Hunter Biden partner Rob Walker confirms payments to Biden family, China deal began when Joe was VP

Hunter Biden associate Rob Walker appeared for a transcribed interview with the House Oversight Committee Friday as the latest witness in the impeachment inquiry and weeks before Hunter Biden is set to testify.

According to a source familiar with Walker’s testimony, he confirmed reports that Hunter Biden’s work for the Chinese energy company CEFC began while Joe Biden was still Vice President, in 2015.

In December, Just the News reported that the impeachment inquiry had assembled a growing body of evidence that Hunter’s work with the Chinese energy company started years before its million dollar payments began to flow into the Biden family coffers in 2017, following Joe Biden’s departure from office.

“Today we learned that Joe Biden met with the now-missing Chairman of CEFC, Ye Jianming, as Hunter Biden and his associates received $3 million from a Chinese entity CEFC controlled. Evidence continues to reveal the Bidens sold the ‘Biden Brand’ to enrich the Biden family," Oversight Chairman James Comer said in a statement released by the Oversight Committee. 

"Today’s interview confirmed Hunter Biden and his associates’ work with the Chinese government-linked energy company began over a year before Joe Biden left the vice presidency, but the Bidens and their associates held off being paid by the Chinese while Joe Biden was in office," he continued. 

"The Chinese company paid Hunter Biden and his associates $3 million shortly after Joe Biden left office as a ‘thank you’ for the work they did while Joe Biden was in office. Members of the Biden family received payments from the Chinese deal even though they did not work on it. This is the type of swampy influence peddling the American people want us to end," Comer said. 

The relationship between James Biden, Hunter Biden, Ye, and other partners resulted in at least $9 million in payments to Biden-connected companies in 2017 alone after Joe Biden returned to private life.

The payments included a $3 million “thank you” in March 2017, a $5 million loan in August 2017, and a $1 million legal retainer fee to Hunter Biden from CEFC official Patrick Ho after he was indicted on bribery charges, according to documents gathered by Congress and federal prosecutors.

Yet, evidence from Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop and FBI interviews with Biden business partners provided to Congress show that the relationship dates back to at least 2015 and 2016.

One email from Rob Walker to another of Hunter Biden’s business partners referenced an apparent letter from Hunter to Zang Jianjun, the executive director of CEFC China Energy, who worked directly for its founder and Chairman Ye Jianming.

In an interview with the FBI, Walker told investigators that he recalls two meetings that Vice President Biden had with CEFC officials, one after leaving office in 2017 and another while he was still in office. The interview was provided by IRS Whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joe Ziegler to the House Ways and Means Committee in their probe of the IRS and DOJ investigation into Hunter Biden.

“Any times when he was in office or did you hear Hunter say that he was setting up a meeting with his dad with them (CEFC) while dad was still in office?” an FBI agent asked Walker.

“Yeah,” Walker responded. After this admission, the investigators inexplicably changed course and did not follow up on what Walker had just told them.

You can read that interview below:

Walker’s account matches that of Tony Bobulinski, another Biden business partner who was involved in the early stages of the CEFC relationship. Statements that Bobulinski gave the FBI place the first stages of the relationship in 2015-16 with payments delayed until 2017, when Joe Biden had left office.

Rob Walker also provided further evidence that Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings were a way to enrich his family members.

According to a source familiar with the testimony, Walker said that Hunter Biden told him to forward funds from the CEFC to his uncle, James Biden, and his sister-in-law, Hallie Biden, despite neither of them working for CEFC with Hunter.

Previously, the Oversight Committee traced funds from CEFC that ultimately ended up in Joe Biden’s bank account through his brother, James.

According to a previous committee memo, Northern International Capital, a Chinese company connected to CEFC, sent $5 million in August 2017 to Hunter Biden's company. Later that month, Hunter Biden wired $150,000 to Lion Hall Group, a company owned by Biden's brother, James Biden, and his sister-in-law Sara Biden, evidence shows.

Days later, Sara Biden took out $50,000 in cash from Lion Hall Group and then deposited it into her and James Biden's personal account that same day. The following week, Sara Biden sent a $40,000 check to Joe Biden marked as a "loan repayment.”

According to a source familiar with the testimony, Walker reportedly made excuses for Joe Biden’s apparent involvement in the CEFC deal, despite texts from former business partner Tony Bobulinski that appear to show otherwise, Just the News has learned.

In his opening statement, Walker reportedly told the committee that “President Biden - while in office or as a private citizen - was never involved in any of the business activities we pursued. Any statement to the contrary is simply false. Hunter made sure there was always a clear boundary between any business and his father. Always. And as his partner, I always understood and respected that boundary.”

Yet, text messages provided to the FBI by Tony Bobulinski show that Hunter Biden invoked his father’s name with his partners on multiple occasions. One partner even indicated that Hunter Biden may hold an equity stake for his father in their venture.

In one instance, Hunter referred to his father as the chairman. “When he said his chairman he was talking about his dad,” Rob Walker said in a text message to Bobulinski.

The New York Post also previously reported on an email where the business partners discussed the corporate structure of their new venture with CEFC which included a share of the equity held by Hunter Biden specifically for his father.

“At the moment there s [sic] a provisional agreement that the equity will be distributed as follows,” the email from partner James Gilliar to Bobulinski, Biden, and Walker reads.

At the end of the list, the email reads: “10 held by H for the big guy ?” This email shows that the partners were actively considering Joe Biden’s involvement in the venture, even if this arrangement was never consummated.

After initially defying congressional subpoenas, and holding a photo-op appearance at the Capitol, Hunter Biden ultimately reversed course and agreed to sit for a transcribed interview with the committees conducting the impeachment inquiry. The closed-door testimony is scheduled for February 28.

Biden is expected to be asked questions about the foreign payments to his family as well as if his father was indeed involved in any of his deals.

“The Committees on Oversight and Accountability, Judiciary, and Ways and Means will continue to follow the facts to inform the impeachment inquiry and legislative solutions. We look forward to releasing the transcript from today’s interview soon," Comer said in his statement after Walker's interview.