March 20, 2024 - The Benny Show - Benny Johnson
07:59:30
Participants
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| Speaker | Time | Text |
|---|---|---|
| On Capitol Hill, a group of Hunter Biden's former business associates, including Tony Bobulinski, set to testify before the House Oversight Committee. | ||
| Todd Pyro is here with more. | ||
|
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Todd. | |
| Hey, Brian, good morning. | ||
| This is the latest phase of the Biden impeachment inquiry. | ||
| The president's son was asked to testify as well at Hunter's own request. | ||
| Remember, I need to testify in public. | ||
| But his lawyer now saying, quote, your blatant plan for media event is not a proper proceeding, but an obvious attempt to throw a Hail Mary pass after the game has ended. | ||
| Biden declines your invitation to this carnival side show. | ||
| House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer says the hearing will go on with or without the first son, but Hunter's former business associate, Tona Bobulinski, like you said, Brian, will be on hand. | ||
| Comer is expected to open by explaining that investigators have found no evidence so far directly tying the president's son to the family's business dealings, but an excerpt obtained by Fox News Digital says the following as well. | ||
| What is apparent after over a year of investigation is that the Bidens do not work in any traditional sense of the word. | ||
| They do not work as consultants or lawyers or advisors. | ||
| The Bidens don't sell a product or a service or a set of skills. | ||
| The Bidens sell Joe Biden. | ||
| Today's hearing expected to start at 10 a.m. | ||
| Eastern. | ||
| Hunter Biden, the big natural gas tycoon, I hope you're not too tired from your last art show. | ||
| I'd hate for you to paint yourself into a corner during this deposition. | ||
| I heard you got a new job as a magician because you've been making all of your business dealings disappear. | ||
| I wonder what else he got up his sleeve. | ||
| I got a bag of crack and you can probably see. | ||
| I also gotta pee. | ||
| I gotta pee. | ||
| I gotta pee. | ||
| Why is everyone laughing at me? | ||
| So if you find a little pee on the floor after I leave, I think it probably belongs to me. | ||
| That's so good. | ||
| As many times as we can possibly play that meme, we will play that meme. | ||
| Maybe we'll run it as a commercial break during the hearing. | ||
| Today is Wednesday, March 20th, 2024. | ||
| We are live for the Hunter Biden hearing on the Biden crime family. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, Hunter Biden's former business partners, Reed, Joe Biden's business partners, testifying live. | ||
| Today in Congress, we've been waiting for Tony Bobulinski to take the stand along with a number of other Biden insiders who will expose the Biden crime family. | ||
| Meanwhile, Melania signals that she's about to join Donald Trump on the campaign trail and Donald Trump makes moves for who will be his VP. | ||
| My name is Benny Johnson and this is The Benny Show. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, what you are seeing on screen is not a flux capacitor. | ||
| Travel back to 1998 MS Paint graphics. | ||
| This is literally the best that your government can come up with as a holding screen before the actual beginnings of a hearing. | ||
| This is literally before the hearing. | ||
| This is not like Steve Jobs, Steve Ballmer, and Bill Gates dancing on stage for the release of MS Paint Windows 98. This is literally the best your government can do with graphic design. | ||
| So, ladies and gentlemen, we await the hearing today. | ||
| We are sure that the testimonies shall be solid gold. | ||
| Obviously, James Comer has been working for nigh on 18 months to lock in these testimonies, and today is the day that the songbirds sing. | ||
| If you wish... | ||
| To secure your future with solid gold, I encourage you to go and invest with my friends at Allegiance Gold. | ||
| Allegiance Gold is the company that protects me and my family against inflation. | ||
| Have you checked out the crypto markets lately? | ||
| They have gone bananas. | ||
| Have you checked out Joe Biden's stock market? | ||
| There's like three stocks that are actually doing great, and those are all because of government handouts. | ||
| So what happens when the gravy train ends? | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, gold, on the other hand, is reaching record highs. | ||
| Why? | ||
| Because gold has intrinsic value. | ||
| That is why Donald Trump paints all of his properties in gold. | ||
| And ladies and gentlemen, that is why I invest in gold. | ||
| Just a little bit. | ||
| Just a little bit of diversification. | ||
| Go to protectwithbenny.com today. | ||
| Call 844-66-BENNY. | ||
| Right now, get $5,000 in free silver with a qualifying purchase. | ||
| Don't get fooled by inflated stock markets or crazy crypto markets. | ||
| Protectwithbenny.com today. | ||
| All right, ladies and gentlemen, we await the Hunter Biden, Joe Biden hearings. | ||
| As James Comer has said time and time again. | ||
| This is not an investigation of Hunter Biden. | ||
| This is an investigation of Joe Biden. | ||
| And Joe Biden operating his family as a crime syndicate. | ||
| Joe, what was the crime? | ||
| Selling access to the halls of power in America. | ||
| Selling access to the American taxpayer dole. | ||
| Selling access to some of our most... | ||
| Precious natural resources like they tried to do with the Chinese. | ||
| The Biden crime family was literally set up as an access-selling entity for our federal government. | ||
| Now, this is, of course, illegal. | ||
| Bribing the kids of politicians is illegal. | ||
| There's a guy in the Senate named Bob Menendez, who's a senator from New Jersey, who is up for re-election this year, shockingly. | ||
| And Bob Menendez got gold bars. | ||
| Jangling around in his shorts. | ||
| From Egypt, he's facing, I think, like 20 different felony counts from the DOJ for doing the exact same thing that Joe Biden did. | ||
| This is the exact same operation, ladies and gentlemen. | ||
| And so here we sit today. | ||
| Finally, we are able to see what has been happening behind the scenes for nigh on 18 months. | ||
| James Comer is a regular on the show. | ||
| Members of James Comer's oversight. | ||
| Board, our regulars on the show. | ||
| Jim Jordan is a regular on the show. | ||
| And they have been prepping us for today for a very long time. | ||
| And so as soon as the hearing starts, we'll go to that hearing. | ||
| We want you to take it in in full. | ||
| We want to listen in with you. | ||
| And we'll be taking that hearing throughout the day, ladies and gentlemen. | ||
| But as a little bit of an appetizer for what we're about to see, the committee has released, effectively, the... | ||
| These sworn testimonies that were done behind the scenes that were video recorded from some of the Biden accomplices today. | ||
| Now, I will say one small, quick, interesting change of heart for yours truly is I actually want Biden to make it to 2024. | ||
| I actually don't want Joe Biden to be impeached. | ||
| I want, I can't believe I'm saying this, but I actually think that Joe Biden will lose 40 states. | ||
| And so I got to tell you, I am like very, very excited. | ||
| To see Joe Biden go down in flames in the election, and I personally don't want him to be taken out by impeachment, right? | ||
| Because I think he's so unbelievably weak. | ||
| I think he'll be such an easy person to beat. | ||
| That's my personal take. | ||
| What is your take on this? | ||
| However, it is important to see what a corrupt SOB this man is. | ||
| Here's the new footage talking about the Biden lift to business deals that are done with the Biden crime family. | ||
|
unidentified
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Our goal, that is Hunter Biden, Devin Archer, and myself, was to make billions, not millions. | |
| The prize is that contact and that access to power. | ||
| The relationship development is business. | ||
|
unidentified
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Joe Biden walking in a room and shaking Chairman Yee's hand is business. | |
| The entire value add of Hunter Biden to our business was his family name and his access to his father, Vice President Joe Biden. | ||
| Because of this access, I agreed to contribute equity ownership to them, Hunter and Devin. | ||
| For no out of pocket cost to them in exchange for their quote relationship cap. | ||
| I want to be crystal clear. | ||
| From my direct personal experience and what I've subsequently come to learn, it is clear to me that Joe Biden was the brand being sold by the Biden family. | ||
|
unidentified
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What was the value that Hunter Biden brought to the table according to Mr. Archer? | |
| Well, it was what he, the term he used at the time was the Biden lift. | ||
| Biden lift that we talked about was access. | ||
| Access meant to us at the time being in the business of acquiring other businesses to persuade third parties to do business with us. | ||
| You just spell it out for us what the Biden lift did to induce companies to want to be able to to do these transactions? | ||
| What was it? | ||
| What was the Biden vote? | ||
| I think it was situation specific. | ||
| Foreign investors would have a view of political access to the most powerful, admired country in the world, leadership in the most powerful, admired country in the world. | ||
| The Biden crime family laid bare by Joe Biden's own henchmen and muscle who have turned on Joe Biden. | ||
| Those in the video there will be the ones testifying today. | ||
| Hunter Biden has been invited to testify today. | ||
| We don't know what will happen. | ||
| Will Hunter Biden testify? | ||
| Hunter Biden has made some insane, literally coked out moves on Capitol Hill. | ||
| He's shown up to his own contempt hearing where they were going to find him in contempt of Congress and then issue effectively a warrant for his arrest and charges to the DOJ. | ||
| He showed up to that hearing randomly. | ||
| No one was expecting that. | ||
| And Hunter Biden obviously was somebody who went and did his own press conference on Capitol Hill. | ||
| Demanding to testify in person. | ||
| So he's been invited to testify in person. | ||
| Here's the invitation. | ||
| This is it. | ||
| Will Hunter Biden testify? | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, what you see on screen here is live. | ||
| James Comer getting all the photographs taken. | ||
| The associates that should be seated are Hunter Biden. | ||
| The ones who will be seated that we know of right now. | ||
| Again, we don't know if Hunter Biden will come crashing into this thing. | ||
| Tony Bobowinski, Devin Archer, and Jason... | ||
| Those are the members of the Biden crime family that are testifying against the Biden crime syndicate. | ||
| You can see them seated right now, and you can see a packed room and a ton of press there. | ||
| They're getting their photos. | ||
| Nothing has been said yet, although it sounds like we are gaveling in here, so let's go to the hearing. | ||
| 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 Gates of Florida, and Representative Eric Swalwell from California are waved onto the committee for the purpose of questioning the witnesses at today's committee hearing. | ||
| For today's hearing, opening statements 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's business practices in China, Ukraine, Russia, and other places around the world. | ||
| At the start of this Congress, the Oversight Committee has investigated what product or service the Biden family and their associates were selling that would justify over $24 million in payments. | ||
| We've 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 do not work in any traditional sense of the word. | ||
| They do not work as consultants or lawyers or advisors. | ||
| The Bidens don't sell a product or service or a set of skills. | ||
| The Bidens sell Joe Biden. | ||
|
unidentified
