the scene in his baseball uniform to check on me. so many others of you, again, both republican and democrat, reached out in ways i can't express the gratitude and how much it means to me, jennifer and our whole family. it really does show the warm side of congress that very few people get to see.

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>> the command oversight and accountability will come to order. i want to welcome everyone here this morning. without objection the chair may declare a racist at any the committee on oversight and accountability will come to order. i want to welcome everyone here this morning. without objection, the chair may declare a recess at any time. without objection, chairman of the ways and means committee, mr. jason smith of missouri, representative matt gaetz of florida, a representative eric swalwell from california are waived onto the committee for purpose of questioning the witnesses at today's committee hearing. for today's hearing, opening segments will be limited to 10 minutes for the chair and 10 minutes for the ranking member.

the chair also notes that points of order pertaining to the engaging of personalities against the president will not be in order for the duration of today's hearing. given that this is a hearing regarding this committee's impeachment inquiry, members must be allowed to speak frankly. the chair now recognizes himself for an opening statement. today the house committee on oversight will hear from witnesses who have previously provided information during our deposition and interview phase regarding the biden family business practices in china ukraine, russia, and other places around the world. at the start of this congress, the investigative what product or service the biden family and their associates were something that would justify over $24 million in payments. we have reviewed emails, bank records, text messages,

suspicious activity reports at treasury, and other evidence normally compiled during an expansive investigation such as this. the oversight committee has found no credible evidence of the bidens providing any work product. the committee has identified no legitimate value or document, or even one single hour of work the bidens have provided their business partners. nothing. what is apparent after over a year of investigation is that the bidens did not work in any traditional sense of the word. they do not work as consultants or lawyers or advisors. they don't sell a product or service or a set of skills. the bidens sell joe biden. that is their business.

for months we have heard democrats desperately proclaiming that witnesses have told this committee that joe biden had no involvement in his family's business dealings. but where are those witnesses today? it is telling that democrats have not invited one of these witnesses at today's hearing. that is because they know their testimonies would not withstand public scrutiny. democrats of relied on these witnesses opening statements and have willfully turned a blind eye to the facts that have come out in these interviews once the witnesses were questioned about our record of evidence. democrats now must rely on bringing in the distraction witness to talk about nonsense who worked with the biden's. -- bidens. president biden cannot control his adult son, brother, sister- in-law or his nine family members who have received money from these transactions.

all president biden can do is control his own actions. that is what we are here today to discuss with the witnesses. because in the course of this investigation, we have learned that joe biden has taken action after action to further his family's plans to get rich. who shows up to meetings, get some phone calls, shakes hands and tells people to "look after my family." he goes to dinners with foreign oligarchs and the ukrainian executive paying his son millions of dollars. he gets paid with money from chinese businessmen who he has meetings with intel's other associates he will see what he can do to help their situations. he writes letters of recommendation for form business associates children.

the scam is simple. the biden family promises they can make a form partner's problem go away by engaging the u.s. government. the problems can be anything, a ukrainian corruption investigation, moving russian money to the united states, a romanian criminal prosecution, access for china to american energy sources, and joe shows up, shakes a few hands in front of his son and says "take care of my boy." and the money flows. to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. it is done over and over again. the biden family promises joe's power. joe biden shows up, and millions of dollars comes into their pockets. joe biden is the family closer. how could he not be? the bidens aren't doing any other work for these four companies that would warrant tens of millions of dollars. there are only two explanations for this. the first is that joe biden knows exactly what he is doing a nose a handshake, a wicked smile is enough for him to maintain his, as jim biden called the, plausible deniability, or joe biden is

being led around by his family and has no idea who he is meeting with what message he is sending and is truly an elderly man with a poor memory. there is no other explanation. either joe biden is complicit or joe biden is incompetent. since becoming chairman of this committee in january 2023, i promised the investigation into influence peddling would be based on bank records, witness testimony, and verifiable facts. after years of democrats using this committee as a mouthpiece for every conspiracy theory they can fight like the russia collusion hoax, under my leadership, we have returned to real investigations because democrats want to spend another russian hoax, i will ask one question. what services did the bidens provide to earn them and their business associates over $24 million? what did they do for the money?

democrats have the same bank records and was we do. bank records do not lie. the witnesses today are here to talk about joe biden, republicans are here to talk about joe biden, if democrats wish to spend their time themselves with another russia collusion hoax for the sake of protecting president biden, they can do so. as i said i would have invited hunter biden today to sit alongside his business associates and provide his side of the story. he demanded a public hearing. i have given him one. maybe he will show up. he has said he is a, but he loves saying one thing and doing another. at some point that begins to reflect poorly on his ability to tell the truth at all. but this hearing is not about hunter biden. this investigation is not about hunter biden. it is about joe biden and the lies he continues to tell the american people. with that, i yield to ranking member smith. >> thank you. from the beginning of this investigation, we have made clear that we will follow the facts wherever they lead. the facts have led us to two conclusions.

one, the biden family has for years traded on joe biden's name in order to rake in millions of dollars. often doing so with his direct knowledge and clear involvement. two, president biden has been continually dishonest with the american people about his knowledge of his family's business dealings. we have testimony for multiple witnesses that joe biden was the brand. he knew what his son and brother were doing, and he did nothing to stop it. that alone makes him complicit in a scheme to make money off of his public service. but he was not just complicit, he was, as one of today's witnesses has testified, an enabler of this activity. the evidence of the two irs whistleblowers who came to the ways and means committee has been affirmed by volume the material provided to congress by the testimony of others, and even by the department of justice, who brought charges

against hunter biden that mirror those called for by the art arrest investigators. the evidence obtained shows that joe biden met with his son's business partners on multiple occasions. he used an alias to exchange dozens of emails with his son's bookkeeper. he took official government action that suspiciously coincided with those meetings and correspondence. the connections between joe biden and his son's business practices extended even to the biden 2020 campaign. at the height of the democrat primary kevin morris, a hollywood lawyer who met hunter biden at a joe biden campaign fundraiser paid off hunter biden's tax liabilities because there was, in his words, "risk personally and politically. " if that matter was not swept under the rug. investigators that were interested in pursuing a potential criminal campaign violation were told to stand

down. the biden family relied on the biden brand so much that evidence has revealed that hunter biden believe that "all this stuff, would all go away when his dad became president." why did he believe that? because for years the biden family has personally benefited from joe biden's position of power. joe biden knew this. he did nothing to stop it. he lied about it. i yield to jim jordan. >> i think the gentleman. who planted the pipe bombs on january 6? nobody seems to know. who leaked the dobbs draft opinion? you know, the leak that led to an assassination attempt on justice kavanaugh? how about this one? you left cocaine at the white house. the biden administration doesn't seem to have time to answer these questions.

there to busy investigating school board meetings, labeling catholics extremists, retaliating against whistleblowers. they are too busy putting together a sweetheart deal for hunter biden. a deal that got laughed out of court. the guy who put together the deal that got laughed out of court, that is the guy they name special counsel. unimart democrats to have time for? coming after resident from. they have been doing it for eight years. they spied on his campaign, that it was the mueller investigation, 19 lawyers, 40 agents, $30 million and found nothing. that it was impeachment. that it was raiding his home. that it was the 14th amendment. the party of democracy said, we're going to keep the guy off the ballot who is leading in every single poll. the ranking member said that president trump should be disqualified from even running for office. thank goodness we have supreme court. they disagreed with the ranking member and the democrats. it was 9-0. not 5-4, not 7-2, 9-

0 they disagreed. now democrats say, how dare republicans investigate joe biden? how dare they look into the money, the business, and the brand? millions of dollars from foreign entities run through 20 different companies for what? i mean, 20 different companies. devon archer told us what it was for. access to the brand. the brand was joe biden. the brand that played rounds of golf, two calls and meetings, attend luncheons and dinners with hunter biden and his business partners. the brand that said, that conditioned $1 billion of american tax money on the firing of the prosecutor pressuring the company hunter biden sat on the board of. oh by the way, he was getting paid $1 million per year.

today we will learn more about that brand. we will learn more about what is called the biden left. we will learn about the plausible deniability that jim biden talked about, and we will hear about the statement, the rule that govern how the business operated around joe biden. the rule that said say it, forget it, right it, regret it. want to thank the witnesses were coming here today. they, like the whistleblowers who came to the ways and means committee, are doing it simply because they want the american people to have the truth. i yield back. >> journal recognizes ranking member for 12 monies for his opening segment. >> thank you very kindly. with any luck, today marks the end of perhaps the most spectacular failure in the history of congressional

investigations, the effort to find a high crime or misdemeanor committed by joe biden and then to impeach him for. in pryor is hilarious episodes of this long-running madcap series, america got to see the following, nearly 20 fact witnesses could not identify a single act of wrongdoing by president biden, much less a high crime and misdemeanor, and who overwhelmingly testified the biden was not involved in any of his family's business ventures. two, three expert witnesses called by the majority itself who said nothing that they had seen in the tens of thousands of pages of documents produced by the majority even remotely approaching the level of high crimes and misdemeanors. bank records which show exactly what all the witnesses told us, that joe biden was not involved in his family businesses. repeat of displays of

pornographic images by the majority that are completely irrelevant to any conceivable legislative or investigative purpose. a star witness who turned out to be a chinese agent and illegal arms trafficker on the run from american justice. and the key piece of evidence that launched the entire zany goose chase, a form in which the f.b.i. duly recorded a completely fictional tip about a $5 million bribe to vice president biden pedaled by alex smirnoff, who has been criminally indicted by a trump appointed u.s. attorney, special counsel david wiess, for felony counts of systematically lying to the f.b.i. and constructing a false record about joe biden, and now sits in jail in california as a flight risk while the world studies his long-standing and extensive ties to russian intelligence. today the good chairman and his ace maga detectives have finally jumped the shark.

the comedy of errors comes crashing to an end as house republicans in more than a dozen by the districts beg for mercy, and the committee throws a flabby hail mary pass three weeks after the super bowl is over. so today we revisit the fruitless testimony of two more fading star witnesses who have failed to testify to any presidential wrongdoing, much less evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors. both of them are frustrated would be business partners of hunter biden who tried to leverage the biden name, but they never got any business off the ground for reasons that will become painfully obvious to anyone watching the proceedings today. even hunter biden, laboring at the time under a serious substance abuse addiction, could tell these were not the type of people you should be doing business with. rather than representing the biden brand, which was their

ardent wish, they now fill up today as loyal servants of trumpworld, each proudly represented by the very own former trump white house attorney. the first is tony bobulinski, the bitterly disappointed one of the hunter business partner whose famously litigious history includes unsuccessfully suing his own dying father's charity for nearly $1 million. just last month, saving cassidy huthinson gin for $10 million after she reported that mr. bobulinski, wearing a ski mask, met with mark meadows, which she is now backing up with actual documentary photographic evidence. something in very short supply in this investigation. mr. bobulinski made his hazy allegations against the bidens public for the first time at a press conference choreographed by the trump for president campaign, which provided him a venue, a gaggle of journalists, and even a dress shirt they went out and bought for him to wear to the event. hours later he joined the

second 2020 presidential debate as donald trump's personal guest where he was seated with kid rock and mark meadows. the other star witness, who i believe is appearing by zoom today, is a serial fraudster and convicted man, a term i would charitably not use on the witness, except it was explicitly bestowed upon him by not one, but two, different u.s. federal district court judges, including the one who sentenced him to over 15 years in prison for defrauding union chin friends, a native american tribe in scores of innocent investors. he was sentenced to pay restitution of over $80 million to his victims. that is a lot of money. the very first record of his claims against the biden family appeared, check this out, in the clemency petition that he

sent from prison to president trump. but the key point is this, even if we were to believe every single word offered by these utterly compromised and biased witnesses, mr. galanis and mr. bobulinski, their allocations don't identify any wrongdoing, much less an impeachable offense by president biden. with the impeachment bus running on empty, our colleagues are apparently preparing to save face by ending the impeachment farce with criminal referrals, but criminal referrals require evidence of crimes. the only crimes we have seen are those of the gop's all star witnesses, like russian asset alex smirnov, chinese agent, devon archer and mr. galanis. the minority witness, our witness, lev parnas, s a piercing light on what is really taking place here.

mr. parnas has reason to know. he too used to be a maga sycophant peddling lies and disinformation to sameer joe biden. today he joins a long line of self exiled from trumpworld who could no longer stomach all the corruption and deceit. people like cassidy hutchinson, people like michael cohen, sarah matthews, alyssa griffin, general james mattis, the chair of the joint chiefs of staff mark milley, general john kelly, now vice president mike pence, refuses to endorse for president the man he served with. but we do have loyal sycophants still in the room. one day i look forward to hearing their testimony about how they got sunk into this religious cult. mr. parnas wrote chairman comber and me a remarkable

letter on july 23, 2023. this is the first time i am meeting him today. he was rudy giuliani's right- hand man. is globetrotting language interpreter in the mission to manufacturer ukraine and burisma related dirt and smears against joe biden. he spent all this time traveling around the world trying to stage evidence against joe biden. in his letter, he explains that the desperate search to find evidence of any kind of biting corruption was a complete and total blast. because there was no evidence to find. he wrote to tell us that, not only is there no evidence in ukraine, but more darkly, the manic search for a smoking gun against biden became a mission to invent and concoct evidence out of thin air with the active

help of russian intelligence assets and agents. a man -- i am getting to russia. you have not heard anything yet, mr. chairman. a man who has reckoned with his own moral dissent into trumpworld. lev parnas is ashamed of what he did to serve the interests of russian propaganda . he wants america to know the truth. he can explain how the russians stimulated conspiracy theories and lies he promoted with rudy giuliani live on in the tiresome fabrication spread by alex smirnov and out repeated by this committee like pavlov dog. at every turn, my colleagues cry russia hoax. even in the face of repeated warnings from donald trump's

own treasury secretary and secretary of state. from the intelligence committee, from robert mueller, and most recently, from special counsel weiss . s secretary mnuchin stated "russian disinformation campaigns targeting american citizens are a threat to our democracy." that is someone that you guys usually defend, but my gop colleagues continue to cry russia hoax like cult members selling flowers at the airport. our colleagues are the ones loyally amplifying the actual russian hoax, not the russia hoax, the russian hoax. the one that giuliani and trump and smirnov have eagerly adopted from putin and his agents. they participate in this hoax while they shamefully block $60 billion in military assistance to president zelenskyy and the besieged ukrainian people five years after trump and giuliani try to shake president zelenskyy down for counterfeit dirt on joe biden.

