House Oversight Committee Hearing on Influence Peddling

… text messages, Suspicious Activity Reports at Treasury and other evidence normally compiled during an expansive investigation such as this. The Oversight Committee has found no credible evidence of the Bidens providing any work product. The Committee has identified no legitimate value or document or even one single hour of work the Bidens have provided their business partners. Nothing. What is apparent, after over a year of investigation, is that the Bidens do not work in any traditional sense of the word. They do not work as consultants or lawyers or advisors. The Bidens don’t sell a product or service or a set of skills. The Bidens sell Joe Biden. That is their business. For months, we have heard Democrats desperately proclaiming that witnesses have told this committee that Joe Biden had no involvement in his family’s business dealings. But where are those witnesses today? It’s telling Democrats haven’t invited one of these witnesses to today’s hearing. That’s because they know their testimonies would not withstand public scrutiny. Democrats have relied on these witnesses’ opening statements and have willfully turned a blind eye to the facts that have come out in these interviews once the witnesses were questioned about our record of evidence. Democrats now must rely on bringing in a distraction witness to talk about nonsense and who can’t talk about any of the facts brought by today’s witnesses who worked with the Bidens.

(01:49)
Now, President Biden cannot control his adult son. He cannot control his brother, his sister-in-Law or his nine family members who have received money from these transactions. All President Biden can do is control his own actions, and that is what we are here today to discuss with the witnesses. Because in the course of this investigation, 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, quote, “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.

(02:50)
The scam is simple. The Biden family promises they can make a foreign partner’s problems go away by engaging the US government. The problems can be anything. A Ukrainian corruption investigation. Moving Russian money to the United States. A Romanian criminal prosecution. Access for China to American energy sources. Joe shows up, shakes a few hands in front of his son and says, quote, “Take care of my boy,” or something similar. And the money flows to the tune of tens of millions of dollars.

(03:22)
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 Biden’s pockets. Joe Biden is the family’s closer. How could he not be? The Bidens aren’t doing any other work for these foreign companies that would warrant tens of millions of dollars. There are only two explanations for this. The first is that Joe Biden knows exactly what he’s doing and knows a handshake, a wink, and a smile is enough for him to maintain, as Jim Biden famously calls it, “plausible deniability.” Or Joe Biden is being led around by his family and has no idea who he’s meeting with or what message he is sending and is truly an elderly man with a poor memory. There’s no other explanation. Either Joe Biden is complicit or Joe Biden is incompetent.

(04:18)
Since becoming chairman of this committee in January, 2023, I’ve promised the investigation into the Biden family’s influence peddling would be based on bank records, witness testimony and verifiable facts. After years of Democrats using this committee as a mouthpiece for every conspiracy theory they could find like the Russian collusion hoax, under my leadership, the Committee has returned to real investigations. If Democrats want to spin another Russian hoax, I’ll ask them to answer one question. What services did the Bidens provide to earn them and their business associates over $24 million? What did they do for the money? Democrats have the same bank records as we do, and bank records do not lie. The witnesses today are here to talk about Joe Biden. Republicans are here to talk about Joe Biden. If Democrats wish to spend their time beclowning themselves with another Russian collusion hoax for the sake of protecting President Biden, they can do so.

(05:11)
As I said I would, I’ve invited Hunter Biden here today to sit alongside his business associates and provide his side of the story. Hunter Biden demanded a public hearing. I’ve given him one. Maybe he will show up. He has said he isn’t, but he loves saying one thing and doing another. At some point, Hunter Biden saying one thing and doing another begins to reflect poorly on his ability to tell the truth at all. But this hearing is not about Hunter Biden. This investigation is not about Hunter Biden. It’s about Joe Biden and the lies he continues to tell the American people. With that, I yield to Ranking Member Smith, or Chairman Smith.

Thank you, Chairman Comer and Ranking Member Raskin. From the beginning of this investigation, we’ve made clear that we will follow the facts wherever they lead. The facts have led us to two conclusions. One, the Biden family has for years traded on Joe Biden’s name in order to rake in millions of dollars. Often doing so with his direct knowledge and clear involvement. Two, president Biden has been continually dishonest with the American people about his knowledge of his family’s business dealings. We have testimony from multiple witnesses that Joe Biden was the brand. He knew what his son and brother were doing and did nothing to stop it. That alone makes him complicit in a scheme to make money off of his public service. But he was not just complicit. He was, as one of today’s witnesses has testified, an enabler of this activity. The evidence of the two IRS whistleblowers who came to the Ways and Means Committee has been affirmed by volumes of material provided to Congress by the testimony of others, and even by the Department of Justice who finally brought charges against Hunter Biden that mirror those called for by the IRS investigators.

(07:07)
The evidence obtained shows that, one, Joe Biden met with his son’s business partners on multiple occasions. He used an alias to exchange dozens of emails with his son’s bookkeeper. He took official government action that suspiciously coincided with those meetings and correspondence. The connections between Joe Biden and his son’s business practices extended even to the Biden 2020 campaign. At the height of the Democrat primary, Kevin Morris, a Hollywood lawyer who met Hunter Biden at a Joe Biden campaign fundraiser, paid off Hunter Biden’s tax liabilities because there was, in his words, quote, “risk personally and politically,” if that matter was not swept under the rug.

(07:55)
Investigators that were interested in pursuing a potential criminal campaign violation were told to stand down. The Biden family relied on the Biden brand so much that evidence has revealed that Hunter Biden believed that, quote, “all this stuff, meaning his legal troubles, would all go away when his dad became president. Why did he believe that? Because for years, the Biden family has personally benefited from Joe Biden’s position of power. Joe Biden knew this. He did nothing to stop it and he lied about it. I yield to Jim Jordan. Chairman Jordan.

I thank the gentlemen. Who planted the pipe bombs on January 6th? Nobody seems to know. Who leaked the Dobbs draft opinion? You know, the leak that led to an assassination attempt on Justice Kavanaugh? How about this one, who left cocaine at the White House? The Biden administration doesn’t seem to have time to answer these questions. They’re too busy investigating parents at school board meetings, labeling Catholics extremists, retaliating against whistleblowers. They’re too busy putting together a sweetheart deal for Hunter Biden, a deal that got laughed out of court. And oh, the guy who put together the deal that got laughed out of court, that’s the guy they name special counsel.

(09:16)
You know what Democrats do have time for? Going after President Trump. They’ve been doing it for eight years. They spied on his campaign. Then it was the Mueller investigation, 19 lawyers, 40 agents, $30 million, and found nothing. Then it was impeachment, then it was raid his home, then it was a special counsel, then it was the 14th Amendment. The party of democracy said, “We’re going to keep the guy off the ballot who’s leading in every single poll.” The ranking member said that President Trump should be disqualified from even running for office. Thank goodness we have a Supreme Court who disagreed with the ranking member and the Democrats. 9-0. Not 5-4, not 6-3, not 7-2, not 8-1. 9-0, they disagreed.

(10:06)
Now Democrats say, “How dare, how dare Republicans investigate Joe Biden? How dare they look into the money, the business and the brand?” Millions of dollars, as the chairman said, millions of dollars from foreign entities run through 20 different companies, for what? I mean 20 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. The brand that conditioned $1 billion of American tax money on the firing of the prosecutor pressuring the company Hunter Biden sat on the board of, and oh, by the way, was getting paid a million bucks a year.

(10:58)
Today we’re going to learn more about that brand. We’re going to learn more about what Mr. Galanis called The Biden Lift. We’ll learn about the plausible deniability that Jim Biden talked to Mr. Bobulinski about, and we’ll hear about the statement, the rule that governed how the business operated around Joe Biden, the rule that said, “Say it, forget it, write it, regret it.” So I want to thank our witnesses for coming here today. They, like the whistleblowers who came to the Ways and Means Committee, are doing it simply because they want the American people to have the truth. I yield back.

Gentleman yields back. Chair now recognizes the ranking member for 12 minutes for his opening statement.

Mr. Chairman, thank you very kindly. With any luck, today marks the end of perhaps the most spectacular failure in the history of congressional investigations, the effort to find a high crime or misdemeanor committed by Joe Biden and then to impeach him for it. In prior hilarious episodes of this long-running madcap series, America got to see the following.

(12:06)
One, nearly 20 fact witnesses who could not identify a single act of wrongdoing by President Biden, much less a high crime and misdemeanor, and who overwhelmingly testified that Biden was not involved in any of his family’s business ventures. Two, three expert witnesses, called by the Majority itself, who said nothing that they had seen in the tens of thousands of pages of documents produced by the Majority even remotely approached the level of a high crime and misdemeanor. Bank records which show exactly what all the witnesses told us, that Joe Biden was not involved in his family member’s businesses. Repeated voyeuristic displays of pornographic images by the Majority completely irrelevant to any conceivable legislative or investigative purpose.

(12:58)
A star witness, Gal Luft, who turned out to be a Chinese agent and an illegal arms trafficker on the run from American justice. And the key piece of evidence which launched the entire zany goose chase, an FD-1023 form in which the FBI duly recorded a completely fictional tip about a $5 million bribe to Vice President Biden, peddled by Alex Smirnov, who has been criminally indicted by a Trump appointed US Attorney, Special Counsel David Weiss, for felony counts of systematically lying to the FBI in constructing a false record about Joe Biden and now sits in jail in California as a flight risk while the world studies his longstanding and extensive ties to Russian intelligence.

(13:51)
Today, the good chairman and his ace MAGA detectives have finally jumped the shark. The comedy of errors comes crashing to an end as House Republicans in more than a dozen Biden districts beg for mercy and the Committee throws a flabby Hail Mary pass three weeks after the Super Bowl is over. So today, we revisit the fruitless testimony of two more fading star witnesses who have failed to testify to any presidential wrongdoing, much less evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors.

(14:23)
Both of the Majority witnesses are frustrated would-be business partners of Hunter Biden who tried to leverage the Biden name or the Biden brand, as they keep calling it, but they never got any business off the ground for reasons that will become painfully obvious to anyone watching the proceedings today. Even Hunter Biden, laboring at the time under a serious substance abuse addiction, could tell these were not the type of people he should be doing business with. So rather than representing the Biden brand, which was their ardent wish, they now show up today as loyal servants of Trump world, each of them proudly represented by their very own former Trump White House attorney.

(15:05)
The first is Mr. Bobulinski, the bitterly disappointed wannabe Hunter business partner, whose famously litigious history includes unsuccessfully suing his own dying father’s charity for nearly $1 million, and just last month suing Cassidy Hutchinson for $10 million after she reported that Mr. Bobulinski, wearing a ski mask, met with Mark Meadows, which Ms. Hutchinson has now backed up with actual documentary photographic evidence, something in very short supply in this investigation. Mr. Bobulinski made his hazy allegations against the Bidens public for the first time at a press conference choreographed by the Trump for President campaign, which provided him a venue, a gaggle of journalists, and even a dress shirt that they went out and bought for him to wear to the event. Hours later, Mr. Bobulinski joined the second 2020 presidential debate as Donald Trump’s personal guest where he was seated with Kid Rock and Mark Meadows.

(16:10)
The other star witness, Mr. Galanis, who I believe is appearing by Zoom today, is a serial fraudster and convicted conman. A term I would charitably not use on a witness except it was explicitly bestowed upon him by not one but two different US federal district court judges, including the one who sentenced him to over 15 years in prison for defrauding union pension funds, a Native American tribe and scores of innocent investors. Mr. Galanis was sentenced to pay restitution of over $80 million to his victims. That’s a lot of money. That’s what Donald Trump was sentenced to pay E. Jean Carroll for in that civil litigation. The very first record of Mr. Galanis’ claims against the Biden family appeared, check this out, in the clemency petition that he sent from prison to President Trump.

(17:05)
But the key point is this, even if we were to believe every single word offered by these utterly compromised and biased witnesses, Mr. Bobulinski and Mr. Galanis, their allegations don’t identify any wrongdoing, much less an impeachable offense by President Biden. With the impeachment bus running on empty, our GOP colleagues now are apparently preparing to save face by ending the impeachment farce with criminal referrals. But criminal referrals require evidence of crimes, and the only crimes we have seen are those of the GOP’s own star witnesses like Russian asset Alex Smirnov, Chinese agent Gal Luft, Devon Archer and Jason Galanis.

(17:53)
The minority witness today, our witness, Lev Parnas casts a piercing light on what’s really taking place here. And Mr. Parnas has reason to know. He too used to be a mega sycophant peddling lies and disinformation to smear Joe Biden. Today he joins a long line of self exiles from Trump world who could no longer stomach all the corruption and deceit. People like Cassidy Hutchinson, people like Michael Cohen, Sarah Matthews, Alyssa Griffin, General James Mattis, the chair of the joint chiefs of staff, Mark Millie, General John Kelly, and now Vice President Mike Pence who refuses to endorse for president the man he served with. But we do have loyal sycophants still in the room and one day I look forward to hearing their testimony about how they got sunk into this religious cult.

(18:53)
Mr. Parnas wrote Chairman Comer and me a remarkable letter on July 23rd, 2023. This is the first time I’m meeting him today. He was Rudy Giuliani’s, right-hand man, his globe-trotting business partner and language interpreter in the mission to manufacture Ukraine and Burisma-related dirt and smears against Joe Biden in 2018 and 2019. He spent all of his time traveling around the world trying to stage evidence against Joe Biden. In his letter, Parnas explains that the desperate search to find evidence of any kind of Biden corruption was a complete and total bust because there was no evidence to find. He wrote to tell us that not only is there no evidence in Ukraine that Joe Biden did anything improper, but more darkly, the manic search for a smoking gun against Biden became a mission to invent and concoct evidence out of thin air with the act of help of Russian intelligence assets and agents.

(20:06)
I’m getting to Russia, you haven’t heard anything yet, Mr. Chairman. A man who has reckoned with his own moral dissent into Trump world, Lev Parnas is ashamed of what he did to serve the interests of Russian propaganda and Putin’s lies, and he wants America to know the truth. He can explain how the Russian- stimulated conspiracy theories and lies that he promoted with Rudy Giuliani live on in the tiresome fabrications spread by Alex Smirnoff and now repeated by this committee like Pavlov’s dog. At every turn my colleagues cry, “Russia hoax” even in the face of repeated warnings from Donald Trump’s own Treasury Secretary and Secretary of State, from the intelligence community, from Robert Mueller and most recently from Special Counsel Weiss, who was named to office by Donald Trump.

(21:01)
As Secretary Mnuchin stated, quote, “Russian disinformation campaigns targeting American citizens are a threat to our democracy.” That’s Secretary Mnuchin, someone that you guys usually defend, but my GOP colleagues continue to cry, “Russia hoax” like cult members selling flowers at the airport. Our colleagues are the ones loyally amplifying the actual Russian hoax, not the Russia hoax, the Russian hoax, the one that Giuliani and Trump and Smirnov have eagerly adopted from Putin and his agents. They participate in this hoax while they shamefully block $60 billion in military assistance to President Zelensky and the besieged Ukrainian people five years after Trump and Giuliani tried to shake President Zelensky down for counterfeit dirt on Joe Biden. And while they continue to parrot these transparent Russian lies, Vladimir Putin wages, his bloody aggressive war on Ukraine, filled with atrocities like the mass kidnapping of children and the rape and slaughter of civilians.

(22:11)
The MAGA Right’s wholesale adoption of this Russian hoax and their sellout of the Ukrainian people by the MAGA Right is an historic betrayal of democracy, freedom in the rule of law. But the defense of democracy begins with fidelity to the truth, and the Oversight Democrats, America’s truth squad against this disinformation, is here today to set the record straight. I yield back to you, Mr. Chairman.

I would now like to introduce our witnesses, Mr. Tony Bobulinski. Mr. Bobulinski was a business partner of Hunter Biden in a joint venture between a Chinese energy entity, CEFC. Mr. Bobulinski sat for a transcribed interview with the Committee on February 13th, 2024. Mr. Lev Parnas, Mr. Parnas was not a business associate of the Biden family. Mr. Parnas is an entrepreneur, a political activist, and an author. And Mr. Jason Galanis. Mr. Galanis was a business partner of Hunter Biden. Mr. Galanis sat for a transcribed interview with this committee on February 23rd, 2024. We asked the Bureau of Prisons to make him available in person today. They would only provide Mr. Galanis for virtual testimony. Notably, Mr. Galanis applied for CARES Act home confinement, and after a lengthy approval process was approved for home confinement on June 9th, 2023. On June 12th, 2023, I issued a subpoena to Devon Archer for testimony. On the following day, June 13th, 2023, Mr. Galanis’ approval was reversed as a result of Department of Justice’s intervention. So Mr. Galanis has remained in a federal prison facility. He is currently in Montgomery, Alabama. Mr. Galanis, can you please state for the record who else is in the room with you?

Yes, Chairman Comer. My counsel and advisor, Mark Paoletta and Nicholas Wise.

Thank you. Pursuant to committee Rule 9G, the witnesses will please stand and raise their right hands. Do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God? Let the record show that the witnesses all answered in the affirmative. Thank you. You all may be seated.

(24:42)
We appreciate you all being here today and look forward to your testimony. Let me remind the witnesses that we have read your written statements and they will appear in full in the hearing record. Please limit your oral statements to five minutes. As a reminder, please press the button on the microphone in front of you so that it is on and members can hear you. When you begin to speak, the light in front of you will turn green. After four minutes, the light will turn yellow and when the red light comes on, your five minutes has expired and we would ask that you would please wrap it up as quickly as possible. I now recognize Mr. Bobulinski for his opening statement.

Should I allow Hunter to give his opening statement first?

Well, it doesn’t appear Mr. Biden showed up for his public hearing, so we’ll recognize you, MMr. Bobulinski.

Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Chairman, ranking members and members of Congress, good morning. Thank you for this opportunity to speak with you and present my truthful testimony to the American people. I sit here today under oath for one reason and one reason only, the American people deserve to hear the truth. Though the truth involving the deep corruption of the Biden family, including the malfeasance of the sitting President of the United States, might be raw and unpleasant, the American people must hear it. You’re presented here today with two narratives in this investigation, a false one being pushed by Joe Biden, a serial liar and fabulist, now under this impeachment investigation for public corruption, his brother Jim Biden, a 75-year-old man who can’t keep his lies straight, including under oath, and his son, Hunter Biden, a chronic drug addict facing two indictments with 12 counts.

(26:18)
You also have before you the truth, confirmed by multiple Biden family business partners over many years and backed up by mountains of irrefutable evidence including text messages, emails, documents, recordings. I’m the only Biden family business partner with an impeccable military record. I’m grateful that this country has given me the freedom to be successful. I worked hard to become independently wealthy. I’ve taken several businesses public, sold multiple businesses to some of the world’s best private equity firms. In fact, my business success is why they sought me out. However, what they have done is repugnant to me. I’m here today because I’m a patriot and I’m a truth teller.

(26:59)
We keep hearing from certain corners that our democracy is at risk and democracy’s on the ballot in ’24. Yet the same people preaching this mantra know better. They continue to lie directly to the American people without hesitation and remorse. Rep. Dan Goldman and Jamie Raskin, both lawyers, and Mr. Goldman, a former prosecutor with the SDNY from New York, will continue to lie today in this hearing and then go straight to the media to tell more lies. Hunter Biden’s defense attorney, Abbe Lowell, weaponizes letters to Congress to try to smear my name-

Mr. Chairman-

… and misstate the cold hard facts-

Mr. Chairman-

… in an attempt to save his powerfully connected client and his father. I challenge Mr. Lowell to make those claims on national television so he can be held accountable for his lies.

(27:46)
Prior to my successful business career, I was an officer in the United States Navy at Navy’s Elite Naval Nuclear Power Training Command. I later served as the Command’s chief technology officer-

Please proceed. I apologize for the disruption from the [inaudible 00:28:04].

Am I supposed to say it’s my time, Mr. Raskin?

Yeah. But please, Mr. Bobulinski, please… Come to order. Mr. Bobulinski, Mr. Bobulinski, please proceed. Please proceed. I apologize for the disruption from the minority.

Okay.

Well, Mr. Chairman, save his time, but he called members of this committee liars, and I just want to know whether the order and decorum requirements of House Rule 11 apply to witnesses appearing before the Committee. Does it apply or does it not?

Should I address? I don’t…

There’s decorum from the members. We’ve asked for that. There’s no language that I’m aware of pertaining to a witness.

Thank you.

So make sure we didn’t waste any of his time on the opening statement. Mr. Bobulinski, I’m sorry for the disruption. Please continue your opening statement.

Yeah, I think Mr. Raskin used my-

We’ll make sure it’s right. We’ll make sure it’s right.

Okay, great. I just want to restate, make sure the American people hear all these facts. Abbe Lowell weaponizes letters to Congress to try to smear my name and misstate the cold hard facts in an attempt to save his powerfully connected client and his father. I challenge Mr. Lowell to make those claims on national television so he can be held accountable for his lies.

(29:34)
Prior to my successful business career, I was an officer for over six years in the United States Navy’s Elite Naval Nuclear Power Training Command as a decorated master training specialist. I later served as the Command’s chief technology officer, where I held a Q security clearance from the Department of Energy and the NSA. When I left Nuclear Power Training Command, I was the number one ranked direct input officer in the entire command, and then I jumped into the business world in public markets. While I have made a few contributions over the years to Democrats, such as Representative Ro Khanna, I don’t see him, but I hope he shows up today, he sits on the Democratic side of the Oversight Committee, I’m not a political person. I come from a family with a long history of distinguished service in our nation’s military, including my father, both of my grandfathers, and my brother, all of whom were willing to sacrifice their lives for this great country. My sister serves our military vets for two decades at the Veterans Administration. We’ve lived our life as a family in service to this great country.

(30:35)
I hope the American people will pay close attention to this hearing. I also hope they’ll understand that some members of this committee will engage in absurd attacks and efforts to try to deflect attention from the facts I will present today by questioning my integrity and my patriotic duty. You may see me speak passionately at this hearing, but for good reason. Not only was I willing to die for this country, every single male member of my immediate family was willing to die for this country.

(31:07)
I want to be crystal clear from my direct personal experience and what I’ve 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 pedaling 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. Joe Biden was more than a participant in and a 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.

(31:46)
I ask this big question, if there’s no evidence of corruption here today, if Joe’s conduct and the conduct of his family were fully legal and proper, then why are they so dishonest about it? Not just slight misrepresentations of fact, but deep untruths about the entire corrupt enterprise. Hunter Biden gave his transcribed interview on February 28th and lied throughout his testimony. Here’s just one egregious example of Hunter’s perjury. He lied to the Committee on important details concerning his money demands and threats to CFC in text messages on July 30th and 31st, 2017. He leveraged his father’s presence next to him in that infamous text to strong armed CFC to paying Hunter immediately.

(32:33)
Jim Biden also lied extensively throughout his transcribed interview on February 21st and perjured himself. An example of that, on page 100 of his transcript, Jim is asked specifically, “Do you recall having a meeting with Hunter Biden, Tony Bobulinski and Joe Biden?” Jim’s response, “Absolutely not.” The Committee was so shocked by his perjury that they asked him the same question multiple times. Each time, he denied meeting with me and Joe Biden. After the Committee showed him text messages confirming that I met with Joe Biden, Hunter Biden and Jim Biden at the Beverly Hilton in May, 2017, Jim Biden, with a former US attorney lawyer sitting next to him, still denied that meeting took place. Hunter Biden in his own transcribed interview confirmed that that meeting took place. Hunter confirmed his uncle perjured himself in front of this committee. I’m simply here to tell the truth to the American people. And I hope each and every one of you congressmen and women give me the opportunity to do that, instead of focusing on Russia or smearing my family’s name or focusing on facts that are irrelevant today. I yield back.

Thank you.

Mr. Chairman, parliamentary inquiry?

Yes?

Just two points. One is I believe that Mr. Bobulinski went over 2 minutes, 14 seconds. I hope the same courtesy

We will

We will give Mr. Parnas equal time.

Thank you. And secondly, I see that we now have a witness appearing remotely and I thought that witnesses were required to appear in person under the rules adopted by the majority at the beginning of the Congress. And do we have a new practice with respect to that rule? Because I know that members on our side were denied the ability to participate in hearings that were conducted in Florida and Mississippi and Alabama. We wanted to participate by Zoom. So I hope-

And I’ll answer that. To be able to testify remotely, requires a letter from me and approval from the majority leader, which we have, and I’ll enter that letter into the record without objection.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I hope we’ll extend the same courtesy to members of this committee when they can’t get to a hearing as in Mississippi or Florida. Thank you much.

Mr. Chairman. Parliamentary inquiry.

State your point.

Mr. Chairman. Mr. Bobulinski just referred to text messages that I believe he is referring to photos of a Blackberry.

What’s your parliamentary inquiry? State your parliamentary inquiry because we’ve got a very important hearing here and we don’t have time for stunts. What’s your parliamentary inquiry?

It’s not a stunt. I’m simply asking that Mr. Bobulinski-

You don’t have a parliamentary inquiry. Chair now recognizes Mr. Parnas for equal time to Mr. Bobulinski-

Mr Chairman just because Mr. Bobulinski-

[inaudible 00:35:24]. Chair recognizes Mr. Parnas.

Mr Chairman, does the committee have the text messages that Mr. Bobulinski-

Mr. Chairman, we don’t have time for games by Democrats today.

We have important witnesses here. This is a credible-

I’m asking a question about the [inaudible 00:35:39] of your important witnesses.

You asked for a parliamentary inquiry. You’ll have five minutes whenever Jamie you’re asking tells me it’s your time to speak. Mr. Parnas, the chair recognizes you for equal time that Mr. Bobulinski had, which was seven minutes.

Thank you. Hello. Honorable members of Congress, Chairman Comer, Ranking Member Raskin and members of the oversight committee. I’m humbled and thankful before you to show up before you today. I came to the United States from Odessa, Ukraine in 1976 when it was still the former Soviet Union. My mother and father and sister and I had left the Soviet Union escaping antisemitism and persecution. While in Rome en route to Israel, my sister and I won the most important opportunity that we have ever been given. We won the US green card lottery. My family came here with literally no more than shirts on our back and the hopes of rebuilding our lives in the land of freedom. I say this to you because I love this country. From shortly after my arrest on October 9th, 2019 to now, I have been trying to share the irrefutable truth with you. The American people have been lied to by Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani, and various cohorts of individuals in government and media positions.

(36:55)
They created falsehoods to serve their own interests knowing it would undermine the strength of our nation. From November 2018 to October 2019, I was a key participant and a witness to numerous efforts to prove that Joe and Hunter Biden were linked to corruption in Ukraine. Rudy Giuliani, on behalf of them, President Donald Trump tasked me with a mission to travel the globe finding dirt on the Bidens so that an array of networks could spread misinformation about them, thus securing the 2020 election for Donald J. Trump. Ironically, when I was arrested, my original indictment linked me to an individual referred to as Unindicted Co-Conspirator One. We now know this individual to be Congressman Pete Sessions who sits on this very committee today. Today, I ask you to consider the following. In nearly a year traveling the world and interviewing officials in different countries, I found precisely zero evidence of the Biden’s corruption in Ukraine.

(37:49)
No credible source has ever provided proof of criminal activity, not the FBI, CIA, nor the NSA. No respectable Ukrainian official has ever said that the Biden did anything illegal, including former President Poroshenko and former prosecutor General Yuri Lutsenko. Even when CEO of Burisma, Mykola Zlochevsky was offered a deal by Rudy Giuliani in exchange for information on the Bidens, he provided none because there is none. The only information ever pushed on the Bidens in Ukraine has come from one source and one source only, Russia and Russian agents. The impeachment proceedings that bring us here now are predicated on false information spread by the Kremlin. Everyone involved knew they were sharing lies from Trump and Giuliani shadow diplomacy, through my missions to Ukraine and elsewhere, to members of a Bill T team, a group convened for the sole purpose of investigating and damaging the Bidens.

(38:53)
Everything was for the ultimate benefit of Donald Trump and thereby Vladimir Putin. Because the team’s investigations were centered around Biden and Ukraine, I was designated the point person in every matter they pursued. That is how I know with certainty that these Biden stories are untrue then and are untrue now. Congressman Pete Sessions, then Congressman Devin Nunez, Senator Ron Johnson and many others understood they were pushing a false narrative. The same goes for John Solomon, Sean Hannity and media personnel, particularly at Fox News, who used this narrative to manipulate the public ahead of the 2020 elections. Sadly, they’re still doing this today as we approach the 2024 elections.

(39:37)
We cannot separate this conspiracy from the Russian Ukraine war because Trump has no intention to keep aiding Ukraine. Without the support of the United States and NATO, millions in Ukraine will suffer and die. If we allow Russia to defeat Ukraine, eventually, that suffering will reach American shores. Today, I admit my own wrongdoings. I have been a convicted federal election campaign and fraud crimes and served my sentence. I do not hide that from reality. It is part of my truth. Despite rigorous attempts by those in power to silence me, I will be silenced no longer. Thank you to the committee for allowing me to speak. I look forward to answering any and all of your questions.

Thank you. Chair now recognizes Mr. Galanis for his opening statement.

Chairman Comer, Ranking Member Raskin and members of the committee, my name’s Jason Galanis. I was a business partner of Hunter Biden and Devon Archer among others. During the years of 2014 and 2015, our business included the acquisition of 85-year-old Wall Street firm Burnham and Company, the one and a half billion dollar surviving division of Drexel Burnham Lambert. Our objective was to build a diversified private equity platform, which would be anchored by globally known Wall Street brand, together with a globally known political name, Biden. Our goal, that is Hunter Biden, Devon Archer and me, was to make billions not millions. The entire value add of Hunter Biden to our business was his family name and his access to his father, Vice President Joe Biden. In 2014, we believe that the burden of enterprise will be significantly enhanced by forming a partnership with Harvest Fund Management, a $300 billion Chinese financial service company closely connected to the Chinese Communist Party. This effort was led by Hunter Biden’s contact with Henry Zhao, the Harvest Chairman. Mr. Zhao was interested in this partnership because of the game changing value add of the Biden family, including Joe Biden who was to be a member of the Burnham Harvest team post vice presidency. My lawyers provided the committee a draft of an email dated August 23rd, 2014, drafted for Hunter Biden that reflects this understanding. It states and I quote, “Michael, please also remind Henry Zhao of our conversation about a board seat for a certain relation of mine. Devin and I golfed with that relation earlier this week and we discussed this very idea and as always, he remains very, very keen on the opportunity.”

(42:17)
I’m certain that this phrase, a certain relation of mine refers to Vice President Biden. Devin told me about this golf course conversation shortly after it happened. Ultimately, this paragraph was deleted from the final version with Hunter following our general rule of thumb on business deals, say it, forget it, write it, regret it. Further to that, I recall being with Hunter Biden and Devin Archer at the Peninsula Bar in New York where Hunter took a call from his father and told him things were going well with Henry Zhao at Harvest and that he might need a little help getting across the finish line. It was not the only time I heard Hunter speak with his father for business reasons. I was present when Hunter called his father on May 4th, 2014 on a cell phone, put it on speaker mode to have him say hello to Yelena Baturina, a Russian oligarch and an investor in Rosemont projects and her husband Yury Luzhkov, the former mayor of Moscow, Deb Archer was also there.

(43:16)
Hunter said, “Well, I’m here with our friends. I told you we’re coming to town and we wanted to say hello.” The vice president said hello, some pleasantries, and that I hope you had safe travels and then said, “Okay, you be good to my boy.” Hunter responded by saying, “Everything is good and we’re moving ahead.” The vice president said something about, “Being helpful,” and Hunter ended the call by saying he was going to call his father later. Before this call, Hunter sat next to Yelena Baturina at the table and I heard him speaking on business matters generally. A few days after this May 4th party, an email my lawyer provided to this committee shows that Devin had confirmed Ms. Baturina was committed to a “hard order” of 10 to $20 million in a burden investment banking client.