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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's telling. | ||
| Democrats haven't invited one of these witnesses to today's hearing. | ||
| That's because they know their testimonies would not withstand public scrutiny. | ||
| Democrats have 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 a distraction witness to talk about nonsense. | ||
| And who can't talk about any of the facts brought by today's witnesses who worked with the Bidens? | ||
| Now, President Biden cannot control his adult son. | ||
| He cannot control his brother, his sister-in-law, or... | ||
| All President Biden can do is control his own actions. | ||
| And 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. | ||
| He shows up to meetings, gets on phone calls. | ||
| Shakes hands and tells people to, quote, look after my family. | ||
| He goes to dinners with foreign oligarchs and a Ukrainian executive paying his son millions of dollars. | ||
| He gets paid with money from Chinese businessmen who he has meetings with and tells other business associates he'll see what he can do to help their situations. | ||
| He writes letters of recommendation for foreign business associates' children. | ||
| The scam is simple. | ||
| The Biden family promises they can make a foreign partner's problems 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. | ||
| Joe shows up, shakes a few hands in front of his son, and says, quote, take care of my boy, or something similar. | ||
| And the money flows. | ||
| To the tune of tens of millions of dollars. | ||
| It's done over and over again. | ||
| The Biden family promises Joe's power. | ||
| Joe Biden shows up and millions of dollars come into the Biden's pockets. | ||
| Joe Biden is the family's closer. | ||
| How could he not be? | ||
| The Bidens aren't doing any other work for these foreign companies that would warrant tens of millions of dollars. | ||
| Correct. | ||
| There are only two explanations for this. | ||
| The first is that Joe Biden knows exactly what he's doing. | ||
| And knows a handshake, a wink, and a smile is enough for him to maintain, as Jim Biden famously calls it, plausible deniability. | ||
| Or Joe Biden is being led around by his family and has no idea who he's meeting with or what message he is sending and is truly an elderly man with a poor memory. | ||
| There's 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 the Biden family's 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 could find, like the Russian collusion hoax, under my leadership, the committee has returned to real investigations. | ||
| If Democrats want to spin another Russian hoax, I will ask them to answer one question. | ||
| What services did the Bidens provide? | ||
| To earn them and their business associates over $24 million. | ||
| What do they do for the money? | ||
| Democrats have the same bank records as we do, and 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 the clowning themselves with another Russian collusion hoax for the sake of protecting President Biden, they can do so. | ||
| As I said, I would have invited Hunter Biden here today to sit alongside his business associates and provide his side of the story. | ||
| Hunter Biden demanded a public hearing. | ||
| I've given him one. | ||
| Maybe he will show up. | ||
| He has said he isn't, but he loves saying one thing and doing another. | ||
| At some point, Hunter Biden saying one thing and doing another 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's about Joe Biden. | ||
| And the lies he continues to tell the American people. | ||
| With that, I yield to Ranking Member Smith, or Chairman Smith. | ||
| Thank you, Chairman Comer and Ranking Member Raskin. | ||
| From the beginning of this investigation, we've 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. | ||
| We have testimony from multiple witnesses that Joe Biden was the brand. | ||
| He knew what his son and brother were doing and 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 volumes of material provided to Congress by the testimony of others and even by the Department of Justice who finally brought charges against Hunter Biden that mirror those called for by the IRS investigators. | ||
| The evidence obtained shows that one, 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 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, quote, "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 believed that, quote, Meaning his legal troubles 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. | ||
| And he lied about it. | ||
| I yield to Jim Jordan. | ||
| Nice. | ||
| Savage. | ||
| I thank the gentleman. | ||
| Who planted the pipe bombs on January 6th? | ||
|
unidentified
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Whoa. | |
| Nobody seems to know. | ||
| Who leaked the Dobbs draft opinion? | ||
| You know, the leak that led to an assassination attempt on Justice Capital. | ||
| How about this one? | ||
| Who left cocaine at the White House? | ||
| The Biden administration doesn't seem to have time to answer these questions. | ||
| They're too busy investigating parents at school board meetings, labeling Catholics extremists, retaliating against whistleblowers. | ||
| They're too busy putting together a sweetheart deal for Hunter Biden. | ||
| The deal that got laughed out of court. | ||
| And oh, the guy who put together the deal that got laughed out of court, that's the guy they name special counsel. | ||
| You know what Democrats do have time for? | ||
| Going after President Trump. | ||
| They've been doing it for eight years. | ||
| They spied on his campaign. | ||
| Then it was the Mueller investigation. | ||
| 19 lawyers, 40 agents, $30 million, and found nothing. | ||
| Then it was impeachment. | ||
| Then it was raid his home. | ||
| Then it was the special counsel. | ||
| Then it was the 14th Amendment. | ||
| The party of democracy said, we're going to keep the guy off the ballot who's leading in every single poll. | ||
| The ranking member said that President Trump should be disqualified from even running for office. | ||
| Thank goodness we have a Supreme Court who disagreed with the ranking member and the Democrats. | ||
| 9-0. | ||
| Not 5-4, not 6-3, not 7-2, not 8-1. | ||
| 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, as the chairman said, millions of dollars from foreign entities run through 20 different companies for what? | ||
| Wasn't, I mean, 20 different companies for what? | ||
| Devin Archer told us what it was for. | ||
| Access to the brand. | ||
| And the brand was Joe Biden. | ||
| The brand that played rounds of golf, took calls and meetings, attended lunches and dinners with Hunter Biden and his business partners. | ||
| The brand that said, the brand that conditioned $1 billion of American tax money on the firing of the prosecutor pressuring the company Hunter Biden sat on the board up. | ||
| And oh, by the way, was getting paid a million bucks a year. | ||
| Today we're going to learn more about that brand. | ||
| We're going to learn more about what Mr. Galanis called the Biden lift. | ||
| We'll learn about the plausible deniability that Jim Biden talked to Mr. Bob Alinsky about. | ||
| And we'll hear about the statement, the rule that governed how the business operated around Joe Biden. | ||
| The rule that said, say it, forget it, write it, regret it. | ||
| So I want to thank our witnesses for 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. | ||
| The gentleman yields back. | ||
| The chair now recognizes the member for 12 minutes for his opening statement. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, 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 it. | ||
| In prior hilarious episodes of this long-running madcap series, America got to see the following. | ||
| One, nearly 20 fact witnesses who could not identify a single act of wrongdoing by President Biden, much less a high crime and misdemeanor, and who overwhelmingly testified that Biden was not involved in any of his family's business adventures. | ||
| 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 adduced by the majority even remotely approached the level of a high crime and misdemeanor. | ||
| Bank records would show exactly what all the witnesses told us, that Joe Biden was not involved in his family members' businesses. | ||
| Repeated wireistic displays of pornographic images by the majority completely irrelevant to any conceivable legislative or investigative purpose. | ||
| A star witness, Gao Luft, who turned out to be a Chinese agent and an illegal arms trafficker on the run from American justice. | ||
| And the key piece of evidence, which launched the entire zany goose chase. | ||
| An FD1023 form in which the FBI duly recorded a completely fictional tip about a $5 million bribe to Vice President Biden peddled by Alex Smirnoff, who has been criminally indicted by a Trump-appointed U.S. attorney, | ||
| Special Counsel David Weiss for felony counts of systematically lying to the FBI and constructing a false record about Joe Biden and now sits in jail in California as a flight risk while the world studies his longstanding and extensive ties to Russian intelligence. | ||
| Oh, that's convenient. | ||
| Arrest all the witnesses. | ||
| The comedy of errors comes crashing to an end as House Republicans in more than a dozen Biden districts beg for mercy, and the committee throws a flabby Hail Mary pass three weeks after the Super Bowl's 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 the majority witnesses are frustrated would-be business partners of Hunter Biden, who tried to leverage the Biden name, or the Biden brand, as they keep calling it. | ||
| 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 he should be doing business with. | ||
| So rather than representing the Biden brand... | ||
| Which was their ardent wish. | ||
| They now show up today as loyal servants of Trump world, each of them proudly represented by their very own former Trump White House attorney. | ||
| The first is Mr. Bobulinski, the bitterly disappointed wannabe hunter business partner whose famously litigious history includes unsuccessfully suing his own dying father's charity for nearly a million dollars. | ||
| And just last month... | ||
| Suing Cassidy Hutchinson for $10 million after she reported that Mr. Bobulinski, wearing a ski mask, met with Mark Meadows, which Ms. Hutchinson has now backed 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 that they went out and bought for him to wear to the event. | ||
| Hours later, Mr. Bob Linsky 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, Mr. Galanis, who I believe is appearing by Zoom today, Is a serial fraudster and convicted con man, a term I would charitably not use on a 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 pension funds, a Native American tribe, and scores of innocent investors. | ||
| Mr. Galanis was sentenced to pay restitution of over $80 million. | ||
| To his victims. | ||
| That's a lot of money. | ||
| That's what Donald Trump was sentenced to pay E. Jean Carroll for in that civil litigation. | ||
| The very first record of Mr. Galanis' 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. Bobulinski and Mr. Kalanis, their allegations don't identify any wrongdoing, much less an impeachable offense by President Biden. | ||
| With the impeachment bus running on empty, our GEO colleagues now are apparently preparing to save face by ending... | ||
| The impeachment farce with criminal referrals. | ||
| But criminal referrals require evidence of crimes. | ||
| And the only crimes we have seen are those of the GOP's own star witnesses, like Russian asset Alex Smirnoff, Chinese agent Gal Luft, Devin Archer, and Jason Galanis. | ||
| The minority witness today, our witness, Lev Parnas, casts a piercing light on what's really taking place here. | ||
| And Mr. Parnas, He, too, used to be a mega sycophant peddling lies and disinformation to smear Joe Biden. | ||
| Today he joins a long line of self-exiles from Trump world 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, and now Vice President Mike Pence, who refuses to endorse for president the man he served with. | ||