while they continue to parent these transparent russian lies, vladimir putin wages his bloody aggressive war on ukraine fueled with atrocities like the mass kidnapping of children and the slaughter of civilians. the maga rights wholesale adoption of this hoax and the sellout of ukrainian people is an historic betrayal of democracy, freedom and the rule of law. but the defense of democracy begins with fidelity to the truth and the oversight democrats, america's truth squad against this disinformation. we are here today to set the record straight. i yield back to you, mr. chairman. >> i would now like to introduce our witnesses. mr. tony bobulinski. he was a business partner of hunter biden and had a joint venture between a chinese entity . he sat for a transcribed interview with the committee on february 13, 2024.

mr. lev parnas. he was not a business associate of the biden family, but he is an occupant, a political activist, and author. and mr. galanis. he was a business partner of hunter biden. he sat for a transcribed interview with this committee on the 23rd 2024. we ask the bureau of prisons to make it available in person today. they would only provide him for virtual testimony. notably, he applied for c.a.r.e.s. act home confinement and after a lengthy approval process was approved for home confinement on june 9, 2023. on june 12, 2023 i issued a subpoena to devon archer for testimony. the following day the approval for mr. galanis was reversed as result of the department of

justice intervention. so mr. galanis has remained in a federal prison facility. he is currently in montgomery, alabama. can you please state for the record who else is in the room with you? >> my counsel and advisor. >> thank you. pursuant to committee rule, the witnesses will please stand and raise the right hands. do you solemnly swear or affirm that the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you god? let the record show that the witnesses all answered in the affirmative. thank you. you may be seated. we appreciate you all being here today and look forward to your testimony. let me remind the witnesses that we have read your written statements, and they will appear in full in the hearing record.

please limit your oral statements to five minutes. as a reminder, please press a button on the microphone in front of you so it is on and members can hear you. when you begin to speak, the light in front of you turned screenprint after four minutes and will turn yellow. when the red light comes on, your five minutes is expired and we ask that you please wrap it up as quickly as possible. i now recognize mr. bobulinski for his opening statement. >> should i allow hunter to give his opening statement first? >> it doesn't appear mr. by the showed up for his public hearing. we will recognize you. >> thank you, mr. chairman. chairman, breaking members of congress. good morning. thank you for this opportunity to speak with you and present my truthful testimony to the american people. i sit here today under oath for one reason and one reason only, the american people deserve to hear the truth. though the truth involving the deep corruption of the biden family,

including the malfeasance of the sitting president of the united states, might be raw and unpleasant, the american people must hear it. you are presented here today with two narratives in this investigation. a false one being pushed by joe biden, a serial liar under this impeachment investigation for public corruption for his brother jim biden, a 75-year- old man who can't keep his lies straight, including under oath, and his son hunter biden, a chronic drug addict facing two indictments with 12 counts. you also have before you the truth confirmed by multiple biden family business partners over many years and backed up by mountains of irrefutable evidence, including text messages, emails, documents, recordings. i am the only biden family business partner with an impeccable military record. i am grateful this country has given me the freedom to be successful. i worked hard to become independently wealthy. i have taken several businesses public, so multiple businesses to some of the world's best private equity firms. in fact, my business success is why they sought me out. however, what they have done is repugnant to me. i am here today because i'm a patriot, and i am a truth

teller. we keep hearing from certain corners that are democracy is at risk of democracy is on the ballot in 2024. yet the same people preaching this mantra no better. they continue to lie directly to the american people without hesitation and remorse. representative dan goldman, and jamie raskin, both lawyers, and a former prosecutor from new york, will continue to lie today in this hearing and go straight to the media to tell more lies. hunter biden's defense attorney weaponizing his letters to congress to try to smear my name. >> mr. chairman. >> the cold hard facts. an attempt to save his powerfully connected client and his father. i challenge him to make those claims on national television so he can be held accountable for his lies. prior to my successful business career, i was an officer in the united states navy. i was at the elite power training command and later served as the command chief technology officer -- >> i apologize for the

disruption. >> am i supposed to say it is my time? >> please, mr. bobulinski -- come to order. mr. bobulinski, please proceed. i apologize for the disruption from the minority. >> mr. chairman, save his time, but he called members of this committee liars. i want to know whether the order of the quorum requirements of house rule 11 two witnesses appeared before the committee. doesn't apply are not? >> i don't ash -- -- language ie potential >> there is the corn from the members. we have asked for that. is no link which i am aware pertaining to a witness. >> thank you.

>> make sure we didn't waste any of his time on the opening statement. mr. bobulinski, sorry for the disruption. please continue. >> -- we will make sure it is right. >> i just want to restate -- make sure the american people here all the facts. weaponizing letters to congress to try to smear my name and misstate the whole cold hard facts an attempt to save his powerfully connected client and father. i challenge him to make those claims on national television so he can be held accountable for his lies. prior to my successful business career, i was an officer for over six years in the united states navy elite naval nuclear power training command as a decorated master training specialist. i later served as the commander chief technology officer were held security clearance from the department of energy and the nsa. when i left nuclear power training command, i was the number one ranked officer in

the entire command. that i jumped into the business world and public markets. while i have made a few contributions over the years the democrats such as representative ro khanna, i don't see him, but i hope he shows up today, he sits on the democratic side of the oversight committee, i am not a political person, i come from a family with a long history of distinguished service in the military, including my father, both of my grandfathers, and my brother, all of whom were willing to sacrifice their lives for this great country. my sister serves our military vets for two decades at the veterans administration. we have lived our life as a family in service to this great country. i hope the american people will pay close attention to this hearing. i also hope they will understand that some members of this committee will engage in absurd attacks and efforts to try to deflect attention from the facts, and i will present today questioning my integrity and patriotic duty. you may see me b e crystal cleary direct personal explains what

i've subsequently come to learn it is clear to me joe biden was the brand being sold by the biden family for this country, every member of my family was willing to die for this country. i want to make this clear. it is clear to me that joe biden was the brand being sold by the biden family. his family's foreign influence f peddling operation from china and ukraine and elsewhere, soldc out the foreign actors seeking access to joe biden and the united states government. joe biden was more than a participant in, and a beneficiary of his family's business, he was an active enabler, who met to further the business, despite being buffered by the scheme to maintain plausible deniability. if there's no evidence of corruption today, if joe's family was so legal and proper, then why are they so dishonest

about it? deep untruths about the entire corrupt enterprise. hunter biden lied throughout his testimony. here's just one egregious example of hunter's perjury. he lied to the committee on important details concerning his money demands and threats to cfc in texas messages on july 30th and 31st, 2017. he leveraged his father's presence next to him to paying hunter immediately. jim biden also lied extensively throughout his transcribed beer view on july 31st and perjured himself. jim is asked specifically, do you recall having a meeting between tony bobulinski and joe biden? jim's response, absolutely not. the committee was so shocked by his perjury, they asked him the

same question multiple times, each time he denied meeting with me and joe biden. after the committee showed him text messages, confirming that i met with hunter biden, and jim biden, jim biden with a oo former u.s. attorney lawyer sitting next to him, still tt denied that meeting took place. hunter tbiden in his own transcribed interview confirmed that that meeting took place. hunter confirmed his uncle perjured himself in front of this committee. i'm simply here to tell the truth to the american people and i hope each and every one of you, congressmen and women give me the opportunity to do that, instead of focusing on russia or smearing my family's name or focusing on facts that are irrelevant today. i yield back. >> thank you, mr. chairman, parliamentary inquiry. two points, one is i believe pt mr. bobulinski went over 2:14.

i hope the same courtesy will be extended. i see we now have a witness appearing remotely, and i thought witnesses were required to be in person, do we have a new practice in respect to that rule? i know members on our side were denied the ability to participate in hearings that were conducted in florida and alabama. we wanted to participate by zoom. >> it requires a letter from me and an approval from the majority leader, which we have. i will enter that in -- >> thank you, mr. chairman. i hope we will extend the same courtesy to members of this committee. >> mr. chairman -- >> state your point. >> mr. chairman, mr. bobulinski just referred to text messages

that i believe he is referring to photos of a blackberry. >> state your parliamentary inquiry, because we have a very important hearing here, and we don't have time for stunts. >> it's not a stunt. i'm simply asking that -- >> you don't have a parliamentary inquiry. chair now recognizes mr. parnas for equal time. chair recognizes mr. parnas. >> does the committee have the text messages -- >> mr. chairman, we don't have time for games by democrats today. >> we have important witnesses here. this is a credible. >> i'm asking a question. >> you will have five minutes wherever jamie haskins tells me it's your time to speak. mr. parnas, the chair of recognizes you for equal time that mr. bobulinski had, which is seven minutes.

>> thank you. hello. honorable members of congress, chairman comber, and ranking members of the committee. i'm humbled to show up before you today. i came to the united states from odesa, ukraine, in 1976, when it was still the former soviet union. my mother and father and sister and i left the soviet union escaping persecution. while in rome, my sister and i won the most important opportunity we had ever been given. we won a u.s. green card lottery. my family came here with literally no more than shirts on our back, in the hopes of rebuilding our lives in the land of freedom. i say this to you because i love this country. from shortly after my arrest on october 19, until now, i have been trying to share the irrefutable truth with you. the american people have been lied to by donald trump, rudy giuliani, and various cohorts in government can positions. they created itfalsehoods to serve their own interest,

knowing it would undermine the strength of our nation. 2018 to october nation. 2019, i was a key participant, 2019, i was a key participant, efforts to prove that joe and hunter biden were linked to corruption in ukraine. rudy giuliani task me with a mission to travel the globe, finding dirt on the bidens, so an array of networks could spread misinformation about them, thus securing the 2020 election for donald j. trump. ironically, it led me to an individual identified as co- conspirator 1. we now know this member to be pete sessions who sits on the committee today. in nearly a year traveling the world, and interviewing officials, i found preceasely zero evidence of biden's corruption in ukraine. no respectable ukrainian official has ever said that the

bidens did anything illegal, including former president pair shanko, and former president luchenko. even when offered a deal by rudy giuliani, he provided none, because there is none. the only information pushed has come from one source, and one l source only. russia, and russian agents. the impeachment proceedings that bring us here now are predicated on false information spread by the kremlin. everyone involved knew they were sharing lies. through my missions to ukraine g and elsewhere, to members of a team, a group convened for the sole purpose of damaging the bidens. everything was for the ultimate benefit of donald trump and thereby vladimir putin.

because the team's investigations were centered around biden and ukraine, i was designated the point person in every matter they pursued. that is how i know with certainty, these biden stories were untrue then, and are untrue now. senator ron johnson and many others understood they were pushing oia false narrative. the same goes for sean hannity and many others at fox news. we cannot separate this conspiracy, because trump has no intention to keep aiding ukraine. without the support of the united states and nato, millions will suffer and die. if we allow russia to defeat ukraine, eventually that

suffering will meet american shores. i served a sentence. i do not hide that from reality, it is part of my truth. despite rigorous attempts by those in power to silence me, i will be silenced no longer. thank you to the committee for allowing me to speak. i look forward to answering any and all of your questions. >> thank you. chair eanow recognizes mr. galanis, for his opening statement. >> my name is jason galani s. i was a business partner of hunter biden, and devin archer among others. our business included the accusation of 85-year-old wall street firm, birmingham company. our objectives was to build diversified private equity platform, which would be anchored by a globally known wall street brand, together with a globally known political

name, biden. our goal that is hunter biden, devin archer, and me, was to make billions. not millions. the entire value of hunter biden to our business was a family name and access to his father, vice president joe biden. in 2014, we believe that the enterprise would be significantly enhanced by performing a partnership with harvest fund management, a $300 billion chinese financial service company closely led to the chinese government. mr. shal was interested in this partnership because of joe biden, who was to be a member of the team post vice presidency. my lawyers provided for me a draft email dated august 23, 2014, drafted from hunter biden that states and i quote, michael, please also remind henry of our conversation about

a board seat for a certain relation of mine. devin and i golfed with that information earlier this week and we discussed this very idea. and as always, he remains very, very keen on the opportunity end quote. i'm certain that this phrase certain relation of mine refers to vice president biden. devin told me about this golf course conversation shortly after it happened. ultimately, this was deleted from the final version, with hunter following a general rule of thumb on business deals. say it, forget it, write it, regret it. further to that, i recall beinge with hunter biden and devin archer in new york where hunter took a call from his father and told him things were going well with henry, and that he might need a little help getting across the finish line. it was not the only time i've heard hunter speak with his father for business reasons. i was present when hunter called his father on may 4th, 2014 on a cell phone, put it on

speaker mode to have him say hello to a russian oligarch and an investor in rosemount projects and her husband, the former mayor of moscow. devin archer was also there. hunter said, quote, i'm here with our friends. i told you we're coming to town, and we wanted to say hello. the vice president said hello, some pleasantries, and hope he had safe travels and then said, quote, you be good to my boy. hunter responded by saying, everything is good, and we're moving ahead. the vice president said al something about being helpful, and hunter ended the call saying he was going to call his father later. before this call, hunter sat at another table and i heard him speaking on business matters generally. a few days after this may 4th party, an email provided shows

devin had confirmed ms. baterani was converted -- in an effort i engaged in unlawful conduct. our companies were entrusted with $11 billion of union pension fund money who's trust i betrayed. i pleaded guilty. i've had eight years in federal custody to reflect on my actions. i'm profoundly sorry for committing these crimes. i deserved the lengthy sentence i received. nevertheless, as i set up more fully in my full statement, i believe the sdny prosecutors did not indict hunter biden on the same deal because of political reasons. and all of us had financially benefited from these schemes. in fact, hunter biden and devin archer's company received $15 million from the tribal bonds fraudulent scheme to be invested in the bernard group.