(44:04)
In an effort to build this financial platform, I engaged in unlawful conduct. Our companies were entrusted with $11 billion of union pension fund money whose trust I betrayed. I pleaded guilty. I’ve had eight years in federal custody to reflect on my actions. I’m profoundly sorry for committing these crimes. I deserve the lengthy sentence I’ve received. Nevertheless, as I set out more fully in my full statement, I believe the SBNY prosecutors did not indict Hunter Biden on the same deal for political reasons despite then available documentation that we were partners, were involved in decision-making that involved illegal self-dealing and all of us had financially benefited from these schemes.

(44:48)
In fact, Hunter Biden and Devin Archer’s company Rosemont Seneca Bohai received $15 million from the tribal bonds fraudulent scheme to be invested in the Burnham Group. I’ve offered slightest information to the government about Hunter Biden’s crimes, but the prosecutors have been uninterested and my request for commutation I filed in the DOJ in December 2020 did provide information about Hunter’s culpability. The DOJ has retaliated against me and vigorously objected to my being placed in home confined pursuant to the CARES Act. I applied for home confinement on February 4th, 2023 and I was approved on June 9th. On June 12th, this committee issued a subpoena for Devin Archer and the BOP reversed my approval on June 13th with the SDNY prosecutor strongly objecting to my release. I’ve been appealing this reversal and with each stage, the BOP reason for my denial has changed.

(45:42)
During the period beginning in January 2023, I was sexually assaulted by a member of the prison staff at FPC Pensacola. He persisted in sexually harassing me for many months thereafter, I had hoped to receive home confinement which removed me from danger. My judgment was clotted by the shame I felt for not being able to prevent the attacks. I was well aware as inmates, all inmates are that the Bureau of Prisons had a horrible record on these matters. I believed my disclosure would’ve made things worse for me. Unfortunately, the sexual harassment continued until early August when the Prison Correctional Officer’s comments became more threatening. I feared for my safety. I decided to seek counseling from Chaplain Dixon the next day on August 10th, 2023.

(46:32)
The chaplain was visibly upset by the events and asked to bring in Warden Salisbury who quickly opened a PREA investigation, which is a reference to the Prison Rape Elimination Act passed by Congress. After further debriefings, I was immediately escorted to a vehicle and driven by senior staff hours to FPC Montgomery, a separate facility. I’m grateful the committee has opened up an investigation of these matters and I appreciate Chairman Jordan and Comer and subcommittee Chairman [inaudible 00:47:02] signing the letter. I believe I’ve been a victim of a pattern of retribution by the Department of Justice. I believe I’m putting myself at grave risk within the BOP for providing information on these matters concerning the president and his son. I’ve been treating professionally at Montgomery. I want to thank case manager coordinator Anthony Barnes and the Warden Randy Keys for the help of facilitating access to my attorney prior to this interview.

Thank you, Mr. Galanis and I want to thank all the witnesses again for being here today. We will now begin the questions and I want to remind members on both sides of the aisle, each member has five minutes. I’m going to adhere to that and hit the gavel. If the question has been asked, then we’ll allow the witnesses time to respond, but we are going to try to get in a lot of questions from a lot of members and I will begin the questioning followed by ranking member Raskin.

(48:03)
Again, Mr. Bobulinski, thank you for your service to our country, your military service. Appreciate you being here. During the 118th Congress, this committee is investigating Joe Biden’s involvement and his family’s influence peddling schemes around the world. So let’s start with that. Mr. Bobulinski, was Joe Biden involved with any of your business dealings with Hunter Biden and James Biden?

Yes, he was.

Was Joe Biden involved in his family’s attempts to sell their access to him?

Yes, he was.

You set out to form a legitimate business with the Bidens. Did you come to find out that the Biden family had no interest in doing real business?

I did.

Mr. Galanis, are you aware of any times Hunter Biden used Joe Biden with Joe Biden’s knowledge to benefit their business associates?

Yes.

Which business associates?

Yelena Baturina, Russian oligarch.

Russian.

Russian. Chinese. Chinese fund manager, Henry Zhao and Mykola Zlochevsky, a Ukrainian oligarch, oil and gas oligarch.

Okay. Now that we’ve established that Joe Biden was involved in his family’s business dealings, I’d like to turn to the financial records we’ve subpoenaed. One major point my democrat colleagues downplay is how much money the Biden’s accumulated from foreign business ventures in such a short period of time. We have over $24 million to the Biden family and their business associates from 2014 while Joe Biden was vice president, to 2019. Mr. Bobulinski, there came a time when you were attempting to raise $10 million from the Chinese to pursue an actual business deal. A real business deal, but it wouldn’t be correct to say this was a $10 million deal, would it? What did the Bidens conceive of the business with the Chinese becoming?

The Chinese were committing to deploying billions of dollars in infrastructure projects here in the United States as well as around the world.

Mr. Galanis, what was the financial goal you, Mr. Archer and Hunter Biden set out to achieve? Was it millions of dollars or billions of dollars?

Billions of dollars, Mr. Chairman.

Billions with a B?

Yes. Billions.

Now I’d like to turn to some of the statements Joe Biden has made during his presidency about the findings of this investigation. Mr. Bobulinski, Joe Biden has said he never interacted with his family’s business associates. Did he meet with you?

He did.

In fact, are you aware that Joe Biden also met with-

I’m sorry, Mr. Chairman. He did multiple times.

Okay. Are you aware that Joe Biden also met with Rob Walker, Eric Sherwin and Devin Archer too?

I’m generally aware of it.

Mr. Galanis, as you discussed earlier, regarding Yelena Baturina, the Russian oligarch, you were present for Hunter Biden calling his then vice president father with the Russian oligarch, Yelena Baturina present, correct?

That’s correct.

You also were present for Hunter Biden’s conversation with his father about a board seat on a Chinese company board, is that correct?

I was present for a call when Chinese transactions discussed. Yes.

So Mr. Galanis, isn’t it true that when Joe Biden said he didn’t interact with his family’s business associates, that’s not true, is it?

I believe it will be misleading to the point of being a non-truth.

I want to touch on the fact about the absent seat in the middle. Hunter Biden has chosen not to attend today’s proceedings. I’ve given Mr. Biden exactly what he asked for before his deposition. It’s clear that Hunter Biden knows his testimony would not withstand public scrutiny. Joe Biden has not been truthful about his participation in schemes to sell access and influence, and today’s witnesses will show the American people a side of the story that the president and his allies on this side of the aisle are eager to hide. Mr. Bobulinski, can you tell us about your meeting at the Beverly Hilton with Joe Biden?

The short version or long version?

Long version. Within a minute.

Okay. So Hunter Biden, Jim Biden and Joe Biden were in Los Angeles for a variety of business discussions. Joe was there to speak at the Milken Conference in May of 2017. I had lunch with Hunter Biden at the Chateau Marmont and he had asked me to meet with his father that night.

(52:50)
He set up a meeting at the Beverly Hilton where they hold the Milken Conference and I got there a bit early and sat with Jim Biden, Hunter Biden and were just talking about what we were doing with the Chinese and the legal documents I was working through and they had coached me before Joe showed up to, listen, we’re going to just keep things at a very high level. We’re not going to go into a lot of details in this meeting. And I just remember that discussion generally because it just struck me as odd, honestly. Joe wasn’t in the White House then and that they were framing it that way and then Joe showed up, walked through the lobby of the Beverly Hilton Hotel. I stood up to shake his hand and we sat down and spent 45 minutes to an hour going through my background.

You met with him that long?

Yes, yes, yes. This wasn’t a handshake, a two-second discussion about the weather. This was a 45 minute how long, long meeting to an hour where we talked about a lot of stuff.

Very good. Thank you. Chair now recognizes Ranking Member Raskin for his questions,

But we’re actually going to go to Mr. Garcia to begin.

Great. Thank you very much and thank you again. I just want to just for the record, be very clear that in Mr. Bobulinski’s testimony, he has provided zero evidence, zero evidence of any link between Hunter Biden and the President as far as it relates to the business dealings. And so once again, we’re back to a hearing where no evidence has been provided of any sort of wrongdoing by the president, but I want to go back-

That’s a blatant lie.

Actually, it’s my time, sir. Mr. Bobulinski, I want to go back to the private deposition that we had. I was one of a handful of Democrats in that private, on the record under oath conversation we had and during that deposition, I asked you a question of which you gave a false answer to, and I want to go back to that. I asked you specifically, who got you into the presidential debate that was attended by you and others, and that of course, was a huge moment in that campaign and you could not recall. In fact, you said, “I do not recall who got me into the debate.” Do you remember telling me that, sir?

You were playing semantics trying to ask me as if somebody called me directly and gave me a ticket like I-

Sir. Sir. I asked you.

I told you that my lawyer-

I’m going to reclaim my time, sir. I’m going to reclaim my time. What I said was-

You just asked me a question, Mr. Garcia.

I’m reclaiming my time. Thank you, sir. Actually, what I asked you was do you recall who actually got you into the presidential debate? You actually said, “I do not recall who got me into the debate.” You did not remember who got you into the debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Of course-

That’s not a true statement.

Sir, you quoted I don’t recall who got me into the debate. It’s on page 102 of the transcript.

You did not ask me whether I was a guest of Biden or-

Sir, I asked you that question. Thank you, I’ll reclaim my time. I’m not asking you a question right now. Thank you very much, sir. In fact, here as was shown by ranking member Raskin, we know that you were in the debate actually sitting adjacent and next to Trump officials. When we were confronted again on the same question, Mr. Bobulinski, if you were a guest of Mr. Trump’s at the debate, you responded and you quoted, once the Wall Street Journal called you out, “Is the Wall Street Journal god or something? Like you act like this is some encyclopedia of fact.” And you refuse to still confirm that you were a guest of Donald Trump. So I want to ask you one more time, sir, were you a guest of Donald Trump at the presidential debate?

Mr. Garcia, those were not the questions you asked me in my transcribed interview.

Wow.

You were trying to ask semantical questions-

Answer the question, sir, were you a guest of Donald Trump?

I was clearly a guest of Donald Trump at the gate or at the debate.

You were?

That was obvious to everyone in the world at that point.

It’s interesting-

You were asking me semantical questions.

Thank you, sir. So you were a guest? You answered the question because at the time, you said in the transcript under oath, “I don’t recall who got me into the debate.” So just to be clear. So I want to keep going. So you also call yourself, you’re not a political person. Yet you went to a presidential debate on behalf of Donald Trump. I also want to also make it clear that you made numerous claims and allegations. You’ve made them today, you’ve made them before, and yet, even though you’re not a political person, this is also another photo of you. You actually chose to show up at a press conference for Donald Trump prior to the debate because you are not a political person. Did you show up to a press conference for Donald Trump before the debate?

I can’t qualify whether it was for Donald Trump.

Do you know who invited you? Sir, who invited you to the debate? Donald Trump, you said. Who invited you to the press conference?

Who invited me? My lawyers coordinated things and I showed up at a press-

Well, sir, I will tell you, it was Jason Miller. It’s been very clear. It’s been reported who actually worked on the part of the Donald Trump campaign. Here you are at a Donald Trump press conference and you can’t remember how you got to the press conference. You refuse to answer how you actually got into the Donald Trump debate with Joe Biden. Do you remember speaking at the press conference?

I do. Very clearly.

You do? Do you know who Jason Miller is, sir?

I do know of him, yes.

Do you know that he was a Trump campaign staffer?

Mr. Garcia, you keep asking me semantical questions. You underestimate that I had three lawyers around me that we’re coordinating my travel, where I was going and stuff like that. So please stop.

Well, I’ll reclaim my time. Thank you very much. It’s interesting, sir, because you show up to a pre-debate press conference. You show up to a presidential debate, both invited to by a person running for the presidency of the United States. You know the stakes are high, yet you have no idea how you got to the press conference. You don’t remember how you got to the debate and here you are speaking at a press conference of which the national media… So how did you get to the press conference?

I flew on a plane.

Who invited you?

Are we going in circles?

Sir, who invited you to the press conference?

My lawyers told me I was invited to come to Tennessee. At that point, I was trying to get the truth and the facts out to the American people. At that moment in time, if I recall, I believe 80 million people watched that debate and that was probably the-

Thank you, sir. I reclaim my time. Well with that, I think it’s very clear for someone that can’t remember how I got to a Donald Trump press conference or a Donald Trump debate, you’re completely an uncredible witness, sir. Thank you. And I yield back.

Gentleman’s time has expired. Chair now recognize the Chairman of the House Ways and Means committee Jason Smith for five minutes.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. We’ve previously heard from two IRS whistleblowers that Joe Biden was the brand being sold by his family members. One such example of this could be seen in a June 6th, 2017 WhatsApp message where Hunter Biden told a business associate that he was not willing to “sign over my family’s brand” or give them, “the keys to my family’s only asset.” Mr. Bobulinski, can you confirm that President Biden is the brand being sold by his family members?

I can 100% [inaudible 00:59:56].

Thank you. During his deposition, Hunter Biden repeatedly testified under oath that his father was not involved in his business in any capacity and that there wasn’t even a connection between his father and his businesses. Here is just one example, “I just state for the record one more time under oath and under penalty of perjury, my father has never been involved in my business. I have never asked my father to be involved in my business. My father has never benefited from my business and I have never asked anyone or my father to do anything for the benefit of anyone I’ve ever done business for.”

(01:00:40)
Yet the Ways and Means Committee released a WhatsApp message that were provided by the IRS whistleblowers showing that Hunter Biden wrote on July 30th, 27, “I’m sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled.” I’m sitting here waiting for the call with my father. Moreover, you testified that Hunter was not shy about his ability to get his father on the phone and Devin Archer testified that there were multiple instances in which Hunter placed his dad on speakerphone. Mr. Bobulinski, was Hunter Biden telling the truth when he testified under oath that his father was never involved in any of his business dealings?

No, he was not. Those are all blatant lies.

We continue to hear claims that President Biden was not involved in his family’s business dealings and that he did not benefit from illicit business deals. However, IRS special agent Joe Ziglar provided documents to the ways and means Committee, 327 emails, many of which involve Hunter Biden and Hunter Biden’s Business Associates. Mr. Bobulinski, do you have any personal experience that leads you to believe that Joe Biden was involved with Hunter Biden’s business associates and business dealings?

Yes, I do.

You want to say a few?

To outline how Joe was involved?

Yeah.

Yes. Different congressmen and women keep trying to say that there’s no evidence and use the word involved, which is a very opaque language. If Joe Biden was not involved in his son’s business dealings, why after flying all the way across the country to the Milken Conference, where there is next to Davos is probably the biggest conference in the world. Why would he take 45 minutes out of his night? It wasn’t a 10:00 AM meeting, it was 10:40 in the evening. He’s an elderly man, flew all the way across the country to sit with me for 45 minutes to an hour to discuss my background. The business we are doing with the Chinese, his family’s background.

Speaking of the business with the Chinese, in October 2020, Joe Biden asserted that his family had not earned money through business dealings in China. However, IRS whistleblowers shared evidence that the Biden family made at least $1.1 million from their business with China, including $100,000 in payment from CFC China Energy and a $1 million payment in exchange for legal services that were never provided to a CFC official, Patrick Ho. Mr. Bobulinski, do you know whether the Biden family made any money from China?

They did. Millions of dollars, I think approximately to 8-9 million.

The Biden family has made millions of dollars from China, correct?

Correct.

And you said at least 9 million?

Yeah. I think it’s actually over 10 million, but I’ll leave those details up to you guys.

Thank you. I yield back.

Gentlemen, yields back. Chair now recognizes the ranking member.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you Mr. Parnas for being here today. Your involvement with the real Russian hoax about Joe Biden began in 2018 when, as a big donor and a big supporter of Donald Trump’s, you were introduced to Rudy Giuliani and you began working with him to dig up dirt on Joe Biden and Ukraine. If you can just tell us quickly how you got involved in that.

Yes. I was a donor at the time. I became doing business with Rudy Giuliani. He got involved in a business I was doing called Fraud Guarantee and in the midst, we started spending a lot of time together until eventually in November of 2018, he approached me and asked me about my connections in Ukraine. After telling him about people that I knew and things that I heard, at that point then, he wanted me to go to Ukraine to find Viktor Shokin, the Prosecutor General.

And basically, he wanted to go from his Fraud Guarantee to Guaranteeing of Fraud on the American people. But after turning over every stone and going down every rabbit hole, including interviewing Viktor Shokin and Zlochevsky the owner of Burisma. Did you ever find the smoking gun or any evidence that Donald Trump was looking for to paste on Joe Biden?

On the contrary, Representative Raskin. Not only did we keep hitting that walls and not finding the smoking gun, but we kept running into sources of the informations that was coming out of Russia.

In fact, Joe Biden was part of a global campaign including by the United States, to oppose corruption and to go after the corrupt forces in Ukraine. Isn’t that right?

Yes, sir.

At what point did the campaign to dig up dirt on Biden become a campaign to spread disinformation and lies about Biden?

At some point, when we hit a few brick walls, all of a sudden then I saw the shift between the BLT group, which included John Solomon, the media personality, and Rudy Giuliani and other Trump lawyers to start trying to push narratives that were not validated. We had no way to validate them. Basically, a letter would come over from somebody in Ukraine. I’d hand it over to John Solomon. Next thing you knew, he was on Fox TV two hours later with Sean Hannity.

At what point did Mr. Giuliani begin working directly with Russian agents and Russian assets, individuals who would later become sanctioned by Donald Trump’s own treasury department for spreading propaganda and disinformation against Joe Biden?

It was sometime in probably around May, June of 2019.

Were you aware, was Mr. Giuliani aware that these people were basically just doing the bidding of Vladimir Putin?

Absolutely.

So he had no hesitation about spreading lies that were concocted by Russian agents?

As long as it fit the narrative, absolutely not.

How were you and Giuliani able to take these false allegations pedaled by corrupt officials and Russian agents and promote and amplify them here in the United States? In our political system? Weren’t media groups skeptical of your claims?

Most media groups. I’d probably say all except for Fox and a few other right-wing media groups didn’t want to take any of the information and that aggravated Rudy Giuliani and John Solomon and other players. And the main group that was being pushed through was Fox, Sean Hannity and some other media personnel out there. But then there was also other people that were doing the bidding for the Russian people in Congress like Senator Ron Johnson, like Congressman Pete Sessions that sits here right now. That was with me from the very beginning in this journey into finding of digging dirt on Joe Biden.

Is Putin’s war on Ukraine today, which has cost hundreds of thousands of people’s lives, is that part

Of the vaunted, Russia hoax. Russia hoax.

Absolutely not.

Is it real?

Yes, absolutely.

I want to ask you a more personal question, if I might, Mr. Parnas because in my several years living through this extraordinary period of American history, I’ve tried to ask people like Michael Cohen and Cassidy Hutchinson, I’ve wondered about people like General Milley, General Kelly. Why did you break with all of the deceit and corruption and lies of Donald Trump? How did you get out of that culture?

I mean, it was very difficult. I actually had to head the brick wall myself and get arrested and to be able to get out of that cult, because when you’re in that cult, when you are around them, you have blinders on and you’re only able to see a certain amount of information, you’re only able to hear the certain amount of information, you’re not allowed to go out of the outside, out of the circle, and if you go outside of the circle, then you are not in the circle. So eventually, you brainwash yourself to believing certain things that are not true. When I was arrested and had some time to reflect and really understand what was going on, I started realizing, looking back and thinking back to moments in time of where I started thinking myself that this can’t be true and we were doing something wrong.

Well, thank you for telling the truth and helping America to end this nightmare. I yield back to you Mr. Chairman.

Chair now recognizes the Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jim Jordan.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. The ranking member just said that, quote, “Joe Biden was opposed to corruption.” Really? So opposed he leveraged a billion dollars of American tax money to fire the prosecutor in Ukraine who was investigating Zolachevsky at Burisma, the company Hunter Biden sat on the board of? Wow. And the prosecutor who replaced Shokin, that Mr. Parnas referenced in his opening statement, Mr. Lutsenko, guess what he did? He took Zolachevsky off the wanted list and dropped the charges. Wow. He’s really, really opposed to corruption there. Mr. Bobulinski who’s the big guy?

Joe Biden.

Are you sure about that? Because when…

Joe Biden.

You’re sure?

I’m a thousand percent sure.

Because when Hunter Biden did his deposition under oath, he said, “I don’t know who it is,” Even though he was copied on an email that said H will hold 10% for the big guy. You sure the big guy is Joe Biden?

A thousand percent. And there’s other text messages that back that up that the brave whistleblowers, Shapley and Ziegler have produced. Not from my phones, not from my BlackBerry that I took screenshots from, they took them from subpoenas directly from Apple’s iCloud that back up the fact that Hunter knew the big guy was Joe Biden, as did everyone.

The guy is the brand, the big guy is the lift, the big guy is the one who showed up at golf outings, who took phone calls and meetings and lunches and dinners with Hunter Biden and his business associates. Is that right?

Correct.

Mr. Galanis, you referenced in your opening statement, May 4th, 2014, you were at a party at a restaurant in Brooklyn, New York. Can you tell me who else was there?

Yeah, it was a birthday party, so there were more than a hundred people there, but amongst them was Devon Archer, myself, the host, Alex Kloarski, Yelena Baturina, her husband, and then Hunter Biden joined after I arrived.

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?

As I testified in my opening statement, it was Yelena Baturina, her husband, myself, Hunter initiating it, Joe Biden on the speakerphone and Devon Archer.

So there was a little pull aside where that group of people you just described were pulled aside and Hunter Biden called his fathers or called the vice president. Is that accurate?

That’s accurate.

And then tell me what was discussed on the call.

Discussion I testified was it was a relatively short discussion, but it was a discussion about their galena and Yuri coming to town, as I testified specifically, they talked about being good to his boy and it was ended…

Well let ask you this. Let me ask you this. Mr Galanis, let me ask you this. Did you get the impression Joe Biden was expecting the call?

Yes, to me it was clearly set up ahead of time. It was an arranged call.

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. Is that accurate?

That’s accurate, yes.

And again, can you tell the committee who Ms. Baturina is again?

A Russian billionaire, wife of the former mayor of Moscow served for near 20 years as the mayor and…

She’s the wealthiest woman in Russia. She’d already given money to Hunter Biden and his business before this meeting in May, and then subsequent to that meeting, she committed to give more money. Is that accurate?

That’s accurate.

So subsequent to the coordinated call, the arranged call that Hunter Biden had with the vice president of the United States, the wealthiest woman in Russia commits to give millions of dollars more to Hunter Biden’s business. Is that all accurate?

That is accurate, yes.

And again, this was a pull aside done at this meeting and you know that it was coordinated. Is this what they call access to the brand, access to the Biden lift? Is that what you would describe it as, Mr Galanis?

I don’t think there’s any doubt that that was the intent of the call and the objective. Yes.

And it followed the motto, it followed the statement that you all agreed to, say it, forget it, write it, regret it. This wasn’t put in writing, this was a phone call on a speaker that was… There’s no writing about this. It was all done that way. That was how the business operated. Is that correct Mr. Galanis?

Yes.

I yield back.

The gentleman yields back chair now recognizes Mr. Lynch from Massachusetts for five minutes.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. I want to make an observation here. I’ve been on this investigating committee for over 20 years and as an attorney, before that I’ve had sufficient training and experience to say that with high confidence that when you review the entire record of evidence of these hearings going back over a year, you’ve actually provided more evidence to impeach Donald Trump for a third time than you have in so much as laying a glove on President Biden. We keep on hearing about the Biden family. When you hear someone say the Biden family, that translates into, “We have no evidence on the President, so we’re going to use the Biden family to try to implicate President Biden.” But by the constant bumbling and continually shifting arguments here, you’ve done nothing more than exonerate President Biden. We heard, initially, for months we heard about the Hunter Biden laptop and there were absolutely some embarrassing photos on that and some awful information about Hunter Biden’s personal life. I will admit that. Then you bring in your own witnesses, your legal experts before this committee and have them testify and what they said was amazing.

(01:15:57)
They said there was no evidence to even suggest that there was support for articles of impeachment against the president. That was your legal experts, the Republican legal experts that said that. Then we have statements by Mr. Jordan saying that that Mr. Smirnov was the most corroborating witness that the Republicans had, the strongest witness that they had. And of course, after that, we find out through the Trump-appointed prosecutor that all of the information that Mr. Smirnov had provided was fabricated, false and submitted by the inducement of Russian agents going after President Biden and trying to undermine our democratic system. And now we come to a point where, since that witness blew up, now we are going to prison and we’re reaching out to witnesses who have been convicted and sentenced to prison for stealing $80 million from the pensions of innocent workers. We can’t get any lower at this point. That’s your star witness. I want to remind people, he’s sitting in prison, that’s why he can’t be here today. He’s sitting in prison for scamming workers’ pensions.

(01:17:46)
I mean, how low can you get? It’s the Republican’s idea that this is the best guy they can get to testify against the president. This is the best guy they can get, a guy sitting in prison who can’t even be here. Mr Parnas, you’ve talked about your own direct involvement with Mr. Giuliani and you said that your mission was to dig up dirt on President Biden. Can you talk to us about the coordination between yourself and Mr. Giuliani? Thank you for being here.

Thank you, Congressman. So basically it was a shadow diplomacy run by Trump and Giuliani where Giuliani was the shadow diplomacy Secretary of State. I was his right hand and basically the point person in Ukraine to not only dig up, validate, search, whatever needed to be done, to try to find up some corruption against Joe or Hunter Biden to be able to present. Once I would receive whatever information I received, I would then meet with him, John Solomon, other members of the team like Pete Sessions and Derek Harvey or other people there to discuss what we found. At that point, from there, Giuliani would then go to the White House and share with the president, and that was the line of communication.

You said also in your testimony that members of this committee, Republican leadership, should have known, should have known before Smirnov was indicted that this information was fabricated about President Biden. Could you talk about that?

Congressman Lynch, not that they should have known, they did know. They knew exactly what was going on. They knew that the evidence was not vetted. This information was just coming in from anywhere from left to right field and it was being pushed straight to the halls of Congress without zero verification of it.

Okay, thank you. Mr Chairman, my time has expired and I yield back.

Gentleman’s time’s expired. Before I recognize Mr. Palmer, I’d like to enter into the record the testimony of Tony Bobulinski with the committee on February 13th, 2024. It corrects the record of Representative Garcia’s who did not provide your entire testimony. On page 147, you told the committee about your understanding of who invited you to the events referenced by Mr. Garcia. So without objection, I’d like to enter into the record the entire transcribed interview of Tony Bobulinski.

And Mr. Chairman, I’d like to enter for the record an article from today’s Daily Beast entitled, “Texts Reveal More Russia Ties for Key Anti-Biden Witness, Bobulinski.”

Okay, Daily Beast. Without objection. Chair now recognizes Mr. Palmer from Alabama for five minutes.

Mr Bobulinski, I have very limited time and I want to get through a lot of information, so please answer these questions with a yes or no, if you don’t mind. You have met Joe Biden, isn’t that correct?

Correct.

In fact, you had a meeting with Joe Biden, isn’t that correct?

Two of them.

One of those times was before the Milken Conference in Los Angeles, May of 2017. Is that correct?

It was during the Milken conference.

You provided a great deal of documentation to this committee. I want to show you some messages between you and Hunter Biden, it’ll be on the screen here in May of 2017 before you first had a meeting with Joe Biden. These are messages between you and Hunter Biden dated May 2nd, 2017. Do you recognize these?

I do.

At the bottom, Hunter wrote, “Dad not in now until 11. Lets me and Jim meet at 10 at Beverly Hilton where he’s staying.” Jim is James Biden, president Biden’s brother. Is that correct?

Correct.

The next set of messages is, if you put those on screen, it’s between another business associate of Hunter Biden’s and you. His name is James. Do you recognize it?

I do.

At the top you write, “About to meet Hunter Jim and I guess Joe at Beverly Hilton Hotel.” Joe is now President Joe Biden, is that correct?

Correct.

This chat between you and Jim Biden, Joe Biden’s brother, you write to Jim, “Great to meet you and spend some time together. Please thank Joe for this time. It was great to talk. Thanks, Tony B.” You met with Joe Biden, Hunter Biden and Jim Biden the night before the Milken conference in 2017, is that correct?

I did, and Jim Biden perjured himself by trying to deny that meeting.

Thank you, Mr. Bobulinski. That was at the Beverly Hilton, correct?

Correct.

You can provide more details around that meeting. What was the purpose of that meeting?

I didn’t ask for the meeting, so I wish Hunter Biden was sitting next to me and he could under oath describe it, but the only reason why 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, CFC.

So can you give me a little more detail about what was discussed in the meeting?

Well, as I said earlier, before Joe Biden showed up, Hunter and Jim Biden coached me, asked, set a sort of outline that we wouldn’t go into a lot of details. So through the 45 to 60 minute meeting I had with Joe Biden, I think it was about 10:40 PM after he flew across country, we talked about my background, my family’s military background, the different business ventures I’d done around the world, the family I worked with. Joe spent time talking about his family, some of the tragedies that they had lived through and 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 10 minutes. I need to read my father in on it.”

So when you’re referencing Joe and Hunter’s father, you’re referencing President Joe Biden.

I am.

These four images… Well, in this message you sent to James again, you said, “You spent more time with Joe and Jim this morning,” And to be factually correct, that’s President Joe Biden and James Biden, his brother. “Also saw them last night including Hunter.” These four images show a pretty clear record of your meeting with Joe Biden in May of 2017, Mr. Bobulinski. Hunter Biden, during his transcribed interview, testified that the meeting did in fact take place, and after being asked, did Mr. Bobulinski meet with your father during the trip, Hunter stated he met with him in the lobby of the hotel. When asked who attended the meeting, Hunter replied, “My uncle and myself.” But when asked whether the meeting at the Beverly Hilton between Joe Biden, Jim Biden, Hunter Biden, and Tony Bobulinski took place, Jim Biden testified, “Absolutely not.” These stories don’t match up. Mr. Chairman, Jim Biden also told the committee that Joe Biden did not meet the Chinese businessman, Yixing Ming. Rob Walker, known as a friendly witness committee, said the opposite.

(01:24:32)
So Mr. Chairman, it appears to me that there are material inconsistencies between the witness’s testimony. These witnesses statements appear to me to be irreconcilable. In short, Mr. Chairman, someone appears to be lying to the committee. The inconsistent testimony seems to come from Jim Biden, the president’s brother. Lying to Congress is a serious offense, Mr. Chairman, a criminal one in fact, and if the Bidens or anyone else has come before this committee and lied to this committee, I strongly encourage the committee to pursue criminal referrals to the Department of Justice. One last thing that I want to ask. Mr. Bobulinski or Mr. Galanis, have either of you heard of any offer of a pardon for anyone involved or associated with or a partner to the Biden Family Enterprise corruption investigation?

I’m sorry, was the question…

Have you heard of anyone being suggested that a pardon might be in order for anyone associated with this enterprise?

I have not.

Thank you Mr. Bobulinski. Thank you Mr. Chairman. Yield back.

Mr. Chairman, I just have a parliamentary inquiry. We’ve heard for months now and seen that the photo of that Blackberry with the cracked screen, does the committee have in its possession the data for Mr. Bobulinski’s phone from which he’s allegedly taken these pictures? Because I think we need the data that they keep referring to, and maybe Mr. Bobulinski could just turn it over to us or we could subpoena it today.