| But we do have loyal sycophants still in the room, and one day I look forward to hearing their testimony about how they got sunk into this religious cult. | ||
| Mr. Parnas wrote Chairman Comer and me a remarkable letter on July 23rd, 2023. | ||
| This is the first time I'm meeting him today. | ||
| He was Rudy Giuliani's right-hand man, his globetrotting business partner and language interpreter in the mission to manufacture Ukraine and Burisma-related dirt and smears against Joe Biden in 2018 and 2019. | ||
| He spent all of his time traveling around the world trying to stage evidence against Joe Biden. | ||
| In his letter, Parnas explains that the desperate search to find evidence of any kind of Biden corruption was a complete and total bust because there was no evidence to find. | ||
| He wrote to tell us that not only is there no evidence in Ukraine that Joe Biden did anything improper, 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. | ||
| I'm getting to Russia. | ||
| You haven't heard anything yet, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| A man who has reckoned with his own moral dissent into Trump world. | ||
| Lev Parnas is ashamed of what he did to serve the interests of Russian propaganda and Putin's lies. | ||
| And he wants America to know the truth. | ||
| He can explain how the Russian-stimulated conspiracy theories and lies that he promoted with Rudy Giuliani live on in the tiresome fabrication spread by Alex Smirnoff and now repeated by this committee like Pavlov's 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 community, from Robert Mueller, and most recently from Special Counsel Weiss, who was named to office by Donald Trump, as Secretary Mnuchin stated, quote, Russian disinformation campaigns targeting American citizens are a threat to our democracy. | ||
| That's Secretary Mnuchin, 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 Smirnoff have eagerly adopted from Putin and his agents. | ||
| They participate in this hoax while they shamefully block $60 billion in military assistance to President Zelensky and the besieged Ukrainian people five years after Trump and Giuliani tried to shake President Zelensky down for counterfeit dirt. | ||
| On Joe Biden. | ||
| And while they continue to parrot these transparent Russian lies, Vladimir Putin wages his bloody aggressive war on Ukraine filled with atrocities like the mass kidnapping of children and the rape and slaughter of civilians. | ||
| The mega rights wholesale adoption of this Russian hoax and their sellout of the Ukrainian people by the mega right 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 is here today to set the record straight. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Oh, man, that's what late-stage Trump derangement sounds like. | ||
| Mr. Tony Bobulinski. | ||
| Mr. Bobulinski was a business partner of Hunter Biden in a joint venture between a Chinese energy entity, CEFC. | ||
| Mr. Bobulinski sat for a transcribed interview with the committee on February 13, 2024. | ||
| Mr. Lev Parnas. | ||
| Mr. Parnas was not a business associate of the Biden family. | ||
| Mr. Parnas is an entrepreneur, a political activist, and an author. | ||
| And Mr. Jason Galanis. | ||
| Mr. Galanis was a business partner of Hunter Biden. | ||
| Mr. Galanis sat for a transcribed interview with this committee on February 23, 2024. | ||
| We asked the Bureau of Prisons to make him available in person today. | ||
| They would only provide Mr. Galanis for virtual testimony. | ||
| Notably, Mr. Galanis applied for CARES 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 Devin Archer for testimony. | ||
| On the following day, June 13, 2023, Mr. Galanis' approval was reversed as a result of Department of Justice's intervention. | ||
| So, Mr. Galanis has remained in a federal prison facility. | ||
| He is currently in Montgomery, Alabama. | ||
| Mr. Galanis, can you please state for the record who else is in the room with you? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, Chairman Coleman. | |
| My counsel and advisor, Mark Paoletta and Nicholas Wise. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Pursuit to Committee Rule 9-G, the witnesses will please stand and raise the right hand. | ||
| 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 all 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 the button on the microphone in front of you so that it is on and members can hear you. | ||
| When you begin to speak, the light in front of you will turn green. | ||
| After four minutes, the light will turn yellow. | ||
| And when the red light comes on, your five minutes is expired, and we would ask that you would 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. Biden showed up for his public hearing, so we'll recognize you, Mr. Bobulinski. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Chairman, ranking members, and 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're presented here today with two narratives in this investigation. | ||
| A false one being pushed by Joe Biden, a serial liar and fabulous now under this impeachment investigation for public corruption. | ||
| 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. | ||
| I'm the only Biden family business partner with an impeccable military record. | ||
| I'm grateful that this country has given me the freedom to be successful. | ||
| I worked hard to become independently wealthy. | ||
| I've taken several businesses public, sold 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'm a truth teller. | ||
| We keep hearing from certain corners that our democracy is at risk and democracy is on the ballot in 24. Yet the same people preaching this mantra know better. | ||
| They continue to lie directly to the American people without hesitation and remorse. | ||
| Rep Dan Goldman and Jamie Raskin, both lawyers, and Mr. Goldman, a former prosecutor with the SDNY from New York, will continue to lie today in this hearing and then go straight to the media to tell more lies. | ||
| Hunter Biden's defense attorney, Abby Lowell, weaponized his letters to Congress to try to smear my name and mistake the cold hard facts in an attempt to save his powerfully connected client and his father. | ||
| I challenge Mr. Lowell 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. | ||
| At Navy's Elite Naval Nuclear Power Training Command, I later served as the command's chief technology officer. | ||
| Please proceed. | ||
| I apologize for the disruption from the... | ||
| Am I supposed to say it's my time, Mr. Raskin? | ||
| Please, Mr. Boblitsky, please come to order. | ||
| Mr. Boblitsky, please proceed. | ||
| Please proceed. | ||
| I apologize for the disruption from the minority. | ||
| Well, Mr. Chairman, save his time, but he called members of this committee liars, and I just want to know whether the order and decorum requirements of House Rule 11 apply to witnesses appearing before the committee. | ||
| Does it apply or does it not? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right. | |
| Should I address? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I don't... | |
| There's hard line. | ||
| There's decorum from the members. | ||
| We've asked for that. | ||
| There's no language that I'm aware of pertaining to a witness. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| So, don't make sure we didn't waste any of his time on the opening statement. | ||
| Mr. Boblitsky, I'm sorry for the disruption. | ||
| Please continue your opening statement. | ||
| I think you, Mr. Askin, we'll make sure it's right. | ||
| Okay, great. | ||
| I just want to restate, make sure the American people hear all these facts. | ||
| Abby Lowell weaponized his letters to Congress to try to smear my name and misstate the cold, hard facts in an attempt to save his powerfully connected client and his father. | ||
| I challenged Mr. Lowell 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's Elite Naval Nuclear Power Training Command as a decorated master training specialist. | ||
| I later served as the commander's chief technology officer, where I held a huge security clearance from the Department of Energy and the NSA. | ||
| When I left Nuclear Power Training Command, I was the number one ranked direct input officer in the entire command. | ||
| And then I jumped into the business world and public markets. | ||
| While I have made a few contributions over the years to 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'm not a political person. | ||
| I come from a family with a long history of distinguished service in our nation's 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've 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 by questioning my integrity and my patriotic duty. | ||
| You may see me speak passionately at this hearing, but for good reason. | ||
| Not only was I willing to die for this country, every single male member of my immediate family was willing to die for this country. | ||
| I want to be crystal clear. | ||
| From my direct personal experience and what I've subsequently come to learn, it is clear to me that Joe Biden was the brand being sold by the Biden family. | ||
| His family's foreign influence peddling operation from China to Ukraine and elsewhere sold out to foreign actors who are seeking to gain influence and 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, aware enabler who met with business associates such as myself. | ||
| To further the business, despise being buffered by a complex scheme to maintain plausible deniability. | ||
| I ask this big question. | ||
| If there's no evidence of corruption here today, if Joe's conduct and the conduct of his family were fully legal and proper, then why are they so dishonest about it? | ||
| Not just slight misrepresentations of fact, but deep untruths about the entire corrupt enterprise. | ||
| Hunter Biden gave his transcribed interview on February 28th and 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 text messages on July 30th and 31st, 2017. | ||
| He leveraged his father's presence next to him in that infamous text to strong-arm CFC to paying Hunter immediately. | ||
| Jim Biden also lied extensively throughout his transcribed interview on February 21st and perjured himself. | ||
| An example of that, on page 100 of his transcript, Jim is asked specifically, do you recall having a meeting with Hunter Biden, Tony Bobulinski, and Joe Biden? | ||
| Jim's response, absolutely not. | ||
| The committee was so shocked by his perjury that 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 Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, and Jim Biden at the Beverly Hilton in May 2017, Jim Biden, with a former U.S. attorney lawyer sitting next to him, still denied that meeting took place. | ||
| Hunter Biden, 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? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| Just two points. | ||
| One is, I believe Mr. Bobulinski went over two minutes, 14 seconds. | ||
| I hope the same courtesy will be extended. | ||
| We will give Mr. Parnas equal time. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| And secondly, I see that we now have a witness appearing remotely, and I thought that witnesses were required to appear in person under the rules adopted by the majority at the beginning of the Congress. | ||
| And do we have a new practice with respect to that rule? | ||
| Because I know that members on our side were denied the ability to participate in hearings that were conducted in Florida and Mississippi and Alabama. | ||
| We wanted to participate by Zoom. | ||
| And I'll answer that. | ||
| To be able to testify remotely requires a letter from me and approval from the majority leader, which we have. | ||
| And I'll enter that letter into the record without objection. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| I hope we'll extend the same courtesy to members of this committee when they can't get to a hearing as in Mississippi or Florida. | ||
| Thank you much. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, parliamentary inquiry? | ||