i've offered information to the government about hunter's crimes but the prosecutors have been uninterested. in december 2020, i did provide information about hunter's culpability. i apply for home confinement on february 4th, 2023, and i was approved on june 9th. on june 12th, this committee issued a subpoena for devin archer and dop reversed my approval on june 13th, with the prosecutor strongly objective to my release. i've been appealing this rehearsal, and with each stage, the reason for my denial has changed. during this period beginning january 2023, i was sexually assaulted by a member of the prison staff in pensacola, florida. he proceeded in sexually assaulting me for many months

after. i hoped to receive home confinement to remove me from danger. i was well aware as inmates, all inmates are, that the bureau has horrible history on these matters. unfortunately, the sexual harassment continued until early august when the prison correctional officers comments became more threatening. i feared for my safety. i decided to seek counseling the next day on august 10th, 2023. the chaplain advicably upset with the events and asked to bring in salisbury who quickly opened an investigation, which is a reference to the prison rape elimination act passed by congress. after further debriefings, i was immediately escorted to a vehicle, and driven hours to fpc montgomery, a separate facility. i'm grateful the committee has opened an investigation into

these matters, and i appreciate chairman jordan, and chairman biggs signing the letter. i believe i'm putting myself at grave risk within the dop for providing information on these matters consider concerning the president and his son. i've been treated professionally at montgomery. i want to thank case manager anthony barnes for the help and facilitating access to my attorney prior to this interview. l >> thank you, mr. galanis. i want to thank all the witnesses again for being here today. we will now begin the questions. and i want to remind members of both sides of the aisle, each member has five minutes. i'm going can tto adhere to that, and hit the gavel, if the question has been asked, then we'll allow the witnesses time to respond. but we are going to try to get in a lot of questions from a lot of members. and i will begin the

questioning followed by ranking member raskins. again, mr. bobulinski thank you for your service to our country. your military service. appreciate you being here. during the 118th congress, this committee is investigating joe biden's involvement in influence peddling schemes around the world. so let's start with that. mr. bobulinski, was joe biden involved in any of your business dealings? was joe biden involved in family's attempts to sell their access to him? you set out a form -- you set out a form to form a legitimate business with the bidens. did you come to find out that the biden family had no interest in doing real business? >> i did. >> mr. galanis, are you aware of any times hunter biden used joe biden with joe biden's knowledge to benefit their

business associates? >> yes. >> which business associates? >> elena baterina, a russian oligarch. henry zhao and a ukrainian oligarch. gas and oil. >> now that we've established joe biden was involved in his family's business dealings, i would like to turn to the financial records. one my democratic colleagues down play is how much money over a short period of time. we have over $24 million from 2014, while joe biden was vice president to 2019. mr. bobulinski, there came a time when you were attempting to raise $10 million from the chinese to pursue an actual business deal. a real business deal. but it wouldn't be correct to say this is a $10 million deal, would it? what did the bidens conceive of

the business with the chinese becoming? >> the chinese were committing to deploy billions of dollars in infrastructure projects here in the united states as well as around the world. >> mr. galanis, what was the financial goal you, and hunter biden set out to achieve? was it millions of dollars or billions of dollars? >> billions of dollars. >> billions, with a b. >> yes. billions. >> now i'd like to turn to some of the statements joe biden has made during his presidency about the findings of this investigation. mr. bobulinski, joe biden has said he never interacted with his family's business associates. did he meet with you? >> he did. >> in fact, are you aware -- >> i'm sorry, mr. chairman, he did multiple times. >> are you aware that joe biden also met with rob walker, devin sherman, and joe walker too?

>> i'm generally aware of it. >> mr. galanis, as you discussed earlier, regarding elena baterina, the russian oligarch, you are responsible for calling present, correct? >> that's correct. >> you also were present for hunter biden's conversation with his father about a board seat on a chinese company board, is that correct? >> i was present for a call where chinese transactions were discussed, yes. >> so isn't it true when mr. biden said he didn't interact with his family's business associates, that's not true is it? >> i would believe it would be misleading to the point of being an untruth. >> i want to touch on the fact about the absence. hunter biden has chosen not to attend today's proceedings. i've given mr. biden exactly

what he asked for before deposition. it's clear mr. biden knows his testimony would not withstand public scrutiny. today's witnesses would show the american people a side of the story that the president and his allies on this side of the aisle are eager to hide. mr. bobulinski, can you tell us about your meeting at the beverly hilton with joe biden? >> the short version or long version? >> long version. within a minute. os >> okay. so hunter biden, jim biden, and joe biden were in los angeles for a variety of business discussions. joe was there to is speak a the millkin conference in may of 2017. i had lunch with hunter biden at the chateau marmont and he asked to meet with his father. i got there a bit early and sat with jim biden, hunter biden.

we were just talking about what we were doing with the chinese and the legal documents i was working through. they sort of coached me before joe showed up to say listen, we're just going to keep things at a very high level. we're not going to go into a lot of details at this meeting. i just remember that conversation, because it struck me as odd, honestly. joe wasn't in the white house then, and they were sort of framing it that way. and then joe showed up, walked through the lobby of the beverly hilton hotel. i stood up to shake his hand. and we sat down and spent 45 minutes to an hour going through my background. >> you met with him that long. >> yes. yes. this wasn't a hand shake, a two second discussion about the weather. this was a a 45 minute -- >> how long is this going to go? >> we talked about a lot of stuff. >> very good. thank you. chair member recognizes mr. ranken for his questions. >> we're going to go to mr.

garcia to begin. >> i want to begin for the record to be clear, mr. bobulinski has provided zero evidence of any sort of link between hunter biden and the president as far as it relates to the business dealings. once again, we're back to a hearing where no evidence has been provided of any wrongdoing by the president. mr. . bobulinski, i want to go back to the private deposition r that we had. i was one of a handful of democrats on the record, under oath conversation we had. during that deposition, i asked you a question of which you gave a false answer to. i want to go back to that. i asked you specifically who got you into the presidential debate that was attended by you, and others, and that of course was a huge moment in that campaign, and you could not recall. in fact, you said, i do not recall who got me into the debate, do you remember telling

me that sir? >> you are playing semantics as if someone called me directly -- >> i'm going to reclaim my time. >> just ask me a question -- >> actually what i asked you, do you recall who actually got you into the presidential debate. you said i do not recall who got me into the debate. you do not remember who got you into the debate between joe biden and donald trump. >> that's of course not a true statement. >> sir, you quoted, i don't recall who got me into the debate. it's on page 102 of the transcript. thank you, i'll reclaim. i'm not asking you a question right now, thank you very much, sir. in fact here, shown by ranking member raskin. we know you were in the debate, sitting adjacent and next to trump officials. when we were confronted again on this same question, mr. bobulinski, if you were a guest of mr. trump's at the debate,

you quoted once "the wall street journal" called you out, quote, is "the wall street journal" god or something? and you refuse to still confirm that you were a guest of donald trump's. i want to ask you one more time. were you a guest of donald trump at the presidential debate? >> mr. garcia, those were no the questions you asked me in my transcribed interview. >> answer the question, were you a guest of donald trump? >> i was clearly a guest of donald trump at the debate. you're asking me semantical questions. >> so you were a guest. at the time, you said in the transcript, under oath, i don't recall who got me into the debate. just to be clear. you also call yourself, you're not a political person, yet you went to a presidential debate on behalf of president trump. you made it clear in numerous allegations today, and you made them before. yet, even though you're not a political person, this is also another photo of you, you

actually chose to show up at a press conference for donald trump prior to the debate, because you're not a political person. did you show up to a press conference for donald trump before the debate? >> i can't qualify whether it was for donald trump. >> do you know who invited you? sir, who invited you to the debate? donald trump you said. who invited you to the press conference? >> my lawyers coordinated things -- >> jason miller. who actually worked on behalf of the campaign. here you are at a donald trump press conference, and you can't remember how you got to the press conference. do you remember speaking at the press conference? >> i do very clearly. >> do you know who jason miller is? >> i know of him. >> do you know he was a

campaign staffer? >> you keep asking me semantical questions. >> i will reclaim my time. thank you very much. it's interesting, because you show up to a predebate press conference. you show up to a presidential debate both invited to by a person running for the presidency of the united fe states. you know the stakes are high. yet, you have no idea how you got to the press conference. you don't remember how you got to the debate. and here you are speaking at a press conference, of which the s national media -- >> i flew on a plane. >> who invited you are? >> are we going in circles? >> who invited you to the press conference? >> my lawyers told me i was invited to come to tennessee. at this point, i was trying to get ithe truth and the facts o to the american people. at that moment in ontime, if i recall, i believe 80 million people watched the debate. >> thank you, sir, i reclaim my time. i think it's very clear for someone who can't remember how

he got to a donald trump press conference or a debate, you are completely an uncredible witness, thank you, and i yield back. >> the chairman recognizes jason smith for five minutes. >> we've previously heard from two irs whistle-blowers that joe biden was the brand being sold by his family members. one such example of this could be seen in a june 6, 2017, whatsapp message where hunter biden told a business associate that he was not willing to quote sign over my family's brand, closed quote. or give them quote, the keys to my family's only asset. mr. bobulinski, can you confirm that president biden ask the brand being sold by his family members?

thank you. during his deposition, hunter biden repeatedly testified under oath that his father was not involved in his business in any capacity and there wasn't even a connection between his father and his businesses. here is just one example. quote, i just state one more time under oath, and under penalty of personalry, my father has never been involved in my business. i have never asked my father to be involved in my business. my father has never benefited from my business, and i have never asked anyone, or my father, to do anything for the benefit of anyone i've ever done business for, closed quotes. yet the ways and means committee released a whatsapp message that were provided by the irs whistle-blowers showing that hunter biden wrote on july 30th quote i'm sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why

the commitment made has not been fulfilled. i'm sitting here waiting for the call with my father. moreover, you testify that hunter was not shy about his ability to get his father on the phone, and devin archer testified that there were multiple instances in which hunter placed his dad on speaker phone. mr. bobulinski, was hunter se biden telling the truth when he testified under oath that his father was never involved in any of his business dealings? >> no, he was not. those are all blatant lies. >> we continue to hear claims that president biden was not involved in his family's business dealings, and that he did not benefit from elicit business deals. however, irs special agent joe zigler ocprovided documents to the ways and means committee, 327 emails, many of which involve hunter biden, and

hunter biden's business associates. mr. bobulinski, do you have any personal experience that leads you to believe that joe biden was involved with hunter biden's business associates and business dealings? >> yes, i do. >> you want e to say a few? >> to outline how joe was involved? >> yeah. >> yes, different congressmen and women keep trying to say that there's no evidence, and use the word evolved, which is a very opaque language. if joe biden was not involved in his son's business dealings, why after flying across the country to the millkin conference, why would he take 45 minutes out of his night -- it wasn't a 10:00 a.m. meeting. it was 10:45 p.m. he's an elderly man. through all the way across the country, to sit with me for 45 minutes to an hour to discuss my background, the business we're doing with the chinese,

his family's background. >> speaking of the business with the chinese, in october 2020, joe biden asserted that his family had not earned money through business dealings in china. however irs whistle-blowers shared evidence that the fcbide family made at least 1.1 million from their business with china, including $100,000 in payment from it cfc, china energy, and a $1 million payment in exchange for legal services that were never provided to a cfc official patrick hogue. do you know whether the biden family made any money from china? >> they did. millions of dollars. i think approximately 8 to 9 million. >> the biden family has made millions of dollars from china, correct? >> correct. >> and you said at least 9 million? >> yeah, i think it's actually u over 10 million. but i'll leave those details up to you guys. >> thank you, i yield back. >> gentleman yields back.

