Tony Bobulinski, listed as one of the recipients of an email detailing an apparent business deal between a Chinese company and Hunter Biden, said that the message is “genuine” and that “the big guy” mentioned is a reference to Hunter’s father, former Vice President and 2020 Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, whom he claims Hunter Biden asked for business advice.
His statement, obtained by the Washington Examiner, came hours ahead of the final debate between the elder Biden and President Trump, and less than two weeks before Election Day.
“The facts set forth below are true and accurate,” Bobulinski said. “They are not any form of domestic or foreign disinformation. Any suggestion to the contrary is false and offensive. I am the recipient of the email published seven days ago by the New York Post which showed a copy to Hunter Biden and Rob Walker. That email is genuine.”
The email he was referring to is from James Gilliar, a member of the J2CR international consulting firm, to Hunter Biden and others, dated May 13, 2017, and it discusses “expectations” of an as-of-yet-unclear deal while claiming that, “we have discussed and agreed the following renumeration packages.” The email notes that “Hunter” would receive “850” (in context, this appears to mean $850,000) and lists him as “Chair / Vice Chair depending on agreement with CEFC” — the China Energy Fund Committee.
CEFC China Energy is a multibillion-dollar Chinese conglomerate founded by Ye Jianming, a Chinese Communist Party-linked business tycoon who has since disappeared in China but with whom Hunter Biden had attempted to work out numerous deals. The email goes on to say that “Hunter has some office expectations he will elaborate” and that “at the moment there’s a provisional agreement that the equity will be distributed as follows,” including “20” (likely 20%) for “H” (Hunter). The email also asks about “10 held by H for the big guy” as well as “10” for “Jim.” The email also listed “20” for “RW” or Rob Walker. Gilliar added that he was “happy to raise any detail with Zang if there is [sic] shortfalls” — a likely reference to Zang Jianjun, the former executive chairman of CEFC.
“I am the CEO of Sinohawk Holdings which was a partnership between the Chinese operating through CEFC/Chairman Ye and the Biden family. I was brought into the company to be the CEO by James Gilliar and Hunter Biden. The reference to ‘the Big Guy’ in the much publicized May 13, 2017 email is in fact a reference to Joe Biden. The other ‘JB’ referenced in that email is Jim Biden, Joe’s brother,” Bobulinski said. “Hunter Biden called his dad ‘the Big Guy’ or ‘my Chairman,’ and frequently referenced asking him for his sign-off or advice on various potential deals that we were discussing. I’ve seen Vice President Biden saying he never talked to Hunter about his business. I’ve seen firsthand that that’s not true, because it wasn’t just Hunter’s business, they said they were putting the Biden family name and its legacy on the line.”
Biden told Fox News in 2019 that he “never” spoke to Hunter about his overseas business dealings. Neither Hunter Biden nor the Biden campaign have directly disputed the veracity or authenticity of any of the emails or other materials found in a laptop and hard drive that purportedly belonged to Hunter Biden and was left at a Delaware computer shop last year.
Hunter Biden’s lawyer did not respond to a request for comment.
“I realized the Chinese were not really focused on a healthy financial ROI. They were looking at this as a political or influence investment,” Bobulinski, a former Navy lieutenant and now an investor, said in his statement.
The Biden campaign has said that Biden’s financial disclosures have been released and show he doesn’t have Chinese investments.
When Patrick Ho, one of Ye’s lieutenants, was charged by the Justice Department in 2017, the first call he made after his arrest was to Joe Biden’s brother, James, who has said that he thought the call was meant for Hunter Biden. Ho was indicted under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in the Southern District of New York for his alleged role in a global money laundering and bribery scheme aimed at government officials in Africa. The Justice Department also accused Ho of helping with Iranian sanctions evasion and working to use the Chinese company’s connections to sell weaponry to Chad, Libya, and Qatar. Ho was sentenced to three years in federal prison in March 2019 and was deported to Hong Kong in June.
Ho immediately tried reaching out to the younger Biden for help in 2017 because that summer, Hunter Biden agreed to represent Ho as part of Biden’s efforts to work out a liquefied natural gas deal worth tens of millions of dollars with Ye. The vice president’s financier brother, James, said he was surprised by the call from Ho but told the Chinese businessman how to get in touch with his nephew. The lucrative $40 million liquefied natural gas deal Hunter Biden set up with CEFC in Louisiana fell apart when Ye disappeared after being detained by Chinese authorities in 2018.
