FBI has 'voluminous evidence' of Hunter Biden's 'potential criminal conduct': Whistleblowers
by Jerry Dunleavy, Justice Department Reporter |
October 17, 2022
EXCLUSIVE — The FBI is in possession of “voluminous evidence” of “potential criminal conduct” by President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden related to his overseas business dealings with China and Ukraine, according to new whistleblower disclosures.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who previously released whistleblower claims alleging that evidence on Hunter Biden’s criminality was wrongly labeled “disinformation” within the bureau, made the revelations in a Thursday letter obtained by the Washington Examiner. It was sent to Attorney General Merrick Garland, FBI Director Christopher Wray, and Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss — who is running the criminal investigation into Hunter Biden.
The whistleblower allegations relate to Hunter, as well as James Biden, the president's brother, regarding the duo’s dealings with the Chinese government-linked energy conglomerate CEFC China Energy. They also relate to the younger Biden’s work for Ukrainian gas giant Burisma Holdings. Grassley said his staff "reviewed the unclassified records" supporting the whistleblower claims.
“Based on recent protected disclosures to my office, the FBI has within its possession significant, impactful, and voluminous evidence with respect to potential criminal conduct by Hunter Biden and James Biden,” Grassley said in the letter.
FBI BELIEVES ENOUGH EVIDENCE TO CHARGE HUNTER BIDEN FOR TAX FRAUD AND LYING ON FEDERAL GUN FORM
“The information provided by Mr. Bobulinski formed a sufficient basis to open a full field investigation on pay-to-play grounds; however, it is unclear whether the FBI did so and whether the information is part of the ongoing criminal investigation by U.S. Attorney Weiss,” Grassley said.
CEFC is a since-defunct multibillion-dollar Chinese company founded by Ye Jianming, a business tycoon who has since disappeared in China but with whom Hunter and James Biden had attempted to work out numerous deals and from whom the duo ultimately received millions of dollars.
“The evidence within the FBI’s possession that I am referencing is included, in part, in a summary of Tony Bobulinski’s October 23, 2020, interview with FBI agents,” Grassley's letter states. “In that interview, Mr. Bobulinski stated that the arrangement Hunter Biden and James Biden created with foreign nationals connected to the communist Chinese government included assisting them with potential business deals and investments while Joe Biden was Vice President; however, that work remained intentionally uncompensated while Joe Biden was Vice President. After Joe Biden left the Vice Presidency, the summary makes clear that Hunter Biden and James Biden worked with CEFC and affiliated individuals to compensate them for that past work and the benefits they procured for CEFC.”
Republicans have scrutinized Hunter Biden’s partnership with Jianming and his top lieutenant, Patrick Ho, who was sentenced to three years in prison in March 2019 for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The case against Ho revealed that some evidence had been obtained through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Hunter Biden struck a $1 million legal retainer agreement with Ho following his arrest. The president's son referred to Ho as the "f***ing spy chief of China" in a recording dated May 11, 2018.
“The FBI has within its possession a different document, dated in October 2020, but referencing events that occurred years before. That document indicates that in May 2017 — approximately three months after the joint venture was hatched in Miami and the same month it was officially formed — Hunter Biden yelled at CEFC officials at a meeting for failing to fund the joint venture," Grassley wrote. "That same document notes that as of July 2017 the money still had not been transferred and James Biden considered calling CEFC officials and threatening to withdraw Biden family support from future deals.”
Grassley has said in floor speeches and financial reports that CEFC Infrastructure Investment wired $5 million to bank accounts for Hudson West III in August 2017, with the money then transferred to Hunter Biden’s firm, Owasco, and James Biden’s firm, Lion Hall Group.
In regards to Ukraine, Grassley said he had been provided potential evidence of criminality tied to Hunter Biden’s work for Burisma, which reportedly paid Hunter $50,000 a month to serve on its board for a period when his father was vice president.
Ukrainian oligarch and Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky is widely seen as corrupt and had $23 million frozen by British authorities in the time between the hiring of Hunter and his business associate Devon Archer.
“The FBI has within its possession a series of documents relating to information on Mykola Zlochevsky, the owner of Burisma, and his business and financial associations with Hunter Biden,” Grassley wrote in his new letter. “The documents in the FBI’s possession include specific details with respect to conversations by non-government individuals relevant to potential criminal conduct by Hunter Biden.”
In his 2021 memoir, Beautiful Things, Hunter Biden defended Zlochevsky and called the Burisma work “inspiring” and “consequential” while also admitting that “the pay was good” and that “there’s no question my last name was a coveted credential.”
Grassley concluded his letter by attacking the FBI's handling of the investigation into the president's son.
“It is unclear whether the FBI followed normal investigative procedure to determine the truth and accuracy of the information or shut down investigative activity based on improper disinformation claims in advance of the 2020 election. … It is also unclear whether U.S. Attorney Weiss has performed his own due diligence," he wrote.
Grassley’s latest revelations follow other whistleblower disclosures the senator made public this summer.
Timothy Thibault, the former FBI assistant special agent in charge of the Washington Field Office who left the bureau in late August, “ordered closed” an “avenue of additional derogatory Hunter Biden reporting” in October 2020, even though “all of the reporting was either verified or verifiable via criminal search warrants." FBI supervisory intelligence analyst Brian Auten also "opened an assessment, which was used by an FBI headquarters team to improperly discredit negative Hunter Biden information as disinformation and caused investigative activity to cease."
The senator says the criminal investigation into Hunter Biden may now be hobbled because of these actions.
Wray said he found those whistleblower allegations "deeply troubling” when asked about them in early August.
Grassley asked for “the full and unredacted October 2020 document that lists a timeline of events associated with Hunter Biden’s business associates, foreign and domestic.”