chair know recognizes the ranking member. >> thank you mr. parnas for being here today. your involvement with the real russian hoax about joe biden began in 2018 when as a big donor and a big supporter of donald trump's, you were introduced to rudy giuliani and you began working with him to dig up dirt on biden and ukraine. can you tell us how you got involved with that? >> yes, i was a donor at the time. i got involved with rudy giuliani at a business called fraud guarantee. he approached me and asked me about my connections in ukraine. after telling him about people it that i knew, and things that i heard, at that point, then he wanted me to go to ukraine to find victor shokin, the prosecutor general. >> basically, he wanted to go from his fraud guarantee to guaranteeing a fraud on the

american people. but after turning over every stone and going down every rabid hole, including interviewing victor shokin, and the owner of parisma, did you ever find a smoking gun, or any evidence donald trump was looking for to paste on joe biden? >> on the contrary, representative raskin. not only did we keep hitting walls and not finding the smoking gun, but we ran into sources of the information was coming out of russia. >> in fact, joe biden was part of a global campaign to oppose corruption and go can after the corrupt forces in ukraine, isn't that right? >> yes, sir. >> at one point, did the campaign to dig up dirt on biden become a campaign to spread disinformation and lies about joe biden? >> at some point, when we hit a few brick walls, then all of a sudden i saw the shift between

the blt group which includes john sholoman and rudy giuliani and others to start to push narratives that we had no -- that were invalidated. that we had no way to validate them, basically, a letter would come over from someone in ukraine. i'd hand it over to john solomon. the next thing you know, he was on fox tv two hours later with sean hannity. >> at what point, did mr. giuliani begin working with russian agents and russian assets? individuals who would later become sanctioned by donald trump's own treasury department for spreading propaganda and disinformation. >> it was probably may, june, 2019. >> were you aware these people were just doing the bidding of vladimir putin? >> absolutely. >> so he had no hesitation

about spreading lies concocted by russian agents? >> as long as it fit the narrative, absolutely not. >> how were you and mr. giuliani able to promote and amplify them here in the united states in our political system? weren't media groups skeptical of your claims? >> most media groups, i'd probably say, all except for fox and a few other right wing media groups didn't want to take any of the information. and that aggravated rudy giuliani and john solomon and other players. the main group that was being pushed through was fox. sean hannity, and some other media personalities over there. but there was also people doing bidding for russia in congress, like senator ron johnson, pete sessions who sits with me now, finding into digging dirt on joe biden. >> is putin's war in ukraine today, which has cost hundreds of thousands of people's lives,

is that part of the vaunted russia hoax? >> absolutely not. >> is it real? >> yes. absolutely. >> i want to ask you a more personal question if i might, mr. parnas. in my several years living through this extraordinary period of american history, i've tried to ask people like michael cohen, and cassidy hutchson, and people like general milley, general kelly, why did you break with all the deceit, and corruption, and lies of donald trump? how did you get out of that culture? >> it was very difficult. i actually had to have a brick wall myself and get arrested to be able to get out of that cult, because when you're in that cult, when you're around f them, you have blinders on, and you're only able to see a certain amount of information. you're only urable to see a certain amount of information. you're not allowed to go t outside of the circle. if you go outside of the

circle, you're not in the circle. so eventually, you brainwash yourself to believe things that aren't true. when i had some time to reflect what was going on, i started thinking back to moments of time where i started thinking myself, this can't be true, and we're doing something wrong. >> thank you for telling the truth in helping america to end this nightmare. >> the chair now recognizes the chair of the house judiciary committee, jim jordan. >> i thank you. the ranking member just said joe biden was opposed to corruption, really? so opposed he leveraged $11 billion of american taxpayer money to fire the prosecutor in ukraine who was investigating zolechfs different at burisma. wow. wow he's really opposed to

corruption there. mr. bobulinski, who's the big guy? are you sure about that? >> jordan, joe biden. >> are you sure ? >> i'm 1,000 person sure. >> he said i don't know who it is, even when he was copied on the email that said h will hold 10% for the big guy. are you sure the big guy is joe biden? >> 100%, and there's other text messages that will back that up from the brave whistle-blowers, not from my phones. they took them from subpoenas, directly from apple's icloud that backed up that joe biden knew. >> the big guy is the one who showed up at golf outings, and took lunches with hunter biden and his business associations, is that right? >> correct. >> mr. galanis, you referenced in your opening statement, may 4, 2014, you were at a party at

a restaurant in brooklyn, new york. can you tell me who else was there? >> yeah. the -- it was a birthday party. so there were more than 100 people there. but amongst them was devin archer, myself, the host, elena baternof, her husband, and hunter biden joined us after i arrived -- >> i believe you referenced a phone call that was made. who was involved in that phone call? >> as i testified in my opening statement, elena baterina, her husband, myself, hunter initiating it, joe biden on the speaker phone, and devin archer. >> so there was a mlittle pull aside where that group were pulled aside, and hunter called his father, or called the vice president, is that accurate? >> that's accurate. >> tell me what was discussed

on the call? >> the discussion i testified, it was a relatively short discussion. but it was a discussion about elena and mary coming to town, as i testified specifically, they talked about being good to his boy. and it was -- >> well let me ask you this, let me ask you this. did you get the impression joe biden was expecting the call? >> yes. to me, it was clearly set up ahead of time. it was an arranged call. >> this was arranged, this was coordinated. hunter biden calls his father, then vice president, i think you said in your deposition he said i'm here with our friends that i told you were coming to town. so it's our friends, and i told you this was going to happen, which suggests that it was most definitely coordinated, is that accurate? >> that's accurate, yes.

>> can you tell the committee who ms. baterana is again? >> a russian billionaire. a wife who served the mayor for 24 years. >> she's the wealthiest woman in russia. she had already given money to hunter biden and his business before this meeting in may. and then subsequent to that meeting, she committed to give more money, is that accurate? >> that's accurate. >> so subsequent to the arranged call that mr. biden had with the vice president of the united states, the wealthiest woman in russia commits to give millions more to hunter biden's business. is that accurate? >> that's accurate, yes. >> and you know that it was coordinated. is this what they call -- is this what they call access to the brand? access to the biden lift? is that would you would describe it as mr. galanis? >> i don't think there's any doubt that that was the intent of the call, and the objective,

yes. >> and it followed d'amato. it followed the statement that you all agreed to. say it, forget it. write it, regret it. this wasn't put t in writing. this was a phone call on the speaker. there's no writing about this. it was all done that way. that was how the business operated. is that correct, mr. galanis? >> yes. >> i yield back. >> gentleman yields back. chair now recognizes mr. lynch from massachusetts for five t minutes. >> thank you, mr. chair man. i want to make an observation here. i've been on this investigating committee for over 20 years. and as an attorney, before that i've had sufficient training, and experience to say that with high confidence that when you review the entire record of evidence of these hearings going back over a year you've actually provided more evidence to impeach donald trump for a

third time than you have in so much as laying a glove on president biden. we keep on hearing about the biden family, when you hear someone say the biden family, that translates into, we have no evidence on the president, so we're going to use the biden family to try to implicate president biden. but by the constant bumbling and continually shifting arguments here, you've done nothing more than exonerate president biden. we heard initially for months we heard about the hunter biden laptop. and you know, there were absolutely some embarrassing photos on that. and some awful information about hunter biden's personal life. i will admit that. then you bring in your own witnesses, your legal experts before this committee, and have them testify. and what they said was amazing. they said there was no evidence

to even suggest that there was support for articles of impeachment against the president. that was your legal experts. the republican legal experts that said that. then we have statements by mr. jordan saying that mr. summer smirnov was the strongest witness that they had. and of course, after that, we find out through the trump appointed prosecutor that all of the the information that ftm smirnov had provided was fabricated, false, and submitted by the inducement of russian agents going after president biden and trying to undermine our democratic system.

and now we come to a point where since that witness blew up, now we're going to prison, and we're reaching out to witnesses who have been convicted and sentenced to prison for stealing $80 million from the pensions of innocent workers. we can't get any lower at this point. that's your star witness. i want to remind people, he's sitting in prison. that's why he can't be here today. he's sitting in prison for scamming workers' pensions. i mean, how low can you get? then it's the republicans idea that this is the best guy they can get to testify against the president. this is the best guy they can

get. a guy sitting in prison, who can't even be here. mr. parnas, you've talked about your own direct involvement with mr. giuliani, and you said that your mission was to dig up dirt on president biden. can you talk to us about the coordination between yourself and mr. giuliani? thank you for being here. >> thank you, congressman. so basically it was a shadow diplomacy run by donald trump and giuliani, where giuliani was the shadow secretary of state. i was his right hand man, and the point person to dig up, validate, search, to find some corruption against joe or hunter biden to be able to present. once i would receive whatever information i received, i would then meet with him, john solomon, other members of the team like pete sessions and derek carrvy or other people there to discuss what we found. at that point from there giuliani would go to the white

house and share with the president. and that was the line of communication. >> you said also, in your testimony that members of this committee, republican leadership should have known, should have known before smirnov was indicted that this information was fabricated about president biden. could you talk about that? >> congressman, not that they should have known, they did know. they knew exactly what was going on. they knew it was not vetted. this information was coming in from left, right field, and was pushed straight to the halls of congress with zero vetification of it. >> before i recognize mr. palmer, i'd like to enter into the record the testimony with tony bobulinski in 2024, it corrects the record of representative garcia's, who did not provide your entire

testimony on page 147, you told the committee about your understanding of who invited you to the events referenced by mr. garcia. so i'd like to enter into the record the testimony. >> i would like to enter an article from today's daily beast including texts reveal from bobulinski. >> chair now recognizes mr. palmer from alabama for five minutes. >> mr. bobulinski, i have very limited time, and i want to get through a lot of information, so please answer these questions with a yes or no, if you don't mind. you have met joe biden, is that correct. >> correct. >> in fact you had a meeting with joe biden, is that correct? >> two of them. >> one of them was before the millkin conference, is that correct? >> it was during the millkin conference. >> i want to show some messages

between you and hunter biden behind the screen here. these are messages between you and hunter biden dated may 2, 2017. do you recognize these? >> i do. >> at the bottom hunter wrote, dad not in now until 11. let's meet at beverly hilton, where he's staying. jim is james biden, president biden's brother, is that correct? >> correct. >> the next set of message is between another business association, his name is james. do you recognize it? >> i do. >> at the top you write, about to meet hunter jim, and i guess joe at beverly hilton hotel. joe is now present. joe biden, correct? >> correct. >> this chat between jim biden, joe biden's brother. you write to jim. great to meet you and spend some time together. please thank joe for this time. you met with them before the

millkin conference is that correct? >> i did, and jim biden perjured himself. >> that was at the beverly hilton, correct? >> correct. >> what was the purpose of that meeting? >> i didn't ask for the meeting. so i wish hunter biden was sitting next to me, and he could under oath describe it, but the only reason i was meeting with joe biden, and the only reason why i was there is because i was the ceo of the enterprise they were putting together with the chinese company cfc. >> so, can you give me more detail about what was discussed in the meeting? >> well, as i said earlier, before joe biden showed up, hunter and jim biden coached me, asked to outline that we wouldn't get into a lot of mi details. so through the 45 to 60 minute meeting i had with joe biden, i think it was about 10:15 p.m. after he flew across the

country, we talked about my background, the family's military background, the family i worked with. joe spent time talking about his family. some of the tragedies that they had lived through, and at a high level, hunter actually introduce canned me to joe. because before joe sat down with us, hunter said, hey, give me five to ten minutes, i need to read my father in on it. >> so when you're referencing joe and hunter's father, you're referencing joe biden. >> i am. >> these four images, well in this message, you sent to james again. you said you spent more time with joe and jim. to be factually correct, that's president joe biden, and james biden, his brother. these show your meeting. hunter ybiden transcribed that the meeting did in fact take

place. after asked hunter stated he met with him in the lobby of the hotel. when asked whether the meeting at the beverly hilton between joe biden, jim biden and tony bobulinski took place, jim biden testified absolutely not. these stories don't match up. mr. chairman, jim biden also told the committee that joe biden did not meet the chinese businessman ming. rob walker said the opposite. so mr. chairman, it appears to me, there are material inconsistencies between the witness's testimony. these witness's statements to me appear to be irreconcilable. in short, someone appears to be lying to the committee. the inconsistent testimony seems to come from jim biden, the president's brother.

lying to congress is a criminal offense. i strongly consider the committee to pursue criminal charges. one last thing i want to ask, mr. bobulinski, or mr. gacan galinas, have either of you heard of a pardon mentioned? have you heard of anyone being suggested that a pardon might be in order for anyone associated with this enterprise? >> i have not. >> thank you, mr. bobulinski. >> we've heard for months now, and seen that the photo of that blackberry with the cracked screen. does the committee have in its possession the data from mr. bobulinski's phone from which we've taken these pictures? because i think we need the data. maybe mr. bobulinski could turn it over to us, and we could

subpoena with it today. >> we have the pictures we have shared with you. >> but do we have the underlying texts? >> mr. bobulinski previously said he would be happy to turn over his phone. >> we have pictures of all the text message screen shots that we have provided with everyone on the committee. >> all right, of course, he's just giving us obviously the ta ones he's selected. i'm wondering whether we could get all of those texts, and i would move that the committee subpoena mr. bobulinski's blackberry phone. he's stated he would be willing to provide it, so it should be simple. >> okay. there's a motion to subpoena bobulinski's blackberry? >> with the texts that were just referenced by mr. palmer. >> chair recognizes mr. jordan.

>> i move the table to motion. >> there's a motion to table. the motion is to table is not debatable. as many are -- >> tabling may tsignify by saying aye? aye. all those opposed signify by saying no. >> no! >> in the opinion of the chair, the aye's have it. >> we're tabling evidence here, which you keep relying on, so i'm going to ask for recorded vote on that. >> a recorded vote is ordered. we'll suspend for a moment. because this is a committee meeting, we don't have the clerk. will somebody go find the clerk? >> he said it, did he say under oath?

>> l mr. speaker, mr. chairman, mr. minority leader, do you think it's possible that the witness would voluntarily just give it? >> but i understood that mr. bobulinski had volunteered when he was asked about this, it would simplify things if he would just turn over the blackberry. >> he did say he would be happy to turn over his blackberry to the committee. we asked for it, he didn't. >> mr. jordan, you're out of order. we're in suspension, waiting for the clerk to come, so we can take the vote that your side of the aisle requested. >> you can't make this stuff up. >> this is jurassic court. jeez. >> mr. ranking member?

mr. ranking member? >> yes. >> i solely want to underscore the importance of this. >> i'm sorry, the lady is out of order. you can come here and talk to him, if you want. >> mr. chairman? mr. chairman? >> yes. >> we don't even have a -- >> i said, ms. ocasio-cortez would have to come up. you would as well.

