Before the 2020 election, former Hunter Biden business associate Tony Bobulinski revealed he met with Joe and Hunter Biden to discuss potential business deals in China, undermining the president’s claims he had never discussed business with his son. Now, Hunter Biden is calling on federal prosecutors to investigate his ex-business partner.
In a letter Friday, Hunter Biden attorney Abbe Lowell called on Matthew Graves, the U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., to investigate Bobulinski for allegedly lying to the FBI about his dealings with the Bidens, according to NBC News. Bobulinski told FBI agents in an October 2020 interview about his dealings with the Bidens, which included a May 2017 meeting with the Bidens regarding a joint venture with Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC China Energy.
The letter is part of the younger Biden’s aggressive new legal strategy against his former associates and critics. Hunter Biden has sued several political operatives who released data from his laptop, which he abandoned at a Delaware computer shop in 2019. He has also urged the Department of Justice to investigate the operatives, including former Donald Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
Hunter Biden’s pressure campaign presents a slew of potential conflicts of interest. For one, he is facing federal investigations into his business dealings, and for an unrelated gun crime. And Graves, a Joe Biden appointee, is under scrutiny after two IRS whistleblowers alleged he refused to cooperate with Delaware U.S. attorney David Weiss in his investigation of Hunter Biden.
In a statement to the Washington Free Beacon, Bobulinski said Hunter Biden is "trying to weaponize" the Justice Department against him.
"All of the allegations contained in Mr Lowell's 10 page letter to U.S. Attorney Graves are patently false, and I look forward to exposing these lies and laying out the facts in a public forum in short order," Bobulinski said in a statement through his attorney. "If Hunter Biden and the Biden family are so determined to ensure that the full truth is put before the American People, Hunter, Jim, Joe and I should all appear together before Congress, publicly and under oath. They can name the date, time and place and I would certainly be willing to do that for the American people."
Bobulinski’s revelations about the Bidens severely undercut the president’s claims about his son’s activities. For one, Bobulinski released information in October 2020 that corroborated many of the documents found on Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop. Bobulinski verified the authenticity of an email found on Hunter Biden’s laptop that referred to a business arrangement involving "the big guy." Bobulinski has said publicly that the email was a reference to Joe Biden, and that the president was slated to receive a 10 percent stake in their deal with China.
Perhaps more significantly, Bobulinski released text messages that showed he met with Hunter and Joe Biden in Los Angeles to discuss CEFC China Energy.
"I have heard Joe Biden say he has never discussed his dealings with Hunter. That is false. I have firsthand knowledge about this because I directly dealt with the Biden family, including Joe Biden," Bobulinski said at a press conference on Oct. 21, 2020.
Additional evidence has since emerged that showed Joe Biden had far more involvement in his son’s activities than he let on. Longtime Biden family friend Rob Walker told the FBI in December 2020 that Joe Biden stopped by a meeting with CEFC China Energy executives.
Hunter Biden and his uncle Jim Biden eventually inked a deal with CEFC China Energy in August 2017, though they cut Bobulinski and several other partners out of the joint venture. CEFC China Energy wired Hunter and his uncle Jim Biden a total of $6 million in 2017 and 2018. Hunter Biden also invoked his father as a threat against CEFC China Energy, according to his text messages. In a July 31, 2017, message, Biden berated a CEFC China Energy executive over a payment dispute.
Update 5:19 p.m.: This piece has been updated with comment from Tony Bobulinski.