We have the images that we have shared with you.

Right. I saw the picture of the cracked Blackberry, but do we have the underlying texts that are being referred to by my friend, Mr. Palmer?

Bobulinski previously said he’d be happy to turn over his phone.

We have pictures of all the text message and screenshots that we’ve provided with everyone on the committee.

Okay. All right. Well of course he’s just given us obviously the ones he’s selected. I’m wondering whether we could get all of those texts and I would move to the committee’s subpoena Bobulinski’s Blackberry phone on which messages with Hunter Biden and the O’Nada Holdings partners are saved. He stated that he’s willing to provide it to the committee, so it should be rather simple.

Mr. Chairman? Second. I have a motion.

Yeah. Okay. There’s a motion to subpoena Bobulinski’s Blackberry.

Yeah, with the texts that were just referenced by Mr. Palmer.

Chair recognizes Mr. Jordan.

I move the table in motion.

There’s a motion to table. The motion to table is not debatable. As many are in favor of tabling may signify by saying aye. All those opposed signify by saying, no.

No.

In the opinion of the chair, the aye’s have it and the motion to table is agreed to.

Mr. Chairman, what we’re doing is we’re tabling evidence here, which you keep relying on, so I’m going to ask for recorded vote for that. That just makes no sense.

A recorded vote is ordered.

We’ll suspend for a moment.

We’ll suspend for a moment. This is a committee hearing. We don’t have the clerk. Will somebody go find the clerk?

He said it. Did he say under oath in the…

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Chairman, Mr. minority leader. Do you think it’s possible that the witness would voluntarily just give it?

But I had understood actually that Mr. Bobulinski had volunteered when he was asked about this, it would simplify things if he would just turn over the Blackberry.

Well, he did very clearly say he’s happy to turn over his blackberry to the committee. We then asked for it at the deposition. We’ve asked the majority to ask…

Mr. Goldman, you’re out of order. We’re in suspension here waiting for the clerk to come so we can take the vote that your side of the aisle requested.

You can’t make this stuff up.

You can’t.

This is Jurassic Park. Jeez.

Mr Ranking member. Mr Ranking member.

Yes.

I solely Want to underscore the importance of this.

I’m sorry, gentlelady’s out of order. You can come back here and talk to him if you want.

Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman.

Yes.

We don’t even have…

I said Ms. Ocasio-Cortez would have to come up. You will as well. Sorry.

Mr. Chairman. Just an invitation to regular order. We have democratic clerks who are faithful to the rule of law and could do this if you’re waiting for clerks and we’ll all be here to document their work. In other words, if you want to conduct the vote with the Democratic clerks, we can do it.

A recorded vote is ordered. The clerk will call the roll.

Mr. Jordan?

Yes.

Mr. Jordan votes yes. Mr. Turner? Mr. Gosar? Ms. Fox? Mr. Growthman.

Yes.

Mr. Growthman votes yes. Mr. Cloud.

Yes.

Mr. cloud votes yes. Mr. Palmer.

Aye.

Mr. Palmer votes aye. Mr. Higgins.

Yes.

Mr. Higgins votes yes. Mr. Sessions.

Aye.

Mr. sessions votes aye. Mr. Biggs.

Aye.

Mr. Biggs votes aye. Ms. Mace.

Aye.

Ms. Mace votes Aye. Mr. La Turner.

Aye.

Mr. La Turner votes aye. Mr. Fallon. Mr. Donalds.

Yes.

Mr Donalds votes yes. Mr. Perry. Mr. Timmons.

Aye.

Timmons votes aye. Mr. Burchett. Ms. Green.

Aye.

Ms. Green votes aye. Ms. McLean.

Aye.

Ms. McLean votes aye. Ms. Boebert. Mr. Frye.

Aye.

Mr. Frye votes Aye. Ms. Luna. Mr. Langworthy

Aye.

Mr. Langworthy votes aye. Mr. Burleson. Mr. Waltz.

Aye.

Mr. Waltz votes aye. Mr. Raskin.

No.

Mr. Raskin votes No. Ms. Norton. Mr. Lynch.

No.

Mr. Lynch votes No. Mr. Connolly

Nay.

Mr. Connolly votes nay. Mr. Krishna Mothy.

No.

Mr. Krishna Mothy votes no. Mr. Kana. Mr. Mfume.

No.

Mr. Mfume votes no. Ms. Ocasio-Cortez.

Nay.

Ms. Ocasio-Cortez votes nay. Ms. Porter. Ms. Bush. Ms. Brown. Ms. Stansbury. Mr. Garcia.

No.

Mr. Garcia votes no. Mr. Frost. Ms. Lee.

No.

Ms. Lee votes no. Mr. Kassar.

No.

Mr. Kassar votes no. Ms. Crockett.

No.

Ms. Crockett votes no. Mr. Goldman.

No.

Mr. Goldman votes no. Mr. Moskowitz.

No.

Moskowitz votes no. Ms. Tlaib.

No.

Ms. Tlaib votes no. Ms. Presley.

No.

Ms. Presley votes no. Mr. Chairman.

I vote yes, and how is Mr. Burleson recorded.

Mr. Chairman votes yes. Mr. Burleson is not recorded.

Yes.

Mr. Burleson votes yes.

How is Ms. Bobert recorded?

Ms. Bobert is not recorded.

Aye.

Ms. Bobert votes aye.

How is Mr. Turner recorded?

Mr. Turner is not recorded.

Aye.

Mr. Turner votes aye.

How is Mr. Frost recorded?

Mr. Frost is not recorded.

No.

Mr. Frost votes no.

How is Mr. Fallon recorded?

Mr. Fallon is not recorded.

Aye. Yes.

Mr. Fallon votes aye.

How’s Ms. Porter recorded?

Ms. Porter is not recorded.

No

Ms. Porter votes no.

Will the clerk tally the report?

So who’s next? Who do I recognize? We just finished.

Mr. Chairman, on this vote, the ayes are 21, the nays are 16.

The ayes have it. The motion passes. Chair now recognizes Mr. Connolly for five minutes.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. Mr. Bobulinski, in your deposition, you were asked about taking a picture of your phone and you said, and I quote, “I still have that phone. I could put that phone on this table right here. And every person in this room could look at that individual text and validate that it’s a legitimate text and the date and time stamp on it.” Are you willing to provide the committee voluntarily with the BlackBerry referenced and that phone?

I’m willing to sit in a room with both the chairman and the ranking member with my phone and their staff, and we can go through each and every text message. As I said in my interview, I had a forensics expert plug into my BlackBerry, somebody who’s done extensive work for the FBI for over 10 years with an interest of pulling all the data off that phone so I could provide it to the committee. Unfortunately, they were using Selbright software, which is the software that the FBI uses, and they were unable to pull the data off the phone. So I am more than willing to sit in the room with Mr. Chairman and the ranking member and their staff with that BlackBerry fully charged, and we can go through each and every message if that’s helpful.

Well, that’s some progress and I appreciate that, but you can understand, I’m sure, why the committee wants to look at prima facie evidence on its own.

Well, I can’t understand why you’re trying to imply that I didn’t cooperating.

Mr. Bobulinski, this is my time. You can understand why we would want to look at evidence raw and unvarnished so that we can make our own determination. But thank you for your willingness to cooperate, at least at that level. Mr. Parnas, you observed, back in 2023, in a letter you sent to Chairman Comer that there were flagrant examples of Giuliani interfering in Ukrainian politics, unquote. Why would Giuliani be interfering in another country’s politics?

I mean, Giuliani would do and say whatever he needed for the purpose of getting the information he wanted to secure Donald Trump’s 2020 election. So just a prime example of one of the things he did, he had a close relationship with then a boxer, Vladimir Klitschko, who was then the mayor in Ukraine. When the new president came over, there was rumors about maybe him not staying in office as mayor of Ukraine. Klitschko flew to New York, met with Rudy Giuliani, and then on the meeting that we had with Andrei Yermak in Spain that was relevant, had to do with President Zelensky announcing the investigation into Joe and Hunter Biden. At that meeting, he also brought up the Klitschko situation and basically told Yermak that if Zelensky got rid of Klitschko, president Trump and the American people would be very upset about that because we love him and he needs to be in there.

So was Giuliani just doing this as a rogue on his own because he was a patriotic American who loved Donald Trump, or had somebody encouraged him to engage in this kind of political interference in another country?

I think he was encouraged by Donald Trump.

Personally?

Personally, yes.

That’s your testimony?

Yes, sir.

Thank you. In your letter, you also said that Mr. Giuliani was to, “Deliver a precise message in very strict words,” With respect to the administration of the then newly installed president of Ukraine, president Zelensky. What did you understand a very strict message or a message of very strict words construed, and what was that message that you delivered that was in very strict words?

Yes, Congressman. He basically told me not to be nice, to be very stern and relay the message that unless Zelensky announced an investigation into the Bidens by Monday, this was Sunday, that there would be no cooperation, no aid to Ukraine from the United States, and Vice President Pence at the time, that was scheduled to appear for the inauguration, would not appear to the inauguration.

That would seem to corroborate that very famous and beautiful telephone conversation between President Trump then and President Zelensky basically saying, “But I need a favor,” And stating that there’d be withholding of military aid until that favor was delivered. Is that fair?

Oh, absolutely. I was a part of setting

… setting up that phone call, that famous phone call that Trump had with Zelensky.

Hmm. I think your testimony is very important, Mr. Parnas, and it’s under oath.

Yes sir.

I thank you. I yield back.

Chair now recognizes Ms. Taylor Greene from Georgia for five minutes.

Thank you. Mr. Chairman. 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. I want to talk about CEFC, which is the China Energy Fund Committee. Mr. Bobulinski, who is Chairman Ye?

Chairman Ye was the chairman of CEFC.

Thank you. Jim Biden told the FBI and IRS that Chairman Ye was the protege 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?

I am now. I wasn’t at the time.

And Joe Biden also met with you, is that right?

Yes, he did. Twice.

Who is Director Zhang?

Director Zhang was the number two at CEFC.

The executive director of CEFC. The number two?

Yeah, he was the number two executive, but really the point person that I worked with and the Biden family work with, and he’s the individual that Hunter Biden was shaking down at the end of July 2017 demanding that they fund the $10 million. They ultimately sent five but $10 million directly to Hunter Biden’s account, Owasco.

Thank you Mr. Bobulinski. I wanted to show you a text message that Hunter Biden sent to you and his other business associates. I’m holding it right here. I’ll read it to you. “Hey Tony, I have an idea. In light of the fact we are at an impasse of sorts in both James lawyers and my chairman gave an emphatic no, I think we should all meet in Romania.” He’s speaking about my chairman. When Hunter Biden came in for his deposition, he said that he was referring to Chairman Ye and that the rest of your group referred to Zhang as a different chairman. Does this make any sense to you?

That’s a lie. I never heard Director Zhang reference as chairman and I had direct communications with Director Zhang over WeChat, met him in Romania, met him in Moscow, met him around the world, in New York, trying to develop this business and he was never referred to as the chairman first of all. Second of all, that makes absolutely no in the context of this message because we are discussing Oneida Holdings LLC. And the Chinese-

Thank you. So he was not the chairman, just to clarify, yes or no?

Correct.

Okay. So I want to show you another text. When he said his chairman, he was talking about his dad. This is from Rob Walker. It didn’t seem to make much sense to Rob Walker either. So he said that when Hunter… He said this to you. When Hunter was talking about his chairman, he was talking about his dad. When Rob Walker came in to give his transcribed interview to the committee, he basically said, “Well, Hunter was high or confused or mad.” And Rob Walker said that he was just trying to calm things down between you and Hunter. But that doesn’t really answer the question about who Hunter Biden is talking about. Hunter Biden lied to this committee.

(01:45:49)
So here clearly he says Rob Walker saying he is talking about his dad. So I want to be very clear, we’ve established that Zeng is not the chairman obviously. Is that correct? Yes or no?

Correct.

Let me show you another message. This message doesn’t call Zeng Chairman Zeng, does it. Just says the Chinese want to do business with the Bidens. As a matter of fact, it says both coming to be my partner to be partners with the Bidens with an S. He, Zeng, is implied, has implied that the number one has made it clear and available to him. Who is the number one?

The number one is Xi Jinping.

Xi Jinping, the president of China, yes or no? The leader of the Communist Party, the CCP, is the number one.

Yes. That’s the number one that Hunter was referencing in that message.

Now let’s be very clear, this was in 2017, but I would like to make it known for this committee that Joe Biden told the press in 2016. As a matter of fact, I quote, “Yeah, I am. I am going to run in 2020.” He told the press in 2016 that he was running for President of the United States in 2020. So here is the Bidens doing business in China in 2017 when everybody knew he was planning to be President of the United States. Do you see that to be a serious problem, Mr. Bobulinski.

I do. And I wish this committee would thoroughly investigate it and focus on all the evidence that the SDNY has on CEFC. They had FISA warrants, so they were recording conversations and I wish they disclosed all that data and fact to this committee.

Thank you, Mr. Bobulinski. I yield Mr. Chairman.

The Gentlelady yields back. Chair now recognize Mr. Krishnamoorthi for five minutes.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Parnas, Rudy Giuliani tasked you with quote, “A mission to travel the globe to find dirt to damage the Biden’s reputation in the 2018 timeframe.” Right?

Correct. Yes.

And this was in an effort to secure re-election as president in 2020, right?

Correct. Yes.

And by dirt you mean evidence of wrongdoing or criminality, right?

Yes sir.

And in your travels you found quote, “Precisely zero proof of the Biden’s criminality.” Right?

Correct.

And there was no evidence of the Biden’s corruption in Ukraine because as you said, there truly was none, right?

Correct. Yes sir.

Now, interestingly, you have looked for dirt around the world about the Biden’s and specifically Joe Biden in particular, and you say, “The FBI CIA NSA have all failed to produce any evidence of criminal wrongdoing.” Right?

Correct.

Not only that, but former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko stated, quote, “There’s not a single word of truth to these allegations about Joe Biden.” Right?

Absolutely. Yes sir.

Now there’s a guy named Yuriy Lutsenko, who’s the former prosecutor general of Ukraine, and he also, confirmed that nothing ties the Bidens to criminal activity in Ukraine, right?

Correct.

And then there’s another prosecutor general named Viktor Shokin who also said he conceded quote, “That he had no evidence that either Joe or Hunter Biden had ever interfered with Ukrainian law.” Right?

Yes, sir.

And the reason you know this is because you talked to each of these people, right?

Yes, sir.

And your job was to try to dig up dirt or manufacture dirt, right?

Yes, sir.

And yet we have conducted months of hearings and because there’s been no evidence of wrongdoing, you’ve called this whole impeachment inquiry a, quote, “Wild goose chase.” Right?

Yes, sir.

Now, interestingly, we’ve heard from the other side that, quote, “The real quid pro quo wasn’t Donald Trump, it was Joe Biden when he tried to hold up foreign aid when he was vice president in exchange for firing the federal prosecutor in Ukraine that was investigating the corruption from his son.” Now you again looked for evidence to support this claim. There is no evidence, correct?

Correct. That was false.

In fact, firing the prosecutor would make it more likely that they would go after the company and question, Burisma, not less, right?

Well, the ironic part is the reason why majority of the world and Ukraine and the Obama administration wanted to get rid of Victor Shokin because he was corrupt. Not because he was investigating Burisma. Because he was stalling investigations for UK that was looking into a $23 million they wanted to get out from Zlochevsky, and Shokin stalled that investigation.

So, the logic is just the opposite of what the majority’s claims is to be the case, namely that they say that somehow Joe Biden was out to fire the prosecutor to reduce the chances of a prosecution of Burisma, but actually in firing that prosecutor, he increased the chances in prosecuting Burisma, right?

Absolutely correct, yes.

So let me just talk to you about what some of the other witnesses in this impeachment inquiry have said. Jonathan Turley, the constitutional expert the Republicans brought forward, said, “There’s no evidence of which he was aware to support impeaching the president.” You agree with that? Correct?

100%.

Garrett Graves, a colleague of ours said just last week, “Have I seen anything that is impeachable? No, I haven’t.” You agree with that statement as well?

Yes sir.

Last year, our Republican colleague, Ken Buck, who’s about to retire, said that evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden, quote, “Doesn’t exist right now. It doesn’t exist now. It didn’t exist then.” Right?

That’s exactly true, sir.

Sir, how many times have you met Donald Trump?

Well, over 10 times I’d say. I’d have to count, but lots of times.

Is there anything that you’d like to relate to us about your conversations with Donald Trump that would bear on the conduct of these proceedings?

I mean, Donald Trump was aware of everything that was going on. On that day in the Red Room when we were in the White House, after Rudy bringing Donald Trump up to speed on that I could go out to Ukraine and get Viktor Shokin. Donald Trump approached me, shook my head, said, “Thank you for all that you’re doing, keep up the good work.” Patted me on the back, took pictures and I was off to Ukraine.

To meet with Viktor Shokin?

To find Viktor Shokin to bring him back here to meet with Lindsey Graham.

Got it. Thank you so much. I yield back.

Thank you.

Chair now recognizes Mr. Cloud from Texas for five minutes.

Thank you, Chairman. And we have heard time after time, Joe Biden say that he had no knowledge whatsoever about the business dealings, and that changed. He had never allegedly had any conversation with Hunter. Then they moved the ball to say that, well, he didn’t have any business dealings, he wasn’t involved, didn’t have any financial contribution. Since then, we’ve uncovered about 20 shell companies and we have bank records that bring light to that. And while we can’t cover all 20 shell companies in five minutes, I wanted to focus on one. And that is Rosemont Seneca-Bohai. Rosemont Seneca-Bohai is interesting. And Devin Archer had testified, and he said this in his testimony, he said that this entity, quote, “Was used as a common entity, owned 50-50 on a handshake deal between Devin and Hunter splitting these shares.” Actually, that was your words, Mr. Galanis. Do you stand by those words?

(01:53:43)
Yes, I do.

And Devin Archer agreed with that. He said Hunter was a corporate secretary of RSB and had a handshake 50-50 ownership deal. Is that correct?

That’s correct, yes.

And primarily, this company was set up to initially as a place to hold equity from equity stake of Bohai Harvest, is that correct?

What I was told by the partners at the time, it was set up to do that and invest in other businesses. I think Devin Archer subsequently testified to that effect, and it included monies that were paid from the bond fraud, $15 million that was wired to that RSB account as well. So it conducted multiple transactions as you depicted in that diagram.

And even if this were legal and there was no impropriety here, it is very concerning because this company’s set up to basically compete against America’s energy interest at the behest of CCP. Then we have other flows into Rosemont SenecaBohai from Burisma. We all know about Hunter’s $1 million salary that he received for sitting on the board and providing no actual function there. And so we have 1 million salary going through Rosemont-Seneca to Hunter Biden. And then this is interesting, we have a meeting with Kazakhstani Karakashev, and what gets me here is the $300 at the end of the $142,300 that goes into this. And then the next day went to a Porsche dealership for a car for a Hunter Biden.

(01:55:24)
Now, 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 Biden. And so on December 4th, we have coffee with Jonathan Lee, who was one of the members who started Bohai Harvest, and he was connected with the CCP. They were having trouble getting licensed to work because of course the CCP has to get permission for that, until Hunter flew over on Air Force two with Vice President Joe Biden at the time, they met with Jonathan Lee, Hunter introduced him. Joe ended up writing a letter of recommendation to Jonathan Lee’s daughter to get into college. And then we see that this relationship continues to be formed.

(01:56:18)
Of course, in the Ukraine we know that April 16th, 2015, Joe Biden had dinner with a Burisma official at Café Milano. Seemed to be a popular spot. Because Joe Biden also had dinner with [inaudible 01:56:33] there. All in flow to going here. And of course, as Tony Bobulinski has pointed out several times, this all comes down to eventually the one big guy who gets 10% for the big guy. And so we know that all this money flowed through this to get to Hunter. And then we know of course that 10% went to the big guy. So, Mr. Bobulinski, does this general pattern of Hunter offering foreign access to Joe Biden, Hunter gets paid and then Joe gets a share of that. Is that basically what the general practice across many of these Shell companies work?

Congressman, as I outlined, the big guys, clearly Joe Biden, the details of some of those transactions I was not involved in, but that’s clearly how they operated.

But that’s the thought that we’ve seen over. And, 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? How did you state that?

Yeah, we didn’t rely on him for any work product other than delivering the Biden lift.

The Biden lift. And one more question for you, Mr. Galanis. Did you offer to provide information on Hunter Biden and Devin Archer back in 2016 to prosecutors and the SCC and what happened there?

Yes. Through counsel, I had offered to provide information on specifically on that to the SDNY, and I certainly also did the same thing to the Security and Exchange Commission, which was interested and suddenly was told to quash that interest. I understood that to be an order from the Southern District of New York to quash the SCC information.

Thank you. Chairman, I yield back.

Gentlemen time’s expired. Chair now recognizes Mr. Goldman for five minutes.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I only have five minutes, Mr. Bobulinski, so I’m going to try to move quickly and I’d appreciate if you just answer the questions. You testified that Joe Biden was involved in your business venture related to Oneida Holdings and Hunter Biden. So I want to drill down on the crux of what your testimony is. Oneida Holdings is the business venture that you are referring to, correct?

When I’m referring to what? Can you ask the question-

Any business you did with the Bidens?

My reference is the Sinohawk Holdings LLC and Oneida Holdings LLC own 50% of that.

Right. And Oneida Holdings was the 50% that was on the American side of that Sinohawk deal, right?

It was the 50% that was the Biden side of it. James Gilliar is not an American.

Sorry. Fair enough. And it was a joint partnership memorialized in an incorporating document, correct? And it had equal shares divided among five partners, is that right?

Are you asking me about what you’re holding up? Because-

Were there equal 20% shares among five partners?

In what?

Oneida Holdings.

In the final signed documents?

Yes.

Is that what you’re asking me?

Yes. It is not complicated.

Well, it is because there was-

You’re just filibustering now. The answer is… You’re filibustering. I get it. There were five partners, Hunter Biden, Jim Biden, Rob Walker, James Gilliar, and you. Each owned 20%.

Well, they didn’t each own, their LLCs owned it, which is a material difference.

Do you see Joe Biden or an LLC related to Joe Biden on this?

I don’t know if Joe Biden owned any of Jim Biden’s LLC or Hunter Biden’s LLC. I’ll leave that up to the committee.

And do you know when this agreement was entered into?

The poster board that you’re holding up or the actual legal document that was signed?

The agreement, sir.

The agreement.

The agreement was signed May 22nd 2017. Who was the vice president then?

May 22nd you said? I think it was Mike Pence.

And who was the president?

Donald Trump.

And when did you first meet Hunter Biden?

I first met Hunter Biden in early 2017.

When in 2017?

The day or the hour or a month.

The month is good.

I believe I briefly met him in New York. The first meeting, I had extensive time with him was in early May 2017.

And that was around the same time that you had those two meetings with Joe Biden, right?

It was. But prior to that I had numerous discussions with Hunter. I had lawyers working through the document that you asking.

Sir. Sir, can I please reclaim my time, sir? As I said, we have to move quickly here. Unfortunately, in your testimony earlier today, one of my colleagues asked you about that meeting at the bar 45 minutes to 60 minutes. And you were also asked about that in your transcribed interview. And in neither of your answers, did you mention any discussion that you had at that meeting with Joe Biden about the Chinese business venture. Yet in grandiose terms here today, you have declared that Joe Biden was involved and that you have mountains of irrefutable evidence to support it. So let’s look at the mountains of irrefutable evidence. You provided the committee with a screenshot of a text message that is between James Gilliar and you dated May 11th, 2017. You see this? I don’t know if you can see it. If you can’t see, it’s just you and James Gilliar though, right? You remember this text message, I’m sure.

Generally yes.

All right. And in it Gilliar writes, “Man, you are right. Let’s get the company set up then tell H and family the high stakes and get Joe involved.” And two days later, Mr. Gilliar sent an email to you CC’ing Rob Walker and Hunter Biden, in which he suggested a division of the company and included a proposal of “10% held by H for the big guy?” You remember that right?

The infamous email with the big guy? Yes, I do.

Did anyone ever respond to that email?

Yes, they did. Numerous times. Hunter Biden himself did.

Excuse me. You’re right.

Well, I think that’s important because Hunter Biden has claimed that he didn’t and he responded to it.

You’re just going to filibuster. I reclaim my time that’s running out. But I will say no one responded to the big guy reference for 10.

Thank you for making my point. They didn’t have to respond because they all knew the big guy was Joe Biden.

I reclaim my time, Mr. Chairman. Please control the witness. I would like to get a little extra time, Mr. Chairman, because I want to read what Mr. Gilliar said to the Wall Street Journal. “I would like to clear up any speculation that former vice president was involved with the 2017 discussions about our potential business structure. I am unaware of any involvement at any time of the former vice president. The activity in question never delivered and project revenue. Nine days later, the agreement without Joe Biden was signed.” You and James Gilliar wanted Joe Biden involved, and that is why Hunter Biden dumped you and did the business on his own.

That’s a blatant lie. Mr. Goldman, you know better.

Gentleman’s time’s expired. Chair now recognizes Mr. Higgins from Louisiana for five minutes.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman Mr. Bobulinski, thank you for being here today and we appreciate the candor of your responses, sir, which is reflective of the way you handled yourself and private testimony and deposition. So I thank you for communicating truthfully to the American people today. I’m going to ask you about the China Energy Fund Committee, the CEFC. You familiar with that, sir?

I am.

Is this a multibillion-dollar company, like a Fortune 500 company at one time?

It’s even bigger than that. If you go back and look at its financials in 2016 and ’17, it was probably one of the five largest private companies in China.

So exactly. So this was a major operation that had a lot of money. And apparently, because I’m going to hold up a memo here from. This is a chart from the second bank memo, and this shows disbursement of a total of almost $24 million for diamonds. So you have a major Chinese company spending a lot of money on diamonds, and apparently diamonds were used as a means of payment for the Biden family. We know that the bonds are testified that admitted to having two diamonds. We suspect that there are many, many more, $23 million worth of diamonds. Are you familiar with the exchange of valuable assets to pay the Bidens other than electronic transfers of monies? Are you aware of payments in diamonds, payment in cash, payment in board memberships, etc?

Am I generally aware of it oro was I involved.

Yes sir?

I read Jim Biden’s and Hunter Biden’s transcript multiple times. Jim Biden in that transcript references two diamonds that were given to Hunter Biden. One he implies was in 2015 by an individual who he couldn’t recall his name, but the individual’s name is Scott O, who is a surrogate for CEFC. And then apparently a second diamond was given at a meeting in Miami. And I really want to set the record clear. I was not at that physical meeting. I was in Miami, but I was not at that physical meeting. That’s what I told the FBI in my transcript interview.

Are you aware, Mr. Bobulinski, of a pattern of bribery, of bribe payments coming from the China Energy Fund Committee?

I appreciate that question. I wish everyone on this committee would read the 1200 pages of testimony in an eight-day trial in the SDNY, where Mr. Goldman used to work while the actual trial was going on, that accused numerous executives, ultimately Patrick Ho of corruption, bribing, leaving shoeboxes of cash to a variety of political figures in Africa.

Exactly. So Mr. Bobulinski, from your perch within the Biden family operations and their interactions with major businesses in China, in the exchange of millions of dollars that are known, we track them through bank records, through suspicious activity reports, through emails, through communications that this committee has documented. There’s no debate that millions and millions of dollars flowed into the Biden family’s bank accounts. But the existence of other forms of payment is fascinating because diamonds are untraceable. We really don’t know how many diamonds the Biden’s received, do we?

We don’t. And for somebody who’s been to Mainland China, probably 10 plus times, Hong Kong, probably 15 plus times, hundreds of people… Congressman, I had hundreds of people working for me in Mainland China at one point. I never got a diamond from any businessman or woman.

I hear you. So Mr. Bobulinski, I’ll shift quickly to a text message. Are you familiar with this? It is from a gentleman named James.

Generally, yes.

Yes. Says, “Don’t mention Joe being involved. It’s only when you’re face-to-face. I know you know that. But they are paranoid.” And there’s a response saying, “Okay, they should be paranoid about things.” And then there’s a response saying, “For real.” So what is meant by don’t mention Joe being involved. It’s only when you’re face to face. I know you know that, but they are paranoid.

Well, I think it outlines how the Biden’s operated, not specifically just with CEFC. You have Galanis here testifying and numerous other witnesses that have given you tremendous amount of evidence that outlined they work to obfuscate it, create layers of obstruction. That’s the reason why Rob Walker was getting sent millions of dollars instead of Hunter Biden directly. That’s the reason why Devon Archer was receiving millions of dollars instead of going to Hunter directly. You guys have a mountain of evidence that stacks high and answers that question on how they obfuscated. They lived in a world of plausible deniability.

Thank you, Mr. Bobulinski., Mr. Chairman, my time has expired. I yield.

Chair now recognize Ms. Norton from DC for five minutes.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Galanis, thank you for appearing voluntarily for this hearing from Alabama. I understand you are currently serving a 189-month sentence in federal prison, almost 16 years after being convicted of not one, not two, but three different schemes. The victims of your schemes as the judge who presided over your criminal prosecution noted, included, and here I quote, ” One of the poorest Native American tribes in the country, as well as pension funds held for the benefit of transit workers, longshoremen, housing authority workers and city employees, hard-working people every day, people among others.” The court also noted that you personally benefited from these schemes. And again, I quote, “Using over $8 million, almost 9 million for lavish personal expenditures, including home expenses, automobiles, travel, clothing, jewelry expenses, and meanwhile, investors were left with nothing.” But this is not your only encounter with prosecutors.

(02:11:25)
In another case, the Security and Exchange Commission charged you in 2005 with accounting fraud in connection with your involvement with Penthouse Magazine. And in 2010, you were convicted of attempted tax evasion and were sentenced to five years probation in order to pay nearly $2 million in restitution. In imposing your prison sentence, the judge noted that you are, and here I quote, “An extremely, extremely talented man, extremely gifted in his interpersonal skills, uncommonly so. He is very persuasive as an individual. And those were the tools in his tool bag of the fraud he committed and the people he ensnared, his intelligence, his interpersonal skills, his charm, if you will. And this is something that is not unseen in people who are commonly referred to as con artists.”

(02:12:40)
Another judge who presided over your case, referred to you as, quote, “A skillful con artist.” A skillful con artist. That is who my Republican colleagues are relying on to carry their water in this sham impeachment inquiry after their last star witness, the author of the infamous FBI Form 1023 was indicted for lying and outed as a likely Republican agent. It is time we put an end to this pathetic and desperate inquiry. I yield my remaining time to a Ranking Member Raskin.

Ms. Norton, thank you very much. So for more than a year now, we’ve heard innuendo, rumors, propaganda, big lies, but no facts, no evidence that could reasonably support the finding of impeachable high crimes and misdemeanors against President Biden. In our first real impeachment hearing, the majority invited several expert witnesses who came together and their witnesses agreed with that. That there was nothing that remotely approached the level of proof needed to support a finding of high crimes and misdemeanors that one would impeach a president for. And now we come back again today, and the majority has two witnesses. One, the designated con man as determined by two different federal courts, not without talent, but someone who deploys his talent towards the purposes of exploiting Native American Indian tribes, pensioners and other innocent investors. And then Mr. Bobulinski, who offers a lot of rhetoric and a lot of hot air, but absolutely no facts that could indict the President of the United States for high crimes and misdemeanors, impeachable offenses against the Republic.