>> [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] >> mr. chairman, an invitation to regular order we have democratic groups that are faithful to the rule of law and if you are waiting for a clerk we will be here to watch and document in other words, if you want to conduct the works, we can do it. >> a recorded vote is ordered.

>> mr. jordan. mr. jordan votes yes. mr. turner. mr. gosar. ms. fox. mr. grossman. mr. grossman votes yes. mr. claude. mr. claude votes yes. mr.palmer. mr. palmer votes aye. mr. higgins. mr. higgins votes yes. mr. sessions. mr. sessions votes aye. mr. bigs. mr. bigs votes aye. miss mace. miss mace votes aye. mr. laturner.

mr. laturner votes aye. mr. fallon. mr. donalds. mr. donalds votes yes. mr. perry. mr. timmons. mr. timmons votes aye. mr. burchet. ms. greene. >> aye. >> ms. greene votes aye. ms. mcclain. mr. frye. mr. frye votes aye. ms. luna. mr. langworthy. mr. langworthy votes aye.

mr. burleson. mr waltz. >> mr. raskin votes no. ms. norton. mr. lynch. >> no. >> mr. lynch votes no. mr. connolly. >> nay. >> mr. connolly votes nay. mr. morothy votes no. mr. ensume. >> no. >> ms. ocasio-cortez. >> nay. >> ms. porter. ms. bush. ms. brown.

ms. stansbury. mr. garcia. mr. garcia votes no. mr. frost. ms. lee. ms. lee votes no. mr. casar. mr. casar votes no. ms. crocket. >> votes no. >> mr. goldman. >> no. >> mr. goldman votes no. >> mr. most moskuwitz votes no. talib votes no. ms. presley votes no. mr. chairman. >> i vote yes and how is mr. burleson recorded? >> mr. burleson is not recorded. mr. burleson votes yes. >> how is ms. bobert recorded?

>> ms. bobert is not recorded. >> how is mr. turner recorded? >> mr. turner is not recorded. >> aye. >> mr. turner votes aye. >> how is mr. frost reported? >> mr. frost is not recorded. >> no. >> mr. frost votes no. >> how is mr. fallon recorded? >> mr. fallon is not recorded. >> aye. >> mr. fallon votes aye. >> how is ms. porter recorded? >> ms. porter is not recorded. >> no. >> ms. porter votes no. >> will the clerk tally the report?

mr. chairman, on this vote, the ayes are 21, the nays are 16. >> the ayes have it. the motion passes. the chair recognizes mr. connolly for five minutes. >> in your deposition, you were asked about taking a picture of your phone and you said, and i quote, i still have that phone. i could put that phone on this table right here. and every person in this room could look at that individual text and validate that it is a legitimate text and the date and time stamp on it. are you willing to provide the committee voluntarily with the blackberry you referenced and that phone? >> i'm willing to sit in the room with both the chairman and the ranking member with my phone and their staff and we can go through each and every text message. as i said in my interview, i had a forensics expert plug into my blackberry. someone who has done extensive work with the fbi, with the

interest of pulling all the data off that phone so i can provide it to the committee. unfortunately, they were using software that the fbi uses and they were unable to pull the data off the phone. >> okay. >> i am more than willing to sit in a room with mr. chairman and the ranking member and their staff with that blackberry, fully charged, and we can go through each and every message. >> that is some progress. i appreciate that. but you can understand i'm sure, why the committee wants to look at evidence on its own. excuse me. this is my time. you can understand why we would want to look at evidence raw so we can make our own determination. thank you for your willingness to cooperate. mr. parmis. >> you observed back in 2023, in a letter you sent to chairman comber, that there

were examples of giuliani interfering in ukrainian politics, unquote. why would giuliani be interfering in another country's politics? >> giuliani would do and say whatever he needed for the purpose of getting the information he needed to secure donald trump 2020 election. so just a prime example of one of the things he did. he had a close relationship with then boxer, vladimir, who was then the mayor in ukraine, when the president came over, there was rumors about maybe him not being staying in office as mayor of ukraine. he flew to new york, met with rudy giuliani, and a meeting we had with andre in spain, that was relevant, had to do with president zelenskyy announcing the investigation into joe and hunter biden. at that meeting, he brought up

the situation, and basically said if zelenskyy got rid of him, president trump and the american people would be very upset about that, because he love him and he needs to be in there. >> so, was giuliani just doing this as a rogue on his own because he was a patriotic american who loves donald trump? or had someone encouraged him to engage in this political interference in another country? >> i think he was encouraged by donald trump. >> ah, personally. >> that's your testimony? >> yes, sir. >> thank you. in your letter, you also said that mr. giuliani was to quote, deliver a precise message in very strict words. unquote. with respect to the administration of the then newly installed president of ukraine, president zelenskyy. what did you understand a very strict message or a message of very strict words construed and

what was that message that you delivered? that was in very strict words? >> yes, congressman. he basically told me not to be nice, to be stern, and relay the message unless zelenskyy announced an investigation by monday, this was sunday, that there would be no cooperation, no aid to ukraine from the united states and the vice president pence at the time, that was scheduled to appear for the inauguration would not appear to the inauguration. >> that would seem to corroborate that famous and beautiful telephone conversation between president trump and president zelenskyy, basically, saying but i need a favor and hinting that they would be withholding of military aid until that favor was delivered. is that fair? >> absolutely. i was a part of setting up that phone call. that famous phone call that trump had with zelenskyy. >> i think your testimony is very important, mr. parnas.

it's under oath. >> yes, sir. >> i thank you. i yield back. >> the chair recognizes taylor greene from georgia for five minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman. joe biden continues to lie to the american people about his role in his family's businesses. in 2020, he stood up on stage of a presidential debate and told the american people that his family didn't take any money from china. that was a lie. not only was it a lie, he knew it was a lie. he knew it because he met with his son, hunter biden, chinese business associates. i want to talk about cefc, which is the china energy fund committee. mr. bobulinski, who is chairman ye? >> chairman ye was the chairman of cesc. >> thank you. >> joe biden told the fbi and irs that chairman ye was the protojay of the leader of china

and the chinese communist party. mr. bobulinski. rob walker told this committee that joe biden met chairman ye. are you aware of that? yes or no? >> i am now, i wasn't at the time. >> and joe biden met with you, is that right? >> yes, he did, twice. >> who is director zang? >> director zang was the number two. >> the executive director? >> really the point person that i worked with and the biden family worked with. he is the individual that hunter biden was shaking down at the end of july, 2017, demanding that they fund the $10 million they ultimately sent $5, but $10 million to hunter biden's account. >> thank you mr. bobulinski. i want to show you a text message that hunter biden sent to you and his other business associates.

i'm holding it right here. hey tony, i have an idea. in light of the fact we're at an impasse of sorts, james lawyers and my chairman gave an emphatic no. we should meet in romania. he is speaking about my chairman. when hunter biden came in for his deposition. he was referring to chairman ye, and the rest of your group referred to za in, g as a different chairman. >> that's a lie. i never heard director zang referenced as chairman, and i had direct communications over chat. met him in romania. met him around the world in new york, trying to develop this business, and he was never referred to as the chairman. first of all. second of all, that makes absolutely no sense in the context of this message, because we are discussing holdings llc. >> so he was not the chairman. just to clarify. >> correct. >> okay. so i want to show you another

text. when he said his chairman, he was talking about his dad. this is from rob walker. it didn't seem to make much sense to rob walker either. he said that when hunter, he said this to you. when hunter was talking about his chairman, he was talking about his dad. when rob walker came in to give his transcribed interview to the committee, he basically said, well hunter was high or confused or mad. and rob walker said that he was just trying to calm things down between you and hunter. but that doesn't really answer the question about who hunter biden is talking about. hunter biden lied to this committee. rob walker is talking about his dad. i want to be clear. we established zang is not the chairman. is that correct? yes or no? >> correct. >> let me show you another message. this message doesn't call zang chairman zang, does it? it just says the chinese want

to do business with the bidens. as a matter of fact, it says both coming to be my partner, to be partners with the bidens, with an s. he, zang, is implied, has implied the number one has made it clear and available to him. who is the number one? >> the number one is the president of china. yes or no? the leader of the communist party, the ccp? >> yes. >> is the number one. >> yes, that's the number one that hunter was referencing in that message. >> now, let's be very clear. this was in 2017. but i would like to make it known for this committee that joe biden told the press in 2016, as a matter of fact, i quote. yeah, i am. i am going to run in 2020. he told the press in 2016, that he was running for president of

the united states in 2020. so here is the biden's doing business in china in 2017. when everybody knew he was planning to be president of the united states. do you see that to be a serious problem, mr. bobulinski. they had warrants. they were recording conversations and i wish they disclosed that data and facts to this committee. >> thank you mr. bobulinski. i yield mr. chairman. >> mr. morte for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chair. rudy giuliani tasked you with a mission to travel the globe to find dirt to damage the biden's reputation in the 2018-2019 time frame, right if >> correct. >> this was an effort to secure trump's reelection as president in 2020, right if >> correct. >> by dirt, you mean evidence of wrong doing or criminality, right?

>> yes, sir. >> and in your travels, you found quote, precisely zero proof of the biden's criminality, right? >> correct. >> and there was no evidence of the biden's corruption in ukraine because as you said, there truly was none, right? >> correct, yes, sir. >> interestingly, you have looked for dirt around the world about the biden's and specifically joe biden in particular, and you say the fbi, cia, have all failed to produce any evidence of criminal wrong doing, right? >> correct. >> not only that, but former ukrainian president, stated quote, there's no the a single word of truth to these allegations about joe biden, right? >> absolutely. yes, sir. >> now there's a guy named yuri, who is the former prosecutor general of ukraine. and he also quote, confirmed that nothing ties the biden's to criminal activity in ukraine, right? >> correct. >> there's another prosecutor general named victor shoken, who also said he conceded, quote, that he had no evidence

that either joe ore hunter biden had ever interviewed with ukrainian law, right? >> yes, sir. >> and the reason you know this is because you talked to each of these people, right if >> yes, sir. >> and your job was to try and dig up dirt or manufacture dirt, right? >> yes, sir. >> and yet, we have conducted months of hearings and because there's been no evidence of wrong doing, you called this whole impeachment inquiry a quote, wild goose change, right? >> yes, sir. >> now interestingly, we've heard from the other side that quote, the real quid pro quo wasn't donald trump. it was joe biden when he tried to hold up foreign aid when he was vice president in exchange for firing the federal prosecutor in ukraine that was investigating the corruption from his son. now you, again, looked for evidence to support this claim. there is no evidence, correct? >> correct. that was false. >> in fact, firing the

prosecutor would make it more likely that they would go after the company in question, barisma, not less, right? >> the ironic part, the reason why the obama administration wanted to get rid, because he was corrupt. not because he was investigating, but because he was stealing investigations for uk, that was looking into $23 million, they wanted to get and stall that investigation. >> the logic is just the opposite of what the majority claims is to be the case. namely, that they say that somehow joe biden was out to fire the prosecutor to reduce the chances of a prosecution of barisma. actually, in firing that prosecutor, he increased the chances of prosecuting barisma, right? >> absolutely. yes. >> let me talk about what the other witnesses have said.

jonathan turley, the expert republicans brought forward said there's no evidence in which he was aware to impeach the president. garrett graves said last week, quote, have i seen anything that is impeachable? no, i haven't. you agree with that statement as with el? >> yes, sir. >> last year, a report colleague who is about to retire, said, that evidence of wrong doing by president biden doesn't exist right now. it doesn't exist now. it didn't exist then, right? >> that's exactly true, sir. >> sir, how many times have you met donald trump? >> well over ten times, i'd say. i would have to count. lots of times. >> is there anything you would like to relay to us about your conversations with donald trump that would bear on the conduct of these proceedings? >> i mean, donald trump was aware of everything that was going on on that day in the red room, when we were in the white house. after rudy bringing donald

trump up to speed that i could go out to ukraine and get victor. donald trump shook me hand, took pictures, and i was off to ukraine. >> to meet with victor? >> to find victor, to bring him back here to meet with lindsey graham. >> got it. thank you so much. i yield back. >> thank you. >> chair now recognizes mr. claude from texas for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. we heard biden, joe biden, say that he had no knowledge whatsoever about the business dealings and that changed. he never allegedly had any conversation with hunter, then they moved the ball to say well, he didn't have any business dealings. he wasn't involved. didn't have any financial contribution. since then, we covered 20 shell companies and bank records that bring light to that and while we can't cover all 20 shell companies in five minutes. i wanted to focus on one.

