an eye on his son and his brother,” Bobulinski told Carlson.
Later, in May 2017, an email written by Gilliar targeted Joe Biden for a 10% cut, with the Biden family associate using the nickname “the big guy” for the then-former vice president.
Potential retaliation by Joe Biden was threatened in a July 2017 text message from Hunter to a China-based CEFC associate, in which Hunter wrote that he was “sitting here with my father,” according to a message posted by whistleblowers. from the IRS.
Within 10 days of that text message, $5.1 million was transferred to accounts linked to the Biden family, according to a 2020 report from Senate Republican-led committees.
Photos of Hunter’s abandoned laptop show it was at his father’s home in Wilmington, Delaware, on the day he wrote the threatening message, but tax whistleblowers say the Justice Department prevented them from obtaining data from Hunter. cell phone location to prove if Joe Biden was really there. .
An email from October 2017 referenced Joe Biden as participating in a call about CEFC’s attempt to purchase American natural gas.
Meanwhile, the Romania venture is one of the least studied of the Biden family’s controversial foreign transactions and is a rare case in which there is no evidence that Joe Biden interacted directly with the individual paying his relatives.
Critics of the Biden family have noted, however, that there is smoke hinting at Joe’s possible involvement.
Joe Biden reportedly met twice with his family’s partners in the CEFC company, according to reports, and had been scheduled for a 10% cut in a May 2017 email written by Gilliar. AP
For example, Hunter Biden referred Popoviciu to former FBI Director Louis Freeh to challenge a corruption case against him, and Freeh called Hunter in July 2015, just two hours before Hunter was scheduled to meet with his father, records show. portable.
Hunter flew to Romania on November 15, 2016 for a two-day trip to represent Popoviciu before the National Anti-Corruption Directorate. Two days after her return, Hunter had a “breakfast with dad” on his agenda.
The source familiar with Walker’s testimony said that when asked what services Hunter Biden provided to Popoviciu, the associate responded that Hunter flew to Romania to meet with then-U.S. Ambassador Hans Klemm shortly after his confirmation in the Senate in 2015.
Lobbying U.S. officials on behalf of foreign employers may amount to a violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, although that law has a five-year statute of limitations.
Other business associates of the Biden family have described a number of Joe Biden’s ties to their family businesses.
Former Hunter Biden associate Devon Archer testified in July that Joe Biden was on the phone during about 20 business meetings abroad and that the sitting vice president had dinner twice in Georgetown with his Russian, Ukrainian and Kazakh clients. son.
Archer further testified that Joe Biden had coffee during a 2013 visit to Beijing with one of Hunter’s colleagues, the incoming CEO of Chinese state-backed BHR Partners, Jonathan Li, before greeting Li by phone during a meeting. later and write college recommendation letters for Li. children.
Categories: Trending
Source: vtt.edu.vn