(02:14:39)
The kinds of offenses which James Madison said are great attacks on the Republic itself. Great affronts to our Republican form of government. And nobody on their side can even tell us what is the impeachable high crime and misdemeanor, which suggests that they are moving in the direction of criminal referrals. And they should start by looking at their own witnesses. I yield back to you Mr. Chairman.

And I’d like to remind the Ranking Member and Ms. Norton, the witness, Mr. Galanis, was partners with Hunter Biden. That’s why he’s here. We have their partners. You could have invited partners, but you invited this guy.

Yeah, Donald Trump’s partner, Mr. Parnas, who was working with Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani.

Rudy Giuliani’s partner.

Yeah. All right. Chair recognizes, Mr. Grothman.

Yeah, we got a variety of things I’d like to go through. But first, Mr. Lynch complained about Mr. Galanis testifying from prison. So I’d like to ask unanimous consent to enter into the record the Department of Justice’s own press release announcing the sentencing of the Democrats witness Lev Parnas to 20 months in prison for, among other things, making false statements.

Without objection, on Donald Trump’s partner.

Thank you. Now, Mr. Chairman, we had originally hoped that we’d see a few more witnesses here today. They’re not here, but I would like to run

A brief tape because I showed up today hoping I’d be asking these witnesses a little bit more about this tape. I know that there’s some mystery or some people feel it’s still ambiguous as to how this prosecutor was fired in Ukraine, and I wonder if this tape could do a little bit more to shed light on why that prosecutor was fired and why we want Hunter Biden and Mr. Archer here today.

And so I got Ukraine and I remember going over convincing our team or others too convincing us that we should be providing for loan guarantees. And I went over, I guess the 12th, 13th time to Kiev, and I was supposed to announce that there was another billion-dollar loan guarantee, and I had gotten a commitment from Poroshenko and from Yatsenyuk that they would take action against the state prosecutor and they didn’t. They were walking out the press conference, said no. I said, “We’re not going to give you the billion dollars.” They said, “You have no authority. You’re not the president. The president said.” I said, “Call him.” I said, “I’m telling you, you’re not getting the billion dollars.” I said, “You’re not getting the billion. I’m going to be leaving here.” And I think it was, what, six hours? I looked, I said, “We’re leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor’s not fired, you’re not getting the money.” Well, son of a bitch got fired and they put in place someone who-

I just wanted to put that up there because I do eventually want further efforts made to get Hunter Biden or Mr. Archer here because we have Joe Biden himself bragging that he got rid of a prosecutor who would’ve provided his son’s business deals with a little bit more tough going or more observation, I’ll put it that way. Now Mr. Bobulinski in previous interviews with this committee, you said that Joe Biden not only knew about the family’s business dealings, but enabled them and participated in them. You went so far as to say, “It’s clear to me that Joe Biden was the brand sold by the Biden family.” Could you elaborate a little bit why it felt that way again?

Correct. That’s one of the challenging things I’ve had to deal with over the last four years with a focus of just simply telling the truth. The obfuscation around these facts are just beyond insane. So I’ll use a meeting at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington DC that I was not at, but apparently eight to 10 Chinese executives of CEFC were at with Chairman Yi and Director Zhang, Director Zhang, I interacted with extensively. And James Gilliar was in that room. Rob Walker, Hunter Biden was in that room. And my understanding based on Rob Walker’s testimony is that Joe Biden walked into that room, sat down, shook hands with people, and spent five or 10 minutes talking about his family, I guess. I was not in the room.

(02:19:05)
People have tried to obfuscate that meeting like Joe Biden was walking in there to ask about the weather, and Rob Walker said that the Chinese didn’t even know that Joe Biden was the former Vice President of the United States, which is beyond absurd. The power that those 10 Chinese individuals had to go back to mainland China and say that they were in a room with Joe Biden is the value of what they were giving.

Okay. You stated that the Biden family concocted a scheme to give Joe plausible deniability. Could you elaborate on that a little bit?

Well, I would just point to all the different text messages and communications. They call him the Big Guy. I wasn’t involved with Mr. Galanis or Mr. Archer, but they’re giving you numerous data points. There was obfuscation. They didn’t use his name, they used the Big Guy. You weren’t supposed to talk about it.

And you personally met with the vice president?

I did twice.

Okay. And it was obvious. Did he say anything that indicates that you wanted him to help his son, that sort of thing?

Well, he thanked me for helping his son and his brother and asked me to keep an eye on them as I walked him out to his car after he gave his speech on the second meeting of the Milken Conference.

Okay. Just one other follow up, and this is kind of maybe a vague question, but I’d like to know it. One of the things that disturbs me about that is the interaction with the Chinese, or that’s what we’re dealing with today, but obviously other countries as well, that apparently in their own mind the way you deal with the United States is the way you deal with, say, a corrupt city council or something like that. In other words, you give them money and you get what you want. Do you want to comment on that or did you hear any stories about that or did you hear stories that they were surprised how easy it was to buy the US government?

Well, I think-

[inaudible 02:20:55] But answer the question, but please feel free to answer the question.

Yeah, I think CEFC, and there’s tremendous evidence, believed that they were bribing the Biden family and they were doing it via Hunter Biden.

It’s kind of shameful. Thank you.

Very good. Chair now recognize Mr. Khanna for five minutes.

Thank you. Mr. Chairman. Mr. Parnas, can you tell me about your meetings with Dmytry Firtash and why you believe the Trump campaign used his services?

Yes, I was sent to meet with Dmytry Firtash because Dmytry Firtash had resources. He’s an oligarch that was in Vienna waiting to be extradited to the United States, but he was very close with Vladimir Putin, Ukraine and lots of characters in that part of the world. And my objective at the time was to have him help us lean on Mikhail Zlachevsky and get dirt on the Bidens.

And what type of dirt were you trying to get?

We were searching for Hunter’s hard drive that we were told was out there. We were searching for bank records to validate certain bank records that was given to me. Hunter’s personal bank records that was given to me by John Solomon that he said he got from the FBI to certain payments that were going for car purchases. But the objective was to try to find a link from any of the payments that would go into Joe Biden’s account.

And who told you to get this dirt?

Well, who told me? Rudy Giuliani.

Anyone else that you remember?

John Solomon. I mean, everybody that was part of the team, I mean.

Did Bill Barr know that you were involved in getting this dirt?

Absolutely. Bill Barr was notified of our investigation from the day he took office.

Did you ever have a conversation with Bill Barr being lenient towards Dmytry in Bill Barr’s role as Attorney General?

I personally did not, but I was witness to Victoria Toensing and Joe diGenova having a conversation with Bill Barr about Dmytry Firtash.

What did they say to Bill Barr?

Basically they were telling him that the charges were false and that he needs to drop the charges and basically end the case.

And why did they tell him to drop the charges on this Russian oligarch?

Because Dmytry Firtash was going to help us getting dirt on the Bidens or whatever else the Trump campaign needed.

So my understanding is you have the Trump campaign telling you to talk to a Russian oligarch to get dirt on the President of the United States for political reasons, and then someone from the Trump campaign is talking to the Attorney General to drop the charges because this foreign national is helping get dirt on a political candidate.

Absolutely.

Did Bill Barr indicate any willingness to drop the charges?

After a meeting that Victoria Toensing and Joe diGenova had with DOJ, they came back and informed me that we’re going to Vienna because to tell Dmytry Firtash everything’s going to be okay.

Do you know if Bill Barr in any way told you to say that?

I was not privy in that meeting. No.

Do you have any evidence that Bill Barr would have indicated to signal to Dmytry that the charges would be dropped?

Only from conversations from Rudy Giuliani or Victoria Toensing.

And what did they say about what Bill Barr said?

They basically told me that this would be taken care of as long as Firtash played ball, and that’s the message they relayed to me to tell Firtash.

And they said that Bill Barr was conveying that to them directly?

Yes. After meetings, there were several meetings. One, there was a private meeting where Rudy Giuliani went and bumped into actually Bill Barr at the Trump International Hotel, and he used that as a moment to take him aside, speak to him, and then there were certain official meetings through official channels where Victoria Toensing met with him. So yes.

Do you know if anything was done with the charges?

Until this day, Dmytry Firdish is not here.

Do you believe that Bill Barr should be investigated for his conduct in potentially dropping these charges?

I absolutely believe that, but not only that, I believe Bill Barr should be investigated into the coverup and trying to silence me to get the truth out of what really happened in Ukraine.

And explain the coverup and what you believe he should be investigated with your last minute.

My arrest was set up strictly to shut me up, to seal my documents, take away all my information, and turned me into a crazy man that had no way to prove what was going on. But the real story was Bill Barr was trying to save Donald Trump for an impeachment and use me as a scapegoat. What he didn’t realize was Donald Trump was not going to stop and was continue doing what he wanted to do and that’s why it blew up in Bill Barr’s face. He also hired a special counsel at the time, Brady, to look into Ukraine. When we tried to reach out with my attorney too, Special Counsel Brady, he never returned our phone call. Nobody wanted to hear anything I had to say that had to do with Ukraine Donald Trump or Rudy Giuliani.

Mr. Chairman.

We’re with the gentleman.

Yes.

Thank you. I just want to say you have stuck to the facts today. We don’t hear bombast and rhetoric from you, but you’re telling a true story and you’ve conducted yourself with great purpose and great dignity, and I know your son is here with you today, and I hope he and the rest of your family are proud of what you’re doing for America. You’re back.

Thank you.

Chair now recognizes Mr. Donalds from Florida for five minutes.

Thank you, Chairman. It’s been interesting hearing so far. Let’s actually get to the actual paper trail of money flow from the CEFC into the bank account for President Joe Biden. And I want to start with a text message. July 31, WhatsApp text message between Hunter Biden and one Mr. Zhao. Real quick, Mr. Bobulinski, who is Mr. Zhao?

Congressman Donalds, I’d just actually like to spend 20 seconds. If you noticed Congressman Khanna scurried out of here very quickly, and I’m actually disgusted as I sit here that he didn’t address me based on the fact that I’m sitting here in front of the world trying to testify to the truth. In October, 2020, I have messages I’m willing to produce to both the Democrats and the Republicans that Ro Khanna sent to me saying, “You’ve always demonstrated to me that you’re nothing but an honest with the highest integrity individual.” And I was begging for him to go on CNN and tell the world in October, 2020. I have extensive emails with Congressman Ro Khanna in 2021 and 2022 where I begged him and his staff to sit down with me and look at my Blackberry phones that the Democrats are so focused on, to hire forensics experts and go through all of the factual information I had. So the fact that he did not even address me and then scurried out of here is disgusting to me.

All right.

Sorry. Mr. Donalds. I’ll answer your question now.

All right, so we’re going to have to come off of that because now we’re at three minutes 30 seconds. Mr. Chairman, for the record, I want to submit into the record two different WhatsApp text messages. One, July 31 between Hunter Biden and Mr. Zhao of CEFC, which stipulates that Hunter Biden wants to be able to move on and get the contract resolved, get the deal resolved, and that Mr. Zhao response and says, “Yes, the CEFC is willing to cooperate with the family.” On August 31, there’s another exchange this time… August 3rd, excuse me, August 3rd, 2017 between Hunter Biden and Mr. Gongwen Dong. And in this message they’re talking about the stipulations of the arrangement between the Biden family and CEFC. I want to submit both WhatsApp text messages for the record, Mr. Chairman.

Without objection, so ordered.

Okay, now to the money flow, because this is where the rubber meets the road. On August 3rd, they actually stipulate through WhatsApp text messages the exact stipulations of the deal. On August 4th, $100,000 is wired into Owasco P.C. from CEFC infrastructure. Mr. Chairman, I want to submit for the record a portion of the bank statement for the time period August 3rd, 2017 to August 31st, 2017 stipulating $100,000 going from CEFC into the bank account of Hunter Biden through Owasco P.C.

Without objection, so ordered.

On August 8th, four days later, $5 million is then transferred from the Northern International Capital account of $5 million to Hudson West III. Hudson West III is a bank account controlled by Hunter Biden and Mr. Gong Wang, aka Kevin Dong, who is a CEFC associate. That money comes from a Northern International Capital bank account, a bank account that is tied to the CCP. Mr. Chairman, I want to submit for the record the bank statement demonstrating that transfer.

Without objection, so ordered.

Okay, moving on. On August 8th, the same time period, there is a wire transfer of $400, 000 to Owasco P.C. from the Hudson West III bank account. That $400,000, Mr. Chairman, I have the transfer records in the bank accounts from the August time period. I want to submit that for the record.

Without objection, so ordered.

Now here’s where the fun stuff comes in everybody and I got a minute to do it, so we’re going to get this done. On August 14, there is $150,000 that is transferred from Owasco P.C., which is controlled by Hunter Biden, to Lion Hall Group, which is controlled by James Biden. I have the records here, Mr. Chairman, of the $150,000 that has gone to Lion Hall Group from Owasco P.C. I want to submit that for the record.

Without objection, so ordered.

On August 28th and I believe we have a screenshot for everybody in the room, on August 28th, Mr. Chairman, we have the withdrawal ticket from Lion Hall Group that is signed by Sara Biden, who is the wife of Jim Biden for $50,000 to withdraw from Lion Hall Group. I want to submit that withdrawal receipt for the record.

Without objection, so ordered.

On September 3rd, on August 28th actually, Mr. Chairman, we have the deposit reference into Sara Jones Biden’s account on the same day she withdrew it from Lion Hall. I want to submit that.

Without objection, so ordered.

Last document. On September 3rd, 2007 from Sara Biden’s own personal account, there is a check that is written to Joseph Robinette Biden Jr, the President of the United States today, for $40,000 signed loan repayment. A loan repayment by the way that Joe Biden’s own personal accountant, Mr. Eric Schwerin, has no record for. I want to submit that for the record, Mr. Chairman.

Without objection, so ordered.

To the members of the committee, it is clear to the source of this money came from CEFC and that CEFC is a company that is directly linked to the CCP and actually the chairman of the CCP, the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, Chairman Xi Jinping. With that I yield

Very good.

Mr. Chairman, I’ve got a UC request if that’s okay.

Go ahead.

First White House for sale, the staff report of the minority side, which details the CEFC’s business interactions with Donald Trump. They own a $5.5 million unit in Trump World Tower and others. And then the Department of Justice press release announcing the sentencing of Jason Galanis in federal court to a term of 189 months in prison, ordering him to pay restitution of more than $80 million for three criminal fraud conspiracies against a Native American tribe, pension funds and other investors.

Without objection, so ordered. Chair now recognizes Mr. Mfume for five minutes.

Mr. Chairman, thank you. I’m sitting here and imagining what I would be thinking if I were not here, but rather somewhere around the country watching the Congress of the United States and in this case, this committee for 15 months hold these hearings on Hunter Biden and come up with not one impeachable offense in all that time. 15 months, over 10,000 documents and more as you can see today. As a result of that, this is a Do-Nothing Congress and we should be doing the jobs that we were sent here to do, which is not to have investigation hearing after investigation hearing over and over and over again, and then run to our favorite TV outlet to give interviews afterwards. We were sent here to get a job done. Taxpayers are looking at all of us.

(02:33:37)
Meanwhile, Americans, black, white, Asian, Latino, Native American and their families are wondering what the hell is going on. Is this another investigation hearing in this 15 months that has yielded nothing at all? It’s the Do-Nothing Congress. You thought Harry Truman said it in 1948. Anybody can say it today. Look at what we’ve done in 15 months. Virtually nothing. Nothing at all. Senior citizens sit in their homes and watch C-SPAN or some other outlet carry this, some of them sitting in nursing homes, all of them worried about losing their social security. They’re on fixed incomes and they expect the Congress to use its time and its energy to deal with things that affect them directly.

(02:34:26)
Students are defaulting on loans to colleges all over the country and no one wants to talk about that. Healthcare is inadequate in most places in this country, and diseases are ravaging our communities and people assume that at some point the Congress will deal with that. And so whether it’s cancer, cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, diabetes, HIV, stroke, the disparities in the health system say, “Please, please give us a little bit of your time also when you’re not dealing with Hunter Biden and when you can’t prove that he’s done anything wrong.”

(02:35:04)
Crime is out of control, white collar as well as black collar, and assault weapons are still being used every day to shoot and kill innocent children and Americans. And we’re sitting up here talking about something that we’ve talked about for 15 months with no substantial evidence. Can’t get humanitarian aid to Palestine. Can’t get military aid to the Ukraine. Children are looking and wondering what the hell is going on? “Is that what politics are about?” So we are doing a disservice. I know I’m supposed to be asking questions and Mr. Parnas I may have one or two for you, but I am so outraged at a Do-Nothing Congress just pointing the finger, pointing the finger over and over again and people are hurting, looking for real help. Can’t deal with immigration because Donald Trump calls up and kills the immigration bill. And yet people say that’s a major issue. Is it? I haven’t seen the sort of attention that we thought we were putting to that or anything else.

(02:36:09)
And so this particular hearing will probably be followed by another hearing and another hearing and another hearing until this Congress expires in January of next year and we haven’t done a damn thing to move the ball forward except make accusations. Life is too short. Now maybe some of you have a guarantee you’re going to be around forever, but I don’t. I came to this body first in 1987. I worked under Ronald Reagan and the first Bush and Bill Clinton and Donald Trump and now Joe Biden. This congress is not doing anything. It’s not like the previous congresses. Trust me. That’s why people have such a low esteem of those of us who say, “Well, I’m Congressman so-and-so.” People on the street don’t buy that. They don’t see the action. So I’m done. I know I’ve exhausted my time. Mr. Parnas. A couple of quick questions and I’ll let you go. Is it your understanding that Rudy Giuliani worked for an individual identified by the Trump administration as a Russian agent?

Yes.

Do you know what these Russian line actors were trying to do quickly?

Push a conspiracy theory about the Bidens.

Did you know that? Did you warn Rudy Giuliani?

Yes, I did.

And what was his response succinctly?

He told me that, I mean, he agreed with me, but then proceeded to work with these people behind my back.

And these people have been identified as Russian agents?

Yes, sir.

And we’ve got a meeting here of Mr. Giuliani with one of those. I’m disgusted as most people are about this process and the only way we get to a point where we get things done is that we learn to talk to one another across the aisle without having another conspiracy theory after another one, after another one. You don’t buy trust that way. You buy contempt. I yield back.

Chair recognizes Lisa McClain for five minutes.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. I want to start off by saying I think most Americans are taught at a very young age that you are who you surround yourself with. I think, keep that in a premise, as I sat here and listened to everyone talk about how Hunter Biden is just this golden boy. I mean, are we really supposed to believe that Hunter Biden is the golden boy? His associates such as Jason Galanis and Devon Archer are felons convicted of fraud, yet he is the golden child. 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 US government. Hunter Biden sells influence to the US government. The oligarchs pay up. So let’s just take a deeper dive into this Romanian scheme. Mr. Bobulinski, who is Gabriel Popoviciu?

Gabriel Popoviciu is a businessman from Romania. Probably worth hundreds of millions of dollars I’d envision.

Okay. Is it true that Gabriel Popoviciu faced corruption charges in Romania in 2015?

It is.

Thank you. And when you were in Europe with the Bidens to close on that CEFC deal with the Chinese, you separately negotiated with Popoviciu to get a 17th payment. Is that also correct?

I did.

Okay, but Popoviciu did not want to pay him, is that correct?

Correct. You’re talking about a 17th payment that would go to Rob Walker and then Rob Walker would distribute to Hunter Biden?

That is correct. And is it because Hunter Biden had failed in the work? He was engaged by Popoviciu to do, which was to get the corruption charges dismissed by the Romanian authorities, isn’t that correct?

Well, it’s two things that they had failed to do that but also that Joe Biden had left the White House at that point.

Okay, so there’s a dot. So I get 16 payments while Joe Biden’s in the White House.

Correct.

But after Joe Biden leaves the White House, coincidentally the payments stop.

Correct.

Okay. Just want to make sure that we can connect the dots very simply,

But obviously wasn’t a coincidence.

Right. I’m not much for coincidences, which neither other American people. But Mr. Bobulinski what do you think Popoviciu wanted Hunter Biden to do?

I don’t have to think because Gabriel told me personally he expected, and didn’t want the details, he expected Hunter Biden, Rob Walker and James Gilliar to do whatever was necessary to impact his case in Romania.

How do you know that?

Because Gabriel Popoviciu told me that.

From his mouth?

Yes.

Okay. So there’s another dot that we can connect. Would that be a conspiracy theory?

That’s not a conspiracy theory.

Okay, thank you.

I would encourage you to interview Gabriel Popoviciu.

Thank you. Lastly, after claiming he wanted a public hearing, Hunter Biden decided to skip today. Why do you think he skipped the hearing today?

Is that a rhetorical or serious? Well, I don’t think he wanted to sit next to me because obviously I’ve emphatically stated he perjured himself in his transcribed interview with the committee as did his Uncle Jim Biden. And for every fact he claims or wants to say I was high on drugs or obfuscate, I can show a document, a text message, a recording that his cross confirm that he’s lying.

Well, let’s not let the facts get in the way of a good story, right? Here are the facts.

Highly disappointing that he’s not here though.

I would agree. I would agree. Here are the facts. Hunter Biden was engaged by a foreign principal, Gabriel Popoviciu. It is well known that Hunter Biden met with the ambassador to Romania, Hans Klemm, in November of 2015. Hunter Biden was not registered under FARA. He stopped getting paid as soon as his father leaves office until you got Popoviciu to send Hunter Biden one more payment. Seriously, what services was Hunter Biden providing to the Romanian oligarchs for millions of dollars? We’ve yet to hear it. As far as the committee knows, Hunter Biden was never registered under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. If the Department of Justice applied the same standards it did in the Paul Manafort case, Hunter would be in more trouble than he is already in. Mr. Chairman, there are real FARA issues here that we need to continue to look at, and with that, I thank you for being here and I thank you Mr. Chairman.

Absolutely. Thank you. Good job. Chair now recognizes Ms. Ocasio-Cortez from New York.

Thank you Mr. Chair. Mr. Bobulinski, I heard your opening statement, it’s submitted to the record part of our proceedings. I have a quick question. Simple. Is it your testimony today that you personally witnessed President Joe Biden commit a crime?

I believe the fact that he was sitting with me while I was putting together a business deal.

Did you witness the president commit a crime? Is it your testimony today?

Yes.

And what crime have you witnessed?

How much time do I have to go through it?

It is simple. You name the crime. Did you watch him steal something?

Corruption statutes, RICO and conspiracy, FARA.

What is the crime, sir. Specifically?

Wait, you asked me to answer the question. I answered the question. RICO, you’re obviously not familiar with. Corruption statutes.

Excuse me, sir. Excuse me, sir.

FARA.

Excuse me, sir. RICO is not a crime. It is a category. What is the crime?

It’s the category of crimes that you’re then charged under.

You have charges.

A long hundred list of statutes.

You have charges. Sir, please name.

You want me to name the exact statute under RICO?

Yes.

Well, it’s funny, in this committee room, everyone’s not here. There’s over 18-

All right, sir. I reclaim my time.

… Lawyers that went to law school.

I reclaim my time. I reclaim my time.

I’ll leave it up to you guys to define the statute under RICO.

Thank you, sir. I reclaim my time. Clearly what we are seeing here today is a continuation of the 15-month saga of the Republican majority lost in the desert. Impeachment 101. The majority party, or whomever is raising impeachment must accuse the president of a specific high crime or misdemeanor. I would like to submit to the record H.Res.918, the house resolution to open this impeachment inquiry.

Without objection, so ordered.

This resolution does not outline a crime or misdemeanor. It’s not here. Now, when we compare the chairman’s opening from his previous opening, he’s talking about Ukraine and Burisma and all of this. This entire inquiry is based on a blockbuster piece of information that was in a classified stiff room. And inside that room was a document alleging President Biden directly of a $10 million bribery scheme, a $10 million bribery scheme. Extremely serious. What happened? What happened a month ago, Mr. Chairman? That document, the FBI arrested the person who offered those allegations for falsifying his testimony to the FBI. This entire impeachment inquiry is based on an actual provable individual who has lied. Now responsible leadership would withdraw an inquiry based on that. Withdraw it.

(02:46:48)
Instead what we are seeing is that this committee was warned about the falsehoods of these allegations long before that. Warned by Trump’s Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, and yet they proceeded. Anyway, the chairman proceeded. Anyway, this committee was warned by Rudy Giuliani associate right here, Lev Parnas, after that document about the falsehoods of this then held hearings where your own expert witnesses said that there was no grounds for impeachment and you proceeded anyway. And finally, as if none of this was enough, the FBI arrested the individual who was the source of the entire to quote the chairman, “heart of the matter,” to launch this impeachment inquiry and proceeded anyway.

(02:47:36)
At this point, the story is not the fact that the basis of this impeachment inquiry is wrong. The story is why it’s proceeding anyway. Why is this committee proceeding based on false charges? And by the way, no charges I have yet to hear in the chairman’s opening the allegation that they are specifically charging the President of the United States with. I’m hearing about Biden family. I’m hearing about this and that. I am not hearing the specific allegation by this committee. What is it? It’s not here, and that is the problem. The story is when this committee knew that they were working with falsified evidence. That’s the story. And with that, I yield back.

Gentle lady yields back. Chair now recognizes Ms. Mace from South Carolina for five minutes.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. On March 1st, 2024, Joe Biden stated he did not interact with Hunter or Jim Biden Business Associates, Mr. Chairman. I’d like to ask unanimous consent to enter into a record New York Post article. Biden insists he did not interact with his [inaudible 02:48:53].

Without objection, so ordered.

We’re going to go fast here. I have strictly yes or no questions. On that note, the New York Post article, Joe Biden also said, ” Read the record of every single witness.” So I did. I first read Devon Archer’s deposition and he interacted with Joe Biden. Then I read the transcripts of Rob Walker, Eric Schwerin, George Bergès, Kevin Morris, Tony Boblinski, and Jason Galanis. And every single one of them interacted with Joe Biden and that’s just the people we interviewed. Mr. Galanis, my first questions are for you. Did Hunter Biden call Joe Biden with Yelena Baturina on the line on May 4th, 2014? Yes or no?

Yes.

In that call, did Hunter Biden state on this call with Joe Biden that, “Everything is good and we are moving forward?”

Yes, he did.

Okay. On the same call to Joe Biden in the call with saying, “Okay, then you be good to my boy.”

Yes, he said that as well.

Okay. Did Baturina agree to put $20 million into one of Hunter Biden’s business projects days later after this phone call?

Yes.

Okay. Did Hunter Biden ever take a call from Joe Biden while at the Peninsula Bar in New York?

I’m sorry, I didn’t hear that.

Did Hunter Biden ever take a call from Joe Biden while at the Peninsula Bar in New York?

Yes, he did.

During this call, did Hunter Biden update Joe Biden on progress in landing a business partnership with Harvest Fund Management?

Yes.

Okay. Was Harvest a $300 billion Chinese financial services company closely tied to the Chinese Communist Party?

Yes, it was [inaudible 02:50:24].

Okay. Is Hunter Biden involved with Harvest

Hunter Biden involved with Harvest in two ways through BHR, which is the fund that Harvest is the eighth-

Yes or no? Was Hunter Hunter Biden involved with Harvest, yes or no?

Yes.

Okay. As part of the deal-

The extensive emails to that effect.

As part of the deal, did Hunter Biden want the company to reserve a board seat for Joe Biden?

Yes.

Okay. Did Henry Zou, Chinese businessmen, want assurances Joe Biden would join the board, yes or no?

Yes he did.

Okay. Did Hunter Biden-

He expressed that in emails as well.

Okay, thank you.

And conversations.

Did Hunter Biden draft an email stating, “Please also remind Henry Zou of our conversation about a board seat for a certain relation of mine. Devon and I golfed with that relation earlier this week, and we discussed this very idea again, and as always, he remains very, very keen on the opportunity.” Here is a photo of Joe Biden and Devon Archer and Hunter Biden golfing days before the alleged email draft. Do you believe ” certain relation of mine” refers to Joe Biden?

I don’t think there’s any question. It was based on firsthand conversations with Devon Archer who was in that picture and at that golf meeting, yes.

Did you ever meet with Devon Archer where Hunter took calls from his father?

Yes.

Okay. During one of these phone calls, did Hunter Biden tell Joe Biden that he and Henry Zou needed help, “getting across the finish line?”

Yes, that’s correct.

Okay. Mr. Bobulinski, do you recall receiving an email that floated the possibility of giving 10% ownership of Cino Hawk to Joe Biden through Hunter Biden?

Yes.

Okay. My last questions are for both of you very quickly, Mr. Bobulinski and Mr. Galanis, you both stated you were told not to use Joe Biden’s name in communications, correct Mr. Bobulinski?

Correct.

Mr. Galanis?

Yes.

Okay. Did Joe Biden participate in phone conversations and meetings with Hunter Biden, his business associates in foreign interest? Yes or no? Mr. Bobulinski?

He clearly did. He met in place-

Okay. Mr. Galanis, yes or no?

Yes.

Okay. In Hunter Biden’s deposition, he said he did not involve his father in his business. Did Hunter Biden lie under oath, yes or no? Mr. Bobulinski?

Yes.

Mr. Galanis?

If that’s what he said, yes, that would be [inaudible 02:52:25].

Okay. Is Joe Biden lying when he says he did not interact with Hunter Biden, Jim Biden, their business partners or foreign interests, yes or no?

Yes.

Mr. Galanis?

Yes.

All right. In a debate on October 22nd, 2020, Joe Biden denied Hunter Biden made money from China, that Hunter Biden and his business associates and foreign interest including money from Chinese businesses, business partners and or interest, yes or no? Mr. Bobulinski?

I’m sorry. Did the Biden family make money?

Did Hunter Biden receive money from Chinese business interests?

Correct. Yes.

Mr. Galanis? Did Hunter Biden receive money from Chinese business interests? Yes or no?

Yes.

Okay. Thank you.

He has had common interests and yes.

All right.

Yes, [inaudible 02:53:09].

Joe Biden has repeatedly claimed that he was not involved in Hunter Biden, Jim Biden, or any other Biden family business deals. Today our witnesses have proved otherwise. Today we’ve established Joe Biden lied about interacting with Hunter Biden’s business associates. It is my belief Joe Biden is the closer for Hunter Biden, Jim Biden and their business associates in foreign interests. Good luck to the left proving otherwise. Thank you and I yield back.

Gentlelady yields back. Chair now recognizes Ms. Porter from California.

The title of this hearing is Influence Pedaling: Examining Joe Biden’s Abuse of Public Office. Look, the impeachment inquiry is dead. If it was on life support, my colleague Ocasio-Cortez just killed it. There is no allegation of a specific crime. President Biden didn’t do anything wrong. There’s zero evidence of that, and still both Democrats and Republicans and the media treat these hearings like the Super Bowl. But no one ever wins and Americans always lose. So, I’ve got a fresh direction for this hearing. All we have to do is cross off the part after the colon. There, just influence pedaling.

(02:54:31)
We should have a policy discussion about how to stop government officials from using their positions to get money or favors. Now that is a real hearing, one that nearly every American, regardless of party, wants us to hold. We could start by talking about how senior executive branch officials can leave public service, wait just one year, and then legally become lobbyists for big corporations scoring their new employers profitable government contracts and favorable regulations. They can even be paid by the big corporations during that short one year while they are waiting to become lobbyists as a down payment for their future ability to pedal influence. That’s wrong. For the panel of witnesses, by show of hands, as Americans, would our witnesses support extending this one year waiting period to at least two years?

I would.