that is rosemont. rosemont is interesting and devon archer had testified and he said this in his testimony. he said, he said that this entity was used as a common entity on a handshake deal between devon and hunter splitting these shares. these were your words. do you stand by those words? >> yes, i do. >> and devon archer agreed with that. he said hunter was a corporate secretary of rsb and had a handshake, 50/50 ownership deal. is that correct? >> that's correct, yes. >> and primarily, this company was set up to initially as a place to hold equity from harvest, is that correct? >> what i was told by the partners at the time that was

set up to do that and invest in other businesses. subsequently testified to that fact. up colluded money that was paid from the clause in a $15 million that was wired to that account as well. so, multiple transactions that was depicted in that diagram. >> and, even if this were legal and there was no inpro prity. it's concerning, because this company is set up to compete against americans energy interest at ccp. then, we have other flows into rosemont, from barisma. we all know about hunter's $1 million salary he received for sitting on the board and providing no actual function there. and so we have $1 million salary going through rosemont to hunter biden. this is interesting. we have a meeting with -- and

what gets me here, the $300 at the end of the 142, 300 that goes into this. and then the next day went to a porch dealership for a car for hunter biden. now, what is interesting about all this, of course, is that each of these not only flowed money through the shell companies to hunter biden, but each of them also involved important meetings with, of course, president biden. and so on december 4, we have coffee with jonathan lee, who was one of the members who started bohi harvest, and he was connected with the ccp. they were having trouble getting licensed to work, because of course the ccp has to get permission for that. until hunter flew over on air force 2, with vice president joe biden at the time. they met with jonathan lee, hunter introduced him. joe ended up writing a letter

of recommendation to jonathan lee's daughter to get into college, and we see this relationship continues to be born. of course, in the ukraine, we know that april 16th, 2015, joe biden had dinner with an official at cafe molano. seems to be a popular spot, because joe biden also had dinner there. all in flow to going here. and of course, as tony bobulinski pointed out several times, this all comes down to eventually the one big guy who gets 10% for the big guy. so we know that all this money flowed through this to get to hunter and then we know that 10% went to the big guy. so, mr. bobulinski, does this general pattern of hunter offering foreign access to joe biden, hunter gets paid, and joe gets a share of that.

is that basically what the general practice across many of these shell companies were? [ inaudible ] >> congressman, as i outlined, the big guy is clearly joe biden. the details of system of those transactions, i was not involved in. that's clearly how they operated in. >> you said at the beginning, that hunter didn't really provide any sort of intellectual asset value or anything of the sort. his entire value was the brand, is that correct? >> we didn't rely on him for any product other than delivering the biden list. >> the biden list, and one more question for you. did you offer to provide information on hunter biden and devon archer back in 2016 to prosecutors and the sec and what happened there? >> yes. through counsel, i had offered to provide information specifically on that to the fdny, and i also did the same

thing to the exchange commission, which was interested in told to squash that interest. i understood that to be an order. >> thank you. i yield back. >> gentleman, your time expired. the chair yields mr. goldman for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i only have five minutes, so i'm going to try to move quickly and i appreciate if you would answer the questions. you testified that joe biden was involved in your business venture related to onita holdings and hunter biden. onita holdings is the business venture you are referring to, correct? >> when i'm referring to what? >> any business you did with

the bidens. >> my reference is llc and onita holdings, own 50% of that. >> right. and onita holdings was the 50% that was on the american side of that deal, right? >> it was the 50% that was the biden side of it. some of the james, is not an american. >> sorry, fair enough. >> it was a joint partnership memorialized in an incorporating document. it had equal shares divided among five partner, is that right? >> are you asking about what you are holding up? >> were there equal 20% shares? >> in what? >> oneida holdings. >> is that what you're asking me? >> yes, it's not complicated. >> it is. >> you are just filibustering. i get it. the answer is, there were five partners, hunter biden, jim

biden, rob walker, james gilliar, and you. each owned 20%. >> well, they didn't each own, it is llc owned, which is a material difference. >> i don't know. i'll leave that up to the committee. >> do you know when this agreement was entered into? >> um, the poster board that you're holding up or the legal document that was signed? >> the agreement, sir. >> the agreement. >> the agreement was signed may 22, 2017. who was the vice president then? >> may 22, you said? i think it was mike pence. >> and who was the president? >> donald trump. >> when did you first meet hunter biden? >> i first met hunter biden in early 2017. >> when? when in 2017? >> the day or month? >> the month is good.

>> i believe i briefly met him in new york, but i spent the first meeting i had extensive time with him was in early may 2017. >> that was around the same time you had those two meetings with joe biden, right? >> it was. prior to that -- >> look, you have said -- >> i had lawyers working through the documents. >> can i please reclaim my time. we have to move quickly here. unfortunately, in your testimony earlier today, one of my colleagues asked you about that meeting at the bar, 45 minutes, 60 minutes. and you were also asked about that in your transcribed interview. in neither of your answers did you mention any discussion that you had at that meeting with joe biden about the chinese business venture. yet, you have declared that joe biden was involved and that you have mountains of irrefutable evidence to support it. so let's look at the mountains ofirrefutable evidence. you provided the committee with a screen shot of a text message

that is between james gilliard and you, dated may 11, 2017. you see this? i don't know if you can see it. if you can't see it, just you and james gilliard, right? you remember this text message i'm sure. >> generally, yes. >> he writes, man, you are right. let's get the company set up and tell families the high stakes and get joe involved. two days later, mr. gilliard sent a letter, division of the company and included a proposal of quote, 10% held for the big guy, question mark. you remember that, right? >> the infamous e-mail with the big guy, yes, i do. >> did anyone ever respond to that e-mail? >> yes, they did. numerous times. hunter biden himself did. >> excuse me, you're right. >> it's important, because hunter biden claimed he didn't respond to it, and he did. >> i reclaim my time that is running out. i will say, no one responded to

the big guy reference for ten. >> thank you for making my point. they didn't have to respond, because they all knew the big guy was joe biden. >> please control the witness. i would like to say -- i would like to get extra time, mr. chairman. i want to read what mr. gilliar said to the wall street journal. i would like to clear up any speculation that any vice president -- i am unaware of any involvement at any time of the former vice president, the activity in question, never delivered and project revenue. nine days later, the agreement without joe biden was signed. you and james gilliar wanted joe biden involved and that is why hunter biden dumped you and did the business on his own. >> chairman, time is expired. the chair recognizes mr. higgins. >> thank you for being here

today. we appreciate the candor of your responses, sir. which reflective of the way you handled yourself in private testimony deposition. so i thank you for communicating truthfully to the american people today. i'm going to ask you about the china energy fund committee, the cefc. are you familiar with that, sir? >> i am. >> is this a multibillion dollar company like a fortune 500 company at one time? >> it seems bigger than that. if you go back and look at its financials, in 2016 and 2017, one of the five largest private companies in china. >> this was a major, major operation, had a lot of money. apparently, i'm going to hold up a memo here from the chart

from the second bank memo. it shows dispursement of a total of almost $24 million for diamonds. so you have a major chinese company spending a lot of money on diamonds and apparently, diamonds were used as a means of payment for the biden family. we know that the biden's have testified that admitted to having two diamonds. we suspect that there are many, many more, $23 million worth of diamonds. are you familiar with the exchange of valuable assets to pay the biden's other than electronic transfers of money. are you aware of payments in

diamonds, payment in cash, payment in board memberships, etcetera? >> am i generally aware of it or involved? >> yes. >> i read jim biden and hunter biden's transcript multiple times. jim biden in that transcript references two diamonds that were given to hunter biden. one he implies was in 2015 by an individual who he couldn't recall his name. the individual's name is scott o., who is a surrogate for cfc, and a second diamond was given at a meeting in miami and i really want to set the record clear. i was not at that physical meeting. i was in miami, but i was not at that physical meeting. that's what i told the fbi in my transcribed interview. >> are you aware, mr. bobulinski, of a pattern of bribery payments coming from the china energy fund committee? >> i appreciate that question. i wish everyone on this committee would read the 1200

pages of testimony and an eight- day trial, where mr. goldman used to work, when the trial was going on. that accused numerous executives, ultimately patrick of corruption, bribing, leaving shoe boxes. >> exactly. >> a variety of political figures in africa. >> mr. bobulinski. from your perch within the biden family operations and their interactions with major businesses in china. in the exchange of millions of dollars that are known, we tracked them through bank records, through suspicious activity reports, through e- mails, through communications, that this committee has documented. there's no debate. millions and millions of dollars flowed into the biden family bank accounts, but the existence of other forms of payment is fascinating, because

diamonds are untraceable. we really don't know how many diamonds the bidens received, do we? >> we don't. for someone who has been to mainland china, there are hundreds of people working for me in mainland china. at one point, i never got a diamond from any businessman or woman. >> i hear you. so mr. bobulinski, i shift quickly to a text message. are you familiar with this? from a gentleman named james. >> generally yes. >> it says don't mention joe being involved. it's only when you're face to face. i know you know that, but they are paranoid and as a response saying okay, they should be paranoid about things. and then as a response saying for real. so, what is meant by don't mention joe being involved? it is only when you are face to face? i know you know that, but they are paranoid? >> i think it outlines how the

biden's operated. you have golanes testifying and other witnesses that have given you evidence that outlined they worked to create layers of obstruction, that is the reason why rob walker was getting sent millions of dollars. that's why devon archer was receiving millions of dollars instead of going to hunter directly. yo u have a mountain of evidence that stacks high and answers that question on how they lived in a world of plausible d denialability. >> thank you. my time is expired, i yield. >> ms. norton from dc for five minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman. thank you for appearing voluntarily for this hearing from alabama. i understand you are currently serving a 189 month sentence in federal prison. almost 16 years. after being convicted of not

one, but two. not one, not two, but three different schemes. the victims of your schemes as the judge who presided over your criminal prosecution noted included and here i quote, one of the poorest native american tribes in the country, as well as pension funds held for the benefit of transit workers, long shoreman, housing authority workers, and city employees, hard working people, every day people among others. the court also noted that you personally benefited from these schemes and a gain, i quote, using over $8 million. almost $9 million for lavish personal expenditures,

including home expenses, automobiles, travel, clothing, jewelry, expenses, and meanwhile investors were left with nothing. but this is not your only encounter with prosecutors. in another case, the security and exchange commission charged you in 2005 with accounting fraud in connection with your investment, your involvement rather, with penthouse magazine. and in 2010, you were convicted of attempted tax evasion and were sentenced to five years probation in order to pay nearly $2 million in restitution. in imposing your prison sentence, the judge noted that you are an extremely talented

man. extremely gifted in his interpersonal skills. uncommonly so. he is very persuasive as an individual and those were the tools in his tool bag. of the fraud he committed and the people he ensnared. his intelligence, his interpersonal skills. his charm, if you will, and this is something that is not unseen in people who are commonly referred to as con artists. another judge who presided over your case referred to you as quote, a skillful con artist. a skillful con artist that is who my republican colleagues are relying on to carry their water in this sham impeachment inquiry after their last star witness, the author of the infamous fbi form 1023 was

indicted for lying and outed as a likely republican agent. it is time we put an end to this pathetic and desperate inquiry. i yield my remaining time to ranking member raskin. >> thank you very much. for more than a year now, we heard innuendo rumors, propaganda, big lies, no facts. no evidence that could reasonably support the finding of impeachable high crimes and misdemeanors against president biden. in our first real impeachment hearing, the majority invited several expert witnesses who came together and their witnesses agreed with that. there was nothing that remotely approached the level of proof needed to support a finding of high crimes and misdemeanors that one would impeach their president for. we come back again today and the majority has two witnesses.

one, the designated con man as determined by two different federal courts, not without talent, but someone who deploys talent towards the purposes of exploiting native american, indian tribes, pensioners, and other innocent investors. and mr. bobulinski, who offers a lot of rhetoric and a lot of hot air, absolutely no facts that could indict the president of the united states for high crimes and misdemeanors, impeachable offenses against the republic. the kind of offenses which james madison said, are great attacks on the republican. great up front to a republican form of government and nobody on their side can even tell us what is the impeachable high crime and misdemeanor, which suggests they are moving in the direction of criminal referrals and they should start looking at their own witnesses. i yield back to you, mr. chairman. >> i like to remind the ranking member and ms. norton, the witness was partners with hunter biden. that's why he's here.

we have their partners. you could have invited partners, but you invited this guy. >> donald trump's partner, mr. parna. and rudy giuliani. >> yeah, all right. chair recognizes mr. grossman. >> we have a variety of things i would like to go through. first, mr. lynch complained about him testifying from prison. so i would like to ask, the department of justice's own press release, announcing the democrats witness, partners to 20 months in prison, among other things, making false statements. >> thank you. now mr. chairman, we had originally hoped that we would see a few more witnesses here today. they are not here. i would like to run a brief tape, because i showed up today hoping i would be asking these witnesses a little bit more about this tape. i know that, you know, there's some mystery or some people

feel ambiguous as to how this prosecutor was fired in ukraine. this tape will do more to shed light on why that prosecutor was fired and why we want hunter biden and mr. archer here today. >> and so i got ukraine, and i remember going over convincing our team, our members to convince that we should be providing for loan guarantees. i went over, i guess the 12, 13 time to kyiv, and i was supposed to announce that there's another billion dollar loan guarantee. and i had gotten a commitment from poroshenko that they would take action against the state prosecutor and they didn't. so they said they were walking out. i said no, we're not going to give you the billion dollars. they said you have no authority. you're not the president.

i said call him. i said, i'm telling you, you aren't getting a billion dollars. i said, you're not getting a billion. i'm going to leaving here and it was six hours, i said we leave in six hours. the prosecutor is not fired. you're not getting the money. got fired, and they put in place someone -- >> i just wanted to put that up there, because i do eventually want further efforts to get hunter biden or mr. archer here. we have joe biden himself bragging that they got rid of a prosecutor who would have provided his son's business dealings with a little bit more observation. i'll put it that way. now mr. bobulinski, in previous interviews, with this committee, you said that joe biden not only knew about the family's business dealings, but enabled them and participated in them. you went so far as to say, it's

clear to me that joe biden was the brand sold by the biden family. could you elaborate a little bit why you felt that way again? >> correct. that's one of the challenging things i've had to deal with over the last four years with the focus of simply telling the truth. the facts are just beyond insane. so i'll use a meeting at the four seasons hotel in washington, d.c. that i was not at, but apparently eight to ten chinese executives were at. with chairman ye and director zang. director zang, i interacted with extensively. and james was in that room, rob walker, hunter biden was in that room. and my understanding based on rob walker's testimony, is joe biden walked into that room, sat down, shook hands with people, and spent five or ten minutes talking about his family, i guess. i was not in the room. people have tried to ofeskate

that meeting, and the chinese didn't know that joe biden was the former vice president of the united states, which is beyond absurd. the power those ten chinese individuals had to go back to mainland china and say that they were in a room with joe biden is the value of what they were giving. >> okay. you stated that the biden family concocted a scheme to give joe plausible denialability. can you elaborate on that a little bit? >> i would point to the different text messages and communications. they call him the big guy. i wasn't involved with mr. archer, but they are giving you numerous data points. there was -- they used the big guy. you weren't supposed to talk about it. >> and you personally met with the vice president. >> i did twice. >> okay. and it was obvious, did he say anything that indicates you wanted him to help his son, that sort of thing? >> he thanked me for helping his son and his brother and

asked me to keep an eye on them as i walked him out to his car after he gave his speech on the second meeting of the conference. >> okay, just one other follow- up. this may be a vague question. one of the things that disturbs me about that is the interaction with the chinese or that is what we are dealing with today. obviously, other countries as well. that apparently, in their own mind, the way you deal with the united states is the way you deal with a corrupt city counselor or something like that. in other words, you give them money and you get what you want. do you want to comment on that or do you hear any stories about that? did you hear stories they were surprised how easy it was to buy the u.s. government? >> well, answer the question. >> i think cfc and tremendous evidence, believe they were bribing the biden family and they were doing it via hunter biden. >> it's kind of shameful. thank you.