| State your point. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, Mr. Bobulinski just referred to text messages that I believe he is referring to photos of a blackberry. | ||
| What's your parliamentary inquiry? | ||
| State your parliamentary inquiry because we've got a very important hearing here. | ||
| And we don't have time for stunts. | ||
| What's your parliamentary inquiry? | ||
| It's not a stunt. | ||
| I'm simply asking that Mr. Babalu. | ||
| You don't have a parliamentary inquiry. | ||
| Chair now recognizes Mr. Parnas. | ||
| Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Good. | ||
| Savage mode. | ||
|
unidentified
|
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 about the... | ||
| You asked for a parliamentary inquiry. | ||
| You will have five minutes whenever Jamie Raskin tells me it's your time to speak. | ||
| Mr. Parnas, the chair recognizes you for equal time that Mr. Bobulinski had, which was seven minutes. | ||
| Greaseball. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Hello. | ||
| Honorable members of Congress, Chairman Comer, Ranking Member Raskin, and members of the Oversight Committee. | ||
| I am humbled and thankful to show up before you today. | ||
| I came to the United States from Odessa, Ukraine in 1976, when I was still the former Soviet Union. | ||
| My mother and father and sister, and I had left the Soviet Union, escaping anti-Semitism and persecution. | ||
| While in Rome, en route to Israel, my sister and I won the most important opportunity that we have ever been given. | ||
| We won a U.S. green card lottery. | ||
| My family came here with literally no more than shirts on our back and 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 9, 2019 to 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 of individuals in government and media positions. | ||
| They created falsehoods to serve their own interests, knowing it would undermine the strength of our nation. | ||
| From November 2018 to October 2019, I was a key participant and a witness to numerous efforts to prove that Joe and Hunter Biden were linked to corruption in Ukraine. | ||
| Rudy Giuliani, on behalf of them, President Donald Trump tasked me with a mission to travel the globe, finding dirt on the Bidens so that an array of networks could spread misinformation about them. | ||
| Thus securing the 2020 election for Donald J. Trump. | ||
| Ironically, when I was arrested, my original indictment linked me to an individual referred to as unindicted co-conspirator one. | ||
| We now know this individual to be Congressman Pete Sessions, who sits on this very committee today. | ||
| Today I ask you to consider the following. | ||
| In nearly a year traveling the world and interviewing officials in different countries, I found precisely zero evidence of the Biden's corruption in Ukraine. | ||
| No credible source has ever provided proof of criminal activity, not the FBI, CIA, nor the NSA. | ||
| No respectable Ukrainian official has ever said that the Bidens did anything illegal, including former President Poroshenko and former Prosecutor General Yuri Lutsenko. | ||
| Even when CEO of Burisma, Nikola Zlochevsky, was offered a deal by Rudy Giuliani in exchange for information on the Bidens, he provided none, because there is none. | ||
| The only information ever pushed on the Bidens in Ukraine has come from one source and one 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. | ||
| From Trump and Giuliani's shadow diplomacy, through my missions to Ukraine and elsewhere, to members of a BLT team, a group convened for the sole purpose of investigating and 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 a point person in every matter they pursued. | ||
| That is how I know with certainty that these Biden stories are untrue then and are untrue now. | ||
| Congressman Pete Sessions, then Congressman Devin Nunes, Senator Ron Johnson, and many others understood they were pushing a false narrative. | ||
| The same goes for John Solomon, Sean Hannity, and media personnel, particularly at Fox News, who used this narrative to manipulate the public ahead of the 2020 elections. | ||
| Sadly, they are still doing this today as we approach the 2024 elections. | ||
| We cannot separate this conspiracy from the Russian-Ukraine war because Trump has no intention to keep aiding Ukraine. | ||
| Without the support of the United States and NATO, millions in Ukraine will suffer and die. | ||
| If we allow Russia to defeat Ukraine, Today, I admit my own wrongdoings. | ||
| I have been a convicted federal election campaign and fraud crimes and served my 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 now recognizes Mr. Galanis for his opening statement. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Chairman Gomer, Ranking Member Raskin and members of the committee, my name is Jason Galanis. | |
| I was a business partner of Hunter Biden and Devin Archer, among others, during the years of 2014-2015. | ||
| Our business included the acquisition of 85-year-old Wall Street firm, Burnham& Company, the $1.5 billion surviving division of Drexel Burnham& Barrett. | ||
| Our objective was to build a 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 out of Hunter Biden's business was his family name and his access to his father, Vice President Joe Biden. | ||
| Wow. | ||
| In 2014, we believed that the Burden enterprise would be significantly enhanced by forming a partnership with Harvest Fund Management, a $300 billion Chinese financial service company closely connected to the Chinese Communist Party. | ||
| This effort was led by Hunter Biden's contact with Henry Zhao, the Harvest chairman. | ||
| Mr. Zhao was interested in this partnership because of the game-changing value-add of the Biden family, including Joe Biden, who was to be a member of the Burden Harvest team post-vice presidency. | ||
| My lawyer provided the committee a draft of an email dated August 23, 2014, drafted for Hunter Biden that reflects this understanding. | ||
| It states, and I quote, Michael, please also remind Henry Zhao of our conversation about a board seat for a certain relation of mine. | ||
| Devon and I golfed with that relation 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, a certain relation of mine, refers to Vice President Biden. | ||
| Devon told me about this golf course conversation shortly after it happened. | ||
| Ultimately, this paragraph was deleted from the final version, with Hunter following our general rule of thumb. | ||
| On business deals, say it, forget it, write it, regret it. | ||
| Further to that, I recall being with Hunter Biden and Devin Archer at the Peninsula Bar in New York where Hunter took a call from his father and told him things were going well with Henry's Allen Harvest and that he might need a little help getting across the finish line. | ||
| It was not the only time I heard Hunter speak with his father for business reasons. | ||
| Wow. | ||
| I was present when Hunter called his father on May 4, 2014, on a cell phone, put it on speaker mode to have him say hello to Yelena Vetterina, a Russian oligarch and an investor in Rosemont Projects, and her husband, Yuri Luskov, the former mayor of Moscow. | ||
| Devon 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 I hope you had safe travels, and then said, quote, okay, you be good to my boy. | ||
| Hunter responded by saying, everything is good, and we're moving ahead. | ||
| The vice president said something about, quote, being helpful, and Hunter ended the call by saying he was going to call his father later. | ||
| Before this call, Hunter sat next to you by the night at a table, and I heard him speaking on business matters generally. | ||
| A few days after this May 4th party, An email my lawyer provided for this committee shows that Devin had confirmed Ms. Batarino was committed to a, quote, hard work of $10 to $20 million in a burdened investment banking client. | ||
| In an effort to build this financial platform, I engaged in a lawful conduct. | ||
| Our companies were entrusted with $11 billion of union pension money, pension fund money, whose 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 deserve the lengthy sentence I've received. | ||
| Nevertheless, as I set out more fully my full statement, I believe the SDNY prosecutors did not indict Hunter Biden on the same deal for political reasons, despite then available documentation that we were partners, were involved in decision-making, that involved illegal self-dealing, and all of us had financially benefited. | ||
| from these schemes. | ||
| In fact, Hunter Biden and Devon Archer's company received $15 million from the tribal bonds fraudulent scheme to be invested in the burner group. | ||
| I've offered slightest information to the government about Hunter Biden's crimes, but the prosecutors have been uninterested. | ||
| And my request for commentation I filed in December 2020 did provide information about Hunter's culpability. | ||
| The DOJ has retaliated against me and vigorously objected to my being placed in home-compliant pursuant to the CARES Act. | ||
| I applied for home-compliant on February 4th, 2023. | ||
| It was approved on June 9th. | ||
| On June 12th, this committee issued a subpoena for Devin Archer, and the DOP reversed my approval on June 13th, with the SDNY prosecutor strongly objecting to my release. | ||
| I've been appealing this reversal, and with each stage, the DOP reason for my denial has changed. | ||
| During this period, the period beginning in January 2023, I was sexually assaulted by a member of prison staff at FPC Pensacola. | ||
| He persisted in sexually harassing me for many months thereafter. | ||
| I had hoped to receive home compiling, which would remove me from danger. | ||
| My judgment was collided by the shame I felt for not being able to prevent the attacks. | ||
| I was well aware, as all inmates are, that the Bureau of Prisons had a horrible record on these matters. | ||
| I believe my disclosure would have made things worse for me. | ||
| Unfortunately, the sexual harassment continued until early August, when the prison correctional officer's comments became more threatening. | ||
| I feared for my safety, and I decided to seek counseling from Chaplain Dixon the next day, on August 10, 2023. | ||
| The chaplain was instantly upset by the events and asked to bring in Warden Salisbury, who quickly opened a PREA 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 by senior staff hours to FPC Montgomery, a separate facility. | ||
| I'm grateful the committee has opened up an investigation of these matters, and I appreciate Chairman Jordan and Palmer and Subcommittee Chairman Bigg signing the letter. | ||
| I believe I've been a victim of a pattern of retribution by the Department of Justice. | ||
| I believe I'm putting myself at grave risk within the BOP for providing information on these matters concerning the president and his son. | ||
| I've been treated professionally at Montgomery. | ||
| I want to thank case manager coordinator Anthony Barnes and the warden Randy Keyes for the help of facilitating access to my attorney prior to this interview. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Galanis, and I want to thank all the witnesses again for being here today. | ||
| We will now begin the questions, and I want to remind members on both sides of the aisle, each member has five minutes. | ||
| I'm going to 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 has investigated Joe Biden's involvement in his family's influence-peddling schemes around the world. | ||
| So let's start with that. | ||
| Mr. Bobulinski, was Joe Biden involved with any of your business dealings with Hunter Biden and James Biden? | ||
| Was Joe Biden involved in his family's attempts to sell their access to him? | ||
| You set out a form. | ||
| You set out a form to form a legitimate business. | ||
| You set out 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. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| Which business associates? | ||
| Yelena Baturina, Russian owner. | ||
| Russian. | ||
| Chinese fund manager, Henry Zhao. | ||