Kathleen Biden, Hunter Biden’s ex-wife, noted in divorce filings a “large” diamond, worth $80,000, that Biden claimed he had handed off to his associates. In a later interview, he said the diamond, which he claimed was only worth $10,000, was a gift from Ye that he’d received when the two met for the first time in Miami in 2017.
“What would they be bribing me for? My dad wasn’t in office,” Biden told the New Yorker last year. “I knew it wasn’t a good idea to take it. I just felt like it was weird.”
Democrats and former intelligence officials have said that the computer materials tied to Hunter Biden can’t be trusted.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff repeatedly declared to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Friday that the Hunter Biden laptop issue was a Russian disinformation plot, though he provided no evidence, saying that “we know that this whole smear on Joe Biden comes from the Kremlin.” Politico reported Monday that over 50 former intelligence officials, including former Obama CIA Director John Brennan, said that the Hunter Biden laptop story “has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation” — though they admitted that “we do not have evidence of Russian involvement.”
This clashes with what Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe has said. “The intelligence community doesn’t believe that because there is no intelligence that supports that, and we have shared no intelligence with Chairman Schiff or any other member of Congress that Hunter Biden’s laptop is part of some Russian disinformation campaign,” he said.
A federal law enforcement officer told the Washington Examiner this week that the Justice Department and FBI do not believe the Hunter Biden laptop was connected to a Russia disinformation campaign. “There is absolutely zero evidence or intel that the laptop or the information contained therein is a Russian op,” a senior intelligence official added.
“I could no longer allow my family’s name to be associated or tied to Russian disinformation or implied lies and false narratives dominating the media right now,” Bobulinski said. He also claimed to have “extensive relevant records and communications and I intend to produce those items” to the Senate Homeland Security and Finance Committees.
A Homeland Security Committee spokesperson told the Washington Examiner that “we have reached out to several individuals named in recently revealed emails, including Tony Bobulinski.”
Fox News reported on Wednesday “the FBI’s subpoena of a laptop and hard drive purportedly belonging to Hunter Biden came in connection with a money laundering investigation in late 2019.” Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates responded: “The Attorney General of Delaware’s office indicated that the FBI has ‘ongoing investigations regarding the veracity of this entire story.’ And it would be unsurprising for an investigation of a disinformation action involving Rudy Giuliani and those assisting him to involve questions about money laundering.”
Biden’s campaign has also denied the report that the former vice president met with Ukrainian businessman Vadym Pozharskyi, an adviser to the board of Burisma. Bates told Politico that “we have reviewed Joe Biden’s official schedules from the time and no meeting, as alleged by the New York Post, ever took place.”
After the Biden campaign’s official denial, it was reported by Politico that former Biden senior advisers “said that while there was never an official meeting, it’s technically conceivable that Pozharskyi would have approached Biden on the sidelines of some broader U.S.-Ukraine event.”
John Paul Mac Isaac, the Delaware computer repair shop owner who received the laptop, said he gave the materials to the FBI but also made a copy and gave it to Robert Costello, an attorney for President Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, who has been sharing the information with the media.
The former New York City mayor was a staunch defender of Trump throughout the impeachment process and worked with numerous sources inside the United States and abroad, including Ukrainian lawmaker Andriy Derkach, to push allegations that Joe Biden had abused his power in Ukraine.
Bill Evanina, who leads the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, released an intelligence assessment in early August warning that Russia is “using a range of measures to primarily denigrate” Joe Biden, and that Derkach “is spreading claims about corruption — including through publicizing leaked phone calls — to undermine” the former vice president. The Treasury Department announced sanctions against Derkach this summer, but there is no evidence that the leaked emails from Hunter Biden were connected to Derkach or Russia.
Joe Biden slammed Giuliani on Tuesday, claiming there was no evidence Hunter Biden had profited off the Biden name, “This is the same garbage — Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s henchman. It’s a last-ditch effort in this desperate campaign to smear me and my family,” the candidate said.
During an October 2019 interview with Hunter Biden, ABC News’ Amy Robach asked, “If your last name wasn’t Biden, do you think you would’ve been asked to be on the board of Burisma?”
“Probably not, in retrospect,” Hunter Biden said. “But that’s — you know — I don’t think that there’s a lot of things that would have happened in my life if my last name wasn’t Biden.”