>> very good. chair now recognizes mr. kana for five minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman. mr. parnas, can you tell me about your meetings with dmitri and why you believe the trump campaign used his services? >> yes. i was sent to dmitri because dmitri had resources. he's an oligarch, waiting to be extradited to the united states. he was close with ukraine, and vladimir putin, and characters in that part of the world. my objective at the time was to have him help us lean on and get dirt on the bidens. >> and what type of dirt were you trying to get? >> we were searching for hunter's hard drive that we were told was out there. we were searching for bank

records, to validate certain bank records that were given to me. hunter's personal bank records that was given to me. john solomon, he got from the fbi, to validate certain payments that were going for car purchases. but the objective was to try and find a link from any of the pavements that would go into joe biden's account. >> and who told you to get this? >> who told me? rudy giuliani. >> anyone else that you remember? >> john soloman, i mean, everybody that was part of the team. >> did bill barno you were involved in getting this dirt? >> absolutely. bill barr was notified from the day he took office. >> did you ever have a conversation with bill barr of being lenient toward dmitri in his role in bill barr's role as attorney general? >> i personally did not. i was witness to victoria and joe having a conversation with bill barr about dmitri. >> what did they say to bill barr? >> basically, they were telling

him that the charges were false and that he needs to drop the charges and basically end the case. >> and why did they tell him to drop the charges on this russian oligarch? >> my understanding is, you have the trump campaign telling you to get dirt on the president of the united states for political reasons and then someone from the trump campaign is talking to the attorney general to drop the charges because this foreign national is helping get dirt on a political candidate? >> absolutely. >> did bill barr indicate any willingness to drop the charges? >> after a meeting that victoria and joe had with doj, they came back and informed me that we're going to viena, because everything is going to be okay. >> do you know if bill barr, in any way, told you to say that? >> i was not privy in that meeting, no. >> do you have any evidence

bill barr would have indicated to signal to dmitri that the charges would be dropped? >> only from conversations from rudy giuliani or victoria. >> what did they say about what bill barr said? >> they basically told me that this would be taken care of. and that's the message they relayed to me. >> and they said that bill barr was conveying that to them directly? >> yes, after meetings, there were several meetings. there was a private meeting where rudy giuliani went and bumped into bill barr at the trump international hotel, and he used that as a moment to take him aside and speak to him. and certain official meetings where victoria met with them. so yes. >> do you know if anything was done with the charges? >> until this day, dmitri is not here. >> do you believe that bill barr should be investigated for his conduct in potentially dropping these charges? >> i absolutely believe that. not only that, i believe bill barr should be investigated

into the coverup and trying to silence me to get the truth about what happened in ukraine. >> explain the coverup and what you believe he should be investigated with your last minute. >> my arrest was set up strictly to shut me up, to seal my documents, to take away my information and turn me into a crazy man that had no way to prove what was going on. the real story was, bill barr was trying to save donald trump from an impeachment and use me as a scapegoat. what he didn't realize, donald trump was not going to stop and continue doing what he wanted to do. that's why it blew up in bill barr's face. he also hired special counsel at the time to look into ukraine. when we tried to reach out, my attorney, too, special counsel brady, he never returned our phone call. nobody wanted to hear anything i had to say that had to do with ukraine, donald trump, or rudy giuliani. >> i want to say, you have stuck to the facts today. we don't hear rhetoric from you. you are telling a true story

and conducted yourself with great dignity. i hope him and your family are proud for what you are doing for america. i yield back. >> thank you, chairman. it's been an interesting hearing so far. let's get to the actual paper trail of money flow from the cefc into the bank account for president joe biden. and i want to start with a text message, july 31, what is that text message between hunter biden and mr. zow. real quick, mr. bobulinski, who is mr. zow? >> if you noticed, congressman kana scurried out of here quickly. i'm disgusted as i sate here that he didn't address me based on the fact i'm sitting here in front of the world trying to testify to the truth. in october, 2020, i have messages, i'm willing to produce to the republicans and the democrats, that he sent to

me, saying you have always demonstrated to me that you're nothing but an honest with the highest integrity individual and i was begging for him to go on cnn and tell the world in october 2020. i have extensive e-mails with congressman rokana in 2021 and 2022, where i begged him and his staff to sit down with me and look at my blackberry phones, that the democrats are so focused on. to hire forensics experts, and go through all of the factual information i had. the fact he did not even address me and then scurried out of here is disgusting to me. sorry, mr. donalds, i'll answer your question now. >> we'll have to come off of that. now we're at 3 minutes and 30 seconds. >> mr. chairman, i want to submit into the record what's app text messages. one july 31, between hunter biden and mr. zow, which stipulates that hunter biden wants to be able to move on and get the contracts resolved.

get the deal resolved. and he responds and says the cefc is willing to cooperate with the family. on august 31, there was another exchange. this time, august 3, excuse me, august 3, 2017, between hunter biden and mr. gonway. in this message, they are talking about the stipulations of the arrangement between the biden family and cefc. i want to submit both what's app text messages. >> without objection to order. >> okay, now to the money flow, this is where the rubber meets the road. on august 3, they actually stipulate through what'sapp text messages, the exact stipulations of the deal. on august 4, $100,000 is wired into cefc infrastructure. mr. chairman, i want to submit a portion of the bank statement for the time period, august 3, of 2017, to august 31, 2017. stipulating $100,000 going from cefc into the bank account of

hunter biden. >> without objection, ordered. >> on august 8, four days later, $5 million is then transferred from the northern international capital account of $5 million to hudson west, iii. hudson west, iii, is a bank account controlled by hunter biden and mr. wang, aka, kevin, who was the cefc associate. that money comes from the northern international capital bank account. a bank account tied to the cecp. i want to submit that. >>eordered. >> moving on. on august 8, the same time period, there's a wire transfer of $400 ,000 from the hudson west, iii, bank account. that $400,000, mr. chairman, i have the transfer records in the bank accounts from the

august time period. i want to submit that for the record. >> without objection to order. >> here's where the fun stuff comes in. i have a minute to do it. we're going to get this done. on august 14, there is $150,000 that is transferred from owask o pc, which is controlled by hunter biden, to lyon hall group which is controlled by james biden. i have record that the $150 ,000. i want to submit that to the record. on august 28, i believe we have a screen shot for everybody in the room. on august 28, mr. chairman, we have the withdrawal ticket from lyon hall group that is signed by sarah biden, for $50,000, to withdrawal. i want to submit that withdrawal receipt. >> without objection to order. >> on september 3, on august 28, actually, mr. chairman, we have the deposit reference into

sarah jones biden account. i to submit that. >> without objection to order. >> last document. on september 3, 2007, from sarah biden's own personal account, there is a check that is written to joseph biden, jr., the president of the united states today, for $40,000, signed loan repayment, a loan repayment that joe biden's own personal accountant has no record for. i want to submit that for the record. >> without objection to ordered. >> it is clear that the source of this money came from cefc, and is a company that is directly linked to the ccp and actually, the chairman of the ccp, the chairman of the chinese communist the chinese communist party, charmaine xi jinping. >> the first white house staff report on the minority side which details the cefc's

business interactions . they only $5.5 million unit in trump world tower and others. and then the department of justice press release announcing the sentencing in federal court determining 189 months in prison and ordering restitution of more than $80 million for three criminal fraud superior seas against the native american funds. >> the chair now recognizes mr. asumai for five minutes. >> i am imagining what i would be thinking if i were not here but somewhere else around the country. this committee for 15 months holding these hearings on hunter biden and come up with not one impeachable offense for

all that time. 15 months. over 10,000 documents and more as you can see today as a result of that. this is a do nothing congress, and we should be doing the jobs we were sent here to do which is not have investigation hearing after investigation hearing over and over and over again and then run to our favorite tv outlet to give interviews afterwards. we were sent here to get a job done. taxpayers are looking at all of us. meanwhile, americans black, white, latino, native american, they are wondering what is going on. is this another investigation hearing in the 15 months it has yielded nothing at all? it is a "do-nothing" congress. you thought harry truman said and in 1948. look at what we have done in 15 months. virtually nothing at all. senior citizens sit in their

homes and watched c-span or some other outlet carry this. sitting in nursing homes. all of them, worried about losing their social security. they are on fixed incomes and expect congress to use its time and energy to deal with things that affect them directly. students defaulting on loans all over the country and no one wants to talk about that. healthcare is inadequate in most places in this country and diseases are ravaging our communities and people assume that at some point the congress will deal with that. and so whether it is cancer, cardiovascular disease, hiv, stroke, the disparities in the health system say please, please give us a little bit of your time also when you are not dealing with hunter biden and when you cannot prove he has not done anything wrong. crime is out-of-control.

white-collar as well as black color. and assault weapons are still being used every day. the shootings. killing innocent children and americans. and we are sitting here talking about something we have talked about for 15 months with no substantial evidence. we cannot get a train aid to palestine. we cannot get military aid to the ukraine. children are looking at wondering what is going on. is that what politics are about? so we are doing a disservice. i am not supposed to be asking questions and i may have one or two for you, but i am so outraged at a do-nothing congress just pointing the finger. pointing the finger over and over again and people are hurting and looking for real help. we can't deal with immigration because donald trump kills opting at the immigration bill. i have not seen the sort of attention that we thought we

were put into that or anything else. so this particular hearing will probably be followed by another hearing and another hearing and another hearing until this congress expires in january of next year, and we have not done anything to move the ball forward accept make accusations. life is too short. maybe some of you have a guarantee you will be around forever but i don't. i worked under ronald reagan and the first bush and bill clinton and donald trump and now joe biden. this congress is not doing anything. it is not like the previous congresses. trust me. that is why people have such a low esteem who say of congressman so and so -- people on the street don't buy that. they don't see the action. i am done. i know i have exhausted my

time. a couple quick questions and i will let you go. it is your understanding that rudy giuliani worked under an individual identified by the trump administration as a russian agent? >> yes. >> you know what these russian line actors were trying to quickly? >> push a conspiracy theory about the bidens. >> did you one rudy giuliani? >> yes, i did. >> and what was his response to saintly? >> he agreed with me but proceeded to work with these people behind my back. >> and these people identified as russian agents and we have a meeting chair with mr. giuliani with one of those. i am just disgusted as most people are about this process. and the only way we get to a point where we get things done is that we learn to talk to one another across the aisle without having another conspiracy theory after another one after another one.

you don't buy trust that way. you by contempt. >> the chair recognizes lisa mcclain for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i want to start off by saying that most americans are taught at a young age you are who you surround yourself with. keep that in the premise as i sat here and listened to everyone talk about how hunter biden is just this golden boy. are we really supposed to believe that hunter biden is the golden boy? his associates such as jason glamis and devon archer are felons convicted of fraud, yet he is the golden child. i want to talk about examples of biden's influence peddling schemes. this time it was romania. it follows the same general pattern as we have seen with other countries like china, russia, ukraine, and keswick stan. here is really simple a that things.

