Biden stays silent on Bobulinski claims about family's business ventures
Biden has long denied being involved in his family's business dealings
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Joe Biden and his presidential campaign are staying mum after Hunter Biden’s former business associate went public to say he met twice in the past with the former vice president -- despite past statements from Biden on the campaign trail that he had no involvement with or discussions about his family's overseas business ventures.
That associate, Tony Bobulinski, gave an interview on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” on Tuesday and detailed his alleged meetings with the former vice president—one of which took place on May 2, 2017, according to text messages first reported by Fox News last week.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Those messages indicated that the meeting did, in fact, take place. Bobulinski claimed Tuesday that it was Hunter Biden and Jim Biden, the brother of the former vice president, who had pushed the meeting.
“They were sort of wining and dining me and presenting the strength of the Biden family to get me engaged,” he said.
The Biden campaign declined to comment on the meeting Biden allegedly had with Bobulinski. Biden himself has not yet directly addressed Bobulinski's claims on "Tucker Carlson Tonight."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}In 2019, Biden told reporters: "I have never discussed with my son or my brother or anyone else anything having to do with their businesses. Period."
But Bobulinski -- in his interview Tuesday -- described at length how Joe Biden arrived for a Milken conference, partly held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, and how he was introduced by Jim and Hunter Biden to the former vice president.
Speaking with Carlson, Bobulinski also claimed Biden’s denials of knowledge in his son's foreign dealings during the presidential debate was "a blatant lie."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I didn't request to meet with Joe" Biden, he said. "They requested that I meet with Joe [Biden]. They were putting their entire family legacy on the line. They knew exactly what they were doing.”
He asked why the former vice president would want to meet him.
“Why on 10:38 on the night of May 2 would Joe Biden take time out of his schedule to take time with me, behind a column so people could not see us, to have a discussion with his family and my family and business at a very high level?" he said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The meeting on May 2, 2017, would have taken place 11 days before a May 13, 2017, email obtained by Fox News, which included a discussion of “remuneration packages” for six people in a business deal with a Chinese energy firm. The email appeared to identify Hunter Biden as “Chair / Vice Chair depending on agreement with CEFC,” in an apparent reference to now-bankrupt CEFC China Energy Co.
The email includes a note that “Hunter [Biden] has some office expectations he will elaborate.” A proposed equity split references “20” for “H” and “10 held by H for the big guy?” with no further details. Bobulinski has repeatedly said “the big guy” was Joe.
Biden has repeatedly denied being involved with his son’s business dealings.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Bobulinksi, meanwhile, said he was told by CEFC that it was a $10 million deal that would see a $5 million loan to the Biden family and $5 million was their contribution to capitalize SinoHawk Holdings.
The allegations have been denied by Joe Biden and his campaign.
"I have not taken a penny from any foreign source ever in my life," Joe Biden said at a presidential debate last week. "We learned this president ... has a secret bank account with China, does business in China, and in fact is talking about me taking money? I have not taken a single penny from any country whatsoever, ever, ever.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Separately the Biden campaign has said that it released the former vice president’s tax documents and returns, which do not reflect any involvement with Chinese investments.
HUNTER BIDEN BUSINESS ASSOCIATE'S TEXT MESSAGES INDICATE MEETING WITH JOE BIDEN
“Joe Biden has never even considered being involved in business with his family, nor in any overseas business whatsoever," Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates told Fox News. "He has never held stock in any such business arrangements nor has any family member or any other person ever held stock for him.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Meanwhile, during the interview, Bobulinski said that the Biden family, in 2017, had shrugged off concerns that Joe Biden’s alleged ties to Hunter Biden’s business deals could put his future presidential campaign at risk.
Bobulinski said he raised concerns in 2017 to Jim Biden, about Joe Biden’s alleged ties to the possible joint venture—SinoHawk Holdings, which was a partnership between the CEFC Chairman Ye Jianming and Jim and Hunter Biden.
“I remember saying, ‘How are you guys getting away with this?’ ‘Aren't you concerned?’” he told Carlson.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}He claims that Jim Biden chuckled.
"'Plausible Deniability,' he said it directly to me in a cabana at the Peninsula Hotel,” he said.
As for what those deals could mean in a potential Biden administration, Bobulinski said that he believes Joe Biden and his family are “compromised.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“I just don’t see given the history here and the facts how Joe can’t be influenced in some manner based on the history they have here with CEFC,” he said.
“I think the American people should be demanding that this is investigated,” he said.
Fox News' Adam Shaw contributed to this report.