Okay, so there we go. Republicans, Democrats, even convicted criminals, everybody supports that we should do more to stop influence pedaling. This is the kind of good government reform that Americans of all political stripes support. And I should know. In 2022, I passed that exact reform as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act with a bipartisan majority vote. What happened to that amendment? Why didn’t it become law? The answer is simple. Nearly 500 former members of Congress work for lobbying firms and too many people around here want to follow in their footsteps and so don’t want to make it harder for government officials to become lobbyists.

(02:56:22)
Ultimately democratic leadership under then speaker Nancy Pelosi let the amendment get stripped out of the final bill. When I offered up the amendment again during this Congress, Republican leadership under then speaker Kevin McCarthy never even put the amendment up for a vote. Both parties have let us down on fighting influence pedaling and tackling corruption. But I’m hopeful we can begin a new approach in this very committee.

(02:56:54)
American people, regardless of party, should know that an investigation was conducted into whether Joe Biden did anything wrong. We followed the evidence to where it led, a dead end. So, this impeachment inquiry should end today. And where should we go from here? We should stop partisan attacks on each other and address the real problem, that the American people believe that the rules that prevent corruption are way too weak to stop politicians on both sides of the aisle from influence pedaling. This committee should be working together in a bipartisan way to change the culture of Congress, to crack down on influence peddling and corruption, and just as importantly, to stop the perception of it.

(02:57:37)
Let me give you some facts. I don’t even need a whiteboard for this one. 495 former members of Congress work for lobbying firms. 467 members of Congress take corporate PAC money. 78 members of Congress violated the Stock Act last Congress. Clearly we have our work cut out for us, so let’s start the conversation today on what a bipartisan ethics reform package could look like.

(02:58:09)
Here are the organizations that could have come today as witnesses so we could have had a productive conversation. Oversight staff, do you have your notebooks ready? Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Common Cause, Project on Government Oversight, Public Citizen. With the right witnesses and the commitment to doing what the American people want, this committee can have a real conversation about the problem of influence pedaling, and we can pass legislation to create badly needed ethics guardrails. That would be real work, not a real circus. I yield back.

Before I recognize Mr. Timmons. Ms. Porter, I think you are sincere and I look forward working with you on that legislation.

Thank you very much.

Chairman, can we take a five minute break? I need to go to the bathroom.

Let us get one more and then we’ll do that. Chair recognizes Mr. Timmons for five minutes. Then we’ll take a break because we have votes coming up anyway.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. At our hearing last July, I laid out the scheme that the Biden’s concocted to sell the Biden brand netting almost $30 million for various members of the Biden family. This scheme was repeated with various clients in Kazakhstan, China, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine. I’m going to spend my time on just one instance, Ukraine, specifically involving Burisma, which netted Hunter over $3 million during a three year period.

(02:59:34)
And to clarify the criminal offenses being alleged, for Hunter Biden, it is conspiracy to commit bribery 18 USC, section 201B2 A and C, and for Joe Biden’s conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right 18 USC section 1951B2. And if you want a refresher on those, just look up Senator Menendez and his wife’s indictment. So, let’s start with this. Foreign client has a problem. I’ve got an email here from Vadim Pazarsky, the Secretary of Burisma, and he is advocating that Hunter Biden intervene with high level US officials to facilitate meetings and communications expressing their positive opinion of Zlochevsky, the president of Burisma, to the Ukrainian president chief of Staff Prosecutor General with the ultimate purpose to close down any cases against Zlochevsky in Ukraine.

(03:00:28)
This is dated November 2nd, November 2nd. Now keep in mind, and again, foreign client has a problem. Zlochevsky is being investigated by Viktor Shokin, the Inspector General of Ukraine, and he needs help, the Biden brand. So, here we got bank records galore of Hunter Biden receiving, prior to this email, over $1 million dollars, after this email, $2 million. You’ll find out in a second he really earned his fee. So again, client pays a Biden $3 million. Next. What happens? What happens? This is great.

(03:01:02)
11 days later, 11 days later. We have the US Embassy in Ukraine announcing that Vice President Biden is traveling to Ukraine on December 7th. Oh, interesting. Vice President Biden travels to the country. Here we got a great photo of him touching down. They’re very proud of themselves. So, Vice President Biden leverages US policy to achieve a favorable outcome for the client. We’ve all seen the video. He brags about leveraging US foreign loan guarantees to get the Ukrainian government to fire Viktor Shokin to end the investigation again. We’ve got the email from Podarksy saying that we need to leverage you who have not provided value yet for your million dollars in service, Hunter. He brings in the big guy. Biden leverages US influence, withholds a billion dollars in loan guarantee to fire Shokin.

(03:01:56)
So if that’s not enough, we got the victory lap here. We got an email just a few months later saying, “Whoa, we won in less than a year. You brought us in, so take a victory lap.” So, look, I mean this is straightforward. This is straightforward. Pay to play. It is bribery. Hunter Biden was paid $3 million at the lowest point in his life. He testified in the deposition that he was drug addicted, that he’s never been to Ukraine, yet he’s paid $3 million to get his father to go to solve his client’s problem. That is the scheme. Mr. Bobulinski, does this sound like the scheme that you’ve seen the Biden family do?

I wasn’t involved in Ukraine, but the facts surrounding this are very similar to CFC and Romania.

Thank you for that. So, this is the thing. If Hunter Biden were here, we would be able to ask him some questions, maybe clear this up. But he’s not. He’s not here. And what’s interesting is that just yesterday, Peter Navarro reported to federal prison in Miami for four months for not showing up in front of the January 6th Committee. And I want to point out to everybody that the January 6th Committee was procedurally defective under house rules. It was procedurally defective because the minority leader did not get to appoint members to that committee.

(03:03:16)
The United States House of Representatives Oversight and Accountability Committee is a procedurally perfect committee, and we have authority to subpoena Hunter Biden, and he has to show up. He has to answer these questions and he has to tell the world that his father didn’t leverage US foreign policy so he would get $3 million. This is no different than what Senator Menendez did. And look, the American people are not buying this nonsense y’all are selling. We have to restore. We must restore their faith in our institutions. And we have to stop this ridiculous two-tiered system of justice where the Department of Justice persecutes President Trump and hides Hunter Biden behind every corner. I mean, this is not the United States of America that the American people deserve, and we have to get our country back on track. With that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.

Mr. Chairman, pardon my inquiry. Did the committee subpoena Hunter Biden today?

The chair recognizes pursuant to the previous order and at the request of the minority witness, the chair declares the committee in recess for 10 minutes. Then we’re going to come back in here and then we may have to recess again for votes.

Good job.

We’re all saying the same thing.

For five minutes.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Today’s hearing is another unfortunate attempt by my Republican colleagues to muddy the water in an election year with no proof, no evidence, no wrongdoing at all by President Biden. The American people are tired of this charade. As I said before, my Republican colleagues simply grasp at straws that do not exist. While House Democrats in the Biden Harris administration work to cut costs of prescription drugs, expand student loan forgiveness and mitigate the threat of gun violence, Republican members of Congress continue to chase after Russian disinformation, campaigns from the 2020 election, which have been thoroughly debunked again and again.

(03:18:05)
And as usual in this committee, we know who is in charge. It is the mindless broke bluffer, twice impeached, four times indicted, insurrection initiator, election denying, self-declared dictator on day one and puppet for Putin, the one who wants to terminate the Constitution and defund the FBI, the one who romanticized exchanging of love letters with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, the one who just last week embraced autocrat Orban of Hungary to discuss their diabolical plans to destroy our democracy, the one who proposed a policy to ban Muslims from this country, the one who just this week said, “Any Jewish person who votes for a Democrat hates their religion and Israel,” the one who called neo-Nazis carrying tiki torches chanting, “Jews will not replace us good people,” the one who referred to African nations, as I quote, “shithole countries.”

(03:19:08)
The one who called NFL players, the majority whom are Black, sons of bitches for taking a knee in protest of the ever present racial inequality and police brutality that continues to pervade our justice system, the one who called Mexicans rapists and promised to build a wall and have them pay for it, and incased you missed it, it didn’t happen, the one who told women of color, born in the United States, elected to Congress and serving on this very committee to go back to their own countries, the one who bragged about grabbing women by their private parts, the one who confused his rape victim, whom he claimed was not his type, for his very own ex-wife, the one who is an admitted and committed adulterer, who attempted to pay off a porn star for her silence, the one who has publicly mocked people with disabilities, the one who dodged the draft and referred to prisoners of war as losers, the very people who pay a high price, so we could enjoy the freedoms that far too many of us take for granted.

(03:20:13)
The one who boasted about being able to stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue to shoot someone and not lose votes, the one who promoted political and physical violence multiple times, including most recently at my rally in my home state of Ohio, where he declared there would be a bloodbath if he didn’t win, the one who intentionally denied COVID was deadly and eventually suggested testing injecting bleach into our bodies to kill the respiratory virus that took the lives of one million people in the United States, the one who ordered his son-in-law get top secret security clearance overruling concerns flagged by intelligence officials, who according to this committee’s chairman admitted the former president’s son-in-law crossed the line of ethics by accepting a $2 billion investment into that very same son-in-law’s fledgling firm only six months after leaving the White House.

(03:21:13)
If any of this sounds crazy, it’s because it is. This might sound unbelievable, but it’s all true. These are facts, indisputable facts, a thing that is known and proven to be true. This may be a foreign concept to some of my colleagues, but for those of us who still have a relationship with the truth, please know this is not an exhaustive list of inappropriate, unethical, and questionable behavior by the maniacal manipulator of Mar-a-Lago, because I could go on, but I only have five minutes. Yet here we are again trying to make sense out of nonsense. I would humbly, respectfully ask my Republican colleagues on this committee to stop falling over yourselves to win the approval of one, because millions of people are depending on you to defend our delicate democracy. And with that, I yield the remainder of my time to-

Chair, now.

The ranking member.

Oh, I don’t know that there’s much time left, but thank you for that eloquent and compressed recitation of some of what we’ve lived with over the last few years.

Chair recognizes Mr. Laturner from Kansas for five minutes.

Mr. Bobulinski, I want to talk about May of 2017. To be clear, Hunter Biden was doing business with CEFC while his dad was VP. Are you aware of that now?

Yes.

Rob Walker told us that during his transcribed interview before the committee. But I want to talk to you about your meeting with Joe Biden, Hunter Biden and Jim Biden in May of 2017. Other members are going to bring up the meeting you had with Joe Biden at the Beverly Hilton the night before the Milken Conference, but I want to talk about the next day when you win as Joe Biden’s guest to the Milken Conference. So, you watched Joe Biden deliver a speech that day. Then you had a follow-up conversation with Joe Biden, isn’t that correct?

Correct.

What did Joe Biden tell you during that conversation?

Well, as I’ve already publicly shared, I was brought back stage by his team because he had just given his keynote, and we just exchanged pleasantries. And then I walked him out to his car and he specifically thanked me for the work I was doing with his son and his brother and asked me to keep an eye on them.

And my understanding is, Mr. Bobulinski, that after Joe Biden had left, you went across the street to the Peninsula Hotel and had a long conversation with his brother Jim Biden. Isn’t that correct?

I did.

It’s my understanding that you asked him how the Biden family does the business that they do while Joe Biden is such a prominent political figure. What was Jim Biden’s response to you?

Correct. I was actually concerned and asking from a position of concern. And Jim Biden’s response to me was, “Plausible deniability.”

Plausible deniability. And by that you mean Joe Biden would be kept in the loop, but you weren’t supposed to talk about it, especially in writing. Mr. Galanis, during your transcribed interview with

— with the committees. You said a very interesting phrase. Say it, forget it, write it, regret it. Does this sound familiar? Is this consistent with your understanding of how the Bidens do business, Mr. Galanis?

Yeah, very much so. That was an operating principle, yes.

But it looks like someone made a mistake. 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. You can see on the screen, 20% for H, 20% for Rob Walker, 20% for James Gilliar, 20% for Tony Bobulinski, 10% for Jim Biden, and 10% held by H for the, ‘big guy.’ Mr. Bobulinski, who is the ‘big guy’?

The ‘big guy’ is 100% Joe Biden.

Mr. Bobulinski, Hunter Biden didn’t respond saying, “Knock it off. We can’t include Joe Biden,” did he?

No. And that’s actually a critical point because remember —

Mr. Bobulinski, did you ever get a text message or a group text message or anything like that saying, “Guys, knock it off. Joe Biden isn’t involved in this deal”?

No, the whistleblowers actually have a text exchange where they’re talking about everything else, but that, and the reason why they weren’t talking about it is because everyone knew Joe Biden was the ‘big guy.’

Hunter Biden begged for a public hearing, but it turns out he’s 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’re being gaslit by this president. It’s blatantly obvious to anyone paying attention that Joe Biden is the ‘big guy.’ The CEFC deal broke the, say it, forget it, write it, regret it, rule of the Biden family businesses, and now they’re trying to cover it up. Joe Biden said repeatedly that his family never made a dime from China. But Mr. Bobulinski just confirmed that Hunter, Jim and the ‘big guy’ himself all got a cut from the CEFC, China Energy deal. Let me be clear, the only service the Biden family ever provided was their ability to leverage the office of the Vice President of the United States to cash in overseas. My Democrat colleagues are going to try and tell you that Joe Biden wasn’t on the final ownership structure agreement. But isn’t it true if someone was holding Joe Biden’s stake in the company, it wouldn’t appear in the document? Isn’t that the whole point of this email to hold Joe Biden’s stake so his name wouldn’t be in the document? Isn’t this just plausible deniability in action, Mr. Bobulinski?

It appears that way.

But plausible deniability only gets you so far. Now, I want to fast-forward from May to the end of July of 2017 when the Biden’s cut you out of the deal. I want to show you a message that Hunter sent to his Chinese business partners. Please put it up on the screen. Hunter writes, “I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled.” So when Hunter Biden is desperate for money, Jim Biden’s old trick of plausible deniability doesn’t cut it. And when desperate times call for desperate measures, Hunter Biden let the cat out of the bag, said the quiet part out loud and gave the game away by calling on his father to help him shake down his Chinese business partners for the money. And it worked. Mr. Chairman, I yield back.

Mr. Chairman, just point of inquiry, what was the last image we saw that you put up? Where did that come from? I just want to authenticate that.

This is the Ways and Means Committee Exhibit 300.

Must be the IRS Whistleblower Note.

All right.

Not an inquiry though. Anyway, Chair recognizes Ms. Stansbury for the last question.

All right. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman, and welcome to the GOP’s day long campaign for Donald Trump. I want to start with Mr. Galanis to help connect some dots that have not yet been connected in this hearing. Mr. Galanis, you are serving just under 16 years for among other things, as was been said today, defrauding a tribal nation and specifically a tribal corporation held by the Oglala Sioux, which is why you are testifying from a prison today. But I’d like to ask you, Mr. Galanis, have you had an attorney representing you before this committee that you retained last December, and that attorney’s name is Mr. Mark Paoletta, correct?

That’s correct.

And when you first testified before this committee in a taped interview, you were actually stopped by Mr. Paoletta from answering just a simple question about how you met him and who exactly was paying your legal fees. Now, I want to make sure that the American people understand exactly who Mr. Paoletta is because he is in fact a former lawyer to Donald Trump who served in the administration in the Office of Management and Budget, and was at the center of the Ukrainian pressure campaign for which Donald Trump was impeached. And in fact, Mr. Paoletta was Trump’s chief OMB lawyer when he withheld aid to Ukraine to try to extort the Ukrainian government into investigating Joe Biden to support Donald Trump’s campaign. And Mr. Paoletta literally wrote the memo to help withhold those funds. Now, I want to dig in a little bit on this pressure campaign, and Mr. Lev Parnas is here to discuss as an eyewitness who was there.

(03:29:45)
Mr. Parnas, we appreciate you being here and I want to move through this quickly. So just ask for simple yes and no answers. You’ve testified here today that Donald Trump repeatedly asked you and through Rudy Giuliani to put pressure on the Ukrainian government to dig up dirt on Joe Biden to support Trump’s campaign, correct?

100%, yes.

And as we can see here in this picture, you were very much a business associate of Rudy Giuliani during this time. And as established in your testimony, you traveled to and met with Ukrainian officials and told them that the White House would withhold its support and aid to Ukraine if it did not cooperate with this bribery essentially?

That’s correct.

And as we all know, Donald Trump’s administration and specifically the Office of Management and Budget did withhold that foreign aid in 2019. And here’s the guy who did it, and he is representing the witness who’s literally on Zoom with us for this committee today. And it’s the reason why Donald Trump was impeached the first time. And the man at the center of that scheme is involved in the House GOP’s inquiry. But I also want to point out that Mr. Paoletta is also involved in and very much in bed with the Thomas’. In fact, he represented Ms. Ginni Thomas, Clarence Thomas’ wife in her involvement in the Stop The Steal before the January 6th Committee, and actually also goes on vacation with Mr. Harlan Crow and the Thomas’s. So this man has quite an interesting roster and participation in this hearing.

(03:31:31)
But the bigger picture here is that Mr. Paoletta’s presence is yet another indication of the way in which this hearing and this impeachment inquiry is part of Donald Trump’s larger misinformation campaign just like it was in 2020. Where in addition to pressuring and withholding aid to Ukraine, Rudy Giuliani and the Trump Organization, as Mr. Parnas has established, planted the story in the media. And now here we are four years later as they’ve dredged it back up and are planting it back in the media using Congress, using this committee and using a baseless impeachment supported by Donald Trump’s own allies on this committee to push that information out.

(03:32:22)
As members on this committee have trafficked in false evidence that was planted by a Russian operative to the FBI and is now in jail for that. All of this is in the service of propping up the criminal enterprise for which Donald Trump is at the top and has already been twice impeached. Rudy Giuliani and others have been exposed as they continue to traffic and Russian disinformation that not only props up Donald Trump, but it props up Vladimir Putin himself and his goals back in Russia and in Ukraine. So I just want to point out here that once again, as I said, when we had a false impeachment hearing a few months ago, that once again we see the —

Times expired. Young lady, times expired.

[inaudible 03:33:11] of hands of Donald Trump all over this hearing.

And just want to state, you made a mistake and said that Mr. Parnas was a Republican witness. He is very much your witness, not a Republican witness.

But I was a Republican for Donald Trump.

Mr. Chairman, I do not believe I said that —

Pursuant to —

— so we can correct the record.

Pursuant to the previous order, The Chair declares the committee in recess due to votes. Subject to the call of The Chair, we will reconvene 10 minutes after the three votes. All right.

Mr. Raskin’s ready to go. [inaudible 04:22:37]

Scared him off.

All right. Committee will reconvene. Chair now recognize Mr. Perry from Pennsylvania for five minutes.

Well, thank you Mr. Chairman. Mr. Galanis, I’m going to turn my questions to you. I hope I can see you on the screen here shortly. Are you there, Mr. Galanis? There you are. Okay. If we can jump right into another Biden Chinese deal made while Joe Biden was in office. A deal I think you described in your interview as a quid pro quo where the Chinese sent millions in exchange for a post VP job for President Biden. Can you tell us what was Burnham?

Yeah. Burnham was an 85-year-old financial services company based in New York that owned an asset management firm and a securities dealer. But relative to the Chinese, it was an unimportant, small player. I’ll give you scale, one and a half billion dollars versus $300 billion Chinese company.

What was Hunter Biden’s interest in working with them, knowing that that was the situation?

I think Hunter Biden was already working with them through the fund that was created, the BHR Harvest, was the H. And is describing some of Hunter’s emails that I have provided to the committee. He described the activity with BHR being the harvest activity as one of his only focuses. And his other focus would be the activity between Harvest directly and Burnham directly in a combination. His stated objective in his own words in writing was those were to be his only focus and his only priority of working with the Chinese on a go-forward basis.

Did you also say that he said the interest in working with Burnham was to make billions instead of millions? Is that right?

Yeah, I did say that. And that was on the basis of looking to become a much larger company where his equity interest would be worth a lot of money, billions, not millions.

And you said the Harvest Fund was a $300 billion Chinese financial services company. Was it likely connected or was it connected closely to the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese government?

That’s my understanding.

Okay. And who was Henry Zhao?

He’s been described to me consistently by Devin and Hunter as the chairman, but he’s ostensibly the head of Harvest. I think he’s had a couple of different roles over the years, but he was always characterized as chairman and the decision maker for that entity.

Right. He’s the chairman of the $300 billion Chinese entity connected to the Chinese government, the Chinese Communist Party. And he was based out of, where? Where was his base of operations?

In Beijing, China, PRC.

And like you said, you heard him referred to occasionally as Chairman Zhao. Right?

Most of the time it was Chairman Zhao out of a respect for the chairman. Yes.

Okay. Now there came to a point where Hunter wanted to bring Henry Zhao, the chairman of Harvest and their billions of dollars from China into business with Burnham. Is that right?

That’s correct. That’s correct, Congressman.

And why would he do that?

It was a financial decision. Chinese offered money and he offered political access. It was in exchange.

Fair enough. It is pretty obvious what Harvest brings, 300 billion. But why would Harvest be interested in Burnham versus other financial institutions? I’m sure there are other ones out there. And like you said, it was fairly small. Harvest is 300 billion. Why would they care about this small Burnham? What was the interest for them?

The self-evident answer is the political access. And then underscoring that is there are at least two emails produced that talk about exactly that, the influence of what Hunter had characterized as Henry Zhao’s interest in the access vehicle. That was with explicit and in writing.

Okay. Joe Biden was going to sit on the board of a Chinese company connected to the highest levels of the Chinese government, the Chinese Communist Party. Stepping back, in your dealings with Hunter, what was the value that Hunter brought to the table?

It was the access to the inducement to induce companies like this Harvest Group to participate in Burnham. It was a, we’ll call it relationship capital that he brought to the table. Not financial capital.

Relationship capital that-

And an economic value to the business.

Relationship capital that you described as the Biden lift. What was the Biden lift?

The Biden lift was simply Hunter’s access to his father and his father’s power and prestige in influencing the growth of a financial services business which is largely reliant on its reputation and ability to attract other clients.

I’m running out of time here, but it sounds like a quid pro quo to me, sir. And Harvest did in fact invest money in Burnham. You called it a material inducement. Can you explain what that means? And do you know how much the Chinese paid?

I was out of the picture toward the end of 2015. I believe that they ended up paying $4 million into Burnham. I believe though, as a result of the legal entanglements that I encountered, that the transactions didn’t happen in the way people expected or that they had written about in terms of what the Chinese were expected to do.

All right. Mr. Galanis, I just want one last question. I’m going to show you a draft email that you provided to the committee. Mr. Chairman, I yield.

Objection on time. Good job. Chair now recognize Ms. Crockett for one minute… Or five minutes.

One minute. All right. First of all, Mr. Bobulinski, do you know who Elections, LLC is?

[Inaudible 04:29:38].

Yeah.

Well, it’s not a who.

Okay. Well, do you know what it is?

Yes, it’s a LLC.

Okay. And is it the LLC that your attorney works for?

I believe so, yes.

You believe so? Okay. At this point in time, I’d ask unanimous consent to enter into the record a document indicating that the law firm representing Tony Bobulinski was paid $10,000 as recently as January of this year by the Save America PAC, which you may recognize as Donald Trump’s PAC.

Without objection.

Thank you. Now, so far in this hearing, it has felt like the worst episode of The Apprentice. I’m sure you’re familiar with that show. It seems like my colleagues, and maybe you and some others are trying to become the next Vice President of the United States of America, you’re auditioning or something like that. Because Mr. Bobulinski, I know that you take exception to the fact that your credibility has been called into question over and over. But when someone comes to testify under oath, whether it’s before this committee behind closed doors or in person, then we have to evaluate someone’s credibility. And sir, I definitely have always had issues with your credibility as I know that you are very well aware of. Let me remind you of what happened behind closed doors.

Well, you should ask Ro Khanna about my credibility.

I haven’t asked you a question. Okay.

You are?

I haven’t. When I ask you a question, that’s when you answer. Otherwise, I’m talking.

Excuse me?

With my time, because it’s my time, I want to be clear that when we were behind closed doors, you called a number of people liars. You called the Wall Street Journal liars. You called Cassidy Hutchinson a liar.

She is.

You called the FBI a liar. You called Rob Walker a liar. You called James Gilliar a liar. You called Hunter Biden a liar. You called Jim Biden a liar. And just today you added to your list. You called my colleague, Congressman Mr. Goldman, a liar as well. It seems like according to you, the only person that’s telling the truth is you and everyone else is lying. But I want to move on to something else.

Is that a question or-

It’s not a question.

Okay.

You’ll know when I ask you a question, I promise.

Thank you.

The other thing that I want to talk about is the fact that

My colleague from the other side of the aisle talked about the company that we keep and she wanted to go through a list of people that she felt like we’re a bad company because right now the majority has been relying upon the testimony of someone who’s currently sitting in federal prison. And we know that your company is the company of somebody who’s been found liable of fraud as well as defamation, as well as sexual assault, and for whatever reason can’t pay his bills at this point in time.

(04:32:38)
But I’m going to ask Mr. Parnas, so this is a question to him, are you aware if Trump had any associates that have been found guilty of anything?

Yes, lots of them.

Lots of them.

Me included.

You included, okay. So when you were called here to testify, you weren’t called here to testify for any other reason than to tell the truth; is that correct?

Yes, Congresswoman.

Now we started this whole sham off because of the 1023. And that was debunked by you; was it not?

Yes, Congresswoman.

Way before we started this impeachment inquiry, and you mentioned a number of times, this guy by the name of Rudy Giuliani.

Yes.

Now everybody is so stressed about the fact that Hunter ain’t here today. But Hunter came and testified behind closed doors for over six hours. And every single one of them, they weren’t limited to five minutes, they could ask whatever they wanted to. And there’s a full transcript of his testimony. So I don’t know what else they wanted to do besides the fact that they wanted to put on a show.

(04:33:45)
But let me tell you something. This whole thing is based upon something that Giuliani came up with.

Yes.

And we tried to subpoena him. That’s what I remember, if anybody else remember… We asked. We said, “Hey, we should subpoena Giuliani.” But kind of like when we were trying to get his cell phone, they shut it down. They don’t want the facts.

(04:34:06)
But you would agree with me that considering the fact that you were working under Rudy Giuliani at the time that you went over to Ukraine, that he has maybe some valuable information that he could offer this committee as to whether or not there’s anything that we should be investigating in the first place.

Absolutely, Congresswoman. I wish that this committee would subpoena Rudy Giuliani, put him under oath alongside me to get to the bottom of the truth of what actually happened in Ukraine and to the manipulation that Trump and Giuliani and the team went to do.

I agree with you. But somehow it doesn’t look like we’re going to get there. And I thank you for your time. With that, I yield.

Time has expired. Chair now recognizes Mr. Biggs from Arizona.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

(04:34:47)
Mr. Galanis, on May 9th, 2014, you received an email from Devin Archer confirming… Or you wrote an email, confirming that Ms. Baturina was investing with Burnham Investments 15 to $20 million. Is that true?

Yes, Congressman.

And let’s talk about the predicate for that. Ms. Baturina is the richest woman in Russia and you knew her and were you invited to a party that she attended?

Yes. In Brooklyn, yes.

Let’s have the invitation up please. And here’s a copy of the invitation that you received; is that right?

Don’t yet see it, Congressman. I did receive an email invitation, so yes.

Yeah, an email invitation. And did you go to that party?

Yes. I did attend that party, yes.

And was Hunter Biden at that party?

Yes he was.

And we know that he was because we have a confirmation of his calendar, which is the next exhibit. It was noted on there and he showed up there. And so all of that’s true. It’s all verified right there. And Yelena Baturina and her then husband, Yuri, they were at the party, right?

Correct.

With Devin Archer as well?

That’s correct.

And during that party Hunter pulled you guys, the people we just named, pulled them away from where the party is and you go to a separate little area where it’s quieter because there was over 100 people at that party. Is that true?

That’s true, yes.

And all of a sudden Hunter says, “Okay, I’m going to make a phone call.” He makes a phone call, does he not?

He does.

To whom?

He called his father.

Then Vice President Joe Biden, who was vice president at the time. What was said on the call, please? Wait a second before you tell us. The reason you know it is because he put it on speakerphone, right?

He did after he said hello and then he put it on speakerphone. So I was first party to hearing it and initially-

Please sum it up.

I’m sorry, Congressman, I talked over you. The video conference, there’s a delay.

Please sum up that phone call for us, Mr. Galanis.

Okay. It was a relatively short call, but he indicated that our friends had come in from out of town that then, the exchange, as I testified, was related to things were going to proceed. And the Vice President had said, “Look after my boy.”

And it was five days after that party that you received word from Devin that Ms. Baturina was in for 15 to $20 million with you guys, right?

That’s correct.

Let’s go to a different issue. Let’s go to the Harvest issue. I’ll just refresh everyone’s recollection. When Devin Archer was there, because at that time he had to come in, he came on in and we had this great conversation with him. I said, “Hey, did Hunter ever indicate to you that the Chinese anticipated that after his father was out of office, he might join their company with one of their companies as a paid advisor?” Mr. Archer says, “Did he intimate that?” I said, “Did he indicate that to you?” Mr. Archer, “I don’t recall, but potentially.” And I said, “You don’t recall, but it’s not new to you? The concept is not new to you, is that what you’re saying?” He said, “No, it’s not new to me.”

(04:38:38)
Why wasn’t it new to him? Why wasn’t it new to him? It wasn’t new-

It’s because that was-

Yeah, go ahead.

It was an explicit discussion amongst amongst us that that was an inducement to the Chinese to invest in the Burnham business. That being the VP’s position post, his official position.

On a board of advisors, paid board of advisors?

Of the Chinese company Harvest. Yes.

And when you say us, who was the us that was discussing that?

What I was referring to and just making that comment was Hunter, Devin and myself.

Let’s go to something else.

There was a broader sort of circulation group about that, and that was reflected in an email from the staff member at Thornton Group who circulated the draft email that also reflected he had a similar conversation and drafted a letter based on that understanding.

How long have you been incarcerated, Mr. Galanis?

I’ve been incarcerated for eight years, Congressman.

And you offered to tell the Southern District of New York and SEC about Hunter Biden’s company, Rosemont Seneca Bohai and they rejected your offer, didn’t they?

On multiple occasions, that’s correct.

Why do you think they rejected that offer?

Chairman, I think he’s over.

Time is expired, but please answer that question. Answer the question Mr.Galanis.

All I can tell you is what counsel said to me.

Which was?

Counsel had indicated to me that he had never seen a prosecution reject information, particularly paper-based information that could have corroborated my verbal statements.

Thank you. My time has expired. Thank you.

Very good. Chair recognized Ms. Bush for five minutes.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. St. Louis and I are here today once again to focus on the real issues that affect our communities instead of this partisan circus. Let me start by saying that influence peddling is absolutely a very serious issue, full stop.

(04:40:50)
But we all know the truth. Donald Trump is the quintessential influence peddler in chief. Despite this for well over a year now, House Republicans have spent dozens of hours of precious committee time hearing testimony from nearly 20 witnesses on their baseless and increasingly embarrassing attempts to link President Biden to actions of his family members and implicate him by association. Even after all this time and effort, they haven’t been able to muster up any credible links between the president and his son’s business dealings. All they have proven is that they will do whatever it takes, including using their razor-thin majority and chairmanships to waste the people’s time.

(04:41:33)
Let’s let today’s hearing be the final nail in the coffin of this sham impeachment investigation. I urge my Republican colleagues to admit that their quest to impeach the President has completely collapsed. They have fallen short and with each passing deal they are losing votes and credibility even within their own conference. It’s time for them to move on. But that’s not likely to happen because my Republican colleagues don’t care about responsible governments or making people’s lives better. They don’t have an affirmative agenda. They would rather distract us all with these unfounded accusations against the President.

(04:42:08)
So it’s no coincidence that under Republican leadership 2023 marked the most unproductive year in modern history for Congress. Aside from a failed impeachment investigation and unprecedented three week stint without a speaker and bringing our country to the brink of a catastrophic government shut down multiple times, Republicans have done absolutely nothing to demonstrate why they deserve to control any chamber of Congress, let alone the White House for which their cult leader, a twice impeached, four times indicted former president, is running to gain influence and control again. They’re just grasping at straws and it’d be comical if it wasn’t leading to real harm and real hurt in our communities.

(04:42:55)
The people of our country are the ones paying the price for their failure to actually govern. Instead of wasting all of our time, our hours and hours and hours going down fake rabbit holes and amplifying baseless conspiracies, we could focus on actual policy. We could focus on substance. We could focus on saving and improving the lives of our constituents, not misusing precious time and resources of this committee. What I’d rather focus on is the people who don’t have the money and resources to buy influence. The millions of people in our districts who have been harmed by the ongoing refusal of the federal government to take full responsibility for the Manhattan Project waste and who are still getting sick from exposure to toxic radioactive waste, their own government created. It still lingers in communities all across the country like in St. Louis, Missouri, where proper cleanup still remains undone.

(04:43:44)
I am ranking member on the Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy and Regulatory Affairs. I have repeatedly requested a hearing on Manhattan Project waste and its countless victims. I’m still waiting. We could focus on ending the crisis of gun violence in this country. Every day 327 people are shot in the United States. Every year 42,654 people die from gun violence. More children die from guns than anything else in this country. Why are we not acting to protect them? How are we not treating this like the public health emergency that it is? We could focus on improving the lives of incarcerated individuals and weaning ourselves off of the carceral state. A currently incarcerated individual is your star witness today, I applaud your inclusivity. And surely if folks convicted of crimes can testify before Congress, they should be allowed to vote. Why not enfranchise them?

(04:44:39)
What about reproductive rights and freedom? We have a public health crisis in this country where millions of people of reproductive age can’t get the care that they need. People in St. Louis are being forced to give birth against their will. Republicans need and use abortion care just like the rest of us. Why not meaningfully address this issue? We need to focus on ending the atrocities in Gaza and Israel. Since January, malnutrition in children under five has nearly doubled. Global experts warn famine is imminent for 1.1 million people, half the population due to catastrophic food insecurity. Why are we not acting to reinstate UNRWA, prevent famine in the spread of disease and ending the continued slaughter of Palestinians? We do not have infinite time and resources.

(04:45:20)
I will stop there. Thank you. And I yield the balance of my time to Rep Goldman.

Thank you very much, Ms. Bush.

10 seconds.

I want to just point to a photo here. Mr. Bobulinski, you have testified that Cassidy Hutchinson’s account that you met Mark Meadows then chief of staff for Donald Trump at a Trump rally in Georgia behind Secret Service cars. You were wearing-

Time’s expired.

Sir, you went over a minute late with Mr. Perry, we could have a little extra time. Trump rally that you said that she was-

Time’s expired. Chair Now recognizes Mr. Sessions for five minutes.

Mr. Chairman, could we have some basic equity.

If someone else wants to yield, she had eight seconds to yield him and he’s got up here with a speech.

No, I have a simple question.

He’s already abused his privilege privileged by making a motion that wasn’t even a motion-

I have a simple question.

Chair has ruled. The Chair has ruled. The Chair has ruled.

What are you afraid of, Mr. Chairman.

[inaudible 04:46:12] someone else to recognize your-

What are you afraid of? Why don’t you let me ask the question?

Chair recognizes the gentleman from… Oh, what purpose do you seek recognition, Mr. Biggs.

Unanimous consent to introduce the documents into the record.

Without objection, so ordered.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Here they are. One is the invitation that was mentioned. Another is Hunter Biden’s calendar. Another is the email mentioned confirming that Yelena Baturina was going to invest 10 to $20 million with him. Another one is page 180 of the Galanis interview. Page 56 of the transcribed interview of Hunter Biden and also pages 41 and 42 of the Galanis interview.

Without objection, so ordered into the record. Now Chair-

Mr. Chair I have a-

What purpose do you seek recognition, Mr. Goldman?

I have a UC motion, Mr. Chairman.

Proceed.

I would like to enter into the record the portion of the Devin Archer transcript where he says that Yelena Baturina never had any business dealings with Hunter Biden and that money went into their joint account was done by mistake.

A mistake, okay, without objection, so ordered-

And Mr. Chairman, I have one UC request as well.

Proceed.

This is from Salon Magazine. “It’s embarrassing”: Republicans worry they have “zero accomplishments” to run on in elections.

Without objection, so order. Chair now recognizes the gentleman from Texas. Mr. Sessions for five minutes.

Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. I’d first like to enter into the record 302s that were done with Mr. Bobulinski, what’s known as Exhibit 400A.

Without objection, so order.

Thank you very much. Mr. Bobulinski, thank you for being here. Mr. Parnas, thank you for being here. And those of you who are appearing extraneously on our screen.

(04:48:01)
Mr. Bobulinski, tell me about very quickly about the professionalism of the organization that you work for in terms of paychecks, getting paychecks, providing the IRS with documentation of people who were paid out of the organization.

I’m not sure I’m following your question.

Were you ever paid?

I was not.

So you were never paid by this organization?

I was not.

Did you ever receive any enumeration?

When we were in the process of trying to shut down SinoHawk Holdings LLC and Oneida Holdings LLC, I was compensated… It wasn’t a compensation, it was a reimbursement of $50,000 of money I’d come out of pocket traveling around paying for hotels and stuff like that.

In other words, people did not get paid or you didn’t get paid that you were aware of. Were you aware that other people were being paid?

The Biden family was paid. Hunter and Jim Biden were clearly paid millions of dollars.

And how would you think that that information would be transmitted about them receiving that payment and going to the IRS?

I’m not sure of those specifics. I’m just aware that they received those millions of dollars, obviously based on the brave testimony of Shapley and Ziegler that came public with a bunch of information. And then Senator Johnson and Senator Grassley’s report I never saw. The only bank account I ever saw is the one I set up at JP Morgan for SinoHawk Holdings and Oneida Holdings LLC. JP Morgan was well aware that the Biden family were owners in that business. They authorized it, approved it and [inaudible 04:49:48] operating business-

What social security number was utilized to set up that account?

For SinoHawk and Oneida?

Yes.

We had to represent the owners of the underlying entity. So they were aware that Hudson West III owned 50% of SinoHawk holdings and they provided their information. On the Oneida side we represented that each of us owned 20% and I’d have to go back and look. I as the CEO probably provided my social security number. I’m not sure if we provided social security numbers for all five members.

And yet, you-

Or excuse me, tax IDs for their LLCs.

Or tax IDs. And yet you never received money except reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses that were related to the business?

Correct. And imagine that $50,000 I was paid was actually from the legal side of SinoHawk Holdings and the Chinese, while the Bidens had defrauded me and were receiving millions of dollars into their own pockets.

Were you aware that they were receiving millions of dollars at the time?

I was not.

Did you spend time with the Department of Justice on this matter?

I did. I did. I had a voluntary interview with the FBI on October 23rd, I believe, 2020.

They approached you or you approached them?

My lawyers coordinated me. I, which is obviously public knowledge, went to the second debate. I flew to DC with the intent of sitting in front of Senator Johnson, Senator Grassley and their committee. And then my lawyers sought counsel, had discussions and decided it was a better focus of my time to walk voluntarily into the FBI.

So where did you do that?

In Washington DC.

Main Justice, main FBI or the field office?

I believe it was the leading field office. They didn’t want to do it in Main Justice for their reasons. They decided. I would’ve gone wherever they asked me to go.

Did they tell you at the time that you were providing information that if you provided information that was not true and correct, that you could be held liable for that under criminal statute?

Yes, of course. I appreciate you asking that question. I was operated as if I misrepresented, misstated, lied that I was committing criminal offenses, which I take very seriously based on the fact that I was willing to die for this country. And to just correct Ms. Crockett’s statement earlier, I didn’t accuse the FBI of lying, I stated in my transcribed interview that the FBI made mistakes in their 302. My lawyers never saw that document after my interview until it was made public to the world.

Then you attempted to correct that 302?

I did.

Is that the same 302 known as Exhibit 400A that I have entered in the record today?

It is.

Do you have any other dispute with that? Have you looked at it and do you have any other dispute?

Well, there’s numerous mistakes in it.

Okay. Thank you very much. Do you have any reason to believe that all of these SAR reports that have come out of banks were all fraud as we [inaudible 04:52:56]-

Gentleman’s time’s expired, but he asked a question about the SARs report.

I mean, just the number of SARs reports should give every American pause. The average American in this country will never receive a single SAR in their entire life. So for a family or an individual to have over what I’ve publicly seen, 150 of them is just extraordinary.

I want to thank all the witnesses that are here today, Mr. Chairman. Thank you very much,

Gentleman’s time expired. Chair now recognize Mr. Frost. I thought you said, Frost, sorry. Mr. Casar. [inaudible 04:53:30] Frost. Casar.

Thank you Chairman. And if I could have my full five minutes, I’d appreciate that.

Reset the clock for five minutes for Mr. Casar.

Thank you, Chairman.

(04:53:40)
While we clearly disagree on the merits of this meritless investigation, I hope Chairman, that we can at least come to an agreement on some basics. I believe that you and I can agree that presidents and White House officials should not be unduly influenced by foreign powers.

(04:53:58)
So Chairman, I’d be happy to yield to you briefly for a yes or no, can we all agree that White House officials should not be bribed or unduly influenced by foreign actors?

It’s your time. You can ask. We have witnesses here.

I would assume that you would agree.

We have witnesses if you want to ask the witnesses question or you want to waste time with me.

I’m not wasting time with you. I think that we’ve been disagreeing all day. I hope we can come to an agreement that White House officials should not be bribed or unduly influenced by foreign powers. I think you and I agree on this point. I see you nodding your head. I assume that that is a yes.

(04:54:33)
I’m glad that we can work as an Oversight Committee on an investigations, do the work we need to do and make sure that no one in the White House has betrayed the public trust. We’ve spent countless hours talking about Hunter Biden investigating every single person that seems like he’s ever shaken hands with. We’ve not found a shred of evidence that connects it to the President of the United States or anyone with any say over US policy. But someone who has worked in the White House did accept money from a foreign power. Donald Trump’s son-in-Law, Jared Kushner received a staggering $2 billion from Saudi Arabia for his brand new private equity firm. And while Hunter Biden never had any say over US policy, Mr. Kushner got this 2 billion months after working in the White House as a senior advisor on Middle East policy. Mr. Kushner had no experience in private equity. In fact, he was so inexperienced that Saudi officials tried to block the transfer of the money until the Crown Prince overruled them.

(04:55:41)
While working at the White House. Mr. Kushner pushed through a $110 billion weapon sale for Saudi Arabia-

Gentleman yield. Gentleman yield?

I’m finishing my point and then I’m happy to talk about it. He then defended the deal in the wake of the Saudi governance murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. And while this may all just be a coincidence, there’s many questions. Like, was any of this money passed along to Trump? Was the Saudi money a thank you for a job well done in the White House? Was Jared given this money in exchange for anything else? Or did someone with no experience just have a lucky payday? These are questions we should have answers to-

Will the gentlemen yield for a second?

These are questions that the Oversight Committee should look into.

But we can just add another question. What was the role that Jared Kushner played in covering up the assassination and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi, ordered by the Royal Crown Prince.

We should absolutely ask that question, Ranking Member.

Gentleman yield?

So, I want to know if Hunter Biden had accepted $2 billion from the Saudi government, I’m sure we’d be looking into that today. And Mr. Chairman, I believe we can agree that there should not be undue influence in the White House and I believe we should be able to agree that we should look into these questions about Mr. Kushner. And in fact, Mr. Chairman, you were on CNN and said, “I’ve been very vocal that I think what Kushner did cross the line of ethics.” And then in our deposition of Hunter Biden the other day when we were discussing Mr. Kushner, you said, Mr. Chairman and I quote from the deposition, “When we deal with influence pedaling, we’ll ask about Jared Kushner.” Well, today’s hearing is titled Influence Pedaling. So we are here.

(04:57:19)
So Mr. Comer, I would love to hear from you. Can we fulfill our responsibility as an Oversight Committee and determine if Saudi Arabia bribed or unduly influenced Jared Kushner or other White House officials? Is that something we’d be willing to look into?

We’ve already had a conversation with Ms. Porter. I’m going to answer one time. Ms. Porter and I have pledged to work on influence peddling legislation. We’ll take up all the people who have been accused of influence peddling. We’ll try to determine whether Jared Kushner has a real business. We haven’t been able to find a real business that the Bidens have had yet. Still your time, Mr. Casar.

So could we expect to subpoena Mr. Kushner’s correspondence with the Saudi government or his firm’s financial records or financial transactions between Mr. Kushner and his father-in-law? Is that something that we would consider doing as part of that hearing you just discussed?

What was the question?

If we are serious about looking into foreign money, I saw recently a poster board here about $100,000 to a car dealership. Are we going to be serious about the $2 billion from the Saudi government to Mr. Kushner? My question is, would we be at least subpoenaing Jared’s correspondence with the Saudi government and his firm’s financial records? Can we commit to doing that?

I think it’s important to see if there were real legitimate businesses

And if there was influence-

Let me ask you a question. What business was Hunter Biden in?

We heard explicitly from Mr. Biden about his extensive business record and his experience on boards. We heard about that.

Time’s expired.

Mr. Kushner on the other hand, [inaudible 04:58:56] $2 billion-

Chair now recognizes Mr. Fallon for five minutes.

That’s a shame.

Mr. Chairman, before I start my questions, I’d like to enter into the record, submit to the record an article from the Kyiv Post.

Without objection, so order.

And then the second article from the Kyiv Post entitled Prosecutor General Shokin Resigns and it’s updated. If I get enter this into-

Without objection, so order.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. I sat in on the entire seven plus hour deposition that Hunter Biden gave to this committee. And one of the things that stood out to me was his assertions with a rather braggadocios flare of his business experience and his acumen and his impeccable qualifications. He claimed with quite some vigor, I might add, that he was a brilliant, accomplished and highly sought after business commodity. He’s very successful and he had an unparalleled resume that he recited to us chapter and verse to prove it. That was at least the face his lawyers, this administration and the House Democrats wanted him to wear.

(04:59:55)
Of course, there’s another possibility, one that this pesky little thing we call reality that he was a spoiled entitled East Coast patrician with a senator and then VP daddy who squandered his many life advantages and spiraled into a decadent behavioral pattern of narcissistic excess and criminal addiction. And to feed his very large carnal appetites, he acted as his family’s bagman in an influence pedaling and access selling scheme that netted the Biden tribe over $24 million in elicit foreign cash. Lots of money, little effort, in a get rich quick scheme. If he was such a skilled and gifted businessman as he claimed his services would be sought after, in fact even fought over.

(05:00:42)
Mr. Bobulinski. To your knowledge, how many Fortune 500 companies retained Hunter Biden on their board of directors?

Now or in his-

Ever.

I can’t confirm any.

Yeah, because there aren’t any. Zero. How about how many energy companies retained Hunter Biden… I’m sorry. How many American energy companies retain Hunter Biden on their boards of directors?

Zero.

Zero. Nada. Correct.

(05:01:06)
There was one energy company that retained them on their board of directors. Do you know what that name of that company was?

Yes. Burisma.

Burisma. Correct. Where’s Burma located?

Ukraine.

Really? That’s interesting because… And he was hired actually for no small sum, a million dollars a year. Hunter Biden said in his deposition he could bring, and Mr. Chairman, I apologize for laughing, but he said his corporate governance to the table. He brought something far more valuable than his corporate governance and his fictitious business acumen. He brought his daddy with him. You see, Joe Biden just happened to have been given the country of Ukraine in his portfolio of responsibility to oversee by the Obama administration. So let’s go over some facts. Mr. Chairman.

(05:01:42)
Fact, Burisma and CEO Mykola Zlochevsky had been investigated for corruption.

(05:01:47)
Fact, in September 2015, then US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt specifically mentioned Burisma as a corrupt entity.

(05:01:55)
Fact, Burisma was paying the son of the vice president of these United States a million dollars a year to serve on their board.

(05:02:02)
Fact, December 2015, Joe Biden visits Ukraine demands Viktor Shokin, the prosecutor general of Ukraine, who’s investigating Burisma his son’s boss be fired.

(05:02:11)
Fact, February 2nd 2016, Kyiv Post reports Viktor Shokin won a court order to seize assets of Burisma, CEO Mykola Zlochevsky. Two weeks later, in fact, Shokin resigns, President Poroshenko called on him to resign. He resigned. He essentially was fired at the behest of Joe Biden.

(05:02:33)
Fact, 2016, February, two weeks later, there’s a little email sent from Vadym Pozharskyi, COO of Burisma, he’s an executive Burisma and to Hunter Biden asking him, hey Hunter, will you help us out? We want to get the US Embassy in Ukraine to say that we’re a good company. Now, the ambassador just said they were corrupt a few months prior to that. And then lo and behold, with the seal of the United States Embassy, they say that we have no negative information or feelings about Burisma.

(05:03:05)
So what changed in those six months? It was magic. The power of the Vice President’s visit when he demands that the prosecutor who’s investigating his son’s boss, be fired and he’s going to withhold a billion dollars worth of aid. Actually, I think the loan guarantees. If Shokin’s not fired and then Shokin is fired. The embassy says that Burisma’s a great company. Our democratic colleagues would have us believe Mr. Chairman, that that was all magic, that there was no coincidence here.

(05:03:44)
And with that, I yield the balance of my time to Mr. Jordan.

I appreciate the gentleman yielding. I was just going to point out that Jared Kushner was one of the key officials involved in the Abraham Accords. If we want to talk about influencing foreign… How about the President of the United States, what he said in the State of the Union regarding Israel and how about what the Democrat leader of the Senate said last week, and that Israel should change its Prime Minister for goodness sake. That to me is a concern. Jared Kushner was doing good work with the Abraham Accords. Of course, the Democrats don’t want to admit that. I appreciate the gentleman for yielding.

Chair now recognizes-

Mr. Chairman, I have a motion. I would move pursuant to clause 2K6 of Rule 11, that the committee issue a subpoena to Jared Kushner to compel testimony related to the $2 billion collected from Saudi Arabia after his service within the White House.

Second.

There’s a motion. For what purpose does a gentleman from Ohio seek recognition?

Move to table a motion.

The motion to table is not debatable, as many as are in favor of tabling, signify by saying aye. Aye. All those opposed signify by saying no.

No.

In the opinion of the Chair, the ayes have it. And the motion to table is agreed to. The committee will now resume consideration of this hearing. Now Chair recognizes… Is it Ms. Lee? Who’s next?

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I think it’s fair to say at this point that Republicans on this committee are relying on Mr. Bobulinski as their star witness. The only fact witness they have brought in person before this committee. So I think we’d all expect that Mr. Bobulinski would have extensive inside knowledge about the involvement they allege that President Biden and in Hunter’s business ventures. As Mr. Parnas can vouch for previous impeachment inquiries, relied on whistleblowers and witnesses with intimate details of what went on, firsthand accounts of high crimes and misdemeanors.

(05:05:50)
You could point to exactly what the allegations were and understand what was going on. There were laid out chains of events pointing to a named crime, lying under oath,

… Excuse me, obstruction of justice, abuse of power, incitement of insurrection. Yet we’re left floundering here with zero direction and zero real evidence while we watched this kangaroo court struggle to continue on. And today we have Mr. Bobulinski, whose biggest contribution is that he had “multiple meetings with Joe Biden.” But let’s be clear, he spoke with Joe Biden a grand total of two times in the span of less than 24 hours in 2017, and each was short, one in public in the bar of a hotel, and then for a few minutes backstage at the Milken conference after Biden spoke about the efforts to fight cancer, which took the life of his son Beau.

(05:06:36)
I think we also need to clarify that while Mr. Bobulinski is all of a sudden today claiming that they talked business, but at no point did he mention this during his deposition under oath with this committee. At two different point when asked about what was said in these conversations, Mr. Bobulinski’s account made clear that he had zero substantive business discussions with Mr. Joe Biden. Mr. Bobulinski described those conversations twice during his transcribed interview, and both times he provided the same account. I’ll read from the transcript of your interview, Mr. Bobulinski. You stated that you and Joe Biden discussed your “family background in detail” as well as the Biden family’s background and Joe Biden’s “appreciation for the military.” Pages 48 through 52 and 268 to 271 of the transcript had these accounts.

(05:07:22)
Based on your own account, you had zero discussion of CEFC, the Chinese energy company. You had zero discussion on shares of equity or capitalization of this failed business venture. Based on your own account, you simply exchanged pleasantries about your families and shared values, the kind of small talk any person would make if they had the opportunity to meet the former Vice President of the United States, and moved on. Yet today, when my Republican colleagues are so desperate for actual evidence, magically that story changes. And that’s really at the heart of everything we’re discussing today.

(05:07:57)
Mr. Bobulinski has also been pushing his texts as records as proof, yet the Wall Street Journal found that none of it showed any role for Joe Biden in SinoHawk Holdings, and even Fox News reported that there was zero evidence of business dealings involving Joe Biden. Mr. Bobulinski would have us believe that everyone is a liar except him and except for when he’s under oath, that everyone misremembers except for him and except for when he’s under oath. The FBI, the Wall Street Journal, his business associations, all liars.

(05:08:28)
Republicans in this committee and the Cultural Warriors of Fox News keeps saying, “Look at the documents. Look at the documents.” So let’s look. This purported investigation has received over 100,000 pages of documents and not a single one shows any evidence of any wrongdoing, much less an impeachable offense. And taking a step back, even if Joe Biden had discussed his son’s business ventures with Tony Bobulinski in 2017, and this is rhetorical, so what? Would be the high crime or misdemeanor? What would be the impeachable offense? We’re talking about what private citizen Hunter Biden was doing with his time, at the time. Private citizen debt.

(05:09:05)
This impeachment inquiry is not about facts or evidence. It’s not even about impeachable offenses. It’s about keeping the American people distracted while we do nothing on reducing gun violence, nothing on lowering healthcare costs, nothing on reforming our criminal legal system. This has been the least productive Congress in decades. We’re just now in March finally [inaudible 05:09:25] the government for this year. That’s shameful. This unserious hearing is a waste of our time and our resources.

(05:09:32)
I yield with that and I yield the remainder of my time to Representative Crockett.

Yes. I just want to make sure that I point out, and this is not a question just in case you wanted to know, that on page 174 of your transcribed interview, line nine, it says, “This is an absolute lie,” in reference to talking about the FBI. What you stated –

I did not call the FBI agents liars.

– what was stated right before that was, “First of all –

I said they misstated or made mistakes –

I said that I’m speaking, and I did not ask you a question.

(05:09:59)
” First of all, it doesn’t say ‘Tony Bobulinski told the FBI.’ This is a summary of two agents that took notes through my interview and their summary apparently that they presented says ‘Bobulinski first met in person with members of the Biden family at a 2017 meeting in Miami, Florida.’ This is an absolute lie.” That is what it says.

(05:10:22)
The final thing that I’m going to say is about this, what we have from Ken Buck a Republican. “I don’t think that the impeachment of Biden is appropriate, and so House Speaker Mike Johnson’s ability to talk me into staying here is going to be about as successful as his ability about talking me into an unconstitutional impeachment.”

All right. I’ll let her have 30 seconds over. Chair now recognizes Mr. Burchett, from Tennessee.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

(05:10:49)
On July 30th, 2017, Hunter Biden wrote to his Chinese business associate Raymond Zhao, “I’m sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled.”

(05:11:01)
Mr. Bobulinski, why did Raymond Zhao work for the… Who did Raymond Zhao work for when this message was sent?

Raymond Zhao worked for Director Zang at CEFC.

Is CEFC connected to the Chinese Communist Party?

It is.

Is CEFC a corrupt organization?

It was.

From your perspective, what had occurred with CEFC from the end of May to this July 30th text message?

Well, it’s tough to go through all these details in 20-second clips. But at the end of July, it’s important to note, Jim Biden was broke, Hunter Biden was broke, published by the brave whistleblowers, Shapley and Ziegler, and Hunter made the conscious decision to basically defraud the partners of SinoHawk Holdings and Oneida because he needed money immediately. They’ve published pages of text messages where he’s trying to get money into his bank account. And so that night, for whatever reason, on the 30th when he asked, “Why hasn’t the commitment been fulfilled?”, the commitment he’s talking about is actually the $10 million funding into SinoHawk Holdings, LLC. Really key point.

(05:12:15)
But the next day he decides that he’s going to defraud SinoHawk Holdings and Oneida, create a new entity called Hudson West III… Well, actually change Hudson West III, it had already previously been created by the Chinese, and make himself a 50% owner in that entity so, when the Chinese did send money, he would have instant access to it. Really important, backed up with tens of pages of communications. He wanted to get access to the money the second it came in. And in SinoHawk Holdings and Oneida Holdings, he did not have that power.

(05:12:51)
I just want to address one thing real quick. Hunter Biden represents he’s a governance expert. That’s why Burisma put him on the board. Well, he obviously can’t do basic math. The board of Oneida Holdings had seven votes. Each one of them, Hunter, Jim Biden, James Gilliar, Rob Walker had a single vote. I had three votes. I have a Master’s degree in Electrical and Nuclear Engineering. I think I can do math. I had three, they had four. They controlled Oneida Holdings. So Hunter Biden’s representations that I was trying to take the business from them or I didn’t know, is all a sham and a misrepresentation. He wanted money in his account instantly and that’s why he shook down the Chinese and they were willing to send him that $5 million because they viewed it as a bribe to the Biden family. They say it in their own communications.

Are you aware or not, did they pay taxes on any of that?

I can only go from public testimony. I was not involved in their taxes.

Okay. On July 31st, the next day, Hunter says he hopes Kevin should know that the plan to speak is highly confidential. And Raymond Zhao responded, “CEFC is willing to cooperate with the family in the priorities to solve the problems mentioned last night.” What family was Raymond Zhao talking about? Was it the Biden?

Well, the family was the Biden family. And more importantly in that text is what is he talking about is the confidential matter. The confidential matter he’s talking about were four sealed indictments in the SDNY where they were about to indict executives of CEFC that we now know, I didn’t know that in July of 2017, but the SDNY knew: Charles McGonigal, who’s now apparently going to serve 78 months in prison, ran counterintelligence for the FBI in New York City where Chairman Yee was dropping $50 million of cash for penthouses in Manhattan.

(05:14:46)
So who you should be asking all these questions are the Department of Justice, the SDNY, the FBI, because they have troves of evidence that back up what was going on in July 2017 and in August 2017. So I apologize, Congressman, to be so passionate and to take your time, but this is what I need you guys… Or the focus has to be of your oversight committee. This involved the Chinese Communist Party. They were doing a transaction with Rosneft, which was a Russian sanctioned, U.S. sanctioned company at the time, and the Biden family was right front and center in the middle of it.

Thank you.

(05:15:21)
Let’s switch gears for a second. I wish Hunter Biden were here because I’d like to ask him about his taxes. I want to know if he paid his fair share, just like his dads asked some Americans to do. I wanted to know if he’s current on his taxes and, if he isn’t, I’d like to ask him when he plans to pay up.

(05:15:38)
Mr. Bobulinski, you’re a businessman. Did you pay your taxes?

I did. I’m happy to pay –

Mr. Bobulinski, he actually pays his taxes unlike the president’s son. And yet Democrats on this committee act like Hunter is the believable one out of you two. Joe Biden has no right to lecture the American people about their taxes until he gets his own house in order.

(05:15:57)
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Very good. Chair now recognizes Mr. Moskowitz for five minutes.

Mr. Chairman, thank you. By the way, how are you doing? Good? Okay.

(05:16:08)
Mr. Bobulinski, over here. How you doing? Good. So I just have a question. We’ve been at this for 15 months now in oversight. I know this is your first time here. But do you think Chairman Comer has proven that Joe Biden has committed a high crime and misdemeanor?

I believe with all the evidence he’s gathered, yes, he’s proven that Joe Biden has committed high crimes and misdemeanors.

Okay. And so I assume you believe Joe Biden should be impeached?

Well, that’s up to you guys.

But do you believe he should be impeached? It’s yes or no.

Do I personally believe or –

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, you?

– under constitutional –

No, no, no. You personally, do you believe he should be impeached?

I do.

Okay. And you believe that because you believe Chairman Comer has proven that he committed a high crime and misdemeanor?

No, because I know that he committed high crimes and misdemeanors.

Okay.

I was involved and saw one of them happen.

Right. But obviously with all the evidence, you must believe that, all of these hearings for 15 months, that the chairman has proven that, right?

Can you re-ask the question?

Sure. I’ll sum it up. I assume you believe he should be impeached, but my point is that the Chairman has not yet moved for that. And so, look, Chairman, we got, like, three and a half minutes here. I mean, let’s just do the impeachment. I mean, why continue to waste millions of dollars of the taxpayers’ money if we’re going to impeach because you believe you’ve shown he’s committed a high crime and misdemeanor? What are you waiting on? Let’s just do it. I mean, by the way, we got Chairman Jordan here also, the double chairmen. Why aren’t you guys calling for the vote in your committee? When is it going to happen? When can we tell the American people you’re going to stop wasting their money and just call for the vote on impeachment?

Gentleman, yield?

Sure.

We don’t do snap impeachments like you guys. We actually do the facts. We do oversight according to the Constitution.

So, you’re never going to call for it. You’re never going to call for it.

Well, now you can predict the future? How do you know?

But you guys only have six more months probably in power, right? Until the election. So are you to do it in two months? You can do it in three months. Tell the American people –

Does the Constitution put a time limit on oversight? I didn’t think… I didn’t read that in the Constitution.

So if you believe you can’t call for the impeachment now, then what you’re admitting is you haven’t yet proven that he’s committed a high crime and misdemeanor. You haven’t proven it yet, otherwise you would call for it, I assume.

We’re doing our work. We’re doing our investigation.

Okay. So they haven’t proven it, right? They haven’t proven he committed a high crime and misdemeanor, otherwise we would call for impeachment. So, I just… Look, you know, the chairman knows me well. I mean, I’m just here to help him, right? And so I just think we should do it today. Let’s just call for it. I’ll make the motion, Mr. Chairman. I want to help you out. You can second it, right? Make the motion to impeach President Biden. Go ahead. It’s your turn. You second it.

Once again [inaudible 05:18:55].

No, nothing. Okay, we got nothing. So I want to, with my last couple of minutes, show the American people that they’re never going to impeach Joe Biden. It’s never going to happen because they don’t have the evidence, okay? This is a show. It’s all fake. They just want to do these hearings. It’s not leading to impeachment. They’re lying to their base on Newsmax and Fox, leading these people to believe that they’re going to eventually impeach the president. It’s not going to happen at all, ever. Period.

(05:19:25)
They don’t even have the votes. Even if they had it in committee, they don’t have the votes on the floor. They know that. They got members resigning rather than taking a vote on the fake faux impeachment. Just ask Ken Buck who said, “The speaker ain’t going to get me to take an unconstitutional impeachment vote.” I mean, boy. I mean… So, look, I mean, if these hearings were a success, right? If what we’ve been doing for the last 15 months had convinced the American people that Joe Biden committed a high crime and misdemeanor, you can be sure they would’ve called the vote by now, right? But they wanted to go on. Well, they either want it to go on because they don’t have the evidence –

Are you asking me a question? I’m not sure.

No. No, I’m just looking at you.

Oh, okay.

But if you want to talk to me, we can talk.

Well, no, I think you haven’t the read recent data that shows American people are well aware of Biden’s corruption.

Perfect. So then ask the chairman why he hasn’t called for impeachment, Tony. He’s right here. Ask Comer, “Hey, Comer, how come you haven’t called for impeachment?” I’ll do it, watch. Hi, I’m Tony. Hey, Chairman, how come you haven’t called for impeachment? When are we going to have the hearing? When is the vote going to happen?

(05:20:30)
I mean, you believe it. He believes it. He says it every day on TV. I just don’t know when we’re going to have the vote. I mean, let’s just go.

Are you asking me to hold the vote? I’m not sure.

No, I just like looking at you.

(05:20:41)
We can save the taxpayers millions of dollars. So, I mean, look, I used all of my time to show that this vote is never going to happen. They have no evidence on Joe Biden. I yield back.

Gentleman’s time is expired. Chair now recognizes Mr. Burlison from Missouri for five minutes.

(05:21:12)
Switch mics, restart the clock.

(05:21:27)
We’ll get you a mic. Do you want to go to that one?

Okay. All right. We good?

Now we are.

All right.

(05:21:46)
I want to start [inaudible 05:21:47] Galanis. Mr. Galanis, you’ve heard the expression “Say it, forget it. Write it, regret it.” Have you heard that expression, Mr. Galanis?

Yes, I’m here. Congressman?

Have you heard the expression “Say it, forget it. Write it, regret it.”

Yes, I have. It was a practice that we used in our business.

In whose business?

Business with Hunter Biden and Devon Archer [inaudible 05:22:17]

Okay. So it’s their expression. Let me ask you a question: who is Hares Youssef?

Hares Youssef is an Ukrainian investor originally from Syria, a longtime colleague of Dmytro Firtash.

So he’s a colleague of Dmytro Firtash. He was mentioned earlier this hearing. Who is Dmytro Firtash?

He’s an Ukrainian oligarch, very close to the Kremlin, made his fortune primarily in trading gas from Gazprom, the Russian state oil and gas company.

So connected to Vladimir Putin, correct?

Very much so, yes.

Yeah. In fact, during Hunter Biden’s deposition with the committee, he justified his role, this is… I think you’ll find this comical. He justified his role on the Ukrainian Burisma board by saying in essence that it was his patriotic duty, that he was serving freedom because… this is his quote, “There were two gas companies inside Ukraine at the time. One of them was a state-owned, which was highly corrupt and connected to people like Firtash, which was directly going into Vladimir Putin’s pocket. The only independent company was Burisma.”

(05:23:34)
Now, my question to you, based on this, he’s disparaging, and yet are you aware that Mr. Biden, Hunter Biden, did business with Mr. Firtash?

Yes, I am.

So let me ask you, what kind of financial transactions occurred between them?

Hares Youssef described to me and then was also described to me by others including Devon and Hunter, was a $5 million payment that was made by Dmytro Firtash as handled by Hares Youssef through Hunter Biden’s law firm. That was deemed a success fee in order to quash an outstanding indictment in the United States.

So a Putin-connected Russian oligarch wired over $5 million to Hunter Biden’s law firm for what activity? What was Hunter supposed to do for that $5.5 million?

He was supposed to perform in quashing the indictment that resulted in an arrest warrant for Dmytro Firtash who as continuing to be in house arrest –

Being charged in the United States. Yeah, being charged the United States, in Indiana. So he’s supposed to quash that, uses political influence to do so. So my question is, of that money, the $5 million, $3 million made its way to a company that you set up with Devon Archer called Imbloom; is that correct?

That’s correct, yes.

And finally, from that $3 million, there was a transfer that was made, and I’ve got a copy of the bank record to prove that, of $275,000; do you recall that transfer?

I do. Yes.

And it went to which account?

Rosemont Seneca Bohai account.

Rosemont Seneca Bohai.

Correct.

So despite what Hunter said during his deposition, based on your knowledge, was Hunter Biden connected to Rosemont Seneca Bohai? Was he part owner?

Very much so, and he said as much and had direction and control, and was a beneficiary of the account. So there are emails that document he directed monies to be dispersed from that account, including to himself.

Now, it sounds like, despite what he’s saying, what he told the committee, that this guy was a bad hombre, basically, that this Firtash guy connected to Putin and therefore he had to get on Ukraine, and yet he had no problem doing business for this corrupt Russian oligarch connected to Putin. In fact, had no problem taking $5 million and a direct transfer of $275,000; would you agree?

I agree with that, yes.

Okay. Now, Mr. Bobulinski, and I’ve got just a little bit of time left, sorry, very little time. So I want to ask you, for God’s sake, Hunter Biden is doing all of these transactions, doing all of this business, and yet his father is vice president and we’re to believe that his father isn’t aware of all of these? That he’s been on the phone calls, he’s been in the meeting, and yet he’s not aware that his son is doing business with people connected to Vladimir Putin? Are we to believe that?

It’s an absurd expectation.

Thank you. My time is expired.

Very good. Chair now recognizes Mr. Frost for five minutes.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

(05:27:01)
The claims made against the President of the United States have been so completely proven to be lies that even House Republicans now are admitting that it’s time to close this case.

(05:27:11)
Mr. Parnas, I have a few questions for you and limited time, so I really want to try to get through these. And I just want everybody to know, especially people watching at home, that you’re, like, one of the most credible witnesses that we’ve had throughout this entire impeachment inquiry.

(05:27:27)
First off, I just want folks to know, for people who aren’t familiar, can you tell me who you were working for between 2018 and 2019?

Rudy Giuliani and Donald J. Trump.

And to be clear, you answered to Rudy Giuliani?

Yes.

You answered to Donald Trump?

Yes.

Directly?

Directly to Rudy Giuliani, most of the time.

Yeah. When former President Trump and Rudy Giuliani flew you to Ukraine to look for corruption on the part of President Biden, did you find any?

No.

And following your Ukraine trip, Senate Republicans, Senator Grassley and Johnson released their Burisma report, which the New York Times concluded was “unproven allegations that echo an active Russian disinformation campaign.”

(05:28:09)
Mr. Parnas are the unproven allegations that are at the heart of the Republican report the same fabricated claims that Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani sent you to Ukraine to go dig up?

Yes.

Last summer you wrote a letter to Congress noting that, when the media started to get tired of the smoke screens and using this, one of the authors of the Republican Burisma report would be your “guy in the Senate to push all the information;” what did you mean by that?

Senator Ron Johnson was our guy in the Senate. It was told to me that, when we push the information, he’s going to push in the halls of Congress.

So when the media was getting skeptical about pushing disinformation after they’ve proven it wrong time and time again, the plan was to have a U.S. Senator, Ron Johnson, to push that disinformation even further?

Correct, because we had Congressman Nunez already doing it. So Senator Ron Johnson jumped on board.

This Congress, both Chairman Comer and Chairman Jordan, have centered this entire sham impeachment hearing on an FBI tip sheet. This tip sheet made wild claims about bribery that didn’t even come close to being backed up, and in fact, it’s all been proved to be one big lie.

(05:29:22)
Mr. Parnas is the allegation in the FBI tip sheet based on the same fabricated claims that Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani flew you to Ukraine to dig up?

Yes.

I also want to make it clear that the informant allegedly behind this tip sheet is facing criminal charges for lying about the Biden family and was a known fraud for years before that. The same fabricated claim kept popping up and getting smacked down over and over again. In fact, our colleagues at the Foreign Affairs Committee did some amazing work on this investigation and found that this lie dates back to December 2015, almost 10 years ago. Do you happen to know the article that I’m referring to?

I don’t know the exact article, but I do know that this lie has started way back in 2015.

Started about 10 years ago. It was an article entitled The Ukrainian Scam of the Biden Family.” And it was posted to a Russian language media website registered in a city in Russian-occupied Crimea. Mr. Parnas, do you have any doubt that this fabrication claim, the claim that Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani sent you to Ukraine to try to dig up more information on, is part of Russian propaganda and an effort to destabilize Ukraine and undermine our democracy?

As I sit here today, I have zero doubt that Russia is involved. This is a Russian campaign to interfere in our elections.

Thank you. I appreciate it. I appreciate it from someone with firsthand experience.

(05:30:51)
Look, to recap, there’s no evidence that support allegations that President Biden engaged in corruption in Ukraine. We know this. Mr. Parnas himself has made it clear that we have no doubt, we should have no doubt that the claims of corruption are lies and conspiracy theories rooted in a Russian effort to undermine our democracy, posted to a Russian language website over a decade ago. This is exactly what Putin wants.

(05:31:16)
And over the years Republicans have kept moving the goalpost. Just look at the past year, right? First it was a bribe, then it was Burisma, nothing. Then it was Hunter Biden’s laptop, nothing but some nude pics that we keep seeing here. Then, it was supposed money laundering scheme that turned out to be a family member making a couple of car payments. And now Republicans on this committee have left the pretense of a crime behind and are moving the goalpost to influence peddling, which sounds more like what former President Donald Trump did in his time in office.

(05:31:47)
Look, we’ve been laughing a lot about this, calling it theater and a sham, which it is. But I also want to bring up that this is really serious. I mean, we have members of Congress and this committee using Russian propaganda, meant to undermine our democracy, to undermine our president. It’s not just theater or laughable, but it’s a betrayal of our democracy.

It is very serious, Congressman.

Yes. I yield back.

Time is expired. Chair recognizes Ms. Boebert from Colorado, for five minutes.

Well, Hunter asked for a public hearing, here we are, and he is nowhere to be found. I guess hiding really does run in the Biden family.

(05:32:23)
Now, Mr. Bobulinski, in your testimony you state, “It is clear to me that Joe Biden was the brand being sold by the Biden family.” In your experience, what is the value to Joe Biden in helping his family collect millions from foreign adversaries?

What’s the value to Joe Biden specifically?

Yes?

Well, his children and brothers were enriched which, to AOC’s questions earlier, violate corruption statutes, RICO statutes, FCPA statutes, FARA statutes.

Yes. So you would agree that the Biden family was involved in this corruption and influence peddling and selling access to the federal government?

I do.

Mr. Bobulinski, in your experience, did President Biden play a more active or passive role in his son Hunter Biden’s business dealings?

I quantified it previously as he acted sort of like a chairman. He showed up and shook hands –

He’s been called the chairman.

Yeah. He showed up, shook hands, and that’s all the Chinese, Ukrainians, Romanians, Russians, whoever’s need. It’s not what the Canadians, the Australians and Americans need. But in those parts of the world, that’s what they need.

Thank you. And now I’m going to switch over to Mr. Galanis.

(05:33:36)
During his 2020 presidential campaign, then candidate for president Joe Biden said his son did not make any money from China. Did Joe Biden lie? Yes or no?

Yes.

Mr. Galanis, you are aware of the BHR fund that consisted of Bohai, a Chinese State-backed company, Harvest, a China company, and Rosemont, the Biden entity, correct?

Yes, I am.

And Mr. Galanis, you’re aware that Hunter Biden formally held 10% of that Chinese entity? And would it surprise you, if you are aware, that Hunter Biden held 10% of this entity well into his father’s presidency?

I’m aware that it was founded as a business that he owned 50% of 20% or 10% directly from the outset, from early on in 2014.

And would it surprise you Kevin Morris, Hunter Biden’s fake attorney, has testified that he now holds that interest?

I don’t have any knowledge about that. Not much of this would surprise me.

Mr. Bobulinski, in your testimony, you stated the Chinese Communist Party through CEFC successfully sought to infiltrate and compromise the Obama-Biden White House during 2015 and continued through when Joe Biden left office. Would you agree that the CCP compromising the White House is a serious threat to our nation’s national security?

I do.

Thank you. Now, Joe Biden has leveraged his elected position to enable the Biden family, their business associates, and their companies to receive over $24 million from foreign nationals and their related companies. Biden is compromised and is a threat to our national security. After today, it’s clear that Joe Biden is a bigger CCP asset than Fang Fang herself.

(05:35:32)
Will we ever come to the agreement that it is far time that Congress holds the resident of the White House accountable for out the American people? Unfortunately, my colleagues to my left have a highly coveted made in China product, a brand if you will, and that is Joseph R. Biden.

(05:35:51)
Mr. Chairman, I yield the remainder of my balance to my friend from Florida, Matt Gaetz.

Mr. Parnas, how much time did you spend in prison?

Four months.

Four months?

Four months.

But you were indicted for crimes that could have resulted in you spending 50 years in prison, right?

Right. There were false crimes. The judge saw through it, yeah.

Well, you went to trial and you were convicted, right?

I went yo trial, correct.

And the crime was that you were trying to acquire marijuana licenses, and you took money from a Russian oligarch, and you tried to use that money to go give political donations and do what you had to do to acquire marijuana licenses; is that about right?

That’s what the crime was. That’s what the indictment was, yeah.

Right. Sounds like, of everyone here today, the only one working for a Russian oligarch was you, right?

Yeah, it was.

I mean, I just heard you –

It’s public information, Congressman Gaetz.

Yeah, no, I just heard you wax poetic with Mr. Frost about –

I got paid $200,000. You know how much I got paid.

– how you were really worried about our democracy and you are here to warn us. But you were working for a Russian oligarch –

On behalf of President Trump.

– wanting to get marijuana licenses, but then you didn’t even do it. The fraud you committed against the Russian oligarch was that, instead, you spent the money on yourself. So was that what you were doing in the fight against Russia’s aggression?

No, that was not fraud. No, that was not fraud. That’s a lie.

– just taking their money. Well, that’s what you were convicted of.

No.

But instead of spending 50 years in prison, you got four months. As this hearing continues, I look forward to hearing what Mr. Galanis thinks about how he was treated by the DOJ for telling the truth as opposed to how you’re treated for lying.

(05:37:20)
I yield back.

The DOJ didn’t listen to the truth because, if they will listen to the truth, you guys would’ve been all in jail.

The question Mr. Gaetz had is for Mr. –

They didn’t want to hear the truth. You can’t handle the truth, Matt Gaetz.

Look, well, the truth for you is taken money from Russians to buy marijuana businesses, and then go into jail, and then coming here to lie about Trump.

You should know better than anybody what the DOJ is about.

Gentleman’s time is expired. Chair now –

You should know better than anybody, Congressman.

Gentleman’s time is expired. Chair now recognizes Ms. Tlaib, from Michigan.

Thank you so much.

(05:37:48)
It’s so exhausting. This is really incredibly exhausting, and I can’t imagine our residents sitting at home. I still, every time I look up and I see our former chairman, our forever chairman, Elijah Cummings, our first ever hearing in this room was about the high cost of insulin. I think one of the first witness was a mother of twins who had to ration her insulin, and lost a child because she couldn’t afford it.

(05:38:20)
I still remember our previous chairwoman who really did a phenomenal job continuing to talk about the opioid crisis and how the Sackler family was part of a criminal scheme to increase addiction among family members. People just literally losing their family members because of profit, because of folks that were literally drug dealers in suits.

(05:38:41)
All of that to say is this House Oversight Committee, from our committee hearings on the postal service, which really matters to our constituents, the high cost of prescription drugs, the housing issues, the number of struggles and challenges of our everyday Americans, and I say this sincerely, I know you all… Sincerely, because what a waste of time. What a waste of time.

(05:39:10)
Just even some of the colleagues of my folks here continue to say this is a waste of time. I mean, Troy, Representative Nehls, said, “I don’t think we have the will to impeach Joe Biden.” Just for the record, impeachment isn’t something you have a will to do. It’s something you have to have evidence to do. Which brings me to next, I mean, you heard about Rep. Don Bacon who said, “When the staff tells you that they can’t identify a particular crime, there’s a problem.” That’s a problem. I mean, you can go on and on. One top Republicans admit that there’s no conclusive evidence of impeachable offense that shows Biden acted improperly while in office to enrich his family members. I mean, it goes on and on. A former Oversight Chair, Darrell Issa, who serves on Judiciary Committee now said… I think

Think he goes on and says, “There’s no clear sense of where the impeachment inquiry is going.” It goes on and on. I mean, look you all, this is an incredibly important committee. We could be doing some phenomenal things and holding currently the Biden Administration a number of issues like I want to know, I want to know about the American rescue dollars and where that money is being used. Is it being used towards public health? Is it being used towards the crisis that continues to happen in many of our families being impacted by long COVID symptoms? I mean, these are things that we could be doing right now in this chamber. We’re not. We’re doing this over and over again and it’s a waste of time. Literally, every time I talk to my constituents about this, they don’t bring this up. They said, “God, when is this going to be over with?”

(05:40:45)
I tell them, my colleagues do not know how to lead the campaigning at the steps of the Capitol. When we come in here, we have to literally put that aside and work for our constituents, work on getting some sort of understanding where we can prioritize, making sure that we have access to clean water. What is going on with the Lead Abatement Program within the administration, talking about the specific challenges that we continue to see in our healthcare system, all of that, again, we can hold the Biden Administration together, Mr. Chairman, and a number of issues we can see eye to eye on in saying we need to use this committee, so open it up to be the watchdog committee that we are.

(05:41:23)
Instead, we’re wasting, we really sincerely are wasting the time of the American people doing this. This is awful, for them to see us going back and forth like this, it’s so disenchanting for them. And you all wonder why the numbers out there of favorability towards Congress is so low. They really have no faith in us because of this. This is the kind of stuff we do when literally my folks are literally fighting for the right to breathe clean air and to fight to sit there and figure out how they’re going to afford asthma inhalers. Yet we’re here wasting the people’s time.

Will the gentlelady yield?

Yes, Mr. Chair, and again, I say this out of somebody as a social worker at heart, we can do so many things in bipartisan in this committee. I know it and I think we’re right now really missing out an opportunity to do that. We really are. I yield to Mr. [inaudible 05:42:22].

Well, it’s for a question I just wanted to ask you because you’ve had tremendous success in trying to clean up dirty water across America. We can actually get things done, right?

Absolutely. And I know my colleague on the other side, we all have the crisis of the water, clean water crisis. We could literally bring in folks in the EPA, bring folks into this chamber right now and ask, where is the Biden Administration on the development of their Lead Abatement initiative? These are the things that I think very much many of my mayors, my local electeds, many of the state folks are asking, what can we do as members of Congress to basically have more transparency in where the priorities are? But again, I really say this sincerely to all of you, we can do better. We deserve to do better. I remember Chairman Cummins constantly reminding us that we can be better.

Gentlelady’s time’s expired. Before I recognize Representative Fry, for what purpose does Representative McClain seek recognition?

I’d like to enter something in the record. My friends on the other side of the aisle are desperately trying to deflect from the Biden family.

Are you going to keep it the same way?

By attacking President Trump and his family.

Is this her five minutes?

I would like to enter into the record an article, actually, Jared Kushner and Hunter Biden are nothing alike and here are the facts. Thank you.

Without objection, so ordered. Chair now recognizes Representative Fry for five minutes.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. One of the inconsistencies that I have seen is what is on a text message, Mr. Bobulinski with Raymond Zhao and what Hunter Biden testified to in his own deposition. And so this is infamous. We’ve talked about this a lot, “Z, please have the director call me, not James, not you or Jim. Have him call me tonight. I’m sitting here with my father.” We’ve talked about this a lot. We’ve kind of got ad nauseum to it and in response, Raymond Zhao says, “Copy, I will call you on WhatsApp.” So in Hunter Biden’s testimony on page 105, he states that the Zhao that he sent this to was not the Zhao that was connected to CEFC. What do you say about that, Mr. Bobulinski?

Well, I think what he’s simply saying is he made a mistake, not that he meant to send that text message because it’s crystal clear that that message was meant for Raymond Zhao, who was the interpreter for Director Zang at CFC. But I think he tried to obfuscate in his testimony that technically maybe he made a mistake and texted it to the wrong person. I can’t speak to whether then he corrected that, but I do know based on the communications that he got on the phone with Raymond Zhao and set the record straight and exactly went through what he thought he was sending him in that message because it’s followed up where they sort of snap to and say, we’ll cooperate with the family. Why were they willing to cooperate with the family? Because effectively they were bribing the Biden family to get them to help them with the four unsealed indictments in the SDNY, which is the only thing that mattered to CFC.

And Raymond Zhao, you said he was an interpreter, but he was a little bit more than that too.

He was like a chief of staff.

The CEFC business, is that correct?

Yeah, he spoke good English. Director Zang, spoke very little English.

Right. So to the extent that this was the wrong Zhao, I mean I’m no rocket scientist, but if I get a text message and it’s somebody that it is a different Russell, I’m going to say you’ve got the wrong guy. Correct?

Yeah. I believe Henry Zhao probably, his argument is he sent it to Henry Zhao. I’m assuming there’s a text message somewhere where either Henry Zhao responded, “Hey, I think you meant that for somebody else.”

Instead, we just see, “Copy that. I’ll call you on WhatsApp.” Right? So if you were perplexed as to why you received a random text message that wasn’t applied to-

Well, that’s actually Raymond Zhao saying, I’ll call you on WhatsApp.

That’s what I’m saying. So the purpose, the issue that he brings up though is that he was confused and it was the wrong Zhao. I want to ask you a couple more questions real quick. Hunter Biden’s transcript on page 42. He said, “I officially began to work for CEFC when I received a retainer from CEFC in early or spring of 2017.” Is that true?

Well, it goes back to the word official. He’s parsing words. Hunter Biden started working for CFC in the fall of 2015 and worked for CFC throughout 2016. That was confirmed to me by him, by James Gilliar, by Rob Walker. Numerous face-to-face conversations on it. Numerous meetings.

So this is not true. On page 48 of his transcript, Hunter is asked, “He’s never interacted with any of your business associates. Is that correct?” The he’s he’s referring to is Joe Biden. Is that true?

That’s a lie.

Hunter lied to the committee about important details concerning his money demands and threats to CEFC, based on this WhatsApp message right here, on page 105 of his testimony, Hunter states, “My father had no awareness, my father had no awareness of the business I was doing.” Is that true?

That’s a lie.

You also talked about how Jim Biden also lied extensively throughout his own testimony and that Jim was selling plausible deniability for many years that he could not tell the truth from a lie. On page 100 of Jim Biden’s transcript, Jim was asked, “Do you recall having a meeting with Hunter Biden and Tony Bobulinski and Joe Biden?” Jim’s response was, “Absolutely not.” Jim States that Joe Biden never met with Tony Bobulinski. Is that true?

That is a lie, and I’m shocked that his lawyer sitting next to him, a former US attorney, allowed him to say that lie three different times in that transcribed interview.

Right. When pressed, he continued to double down on that.

He got excited. His lawyer had to calm him down and he continued to lie about it.

On page 124 of the transcript, Jim Biden states, quote, “It was Hunter Biden, myself, Gilliar, I don’t know. It was the five. Okay. And everybody was 20%. Okay. You know what, you know it was never executed. It was never signed.” And he’s referring of course, to the contract or the agreement. Is that true?

That’s a lie. He fully executed the legal document, Oneida Holdings, LLC as did Hunter, James Gilliar, Rob Walker, and myself.

Thank you for your testimony today.

Thank you.

Yours has been the consistent testimony throughout this process, unlike the other people who have come before this committee. And with that Mr. Chairman, I yield back.

Very good. Chair now recognizes Ms. Pressley from Massachusetts for five minutes.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. When Elijah Cummings was the chair of this committee, he often reminded us that our role was to be in a efficient and effective pursuit of the truth. So I’m going to try to do exactly that because this farce has gone 15 months, 10,000 documents and 11,000 hours too long, and we’ve got a lot of ground to cover here. Mr. Parnas, thank you for being here. Last year you wrote a long letter to Chairman Comer detailing your extensive role in the, “Campaign orchestrated by Giuliani and Trump to dig up dirt on the Bidens and to spread misinformation about them through various networks, including government officials, journalists, and Fox News personnel.” When that campaign failed to find dirt, because well, there was no dirt to be found, the former occupant of the White House demanded that Ukrainian political officials announce investigations into the Biden family in order to smear Joe Biden prior to the 2020 presidential election. A yes or no, Mr. Parnas, before Trump and Rudy Giuliani tasked you to try to find dirt on the Bidens in Ukraine, did you ever interact with Mr. Trump?

Before they asked me, yes, I’ve had many interactions with.

Okay. And you wrote to the committee that in late 2018 you attended a holiday party at Trump’s White House as shown in this picture, can you describe your interactions with Donald Trump during this party?

Yes. We came to the event, it was a Hanukkah party. Rudy Giuliani joined us. We were supposed to all go to the residence, but at the last second, Rudy said to wait for him downstairs. He was going to go meet Trump himself and update him on everything that was going on. He went to meet Trump at the residence. We waited at the White House. Then eventually when Trump came down to make a speech, Secret Service came up to us and said that the president wanted to see, wait for us at the Red Room. So we proceeded to the Red Room and waited for Trump to finish his speech. Then he came in, approached me and basically told me, shook my hand and said, “Rudy tells me great things. Keep up the good work. Thank you.” And then we proceeded to take pictures.

Mr. Parnas, when Trump told you to keep up the good work, what did you understand him to be referring to, exactly?

Well, at that point, the conversation was about Ukraine and Giuliani wanting me to go find Viktor Shokin. So that’s what I took it as, as keep up the good work, go get Viktor Shokin on our way to Ukraine.

And Mr. Parnas, after the party, did you interact with Trump again or were you cut off from interacting with him?

After our trip to Ukraine, we were cut off because then the BLT team was formed and the line of communication started going through Rudy Giuliani because they didn’t want anybody to notice me with him because I was in Ukraine doing this stuff.

I see. So is it fair to say, Mr. Parnas, that you think you were no longer invited to interact with Trump to create a buffer between President Trump and your work with Giuliani to generate evidence of Joe Biden’s misconduct in Ukraine?

Oh, I was told that, not that I wasn’t invited, I was told that, you’re going to stop going to the route, to the events, to the private events and stuff like that because while you’re doing this.

I see. So despite President Trump’s efforts to insulate himself from associating with you as you sought evidence of Biden corruption in Ukraine, you maintained your contacts with individuals in Trump’s innermost circle, including Donald Trump Jr. Correct?

Absolutely, yes.

Well, as the saying goes, a leopard can’t change their spots, and so Mr. Parnas, you’re a prime example of Donald Trump’s habit of welcoming people into his inner circle and then creating distance, or the appearance of it, from them as he relies on them to commit improper acts. Now, Donald Trump has demanded that Joe Biden be impeached, has enlisted oversight Republicans to do his dirty work in an attempt to try to win the 2024 presidential election by promoting the same lies about President Biden, lies that are firmly rooted in Russia’s disinformation and propaganda effort to influence US elections and undermine Ukraine in the midst of a vicious Russian invasion, I yield to Mr. Goldman.

Thank you very much, Ms. Pressley. I want to get back to this photograph here that I got cut off from before. You, Mr. Bobulinski, have called, you called a number of people liars, six FBI agents.

I did not call this, six FBI agents liars.

I’m talking. If you go to page one.

Well, you know better, Mr. Goldman.

Okay, go to page 174 of the transcript and you said, it’s not an accurate statement, it’s a lie related to an FBI report.

I didn’t call them liars. The statement is-

Sorry, I don’t have time. Be quiet. Now, this is a photo that was provided by Cassidy Hutchinson after you called her a liar when she said that you met with Mark Meadows and received an envelope. Do you see this photo? Do you acknowledge that is Mark Meadows in the red hat?

Didn’t you tell me to be quiet? I don’t-

I asked a question. Do you acknowledge that that’s Mark Meadows?

I don’t… Maybe your person can walk it closer so I can see it.

Mr. Chairman, would you indulge, just since he’s not answering the question.

I mean, you’re 15 seconds over, but [inaudible 05:54:01].

Let me just ask it very briefly, is that you and Mr. Meadows by Secret Service cars, with you in a mask?

Are you kidding, Mr. Goldman? I’m sitting 20 feet away [inaudible 05:54:11].

Go up to him, please. Go right up to him.

Your time’s expired. Maybe Mr. Swalwell will give you some time.

Could he just answer the question?

He can answer the question. Right?

So what I see in this picture is a Secret Service agent five feet from me with a full mask on and a Secret Service agent sitting in a Cadillac Escalade with all the windows up with a full mask on. Are you making it a big deal-

Is that you talking to the person in the red hat?

It’s the back of his head… I don’t.

Is that you talking to the person in the red hat?

Why don’t you ask me this, Mr. Goldman. Did I meet Mr. Meadows at a Trump rally in Rome, Georgia? I did. I acknowledge that.

Is that you?

Mr. Goldman.

I did. Of course, I did.

But Cassidy Hutchinson is a liar.

Cassidy Hutchinson is a liar because she said that he handed me an envelope. Mr. Meadows didn’t give me a single thing.

Now, Chair recognizes-

Why do we have the clear story?

Your time’s expired. Maybe Mr. Swalwell will yield you some time. Chair now recognizes Mr. Langworthy from Buffalo for five minutes.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Glad it’s so quiet in here. On the first day of the Biden presidency, then Press Secretary, Jen Psaki, claimed that President Biden’s objective and his commitment was to bring, transparency and truth back to government. To share the truth, even when it’s hard to hear. That is obviously laughable. Just about as laughable as when Hunter Biden claimed that he was trying to avoid wire fees when he had Rob Walker launder a $1 million payment from a Chinese company through 16 different bank wires to Hunter, Hallie and Jim Biden’s accounts. If you’re trying to avoid wire fees, then why send four different wires over three months to the same account? It’s a total joke. A glaring example of President Biden’s failure to live up to his promise to bring transparency is his influence peddling in Ukraine where he pressured the Ukrainian government to fire prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, who was investigating the owner of Burisma.

(05:56:09)
While Joe Biden was vice president in 2014, his son, Hunter Biden, was asked by Burisma’s owners to join the board, a paid position. The committee has sought documents from the administration regarding Vice President Biden’s influence peddling in the Ukraine, the administration, which claims transparency has failed to produce these documents. I’ll give you an example. On September of 2015, the United States was steadfast in its belief that the owner of Burisma was the face of corruption in Ukraine. The administration vowed to work with a prosecutor general to tackle corruption in the country. However, that all changed after a phone call from Hunter Biden and the owner of Burisma to Hunter’s, Washington, DC Associates in 2015. A few days later, Vice President Biden delivered a speech to the Ukrainian legislature and privately pressured the Ukrainian president to fire the prosecutor general. The oversight Committee has asked the White House for drafts of Vice President Biden’s speech to the Ukrainian legislature from 2015.

(05:57:07)
They have withheld those draft speeches for nearly seven months. To this date, we have not been able to review them. We all want to know whether there were edits to the speech after Hunter called DC. We all want to know whether the vice president, then vice president, changed course to protect his son and his corrupt business associates. We all want to know whether the Biden family’s business dealings affected American policy towards the Ukraine. The White House claims to be committed to bringing truth and transparency to government. It just seems like it’s only interesting when it’s convenient for his administration. Now, Mr. Bobulinski, did Hunter ever tell you at any point the value of the Burisma income to him?

I was not involved in [inaudible 05:57:55]. I don’t recall him ever mentioning that to me.

Okay. Did he ever say it was his only income at that time?

Okay. Actually, I stand corrected. There’s a text message. I never discussed it with him. I was in Monaco at the Grand Prix. He was in Monaco for the Burisma board meeting. He set up a meeting with me. He didn’t show up at that meeting. Obviously you can imagine I wasn’t too happy. And he responded to a text, me asking him, what’s going on? And in that text he states he’s on the back of Kola’s yacht fighting for the only income he has. But it wasn’t from Burisma, it was from the Kazak deal that he’s talking about. I never discussed that with him after that. That was a single exchange between him and I.

Corruption and a lack of transparency from the Biden family have been common themes through the House Oversight Committee’s investigation, and even when asking for simple drafts of then Vice President Biden’s speech in the Ukraine, the White House has been anything but transparent. President Biden is done and will continue to do everything in his power to cover up the truth, especially when it’s hard to hear. And I yield back, Mr. Chairman.

The gentleman yields back. Mr. Bobulinski yields back to me for one minute. Is there anything that you want to respond to? Now, you don’t worry about Mr. Goldman. We don’t pay any attention to Mr. Goldman either. But is there anything that anyone said up here that you want to take about 55 seconds to respond to?

It is tempting. I mean, my biggest appeal to everyone in this room is I wish you would spend the time focusing on the fact that the Chinese Communist Party infiltrated the White House of the United States of America through the Biden family. I don’t say that lightly. It’s not a joke. I was willing to die for this country as was my father and both my grandfathers and my brother. This is serious, serious stuff. We should be asking how that happened. Take the Biden name and the Biden family completely out of it. How did the Chinese Communist Party infiltrate the White House, the United States of America? Let’s start there. Focus on those facts, what they did, how they did it, why they used money, why they used private enterprises instead of military stuff and other stuff, that is huge to our national security. So I appreciate you yielding that time to me, Mr. Chairman.

Well, thank you. And I’ll just say this, Ms. Tlaib and Ms. Pressley criticized the investigation, but I think most Americans care about public corruption and they realize the FBI hasn’t done the job, that DOJ hasn’t done their job. The IRS hasn’t done their job. They’ve been told to stand down. All that’s left is the House Oversight Committee and we will do our job. And pursuant to the previous order, because votes have been called again, the committee stands in recess, subject to the call of the chair, the committee will reconvene five minutes after floor votes.

All right.

I didn’t get a chance to actually check them. The lights came on and I’m pretty sure they’re good, but there have been people running around with the cord [inaudible 06:37:01].

Yeah. It’s just that one cord. It’s just so… It’s contorted.

Yeah. I could basically just lock the cord, but… That was embarrassing.

Well, I mean, it has a weld from four.

Yeah. I knew as I was running down here, somebody kicked the cable out.

Yeah.

I-

The committee hearing will reconvene. Chair recognizes Mr. Swalwell for five minutes.

Mr. Bobulinski, in your interactions with the Biden family, which you’ve told us all about throughout the day, did you ever observe the Chinese government grant 22 patents to any of Joe Biden’s children while Joe Biden was in office?

I did not.

Did you ever observe Joe Biden ever own or operate any hotels while he was in public office and take millions of dollars from foreign governments?

I did not.

Did you ever observe Joe Biden employ any of his children or their spouses in the White House as vice president or president?

I did not. I can’t speak to that.

Did you ever observe, while observing the Bidens, the Bidens install a family member to be the co-chair of the DNC?

I’m sorry, ask the question again?

Did you ever observe the Bidens install a family member to be the co-chair of the Democratic National Committee?

I did not.

Did President Biden or anyone in his family take $2 billion from the Saudi government?

Not that I’m aware of.

Did President Biden or anyone in his family get fined $355 million for tax fraud?

Not that I’m aware of.

Mr. Parnas, as you’ve observed Mr. Bobulinski today and his fealty and dedication and loyalty to the Trump family, is that something you recognize as somebody who was also in that cult before?

Absolutely.

Is there hope for our man Tony here?

Very little, I think, until he hits a brick wall.

In your experience, on a scale of one to 10, how eager was the Trump campaign in your interactions to manufacture dirt on Joe Biden? One to 10, 10 being the highest.

10 plus

10 plus. Would it surprise you, Mr. Parnas, that the Russians and in their disinformation campaign outlets have often cited Chairman Comer’s testimony and allegations against the Biden family to make their own allegations against Joe Biden?

It doesn’t surprise me because that’s exactly what they want to happen.

Mr. Chairman. It’s over. It’s over. It’s time to pack it up. I want to give you the top 10 reasons why impeachment is dead. Number 10, your key witness today is testifying from the slammer. Number nine, key evidence of a bribe that you all relied on. The guy who said that has been indicted for lying about that bribe and he’s a Russian asset. Number eight, another key witness has been indicted as a Chinese agent. Number seven, during the Hunter Biden interview, Mr. Chairman, you didn’t even stay for the whole time. Number six, Chairman Jason Smith didn’t show up at all to the Hunter Biden interview. The same day, number five, Darrell Issa said, “It’s a big nothing.” Number four, today, Jim Jordan began his remarks, not by relying on any evidence for this investigation, but he went off attacking the DOJ about what they’re doing with the Catholics. Number three, you all still have not sent the articles of impeachment for the Mayorkas impeachment to the Senate, and that happened last month. Number two, you’re now talking about a criminal referral. But if you had evidence for a criminal referral, then you have evidence to impeach somebody for high crimes and misdemeanors. Number one, and I’m sorry to say this, Fox News isn’t even carrying this today. In fact, one of their anchors as they broke away 10 minutes in said, “This is the same hearing over and over and over. At what point are you going to fish or cut bait?” So I just have to tell you, it’s over. Impeachment’s over. Dunzo. Bye-Bye. Rigor mortis. Lights out. Curtain drop. Mic drop. Peace. Adios. Sayonara. Au revoir. Or a language that you all understand, do svidaniya. Did I say that right Mr. Parnas?

Yes.

I dare you impeach. But you won’t because you don’t have the evidence and because you don’t have the evidence, you don’t have the votes. Guys, it’s dead. So I’m here to pronounce the time of death, 5:16.

Say it in Chinese.

Impeachment is dead. 5:16 Biden impeachment’s dead. Joe Biden has been acquitted.

Mr. Swalwell time has expired. Chair now recognizes Ms. Luna from Florida for five minutes.

Mr. Parnas, I want to read to you a few quotes from a letter that you wrote to the House Oversight Committee. First you said that I’ll remind you that Zlochevsky’s answers are in the report that the House Oversight Committee published. In this document, he stated that Hunter Biden was never asked or assigned to speak with anyone in the US on behalf of Burisma. Mr. Parnas, are you aware that according to Amos Hochstein, a US State Department official, in a transcribed interview with the Senate, Hunter Biden requested to have a meeting with him in November of 2015? Mr. Hochstein testified that he met with Hunter Biden and they spoke about Burisma. So yes or no, that statement that you made to House Oversight was incorrect.

The statement was correct because that statement-

Yes or no.

The statement is coming from the words of-

So, you’re saying yes, it was?

… the CEO Burisma. This was his answer. Rep, that was not my answer, that was answers from the CEO Burisma.

It’s directly conflicting with testimony. Next question, there were no political or lobbying firm efforts on behalf of Burisma. In your statement that you made to House Oversight. Mr. Parnas, are you aware that Burisma’s engagement of Blue Star Strategies, which was a lobbying firm that was lobbying the US government on behalf of Burisma, and Mykola Zlochevsky, and according to Sally Painter and Karen Tramontano, the heads of Burisma. So that statement again that you wrote to this committee was incorrect. Yes or no?

No. You’re incorrect. Because I-

No, that is incorrect. You’re directly conflicting with that. My final question for you, Mr.Parnas-

No, the answers were given, not by me, by CEO of Burisma.

[inaudible 07:06:12] that nobody from the company of Burisma has ever spoken to Joe Biden.

[inaudible 07:06:15].

It’s okay, Chairman. I got him. Mr. Parnas, Devon Archer testified to this committee that Vadim Pacharski, the corporate Secretary of Burisma, sat down for dinner with Joe Biden. So that statement also was incorrect that you wrote to this committee, yes or no?

No, it’s not incorrect.

Mr. Chairman, I think this witness is credibility [inaudible 07:06:31]. I’d like to give the remaining of my time to the amazing representative from Florida, Representative Matt Gaetz.

You’re good.

The Democrats could have sent anyone. They could have sent Hunter Biden, they could have sent Joe Biden, they could have sent Rob Walker, they could have sent Devon Archer. The Democrats could have sought any person to come and refute the direct evidence, backed up by bank statements, backed up by calendar entries, backed up by emails, backed up by text messages. Who did the Democrats send to clear the name of Joe and Hunter Biden? They sent Lev Parnas.

(07:07:05)
Lev Parnas, who was charged with enough crimes and violating our campaign finance laws to serve 50 years, but he gets four months. The big grand criminal conspiracy Mr. Parnas is involved in is using Russian oligarch money to try to get marijuana licenses, which seems odd. Then using that Russian money to plow into campaigns in order to achieve that objective. But the fraud he committed wasn’t just on our election system by plowing Russian money, it was also a fraud on his own investors who didn’t get it. So I guess, Mr. Bobulinski, as you hear Maxwell Frost, my colleague on the Democrat side, say that Mr. Parnas fresh off of his prison time, is the most credible witness we’ve had to address these business dealings, what’s your reaction to that?

I think it’s laughable that the Democrats are asking Lev Parnas to weigh in on my credibility, a convicted felon that served jail time. I have an impeccable record. Now, he warned me earlier in this hearing that they’re coming for me.

I didn’t warn you. I said just keep talking. You’ll be there soon.

I look forward to that Mr. Parnas.

Keep lying. You’ll be there soon.

Well, and-

Is that a threat, Mr. Parnas?

No, it’s just the truth.

No. Did you say they were coming for me?

No. I said if you keep lying, you will end up in prison.

I’m not lying. You’re the one who is lying.

Then you have nothing to be scared of.

You’re the one who went to prison.

What am I lying for? Tell me what we’re lying for, Mr. Bobulinski. You don’t even know what you’re talking about. What am I lying?

You went to prison for lying and defrauding your investors.

What am I lying here? What am I lying here?

Oh, the list is long. We don’t have enough time. I think Mr. Gaetz only has a minute.

I think you’re a little scared, just like Mr. Gaetz because Mr. Gaetz doesn’t even ask a question. You’re filibustering. I’ve been here for six hours and not one of your committee members had asked me one question. You want to hear the truth?

No. I asked the question about your illegal business dealing.

I’ve been here for seven hours. Ask me some questions.

Mr. Bobulinski. Fraud is a crime, right?

Go ahead, ask.

Correct. Fraud is a crime.

Fraud is a crime. You observed fraud on the part of the Bidens, right?

I did. Crystal clear. So much so I had an independent law firm spend $300,000 to analyze that fraud and put together a fully ready fileable lawsuit against the Biden family.

Bribery is a crime, right?

Correct.

What you observed with Joe Biden trying to get you into this business deal with Hunter Biden, what you later learned about that business deal and how the money was flowing from the Chinese Communist Party to Hunter Biden, to other members of the Biden family. Did that concern you as a potential feature of money laundering?

It did. It did. I started to grow concerned after I met Joe Biden and then I sat down with Jim Biden and he used the term plausible deniability with me. That’s documented because I went back to my lawyers and I asked them something is starting to feel unright. They went and hired another law firm to give me a full FCPA workup to go through the details of what could be done and what couldn’t be done.

Sounds like high crimes and misdemeanors to me, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.

Very good. Chair now recognizes the chairwoman of the House Education Committee. Ms. Foxx from North Carolina. Dr. Foxx.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. I want to thank my colleagues for what you have been doing here today, unraveling these issues. Mr. Galanis, in your written testimony, you state that your, “objective was to build a diversified private equity platform, which would be anchored by a globally known Wall Street brand together with a globally known political name, Biden.” Is it correct that Harvest Fund Management, a $300 billion Chinese financial services company, closely connected to the Chinese Communist Party, CCP, was interested in partnering with you and your business partners?

Yes, that’s correct.

Thank you. Why was the CCP-connected Harvest Fund Management interested in doing business with you and your partners, Hunter Biden and Devon Archer?

The only plausible reason, and the reason that we even discussed, was because of the access that it provided. There was a quote that was attributed to Henry Zhao, the chairman that talked about the access that it provided. So there’s documentation that was contemporaneous that said what their interest was, and that interest was political access.

Thank you. Is it correct that Harvest Fund Management believed that Joe Biden would take a seat on that company’s board after his vice presidency ended?

Yes, that’s correct. There were emails to that effect around that time that were circulated by people who were there as part of those conversations, including the golf outing.

Thank you. Are you aware of Hunter Biden ever speaking to his father, Joe Biden, about the plan to have him join the board of Harvest Fund Management?

Yes, I witnessed that. Yes.

It seems clear that Joe Biden was aware of his family’s use of his office and influence to do business with America’s adversaries and therefore a choice to pursue personal gain over national security. Mr. Bobulinski, is it true that former Vice President Joe Biden met with Ye Jianming, the chairman of CEFC China Energy?

It is, based on Rob Walker saying yes to that in a transcribed interview. I personally was not at that meeting.

When did this meeting take place, based on what Mr. Walker said?

Yeah, in my understanding, it would’ve been February 2017 after they had a meeting in Miami, I believe James Gilliar got on the corporate jet of CFC and flew with Ye Jianming and Director Zhang to DC in preparation for that meeting.

After this meeting with former Vice President Joe Biden and Chairman Ye, were any payments made to the Biden family or associates?

Yes. Well, it gets to that point of obfuscation. $3 million was wired to Rob Walker’s account on March 1st. Actually, they sent two wires. The first wire got kicked back, and then they sent a second wire on March 1st 2017 to Robinson Walker LLC. Then as your committees walked through today, they parsed that out to the Biden family in numerous different payments.

Thank you. Mr. Chairman, it is clear that Joe Biden is the common element in all of Hunter Biden’s attempts to do business with China. There’s a pattern emerging that the Biden family and associates, including Joe Biden himself, deliberately chose personal gain over the safety and best interest of the very Americans Joe Biden was elected to serve, protect, and defend. With that, I’ll yield the balance of my time to Mr. Gaetz.

Hunter Biden’s deposition. “Question, do you think some of your business associates we’ve spoken about today, Mr. Archer, My. Bobulinski, Mr. Galanis, do you think they had an expectation that your dad had any role or involvement in any of your joint business dealings? Answer from Hunter Biden, not an expectation from me. There was never a single time I can remember saying, ‘Hey, we’ll get my dad involved’ ‘Hey, let’s get my dad on the phone.’ ‘Hey, what can we get out of Dad for this?'” Mr. Galanis, what’s your reaction to that testimony from Hunter Biden in light of you describing the Biden lift?

I think it is patently false. It’s belied by emails. I think that there’s documentation that says that that’s just an untruthful statement.

What I’m trying to understand, Mr. Galanis, is there you are sitting in a prison cell for a financial crime where you were an associate with Hunter Biden and some of the others players there. They’re out enjoying Southern California and you’re sitting in a prison cell and they’ve got the ability to come and give this false testimony to Congress. Is it your belief that the Biden Justice Department retaliates against people who speak out against the Bidens and their crimes?

I am living that. I think to clarify, I took responsibility for my crimes. I’ve pleaded guilty. I’ve served eight years clean conduct, and I think I’ve rehabilitated myself quite a bit in that period of time and the evidence, the track record. But I would say that there is unquestionably a pattern of two tiers of justice, and that’s become popularized term. It’s a lived experience that I’ve gone through.

Yield back

Before I recognize Mr. Waltz. For what purpose does Mr. Biggs seek recognition?

I want to include an article in a record. The article is entitled, Tlaib [inaudible 07:15:58] “Impeach the MF” call against Trump.

Without objection so ordered. For what purpose does Mr. Gaetz seek recognition?

Mr. Chairman, I seek unanimous consent to enter into the record, the press release from the Department of Justice, Lev Parnas sentenced to 20 months in prison for campaign finance, wire fraud and false statement offenses.

Without objection so ordered. Chair now recognizes Mr. Waltz from Florida.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I find it incredibly rich. Mr. Swalwell is going to come to this committee and lecture us about how China penetrates our government. I think that’s something he may know a thing or two about. But let’s talk about how China has penetrated the highest levels of this government, including this president and this White House, because I think the visual is incredibly important. Mr. Bobulinski, Hunter Biden portrayed Chairman Ye, the Chairman of CEFC, to Jim Biden as a protege of Xi. Is that accurate?

Not only is it accurate, and it wasn’t just Hunter Biden, it was James Gilliar, Rob Walker. I wouldn’t have used the word protege, they just basically-

You don’t run China’s largest state owned energy company without being close to Chairman Ye.

Correct.

Right. Fair enough. By the mid 2000s, Chairman Ye ran a business empire estimated as much as you can estimate a Chinese state owned enterprise, tens of billions, including, and from a national security standpoint, this is the critical piece here, including implementing China’s Belt and Road Initiative, not just all over the world, right here in the United States. Is that accurate?

100%. So CEFC was effectively the shadow arm of the Chinese government deploying tens of billions of dollars around the world, very well documented. At its peak, I think it was doing $50 billion of revenue per year. One of the top five largest-

Debt diplomacy, where they are taking electrical grids, they are bribing officials. They take as collateral, not just grids, ports, airports, key infrastructure that the Chinese government could then leverage and use against any country, but also here in the United States. That’s how the Belt and Road initiative works. Heck, I was just in the Armed Services Committee with a commander of Indo-Pacom, our Pacific command, talking about how China is basically gobbling up infrastructure around the world, including here. So by the mid, what, 2015, 2016, Hunter Biden’s developed a very lucrative business relationship. By 2017, Hunter Biden’s forged such a partnership with Chairman Ye that he planned to share an office space with him and then just removed Vice President Biden at the House of Sweden in Washington DC, correct?

Correct.

So here’s what’s interesting, and building on Chairman Foxx’s questions. Within days of him leaving the vice presidency, ostensibly for work performed, $3 million flows through the shell companies that we’ve depicted here. You could see how complicated this is, but the key piece is the flow to Hallie Biden, to Jim and Sarah Biden, to Hunter Biden and his various affiliates. The kicker here, Mr. Chairman, is that we know Hunter is then complaining about paying all his dad’s bills. He’s complaining to the other relatives saying, you freeloaders, I’m having to use all this money to pay the big guys’ bills, house renovations and all kinds of things. Correct?

Correct. It’s important for the American people to understand the $3 million was $3 of $20 million that the Bidens expected to be paid for the work in 2015 and 2016. That’s not just my word, that is documented.

That’s all documented. Bank records, text messages, emails. Mr. Chairman, Bob Menendez’s wife can’t get paid by the Egyptians, and then provide that money over to pay Senator Menendez’s bills. I can’t have my daughter get paid by, I don’t know, Kazakhstan, Russia and China, and then pay my bills. We know also that they had commingled funds with the Vice President of the United States. When we talk about crimes, let’s talk about the crimes. We know he perjured himself, that’s a crime. We know he was acting as a foreign agent. Was he registered under FARA? Was he registered as a foreign agent?

Not that I’m aware of.

Was his dad complicit in him acting as a foreign agent through meetings and dinners and what have you?

100%.

That’s crime number two. He was clearly acting in that capacity. We have the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. We already have him, thanks to the work of this committee, for tax evasion. So Mr. Chairman, there are multiple crimes that this committee has established ample evidence. We must move to impeachment. We cannot allow this to stand. I look forward to seeing those references to the Department of Justices for this alone. This is a critical national security issue. The Chinese Communist Party call it the Princelings. They don’t go after the principle they want to influence, they go through the son. It is right out of their playbook, and they’ve done it at the highest levels of the United States government. I yield my time.

Very good.

Mr. Chairman. I just have a couple of UC requests if that’s all right.

Proceed.

One is from Devin Archer’s transcribed interview testifying that Joe Biden had nothing to do with any of Devin Archer’s business ventures with Hunter. Second is the declassified intelligence community assessment from the National Intelligence Council March 2021, detailing efforts by Russian actors to interfere in the 2020 US elections.

And finally, most importantly, the US District Court decision from the Southern District of New York in United States versus Galanis, where Mr. Galanis was described as a con artist who wanted to be in business with Hunter Biden but never was, and how they thought that they could add layers of legitimacy to their con operation. If I could have those introduced.

Without objection, so ordered. Now the chair recognizes Mr. Gaetz from Florida.

You’re a serious business person, Mr. Bobulinski. Right?

I am.

Unlike the convicted felon next to you. You’ve served in the military, right?

Correct.

You’ve done big deals.

Correct.

Complicated deals. Deals that involved foreign businesses. Right?

Correct.

So what I’m trying to figure out is when you came to realize that you showed up at the wrong party, because you strike me as a guy who showed up to do a legitimate business deal, and you ended up instead at a bribe. And so as you’re looking at CEFC, as you’re having this meeting with Joe Biden, as Hunter Biden is introducing you to his web of contacts, when did you go from serious businessman, Tony Bobulinski, working to make a buck in a capitalist system, to a guy worried that you had been unwittingly ensnared into Hunter and Joe Biden’s bribe operation with the Chinese Communist Party?

I appreciate the question. It wasn’t an aha moment. It was more of a process. I am a serious businessman, demonstrated by the different deals I’ve done around the world and the success of them. Remember, the Biden family wasn’t my entry into this. James Gilliard, who I’d known for over 10 years, who traveled the world doing business, kept trying to get me involved. I really had no interest. I sat down in the spring of 2017 to walk through things, and then I quickly put together two businesses, Sinohawk and Oneida. After the meetings in Los Angeles with Hunter and Joe Biden, bells and whistles started to go off when Jim Biden used the term plausible deniability.

Plausible deniability is the first moment straight from the lips of Jim Biden, right on the heels of your discussion with Joe Biden, where you start to think, “This might not be legit”?

Correct. And my lawyers at the time could attest to that because I reached out to them saying, “Listen, I’m a former naval officer. I held a Q security clearance. Somebody couldn’t take me to dinner for $50. This just does not make sense to me.”

But you proceed but you proceed. And then later this thing starts to get a lot uglier. What’s the moment you go from, okay, your Spidey senses are up, you’re analyzing this to now you know this is a crime that you are bearing witness to?

The end of July when the Biden family put them right front and center in the middle of a $9 billion transaction between the Russian state-owned energy company, Rosneft and CFC, a surrogate for the Chinese Communist Party.

Was there ever a time in the deals you were involved in where you started to see the money move around the legitimate business enterprise and toward the pockets of the Bidens?

Well, the challenge Mr. Gaetz with that is at the time they moved the money. You guys have the text messages where Hunter Biden shook down, director Zang, but I was not aware of that. I spent a year asking questions of, “This doesn’t make sense to me,” “Where’s the money?” I stepped in and had lawyers work to dissolve the two entities. I didn’t know until years later that they had defrauded me. They had gotten paid all this money and all this craziness. The matter of fact-

Kit just seems pretty simple. This is either a bribe or a business.

It was a bribe from the Chinese Communist Party. And I don’t say that lightly. There’s 1200 pages, eight days of testimony in the Southern District of New York. I encourage everyone watching me, hearing me say this, they’re publicly available. Go read them. Our Department of Justice outlines in intimate detail the corruption and bribes that CFC was deploying to political officials all over the world.

It wasn’t just in the United States.

So I’m here to believe that they did this in every other country, but with the Biden family, it was pristine. It was an actual clean business. That’s absurd.

And you came to know that, and that’s when you blew the whistle, right? That’s when you started to get worried. When you saw Joe Biden-

I stepped away from it. There’s the whistle-blowers. I can’t give them kudos enough for the bravery and the risk they put their family in. They publish stuff where I am voicing the concern of the Rosneft deal directly to them.

And you animated your concerns when you saw that this wasn’t just a corrupt bribe, a corrupt business deal happening to a guy who used to be vice president. Everyone’s made a big deal like you’re a bad guy, that you showed up at the debate or you’re trying to give life to these facts that you’ve observed that it’s so bad that you did that during a political contest, but observing this, it seems like it would be unpatriotic for you to stay quiet.

Of course.

And so, Joe Biden running for president clearly motivated the Chinese to consummate this bribe. Did it also motivate you?

Well, I didn’t want to go public. I wanted to simply unload all the facts, personal experiences. It’s funny, there’s 18 people on this committee with law degrees, including, I think, Mr. Swalwell. Evidence firsthand testimony is the most powerful evidence you have. I’ve given it. Mr. Galanis has given it, along with a whole host of other witnesses. Then on top of that, I have thousands of documents and pages of legals and stuff like that.

Well, that’s what’s interesting [inaudible 07:27:47]

I wanted to simply give this information. Congressmen and Senators [inaudible 07:27:51].

No one questioned any of your facts. No one brought a single piece of evidence that even for a moment discredited any of the truthful testimony that you’ve given us.

No, they did not.

I think my time’s expired. I yield back.

Gentlemen yields back. That concludes our questioning. Again, want to thank the witnesses. We are going to close now, and I will yield to the ranking member for a brief closing statement.

Great. And I’ll take an extra 32 seconds as Mr. Gaetz did. Well, and while we’re on Mr. Gaetz, he seemed to be upset about a couple of different things. One was fraud, which was fascinating to me, given that his hero, Donald Trump, has just been convicted civilly of bank and insurance fraud in New York in a civil case, and now owes, I think it’s $454 million, unless that’s gone up with interest. I think he’s having a hard time making that. But I’m sure that Mr. Gaetz’s constituents will help him out as they’re shaking down Republican voters. You can pay either for Donald Trump’s criminal lawyers or his civil lawyers. That’s the big political choice. I suppose.

(07:28:52)
He’s also upset about China. Well, if you check out the Democrats Report, White House for Sale, how princes, prime ministers and premiers paid off President Trump, you’ll find that China actually gave more than $5 million to Donald Trump while he was President of the United States in direct violation of the Emoluments Clause, which says that nobody in federal office shall accept a present in emolument, which means a payment, an office or title of any kind, whatever, from a king, a prince, or a foreign state. And we spent the day, again, jawboning about Hunter Biden, who has never held public office, and he’s never done business with a government. And yet we have, right in front of us, in front of our very eyes, mammoth corruption, unprecedented US history by Donald Trump as president.

(07:29:41)
And my friends don’t say a single word about it, but he wants to lecture Mr. Parnas about the illegal donations he made on behalf of pro-Trump Super PAC. I’ve noticed something interesting with the people who have finally disenthralled themselves and gotten out of the Trump cult, as Mr. Parnas puts it, people like Michael Cohen, Sarah Matthews, Cassidy Hutchinson, Alyssa Griffin. There’s articles about them. There are dozens of those people, and I’d be fleeing for the exits now too. What’s so fascinating to me about it is that they don’t mind when these people lie for Donald Trump. Then when they get out and start telling the truth, that’s when they called them liars for what they did when they worked for Donald Trump. Mr. Parnas, they’re not mad that you lied and went to prison for it and did your time. They’re mad that you’ve stopped lying for Donald Trump.

Absolutely, Congressman Raskin.

When I was a state assistant Attorney General, Mr. Chairman, I saw a judge on my very first day of work, castigate a lawyer by saying, “Son, you forgot the very first rule of lawyering. When you go to court. You got to bring the evidence with you.” You forgot to bring the evidence. There’s no evidence. Hundreds of thousands of pages of documents, dozens of hours of testimony, but not a shred of evidence of presidential wrongdoing, much less an impeachable offense by President Biden. And you’re making, not just the majority, a laughing stock, the whole committee, a laughing stock. So it’s hurting us. My members are saying, “When will they call off this nonsense?” So here we are. Again, Mr. Parnas, I want to thank you. You have explained to America that the allegations at the very foundation of this inquiry were predicated on Russian propaganda and disinformation, just as they were at the start of the hit job that you and Rudy Giuliani were sent to do back in 2018 and 19.

(07:31:33)
And I want to thank you for showing America what real intellectual honesty and personal honesty look like and how you can grow out of the deranged Trump syndrome that so many of our colleagues are still suffering from today. It’s time to call this investigation for what it is, Mr. Chairman. It’s not just an embarrassing failure and an historic failure at that, but it’s an historic betrayal of democracy, freedom in the rule of law as Vladimir Putin tramples the freedoms in the democracy of people in Ukraine. We should be spending our time standing up for democracy and not tarnishing it with spectacles like this. I yield back.

I should have brought my waiters from the farm. I want to thank our witnesses for being here today. Mr. Bobulinski, Mr. Galanis have delivered testimony in front of the American people, directly implicating President Biden and his family’s influence peddling schemes. Schemes that brought over $24 million into the Biden family and their business associates’ pockets. For what? I never heard the minority say what they did or what business the Bidens were in. Mr. Bobulinski and Mr. Galanis have provided documents supporting these claims and provided hours of testimony to this committee. Mr. Bobulinski and Mr. Galanis have not changed their stories. Mr. Bobulinski and Mr. Galanis did not ask for this hearing, but they showed up for it because they have nothing to hide. I also invited Hunter Biden to this hearing, in part due to his own request, that he be allowed to provide transparency and testimony before the American people, or at least he did request this hearing.

(07:33:20)
And then he sat for a deposition with the Oversight and Judiciary Committees. Now he’s nowhere to be found. Mr. Bobulinski, Mr. Galanis and others have implicated Joe Biden in the Biden family business. Hunter Biden denies his father’s role in the Biden family business. This is a material discrepancy among witnesses of the highest order. I attempted to solve this problem by getting the witnesses in the same room together to straighten out any misunderstandings. It should be clear to the American people that Hunter Biden’s word is as valuable as the fake services he was selling, and this committee will not play games or belittle the Institution of Congress by allowing Hunter Biden to call the shots about who he testifies with or when he does it. At this point, the only person who can resolve this discrepancy about Joe Biden’s participation in his family’s influence peddling schemes is Joe Biden himself.

(07:34:20)
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. But neither is acceptable for the leader of the United States. I don’t think anyone believes that this is acceptable behavior for the family of the President of the United States, to receive tens of millions of dollars from our adversaries around the world. And they can’t say one single thing they did to receive the money. Nobody supports that. I don’t care if you’re Democrat or Republican, if you’re from a big city or a small town. That’s not what this democracy is about. That’s not what the founding fathers set up. They set this up that we have public servants come and provide their public service and then go on. They did not set this up for public servants to enrich themselves through their family, through influence peddling.

(07:35:40)
No one is denied. Is anyone designed, Mr. Raskin that the Biden family was influenced pedaling? Nobody denies that the family was influenced pedaling. What we have here is a major discrepancy on what role Joe Biden played. We know the three former Biden Associates say that Joe Biden was actively involved and knew full well what the schemes were, what the family was up to. But we have Hunter Biden testifying under oath that his dad didn’t know. So in the coming days, I will invite President Biden to the Oversight Committee to provide his testimony and explain why his family received tens of millions of dollars from foreign companies, with his assistance. We need to hear from the President himself, and I assure the American people that they will be able to evaluate for themselves the President’s honesty and fitness for the office he now holds.

Mr. Chairman, are you going to invite Donald Trump to come and talk about his violations of the Emoluments Clause?

You all have investigated Donald Trump for years, and I’m pretty sure I’ve read in the paper that there’s a lot of investigations of Donald Trump. No one’s investigated, [inaudible 07:37:05].

But we impeached him. You were invited to impeach Joe Biden today.

Are you going to work with me to see that Joe Biden comes and answers these discrepancies? This is a big deal.

There’s no discrepancies, there’s no discrepancies. There’s no evidence at all that he’s committed any high crime and misdemeanor. What is it?

In closing, I want to thank our panelists once again for their important and insightful testimony today. With that and without objection, all members will have five legislative days within which to submit materials and to submit additional written questions for the witnesses, which will be forwarded to the witnesses for their response. If there’s no further business without objection, the committee stands adjourned.