initially simple. a corrupt foreign oligarchies access to the u.s. government. hunter biden cells influence to the u.s. government. the oligarchs pay up. so let's just take a deeper dive into this romanian scheme. mr. bob linsky, who is gabriel popovich? >> he is a businessman from romania probably worth hundreds of millions of dollars i would envision. >> okay. is it true that gabriel popovich faced corruption charges in romania in 2015? >> it is. >> and when you were in europe to close on that deal with the chinese, you separately negotiated with popovich to get a 17th payment. is that also correct? >> i did. but he did not want to pay him. is that correct? >> correct. you're talking about a 17th

payment that will go to rob walker and rob walker would distribute to hunter biden. >> that is correct. and is it because hunter biden had failed and the work he was engaged by popovich to do which is get that corruption charges dismissed by that remaining authorities. isn't that correct? >> it is two things. they had failed to do that and also joe biden had left the white house at that point. >> so i get 16 payments while joe biden is in the white house. >> correct. >> by dr. biden leaves the white house coincidentally the payment stop. >> correct. >> i just want to make sure i can connect the dots very simply. >> but obviously it was not a coincidence. >> i am not one for coincidences and neither are the american people. mr. bob linsky, what do you think they wanted hunter biden

to do? >> he told me that he expected and did not want the details. he wanted hunter biden, rob walker, and james gill your to do whatever was necessary to impact his case in romania. >> how do you know that? >> because gabriel popovich told me that. >> from his mouth? >> yes. >> there is another dot we can connect. is that a conspiracy theory? >> i would encourage you to connect. >> hunter biden decided to skip today. why do you think he skipped the hearing today? >> is that a rhetorical or serious? i don't think he wanted to sit next to me because obviously i have stated he perjured himself in his transcribed interview with the committee as did his uncle, jim biden, and for every pack he was to claims or say i was high on drugs, i can show a

document, a text message, or recording that has cross confirmed that he is lying. >> well, let's not get the facts in the way of a good story. >> it is highly disappointing that he is not here though. >> here are the facts. hunter biden was engaged by a foreign principal, gabriel popovich. it is well-known that he met with the ambassador to romania in november of 2015. hunter biden was not registered under farah. he stop getting paid as soon as his father leaves office until you got popovich to get hunter biden to send one more payment. seriously, what services was hunter biden providing to the romanian oligarch for millions of dollars? we have yet to hear it. as far as the committee knows, hunter biden was never registered under the foreign agents registration act.

if the department of justice applied the same standards it did in the paul manafort case, hunter will be in more trouble than he is already in. mr. chairman, there are real issues here that we need to continue to look at and with that i thank you for being here and i think you, mr. chairman. >> absolutely. the chair now recognizes mr. cortez from new york. >> thank you, mr. chairperson mr. bobulinski, i heard it was submitted to the record. i have a quick question. are you telling me that you personally witness president joe biden commit a crime? >> i believe that the facts that he was --

>> did you witness him commit a crime? is it your testimony today? and what crime have you witnessed? >> how much time do i have to go through it? >> it is simple. you name the crime. did you watch him steal something? >> corruption statutes. rico. >> what is the crime, sir? specifically? >> you asked me to answer the question. rico, you're obviously not familiar with. >> excuse me, sir. excuse me, sir. kima, sir. r.i.c.o. is not a crime. >> it is a category of crimes they were then charged on . >> you have charges. please name -- >> it is funny. in the committee room -- everyone is not here. >> all right, sir. i reclaim my time. thank you, sir. i reclaim my time.

clearly what we are seeing here today is a continuation of the 15 month saga of the republican majority lost in the desert. impeachment 101. the majority party or whoever is raising impeachment must accuse the president of a high crime -- a specific high crime or misdemeanor. i would like to submit to the record 's a hig h res h918 this resolution doe not outline a high crime or misdemeanor. it is not here. now, when we compare the chairman's opening from his previous opening, he is talking about ukraine and all of this. this entire inquiry is based on a blockbuster piece of information that was in a classified room and inside that

room was a document alleging president biden directly of a $10 million bribery scheme. a $10 million bribery scheme. extremely serious. what happens? what happened a month ago, mr. chairman? that document, the fbi arrested the person who offered those allegations for falsifying his testimony to the fbi. his entire impeachment inquiry is based on an actual, provable individual who has lied. now, responsible leadership went to an inquiry based on that. withdraw it. instead, what we are seeing is that this committee was warned about the falsehoods of these allegations long before that wanted by trams secretary of state mike pompeo and yet they proceeded anywhere.

the chairman proceeded anyway. this committee was warned by rudy giuliani's associate right here lev parnas after that document about the falsehoods of this. then hearings where your own expert witnesses said that there was no ground for precedent and you proceeded anyway. and finally, as if none of this was enough, the fbi arrested the individual who was the source of the entire heart of the matter to wants us impeachment inquiry and proceeded anyway. at this point, the story is not the fact that the basis of this impeachment inquiry is wrong. the story is why it is proceeding anyway. why is this committee proceeding based on false charges, and by the way no charges i have yet to hear in the chairman's opening the allegation that they are

specifically charging the president of the united states with. i am hearing about biden's family. i am hearing about this and that. i am not hearing the specific allegations by this committee. what is it? it is not here. and that is the problem. the story is when this committee knew that they were working with falsified evidence. that is the story. and with that i yield back. >> the chair now recognizes miss bates from south carolina for five minutes. >> joe biden stated he did not interact with hunter or jim biden's business associates. mr. chairman, i would like to ask unanimous consent to enter into the -- >> without objection so ordered. >> we are going too fast year. strictly yes or no question. joe biden also said read the record of every single witness so i did. i first read devon archer's

deposition and he interact with joe biden. then i read the transcript of kevin morris, tony bobulinski, and jason alanis, and every single one of them interacted with joe biden. and that is is the people we interviewed. mr. alanis, my first question for you. did he call with the line on may 14th? yes or no? >> yes. >> in that call, did hunter biden say on this call that everything is good and we are moving forward? >> yes. he did. >> in the call, he was saying you be good to my boy. >> yes. he said that as well. >> did badornia agree to put $20 million days later? >> yes. >> did hunter biden ever take a call from joe biden off the peninsula bar in new york? >> i do not hear that.

>> did hunter biden ever take a call while at the peninsula bar in new york? >> yes. he did. >> that he talk about a business fund management? >> yes. >> okay. was harvest a $200 billion chinese company closely tied to the chinese communist party? >> yes it was. >> was hunter biden involved with harvest? >> two ways. through hr -- >> yes or no. was hunter biden involved with harvest? yes or no. >> okay >> as part of the deal, did he have a receipt for joe biden? >> yes. >> okay. did henry so, a chinese businessman want assurances that joe biden i would join the board? yes or no? >> yes. he did as well in email. >> did hunter biden draft an email saying also to remind henry about a certain ablation

of mine. devon and i golfed without relation earlier and we discussed this idea again and as always your is very, very keen on the opportunity. here is a photo of joe biden and devon archer and hunter biden golfing days before the alleged email draft. you believe a certain ablation of mine refers to joe biden? >> no. was based on conversations with devon archer was in that picture. >> did you ever meet with devon archer were hunter took calls from his father? >> yes. >> okay. during one of these phone call did hunter biden tell joe biden that he needed help, quote, getting across the finish line? >> yes. that is correct. >> okay. mr. bobulinski, do you recall getting it through hunter biden? >> yes. >> very quickly. mr. bobulinski and mr. alanis, both stated not to use joe biden is amy communications correct?

>> cracked. >> mr. galanis? >> cracked. >> did he participate with hunter biden's business associates and foreign interest? yes or no? >> he clearly did. >> okay. mr. galanis, yes or no? >> yes. >> he said he did not involve his father and his business. did hunter biden lie under oath? yes or no? >> yes. >> that is what he said. yes. >> okay. is joe biden lying when he said he did not interact with hunter biden, jim biden, and the foreign interest? yes or no? >> yes. >> yes. >> in the debate on october 22nd, 2020, they denied hunter biden made money from china and this includes money from chinese businesses, business partners, and/or interests. yes or no? mr. bobulinski? >> i'm sorry. >> did the hunter family make money? correct. >> didn't hunter biden make money from chinese interest? yes or no? >> yeah.

yeah. he had economic interests. yes. >> joe biden repeatedly claimed he was not involved in hunter biden, jim biden, or any other family business deals. today, our witnesses have proved otherwise. today, we have established that joe biden lied about interacting with the business associates. it is my belief that joe biden is the closer for hunter biden, jim biden, and the associates for foreign businesses. good luck to the left for proving otherwise. >> the chair now recognizes mr. porter from california. >> the title of this hearing is influence peddling. examining joe biden's abuse of public office. look, the impeachment inquiry is dead. if it was on life support, my colleague just killed it. there is no allegation of a

specific crime. president biden did not do anything wrong. there is zero evidence of that and still both democrats and republicans and the media treat these hearings like the super bowl. but no one ever went americans always lose. looking infrastructure for this hearing. all we have to do is cross off the part after the colon. there. just influence peddling. we should have a policy discussion about how to stop government officials from using their position to get money or favors. now, that is a real hearing. one that nearly every american regardless of party wants us to hold. we could start by talking about how senior executive branch officials can leave public service, wait just one year, and then legally become lobbyists for big corporations scoring their new employer's profitable government contracts and favorable regulations.

they can even be paid by the big corporations during that short one year while they are waiting to become lobbyists as a down payment for their future ability to pedal influence. that is wrong. with a panel of witnesses, by a show of hands as americans, what our witnesses support extending this one year waiting period to at least two years? there we go. republicans, democrats, even convicted criminals -- everybody supports that we should do more to stop influence peddling. this is the kind of good government reform that americans of all political stripes support and i should know. in 2022, i passed that exact reform as an amendment to the national defense authorization act with a bipartisan majority vote. what happened to that amendment? why didn't it become law?

the answer is simple. nearly 500 former members of congress work for lobbying firms and too many people around here want to follow in their footsteps and don't want to make it harder for government officials to become lobbyists. ultimately, democratic leadership under then speaker nancy he can mosey let it get stripped out of the final bill. they offered up the amendment again during this congress, republican leadership under then speaker kevin mccarthy never even put the amendment up for a vote. both parties have let us down on fighting influence peddling and tackling corruption, but i'm hopeful we can begin a new approach in this very committee. the american people should know -- american people regardless of party should know that an investigation was conducted. to where it led, a dead end.

so this impeachment inquiry should end today. and where should we go from here? we should stop partisan attacks on each other and address the real problems. let the american people believe that the rules that prevent corruption are way too weak. to stop politicians on both sides of the wall from influence peddling. this committee should be working in a bipartisan way to change the culture of congress and crackdown on corruption and just as importantly to stop the perception of it. let me give you some facts. i don't even need a whiteboard for this one. 495 former members of congress work for lobbying firms. 467 members of congress take corporate pack money. 78 members of congress violated the stock act last congress. clearly, we have our work cut out for us so let's start the

conversation. today, what a bipartisan ethics reform package could look like. here we come today as witnesses. oversight staff, do you have your notebooks ready? citizens for responsibility and ethics in washington. common cause. project on government oversight. project citizen. with the right witnesses and commitment to doing what the american people want, this committee can have a real conversation about the problem of influence peddling, and we can pass legislation to create badly needed ethics and guardrails. that would be real work -- not a real circus. i yield back. >> before i recognized mr. timmons, miss porter, i think you are sincere, and i look forward to working with you on that legislation. >> chairman, can we take a five-

minute break? i have to go to the bathroom. >> let us get one more and then we will do that. the chair recognizes mr. timmons for five minutes and then we will take a break because we have votes coming up anyway. >> last july, i laid out the scheme the bidens can talk to to sell the biden brand. this scheme was repeated with various clients and cause extent, china, urania, and ukraine. netted hunter over $3 million during a three-year period and the clarified criminal offenses being alleged. usc 201 b. and c. and section 1950 1b2 and if you want a refresher on those just look up senator menendez and his wife's indictment. we have a problem. i have got an email here. the secretary. and he is advocating that

hunter biden intervened with high-level u.s. officials to facilitate meetings and communications expressing their positive opinion of the president to the ukrainian president chief of staff prosecutor general with the ultimate purpose to close down any cases against ukraine. this is dated november 2nd. november 2nd. now, keep in mind, and again, there is a problem. chesky is being investigated by the inspector general of ukraine and he needs help. the biden brand. so here we have got bank records galore of hunter biden receiving prior to this email over $1 million. after this email, $2 million. so, again, the client pays the biden's $3 million. what happens? this is great. 11 days later -- 11 days later

we have the u.s. embassy in ukraine announcing the vice president biden is traveling to ukraine on december 7th. oh, interesting. vice president biden travels to the country. here we have a great photo of him touching down. they are very proud of themselves. the vice president biden leverages u.s. policy to achieve a favorable outcome for the client. we have all seen the video. he brags about leveraging u.s. foreign loans guarantees to get the ukrainian government to fire viktor shokin to end investigation. then, we have got the email saying we need to leverage you who have not provided value yet for your $1 million in service, hunter. he brings in the big guy. biden leverages u.s. influence to fire show can e-ma . il a later so we have got an email just a few months later saying we

wanted it in less than a year. this is straightforward. this is straightforward. pay to play. it is bribery. hunter biden paid $3 million at the lowest point in his life. he testified that he would drug addicted. that he has never been to ukraine. yet he paid $3 million to get his father to grow for his client's problems. mr. bobulinski, does this sound like the scheme that you have seen the biden family do? >> is not involved in ukraine but the facts surrounding this are very similar to csc and romania. >> this is nothing . hunter biden were here we would be able to ask him some questions and maybe clear this up but he is not here. what is interesting is just yesterday peter navarro reported to federal resin in

miami for four months for not showing up in front of the chamber six committee. i want to point out that the january 6 committee was procedurally defective under house rules. it was procedurally defective because the minority leader did not get to appoint leader to the committee. united states house of representatives oversight and account committee is a procedurally perfect committee and we have authority to subpoena hunter biden and he has to show up. he has to answer these questions. and he has to tell the world that his father didn't average u.s. foreign policy so he would get $3 million. this is no different than what senator menendez did. look, the american people are not buying the nonsense you are selling. we have to restore -- we must restore their faith in our institution and we have to stop this ridiculous two-tiered system of justice where they persecute president trump and hide hunter biden behind every corner. i mean, this is not the united states of america that the american