| And Nikolai Klochewski, Ukrainian owner, oil and gas owner. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Now that we've established that Joe Biden was involved in his family's business dealings, I'd like to turn to the financial records we've subpoenaed. | ||
| One major point my Democrat... | ||
| Colleagues downplay is how much money the Bidens accumulated from foreign business ventures in such a short period of time. | ||
| We have over $24 million to the Biden family and their business associates 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 was a $10 million deal, would it? | ||
| What did the Bidens conceive of the business with the Chinese becoming? | ||
| The Chinese were committing to deploying 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, Mr. Archer, and Hunter Biden set out to achieve? | ||
| Was it millions of dollars or billions of dollars? | ||
| Billions with a B. 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 that Joe Biden also met with... | ||
| I'm sorry, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| He did multiple times. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Are you aware that Joe Biden also met with Rob Walker, Eric Sherwin, and Devin Archer, too? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm generally aware of it. | |
| Mr. Galanis, as you discussed earlier regarding Yelena Baterina, the Russian oligarch, you were present for Hunter Biden calling his then-Vice President father with the Russian oligarch Yelena Baterina. | ||
| Present, correct? | ||
|
unidentified
|
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? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I was present for a call on Chinese transactions discussed, yes. | |
| So, Mr. Golanus, isn't it true that when Joe Biden said he didn't interact with his family's business associates, that's not true, is it? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I believe it will be misleading to the point of being an untruth. | |
| I want to touch on the fact about the absent seat in the middle. | ||
| Hunter Biden has chosen not to attend today's proceedings. | ||
| I've given Mr. Biden exactly what he asked for before his deposition. | ||
| It's clear that Hunter Biden knows his testimony would not withstand public scrutiny. | ||
| Joe Biden has not been truthful about his participation in schemes to sell access and influence. | ||
| And today's witnesses will 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 the long version? | ||
| Long version. | ||
| But within a minute. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| So Hunter Biden, Jim Biden, and Joe Biden were in Los Angeles for a variety of business discussions. | ||
| Joe was there to speak at the Milken Conference in May of 2017. | ||
| I had lunch with Hunter Biden at the Chateau Marmont, and he had asked me to meet with his father that night. | ||
| He set up a meeting at the Beverly Hilton, where they hold the milking conference. | ||
| And I got there a bit early and sat with Jim Biden, Hunter Biden, and we're just talking about what we were doing with the Chinese and the legal documents I was working through. | ||
| And they had sort of coached me before Joe showed up. | ||
| So listen, we're going to just keep things at a very high level. | ||
| We're not going to go into a lot of details in this meeting. | ||
| And I just remember that discussion generally because it just struck me as odd, honestly. | ||
| Joe wasn't in the White House then, and that 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, yes. | ||
| This wasn't a handshake, a two-second discussion about the weather. | ||
| This was a 45-minute long meeting to an hour where we talked about a lot of stuff. | ||
| Very good. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Chair now recognizes the ranking member asking for his questions. | ||
| But we're actually going to go to Mr. Garcia to begin. | ||
| Great. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you very much. | |
| And thank you again. | ||
| I just want to, just for the record, be very clear that in Mr. Robolinsky's testimony, he has provided zero evidence. | ||
| There's zero evidence of any sort of link between Hunter Biden and the president as far as it relates to the business dealings. | ||
| And so once again, we're back to a hearing where no evidence is being provided of any sort of wrongdoing by the president. | ||
| But I want to go back. | ||
| Actually, it's my time, sir. | ||
| Mr. Bobolinski, I want to go back to the private deposition that we had. | ||
| I was one of a handful of Democrats in that private, on the record, under oath conversation we had. | ||
| And during that deposition, I asked you a question of which you gave a false answer to, and 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, quote, I do not recall who got me into the debate. | ||
| Do you remember telling me that, sir? | ||
| You were playing semantics trying to ask me as if somebody called me directly and gave me a ticket. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Sir, I asked you. | |
| I'm going to reclaim my time, sir. | ||
| I'm going to reclaim my time. | ||
| What I said was, I'm reclaiming my time. | ||
| Thank you, sir. | ||
| Actually, what I asked you was, do you recall who actually got you into the presidential debate? | ||
| I do not recall who got me into the debate. | ||
| You did not remember who got you into the debate between President Biden... | ||
| That's not a true statement. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Sir, you quoted. | |
| I don't recall who got me into the debate. | ||
| It's on page 102 of the transcript. | ||
| You did not ask me whether I was a guest of Mr. Biden. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| I'll reclaim my time. | ||
| I'm not asking you a question right now. | ||
| Thank you very much, sir. | ||
| In fact, here, as was shown by ranking member Raskin, we know that you were in the debate actually sitting adjacent and next to Trump officials. | ||
| When we were confronted again on the same question, Mr. Bobulinski, if you were a guest of Mr. Trump's at the debate, you responded and you quoted, once the Wall Street Journal called you out, quote, is the Wall Street Journal a god or something? | ||
| Like you acted, this is some encyclopedia of fact. | ||
| And you refuse to still confirm that you were a guest of Donald Trump. | ||
| So I want to ask you one more time, sir, were you a guest of Donald Trump at the presidential debate? | ||
| Mr. Garcia, those were not the questions you asked me in my transcribed interview. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Wow. | |
| Answer the question, sir. | ||
| Were you a guest of Donald Trump? | ||
| Of Donald Trump at the debate. | ||
| That was obvious to everyone in the world at that point. | ||
| You were asking me semantically questions. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, sir. | |
| So you were a guest? | ||
| You answered the question. | ||
| Because at the time, you said, in the transcript, under oath, I don't recall who got me into the debate. | ||
| So just to be clear. | ||
| So I want to keep going. | ||
| So you also call yourself, you're not a political person. | ||
| Yet you went to a presidential debate on behalf of Donald Trump. | ||
| I also want to also make it clear that you made numerous claims and allegations. | ||
| You've made them today. | ||
| You've made them before. | ||
| And 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. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Do you know who invited you? | |
| Sir, who invited you to the debate? | ||
| Donald Trump, you said. | ||
| Who invited you to the press conference? | ||
| Who invited me? | ||
| My lawyers coordinated things, and I showed up at a... | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, sir, I will tell you, it was Jason Miller, who it's been very clear, it's been reported, who actually worked on the part of the Donald Trump campaign. | |
| Here you are at a Donald Trump press conference, and you can't remember how you got to the press conference. | ||
| You refuse to answer how you actually got into the Donald Trump debate with Joe Biden. | ||
| Do you remember speaking at the press conference? | ||
| I do, very clearly. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You do. | |
| Do you know who Jason Miller is, sir? | ||
| I do know of him, yes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Do you know that he was a Trump campaign staffer? | |
| Mr. Garcia, you keep asking me semantical questions. | ||
| You underestimate that I had three lawyers around me that were coordinating my travel, where I was going, and stuff like that. | ||
| Please stop. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I'll reclaim my time. | |
| Thank you very much. | ||
| It's interesting, sir, because you show up to a pre-debate press conference. | ||
| You show up to a presidential debate both invited to by a person running. | ||
| For the presidency of the United 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 national media... | ||
| So how did you get to this press conference? | ||
| I flew on a plane. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Who invited you? | |
| Are we going in circles? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Sir, who invited you to the press conference? | |
| My lawyers told me I was invited to come to Tennessee. | ||
| At that point, I was trying to get the truth and the facts out to the American people. | ||
| At that moment in time, if I recall, I believe 80 million people watched that debate, and that was probably the number one... | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, sir. | |
| I reclaim my time. | ||
| Well, with that, I think it's very clear. | ||
| For someone that can't remember how I got to a Donald Trump press conference or a Donald Trump debate, you're completely an uncredible witness. | ||
| Thank you, and I yield back. | ||
| Gentleman's time has expired. | ||
| Chair now recognizes the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Jason Smith, for five minutes. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| We've previously heard from two IRS whistleblowers 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, close quote, or give them, quote, the keys to my family's only asset. | ||
| Mr. Bobulinski, can you confirm that President Biden is 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 that there wasn't even a connection between his father and his businesses. | ||
| Here is just one example. | ||
| Quote, I just state for the record one more time, under oath and under penalty of perjury, 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, close quotes. | ||
| Yet, the Ways and Means Committee released a WhatsApp message that were provided by the IRS whistleblowers showing that Hunter Biden wrote on July 30, 27, 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 testified that Hunter was not shy about his ability to get his father on the phone. | ||
| And Devon Archer testified. | ||
| No, he was not. | ||
| Those are all blatant lies. | ||
| was not involved in his family's business dealings and that he did not benefit from illicit business deals. | ||
| However, IRS Special Agent Joe Ziegler provided 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. | ||
| Do you want to say a few? | ||
| To outline how Joe was involved? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| Yes. | ||
| Different congressmen and women keep trying to say that there's no evidence and use the word involved, which is a very opaque language. | ||
| If Joe Biden was not involved in his son's business dealings, why, after flying all the way across the country to the Milken Conference, where there is, next to Davos, is probably the biggest conference in the world, why would he take 45 minutes out of his night? | ||
| It wasn't a 10 a.m. meeting. | ||
| It was 10.40 in the evening. | ||
| He's an elderly man, flew all the way across country, to sit with me for 45 minutes to an hour to discuss my background. | ||
| The business we are 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 whistleblowers shared evidence that the Biden family made at least $1.1 million from their business with China, including $100,000 in payment from CFC. | ||
| Mr. Bobulinski, do you know whether the Biden family made any money from China? | ||
| They did. | ||
| Millions of dollars. | ||
| I think approximately eight to nine million. | ||
| The Biden family has made millions of dollars from China, correct? | ||
| Correct. | ||
| And you said at least nine million? | ||
| Yeah, I think it's actually over 10 million, but I'll leave those details up to you guys. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Gentleman yields back. | ||
| Chair now recognizes the ranking member. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| 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 Joe Biden Ukraine. | ||
| If you can just tell us quickly how you got involved in that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| I was a donor at the time. | ||
| I became doing business with Rudy Giuliani. | ||
| He got involved in a business I was doing called Fraud Guarantee. | ||
| And in the midst we started spending a lot of time together until eventually in November of 2018, he approached me and asked me about my connections in Ukraine. | ||
| After telling him about people that I knew and things that I heard, at that point then he wanted me to go to Ukraine to find Viktor Shokin, the prosecutor general. | ||
| And 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 rabbit hole, including interviewing Viktor Shokin and Slicefsky, the owner of Burisma, did you ever find the smoking gun or any evidence that Donald Trump was looking for to paste on Joe Biden? | ||
|
unidentified
|
On the contrary, Representative Raskin, not only did we keep hitting dead walls and not finding the smoking gun, but we kept running into sources of the information that was coming out of Russia. | |
| In fact, Joe Biden was part of a global campaign, including by the United States, to oppose corruption and to go after the corrupt forces in Ukraine. | ||
| Isn't that right? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, sir. | |
| At what point did the campaign to dig up dirt on Biden... | ||
| Become a campaign to spread disinformation and lies about Biden. | ||
|
unidentified
|
At some point, when we hit a few brick walls, all of a sudden then I saw the shift between the BLT group, which included John Solomon, the media personality, and Rudy Giuliani and other Trump lawyers, to start trying to push narratives that were... | |
| We had no, they were not validated. | ||
| We had no way to validate them. | ||
| Basically, a letter would come over from somebody in Ukraine. | ||
| I'd hand it over to John Solomon. | ||
| Next thing you know, he was on Fox TV two hours later with Sean Hannity. | ||
| At what point did Mr. Giuliani begin working directly with Russian agents and Russian assets, individuals who would later become sanctioned by Donald Trump's own Treasury Department? | ||
| For spreading propaganda and disinformation against Joe Biden? | ||
|
unidentified
|
It was sometime in probably around May, June of 2019. | |
| Were you aware, was Mr. Giuliani aware that these people were basically just doing the bidding of Vladimir Putin? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Absolutely. | |
| So he had no hesitation about spreading lies that were concocted by Russian agents? | ||
|
unidentified
|
As long as it fit the narrative, absolutely not. | |
| How were you and Giuliani able to take these false allegations peddled by corrupt officials and Russian agents and promote and amplify them here in the United States in our political system? | ||
| Weren't media groups skeptical of your claims? | ||
|
unidentified
|
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 personnel is over there. | ||
| But then there was also other people that were doing the bidding for the Russian people in Congress, like Senator Ron Johnson, like Congressman Pete Sessions, that sits here right now, that was with me from the very beginning of this journey into finding the digging dirt on Joe Biden. | ||
| Is Putin's war on Ukraine today, which has cost hundreds of thousands of people's lives, is that part of the vaunted Russia hoax? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Absolutely not. | |
| Is it real? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, absolutely. | |
| I want to ask you a more personal question, if I might, Mr. Parnas, because in my several years living through this extraordinary period of American history, I've tried to ask people like Michael Cohen and Cassidy Hutchinson. | ||
| I've wondered about people like General Milley, General Kelly. | ||
| Why did you break with all of the deceit and corruption and lies of Donald Trump? | ||
| How did you get out of that culture? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I mean, it was very difficult. | |
| I actually had to head a brick wall myself and get arrested and to be able to get out of that cult. | ||
| Because when you're in that cult, when you're around them, you have blinders on and you're only able to see a certain amount of information. | ||
| You're only able to hear the certain amount of information. | ||
| Allowed to go out of the outside, out of the circle. | ||
| And if you go outside of the circle, then you're not in the circle. | ||
| So eventually, you brainwash yourself to believing certain things that are not true. | ||
| When I was arrested and had some time to reflect and really understand what was going on, I started realizing, looking back and thinking back to moments in time where I started thinking to myself that this can't be true and we're doing something wrong. | ||
| Well, thank you for telling the truth and helping America to end this nightmare. | ||
| I yield back to you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| The chair now recognizes the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Jim Jordan. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| The ranking member just said that Joe Biden was opposed to corruption. | ||
| Really? | ||
| So opposed, he leveraged a billion dollars of American tax money to fire the prosecutor in Ukraine who was investigating Zolachevsky at Burisma, the company Hunter Biden set on the board up. | ||
| Wow. | ||
| And the prosecutor who replaced Shokin, that Mr. Parna has referenced in his opening statement, Mr. Lutsenko, guess what he did? | ||
| He took Zolachevsky off the wanted list and dropped the charges. | ||
| Wow, he's really, really opposed to corruption there. | ||
| Mr. Bobulinski, who's the big guy? | ||
| Joe Biden. | ||
| Are you sure about that? | ||
| Joe Biden? | ||
| You're sure? | ||
| I'm a thousand percent sure. | ||
| Because when Hunter Biden did his deposition under oath, he said, I don't know who it is, even though he was copied on an email that said H will hold 10 percent for the big guy. | ||
| You sure it's the big guy is Joe Biden? | ||
| A thousand percent. | ||
| And there's other text messages that back that up, that the brave whistleblowers, Shapley and Ziegler, have produced. | ||
| Not from my phones, not from my Blackberry that I took screenshots from. | ||
| They took them from subpoenas directly from Apple's iCloud that back up the fact that Hunter knew the big guy was Joe Biden. | ||
| The big guy is the brand. | ||
| The big guy is the lift. | ||
| The big guy is the one who showed up at golf outings, who took phone calls and meetings and lunches and dinners with Hunter Biden and his business associates. | ||
| Is that right? | ||
| Correct. | ||
| Mr. Galanis. | ||
| You referenced in your opening statement, May 4th, 2014, you were at a party at a restaurant in Brooklyn, New York. | ||
| Can you tell me who else was there? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, it was a birthday party, so there were more than 100 people there, but amongst them was Devin Archer, myself, the host, Alex Keklarski, Elena Baturna, her husband. | |
| I think you referenced a phone call that took place. | ||
| Tell the committee what happened with that phone call. | ||
| Who was involved in that phone call? | ||
|
unidentified
|
As I testified in my opening statement, it was Yelena Batarina, her husband, myself, Hunter initiating it, Joe Biden on the speakerphone, and Devin Archer. | |
| So there was a little pull-aside where that group of people you just described were pulled aside, and Hunter Biden called his father or called the vice president. | ||
| Is that accurate? | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's accurate. | |
| And then tell me what was discussed on the call. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The discussion that testified was a relatively short discussion, but it was a discussion about their Yelena and Yuri coming to town. | |
| As they testified specifically, they talked about being good to his boy. | ||
| Well, let me ask you this. | ||
| Let me ask you this. | ||
| Let me ask you this. | ||
| Did you get the impression Joe Biden was expecting the call? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| To me, it was clearly set up ahead of time. | ||
| It was an arranged call. | ||
| So this was arranged. | ||
| This was coordinated. | ||
| Hunter Biden calls his father, then vice president. | ||
| And I think in your deposition, you said he said this. | ||
| 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? | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's accurate, yes. | |
| And again, can you tell the committee who Ms. Batarina is again? | ||
|
unidentified
|
A Russian billionaire, wife of the former mayor of Moscow, served for near 20 years as the mayor. | |
| She's the wealthiest woman in Russia. | ||
| She'd 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? | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's accurate. | |
| So subsequent to the coordinated call, the arranged call that Hunter Biden had with the Vice President of the United States, the wealthiest woman in Russia commits to give millions of dollars more to Hunter Biden's business. | ||
| Is that all accurate, Mr. Golanus? | ||
|
unidentified
|
That is accurate, yes. | |
| And again, this was a pull-aside done at this meeting, and you know that it was coordinated. | ||
| Is this what they call access to the brand, access to the Biden lift? | ||
| Is that what you would describe it as, Mr. Galanis? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I don't think there's any doubt that that was the intent of the call and the objective, yes. | |
| And it followed the motto. | ||
| It followed the statement that you all agreed to. | ||
| Say it, forget it, write it, regret it. | ||
| This wasn't put in writing. | ||
| This was a phone call on a speaker. | ||
| There's no writing about this. | ||
| It was all done that way. | ||
| That was how the business operated. | ||
| Is that correct, Mr. Alanis? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| I yield back. | ||
| Gentleman yields back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Chair now recognizes. | |
| Mr. Lynch from Massachusetts for five minutes. | ||
| Just sad. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Chairman, I want to make an observation here. | |
| I've been on this committee, 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 from, 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. Smirnov was the most corroborating witnesses. | ||
| Witness that the Republicans had, the strongest witness that they had. | ||
| And, of course, after that, we find out through the Trump-appointed prosecutor that all of the information that Mr. Smyrna 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 wanna remind people, he's sitting in prison. | ||
| That's why he can't be here today. | ||
| He's sitting in prison for scamming workers With the Bidens. | ||
| With Hunter Biden. | ||
|
unidentified
|
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 Trump and Giuliani, where Giuliani was the shadow diplomacy secretary of state. | ||
| I was his right hand and basically the point person in Ukraine to not only dig up, validate, search, whatever needed to be done to try to find up 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 Harvey or other people there to discuss what we found. | ||
| At that point from there, Giuliani would then 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, the Republican leadership, should have known, should have known before Smirnoff was indicted that... | ||
| This information was fabricated about President Biden. | ||
| Could you talk about that? | ||
| Congressman Lynch, not that they should have known. | ||
| They did know. | ||
| They knew exactly what was going on. | ||
| They knew that the evidence was not valid. | ||
| This information was just coming in from anywhere from left to right field, and it was being pushed straight to the halls of Congress without zero verification of it. | ||
| Okay, thank you. | ||
| Gentlemen, my time has expired, and I can go back. | ||
| Gentlemen, time's expired. | ||
| Before I recognize Mr. Palmer, I'd like to... | ||
| Enter into the record the testimony of Tony Bobulinski with the committee on February 13, 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, without objection, I'd like to enter into the record the entire... | ||
| A transcribed interview of Tony Bobulinski. | ||
| And Mr. Chairman, I'd like to enter for the record an article from today's Daily Beast entitled, Texts Reveal More Russia Ties for Key Anti-Biden Witness Bobulinski. | ||
| Okay, Daily Beast. | ||
| Without objection. | ||
| Chair now recognizes Mr. Palmer from Alabama for five minutes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
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. | ||
|
unidentified
|
In fact, you had a meeting with Joe Biden. | |
| Isn't that correct? | ||
| Two of them. | ||
|
unidentified
|
One of those times was before the Milken Conference in Los Angeles, May of 2017. | |
| Is that correct? | ||
| It was during the Milken Conference. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You provided a great deal of documentation to this committee. | |
| I want to show you some messages between you and Hunter Biden that be on the screen here in May of 2017 before you first had a meeting with Joe Biden. | ||
| These are messages between you and Hunter Biden dated May 2, 2017. | ||
| Do you recognize these? | ||
| I do. | ||
|
unidentified
|
At the bottom, Hunter wrote, Dad, not in now until 11, let's me and Jim meet at 10 at Beverly Hilton, where he's staying. | |
| Jim is James Biden, President Biden's brother. | ||
| Is that correct? | ||
| Correct. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The next set of messages is, if you put those on screen, is between another business associate of Hunter Biden's and you. | |
| His name is James. | ||
| Do you recognize it? | ||
| I do. | ||
|
unidentified
|
At the top, you write, about to meet Hunter, Jim, and I guess Joe at Beverly Hilton Hotel. | |
| Joe is now President Joe Biden. | ||
| Is that correct? | ||
| Correct. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This chat between you and Joe Biden, 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. | ||
| It was great to talk. | ||
| Thanks, Tony B. You met with Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, and Jim Biden the night before the Millikan Conference in 2017. | ||
| Is that correct? | ||
| I did, and Jim Biden perjured himself by trying to deny that meeting. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Bobulinski. | |
| That was at the Beverly Hilton. | ||
| Correct? | ||
| Correct. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You can provide more details around that meeting. | |
| 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 to describe it. | ||
| But the only reason why I was meeting with Joe Biden and the only reason why I was there is because I was the CEO of the enterprise that they were putting together with the Chinese company CFC. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Can you give me a little 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, set a sort of outline that we wouldn't go into a lot of details. | ||
| So through the 45- to 60-minute meeting I had with Joe Biden, it was about 10.40 p.m. after he flew across country, we talked about my background, my family's military background, the different business ventures I'd done around the world, 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 introduced me to Joe because before Joe came and sat down with us, Hunter said, hey, give me five to ten minutes. | ||
| I need to read my father in on it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So when you're referencing Joe and Hunter's father, you're referencing President Joe Biden. | |
| I am? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Correct. | |
| Wow. | ||
| These four images... | ||
| Well, in this message you sent to James again, you said you spent more time with Joe and Jim this morning. | ||
| And to be factually correct, that's President Joe Biden and James Biden, his brother. | ||
| Also saw them last night, including Hunter. | ||
| These four images show a pretty clear record of your meeting with Joe Biden in May of 2017, Mr. Bob Linsky. | ||
| Hunter Biden, during his transcribed interview, testified that the meeting did in fact take place. | ||
| And after being asked, did Mr. Bobulinski meet with your father during the trip, Hunter stated he met with him in the lobby of the hotel. | ||
| When asked who attended the meeting, Hunter replied, my uncle and myself. | ||
| But when asked whether the meeting at the Beverly Hilton between Joe Biden, Jim Biden, Hunter Biden, and Tony Bobulinski took place, Jim Biden testified, absolutely not. | ||
| These stories don't match up. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, Joe Biden, Jim Biden, also told the committee that Joe Biden did not meet the Chinese businessman, Yixing Ming. | ||
| Rob Walker, by known as a Friendly Witness Committee, said the opposite. | ||
| So, Mr. Chairman, it appears to me that there are material inconsistencies between the witnesses' testimony. | ||
| These witnesses' statements appear to me to be irreconcilable. | ||
| In short, Mr. Chairman, 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 serious offense, Mr. Chairman, a criminal one, in fact. | ||
| And if the Bidens or anyone else has come before this committee and lied to this committee, I strongly encourage the committee to pursue criminal referrals to the Department of Justice. | ||
| One last thing that I want to ask, and Mr. Bobulinski or Mr. Galinas, have either of you heard of any offer of a pardon for anyone involved or associated with or a partner to the Biden Family Enterprise corruption investigation? | ||
| Have you heard of anyone being suggested that a pardon might be in order for anyone associated with this enterprise? | ||
| I have not. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Bobulinski. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| I just have a parliamentary inquiry. | ||
| We've heard for months now and seen 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 he's allegedly taken these pictures? | ||
| Because I think we need the data that they keep referring to. | ||
| And maybe Mr. Bob Linsky could just turn it over to us, or we could subpoena it today. | ||
| We have the images that we have shared with you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right. | |
| I saw the picture of the cracked Blackberry, but do we have the underlying texts that are being referred to by my friend, Mr. Palmer? | ||
| Mr. Bobulinski previously said he'd be happy to turn over his phone. | ||
| We have pictures of all the text messages, screenshots that we've provided with everyone on the committee. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Well, of course, he's just given us, obviously, the 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 on which messages with Hunter Biden and the Oneida Holdings partners are saved. | ||
| He stated that he's willing to provide it to the committee, so it should be rather simple. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Chairman. | |
| Okay, there's a motion to subpoena Bobulinski's Blackberry. | ||
| Yeah, with the texts that were just referenced by Mr. Palmer. | ||
| The chair recognizes Mr. Jordan. | ||
| I move the table in motion. | ||
| There's a motion to table. | ||
| The motion to table is not debatable. | ||
| As many are in favor of tabling may signify by saying aye. | ||
| All those opposed, signify by saying no. | ||
|
unidentified
|
No! | |
| In the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it, and the motion to table is 3-2. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, what we're doing is we're tabling evidence here, which you keep relying on, so I'm going to ask for a recorded vote for that. | ||
| That just makes no sense. | ||
| A recorded vote is ordered. | ||
| We'll suspend for a moment. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This is a committee hearing. | |
| We don't have the clerk. | ||
| Will somebody go find the clerk? | ||
| Shenanigans. | ||
| Democrats and shenanigans. | ||
|
unidentified
|
He said it, did he say under oath? | |
| Mr. Speaker, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Minority Leader, do you think it's possible that the witness would voluntarily just give it? | ||
| But I had understood actually that Mr. Bobulinski had volunteered when he was asked about this. | ||
| It would simplify things if he would just turn it over the BlackBerry. | ||
| Well, he did very clearly say he's happy to turn over his BlackBerry to the committee. | ||
| We then asked for it at the deposition. | ||
| He didn't. | ||
| We've asked the majority to ask for it. | ||
| Mr. Goldman, you're out of order. | ||
| We're in suspension here waiting for the clerk to come so we can take the vote that your side of the aisle requested. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You can't make this up. | |
| You can't. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This is Jurassic Park. | |
| Mr. Ranking Member? | ||
| Mr. Ranking Member? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| I solely want to underscore the importance of this. | ||
| I'm sorry, gentle ladies, out of order. | ||
| You can come back here and talk to him if you want. | ||
| AOC has entered the chat. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I've got some questions three times. | |
| Mr. Chairman? | ||
| Mr. Chairman? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| We don't even have... | ||
| You're good. | ||
| I said Ms. Ocasio-Cortez would have to come up. | ||
| You will as well. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Sorry. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| So, ladies and gentlemen, this is a absolute cluster F. Looks like we have Nancy Mays and Byron Donalds and MTG talking with James Comer about getting all of the evidence off of Tony Bobulinski's laptop, BlackBerry, mobile devices, electronic devices. | ||
| And they are waiting to take a roll call on whether all of that evidence will be turned over to the entire committee. | ||
| What you are witnessing from, of course, the Democrat side of the dais is end-stage Trump derangement syndrome making this entire hearing about Donald Trump. | ||
| They did this exact same thing. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, Just an invitation to regular order. | ||
| We have Democratic clerks who are faithful to the rule of law and could do this if you're waiting for clerks. | ||
| And we'll all be here to watch, to document their work. | ||
| I mean, in other words, if you want to conduct the vote with the Democratic clerks, we can do it. | ||
| With a recorded vote is ordered, the clerk will call the roll. | ||
| Mr. Jordan. | ||
| Mr. Jordan votes yes. | ||
| Mr. Turner. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Gosar. | |
| Miss Fox. | ||
| Mr. Grothman. | ||
| Mr. Grothman votes yes. | ||
| Mr. Cloud. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Cloud votes yes. | |
| Mr. Palmer. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Palmer votes aye. | |
| Mr. Higgins. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Higgins votes yes. | |
| Mr. Sessions. | ||
| Mr. Sessions votes aye. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Biggs. | |
| Mr. Biggs votes aye. | ||
| Ms. Mace. | ||
| Ms. Mace votes aye. | ||
| Mr. LaTurner. | ||
| Mr. LaTurner votes aye. | ||
| Mr. Fallon. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Donalds. | |
| Mr. Donalds votes yes. | ||
| Mr. Perry. | ||
| Mr. Timmons. | ||
| Mr. Timmons votes aye. | ||
| Mr. Burchett. | ||
| Ms. Green. | ||
| Aye. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Ms. Green votes aye. | |
| Ms. McClain. | ||
| Ms. McClain votes aye. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Ms. Boebert. | |
| Mr. Fry. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Fry votes aye. | |
| Miss Luna. | ||
| Mr. Langworthy. | ||
| Mr. Langworthy votes aye. | ||
| Mr. Burleson. | ||
| Mr. Waltz. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Waltz votes aye. | |
| Mr. Raskin. | ||
| No. | ||
| So now it's a numbers game because there were a bunch of absences. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Lynch. | |
| No. | ||
| Mr. Lynch votes no. | ||
| Mr. Connolly. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Nay. | |
| Mr. Connolly votes nay. | ||
| It's a walrus. | ||
| Mr. Krishnamoorthy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
No. | |
| Mr. Krishnamoorthy votes no. | ||
| Mr. Connolly. | ||
| Mr. Mfume. | ||
|
unidentified
|
No. | |
| Mr. Mfume votes no. | ||
| Miss Ocasio-Cortez. | ||
| Nay. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Miss Ocasio-Cortez votes nay. | |
| Miss Porter. | ||
| I've been waiting for her to say nay. | ||
| Miss Bush. | ||
| Miss Brown. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Miss Stansbury. | |
| All right, ladies and gentlemen. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Garcia. | |
| Mr. Garcia votes no. | ||
| Mr. Frost. | ||
| Miss Lee. | ||
| Miss Lee votes no. | ||
| Mr. Kassar? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Kassar votes no. | |
| Miss Crockett? | ||
|
unidentified
|
No. | |
| Oh my. | ||
| Miss Crockett votes no. | ||
| Mr. Goldman? | ||
|
unidentified
|
No. | |
| Mr. Goldman votes no. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Moskowitz? | |
| Mr. Moskowitz votes no. | ||
| Miss Talib? | ||
| Ms. Tlaib votes no. | ||
| Ms. Presley? | ||
| Ms. Presley votes no. | ||
| Mr. Chairman? | ||
| I vote yes. | ||
| And how is Mr. Burleson recorded? | ||
| Mr. Chairman votes yes. | ||
| Mr. Burleson is not recorded. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Burleson votes yes. | |
| How is Ms. Boebert recorded? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Ms. Boebert is not recorded. | |
| Ms. Boebert votes aye. | ||
| How is Mr. Turner recorded? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Turner is not recorded. | |
| Aye. | ||
| Mr. Turner votes aye. | ||
| So it looks like they whipped their members. | ||
| Mr. Frost is not recorded. | ||
|
unidentified
|
No. | |
| Mr. Frost votes no. | ||
| How is Mr. Fallon recorded? | ||
| Mr. Fallon is not recorded. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Fallon votes aye. | |
| How's Miss Porter recorded? | ||
| Miss Porter is not recorded. | ||
|
unidentified
|
No. | |
| Miss Porter votes no. | ||
| Will the clerk tally the report? | ||
| All right. | ||
| I actually didn't keep, I didn't actually keep track, so your guess is as good as mine. | ||
| If you have the sharpness to actually have kept track, but again, this hearing is... | ||
| This hearing has devolved into... | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Chairman, on this vote, the ayes are 21, the nays are 16. The ayes have it. | |
| The motion passes. | ||
| Chair now recognizes Mr. Conley for five minutes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | |
| What a waste of time. | ||
| What a bunch of shenanigans. | ||
| Here comes the walrus. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You were asked about taking a picture of your phone. | |
| Walrus. | ||
|
unidentified
|
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's a legitimate text and the date and time stamp on it. | ||
| Are you willing to provide the committee voluntarily with the BlackBerry referenced and that phone? | ||
| I'm willing to sit in a 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. | ||
| Somebody who's done extensive work for the FBI for over 10 years with an interest of pulling all the data off that phone so I could provide it to the committee. | ||
| Unfortunately, they were using Cellbrite software, which is a software that the FBI uses, and they were unable to pull the data off the phone. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| So I am more than willing to sit in the room with the Mr. Chairman and the ranking member and their staffs with that BlackBerry fully charged, and we can go through each and every Well, that's some progress, and I appreciate that, but you can understand, I'm sure, why the committee wants to look at prima facie evidence on its own. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, I can't understand why you're trying to imply that I haven't cooperated. | |
| Mr. Bob Linsky, this is my time. | ||
| You can understand why we would want to look at evidence raw and unbonished so that we can make our own determination. | ||
| Willingness to cooperate, at least at that level. | ||
| Mr. Parmas, you observed back in 2023 in a letter you sent to Chairman Comer that there were flagrant examples of Giuliani interfering in Ukrainian politics, unquote. | ||
| Why would Giuliani be interfering in another country's politics? | ||
| I mean, Giuliani would do and say whatever he needed for the purpose of getting the information he wanted 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 a boxer, Vladimir Klitschko, who was then the mayor in Ukraine. | ||
| When the new president came over, there was rumors about... | ||
| Maybe him not staying in office as mayor of Ukraine. | ||
| Klitschko flew to New York, met with Rudy Giuliani. | ||
| And then on a meeting that we had with Andre Yermak in Spain that was relevant. | ||
| It had to do with President Zelensky announcing the investigation into Joe and Hunter Biden. | ||
| At that meeting, he also brought up the Klitschko situation and basically told Yermak that if Zelensky got rid of Klitschko, President Trump and the American people would be very upset about that because we 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 loved Donald Trump? | ||
| Or had somebody encouraged him? | ||
| To engage in this kind of political indifference in another country. | ||
| I mean, I think he was encouraged by Donald Trump. | ||
| Ah, personally? | ||
| Personally, yes. | ||
| 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... | ||
| The administration of the then newly installed president of Ukraine, President Zelensky. | ||
| 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 very stern and relay the message that unless Zelensky announced an investigation into the Bidens 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 very famous and beautiful telephone conversation between President Trump then and President Zelensky basically saying, but I need a favor and hinting that there'd be withholding of military aid until that favor was delivered. | ||
| Is that fair? | ||
| Oh, absolutely. | ||
| I was a part of setting up that phone call, that famous phone call that Trump had with Zelensky. | ||
| I think your testimony is very important, Mr. Parnas, and it's under oath. | ||
| Yes, sir. | ||
| I thank you. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Wow. | ||
| Is this about Trump or Joe Biden? | ||
| 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's Chinese business associates. | ||
| I want to talk about CEFC, which is the China Energy Fund Committee. | ||
| Mr. Bobulinski, who is Chairman Yi? | ||
| Chairman Yi was the chairman of CEFC. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Jim Biden told the FBI and IRS that Chairman Yi was the protege of Xi Jinping. | ||
| The leader of China and the Chinese Communist Party. | ||
| Mr. Bobulinski, Rob Walker told this committee that Joe Biden met Chairman Yee. | ||
| Are you aware of that? | ||
| Yes or no? | ||
| I am now. | ||
| I wasn't at the time. | ||
| And Joe Biden also met with you, is that right? | ||
| Yes, he did. | ||
| Twice. | ||
| Who is Director Zhang? | ||
| Director Zhang was the number two at CFC. | ||
| The executive director of CEFC, the number two? | ||
| Yeah, he was the number two executive, but really the point person that I worked with and the Biden family worked with. | ||
| And he's the individual that Hunter Biden was shaking down at the end of July 2017, demanding that they fund the... | ||
| $10 million. | ||
| They ultimately sent five, but $10 million directly to Hunter Biden's account, OWASCO. | ||
| 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. | ||
| I'll read it to you. | ||
| Hey, Tony, I have an idea. | ||
| In light of the fact we are at an impasse of sorts, and both James Lawyers and my chairman gave an emphatic no, I think we should all meet in Romania. | ||
| He's speaking about my chairman. | ||
| When Hunter Biden came in for his deposition, he said that he was referring to Chairman Yee, and that the rest of your group referred to Zhang as a different chairman. | ||
| Does this make any sense to you? | ||
| That's a lie. | ||
| I never... | ||
| I heard Director Zhang reference as chairman, and I had direct communications with Director Zhang over WeChat, met him in Romania, met him in Moscow, 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 Oneida Holdings, LLC. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| So he was not the chairman, just to clarify. | ||
| Yes, 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. | ||
| So 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. | ||
| So here, clearly, he says, Rob Walker's saying he's talking about his dad. | ||
| So I want to be very clear. | ||
| We've established that Zhang is not the chairman, obviously. | ||
| Is that correct? | ||
| Yes or no? | ||
| Correct. | ||
| Let me show you another message. | ||
| This message doesn't call Zhang Chairman Zhang, 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, Zhang is implied, has implied that the number one has made it clear and available to him. | ||
| Who is the number one? | ||
| The number one is Xi Jinping. | ||
| Xi Jinping, the president of China, yes or no? | ||
| The leader of the Communist Party, the CCP, is the number one. | ||
| Yes, that's the number one that Hunter was referencing in that message. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Wow. | |
| 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 Bidens 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? | ||
| I do, and I wish this committee would thoroughly investigate it. | ||
| And focus on all the evidence that the SDNY has on CFC. | ||
| They had FISA warrants, so they were recording conversations, and I wish they disclosed all that data and fact to this committee. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Bobulinski. | ||
| I yield, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Gentle lady yields back. | ||
| Chair now recognize Mr. Cristomorte for five minutes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Chair. | |
| Mr. Parnas, Rudy Giuliani tasked you with, quote, a mission to travel the globe to find dirt to damage the Biden's reputation in the 2018-2019 timeframe, right? | ||
| Correct, yes. | ||
| And this was an effort to secure Trump's re-election as president in 2020, right? | ||
| Correct. | ||
| And by dirt, you mean evidence of wrongdoing 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. | ||
| Now, interestingly, you have looked for dirt. | ||
| Around the world about the Bidens, and specifically Joe Biden in particular, and you say the FBI, CIA, NSA have all failed to produce any evidence of criminal wrongdoing, right? | ||
| Correct. | ||
| Not only that, but former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko stated, quote, there's not a single word of truth to these allegations about Joe Biden, right? | ||
| Absolutely. | ||
| Yes, sir. | ||
| