Rob Walker, one of Hunter Biden‘s longtime business associates, told Congress in a recent closed-door interview that the first son was the face of their joint dealings with a Chinese energy conglomerate because of his recognizable name.
Walker’s remarks came during an interview with the House Oversight and Judiciary committees as part of the GOP-led impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden, according to a transcript the committees released on Tuesday.
The committees used a letter Walker once drafted to Jianjun Zang, a top executive of the now-defunct Chinese conglomerate CEFC, in 2016 to showcase how Joe Biden’s political influence inadvertently allowed Walker, Hunter Biden, and a third associate to garner millions of dollars from the company for their help securing energy and infrastructure projects. CEFC was tightly interwoven with the Chinese government.
A committee aide asked why Walker used Hunter Biden’s letterhead to compose the letter when it was written by Walker.
Walker replied that U.S. entities need to have a “calling card” when doing business abroad to be successful and that he viewed that as normal.
“I think what is common with U.S. companies working with individuals abroad, those individuals tend to — they don’t — they aren’t taken seriously unless they have a calling card like this or something that says that they represent. So if — you wouldn’t — this is just normal, customary business practice,” Walker said.
Walker added that Zang viewed Hunter Biden, whose father was vice president at the time, as the one helming their group.
Asked if that perception was because of Hunter Biden’s association with his father, Walker indicated that it was.
“I can’t answer for Zang, but, sure, he had an interesting last name that would probably get people in the door,” Walker said.
Later in the interview, Walker added of the letter that it made “more sense” to come from Hunter Biden, who Walker and his associates wanted to feature as a frontman to secure a deal with CEFC.
CEFC engaged with Walker and Hunter Biden beginning in 2015. An entity solely owned by Walker eventually received what he described as a $3 million “thank you” from one of CEFC’s companies, and Walker then wired $1 million to Biden family members, according to bank records obtained by the Oversight Committee.
Walker also confirmed the previously reported detail that Joe Biden attended a small luncheon at the Four Seasons in Washington, D.C., in early 2017. Hunter Biden and several top CEFC executives were present at the event, and Joe Biden, who had just left the vice presidency, gave brief remarks to them, Walker said.
Soon after the luncheon, on March 1, 2017, the CEFC-owned company wired Walker’s company the $3 million, more than $1 million of which Walker then wired to Hunter Biden, his sister-in-law Hallie Biden, and his uncle James Biden. Walker said it was unrelated to the luncheon.
“I think this meeting [at the Four Seasons] was more about how we’re going to work together in the future, but it had nothing to do with the $3 million,” Walker said.
He noted that the “thank you” was because Walker, Hunter Biden, and other associates had connected CEFC with “a bunch of qualified projects.”
“We opened the door to some potential business that they would not normally have access to, I guess. Or ‘access’ may be the wrong word, but they didn’t — they were kind of impressed at what we were showing them,” Walker said.
Despite saying that he benefited from using Hunter Biden’s last name in their work, Walker opened his interview with the committees by saying Joe Biden had no involvement in any business transactions he and the first son were involved in.
“To be clear, President Biden, while in office or as a private citizen, was never involved in any business activities we pursued. Any statement to the contrary is simply false,” Walker said.
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Republicans have continued to search for evidence that the president abused his power when he was vice president to help his family members profit in their overseas ventures, but they have not uncovered any conclusive proof at this stage.
They have several interviews still planned in the impeachment inquiry, including one with another former associate, Tony Bobulinski, on Tuesday. They also plan to question Hunter and James Biden later this month.
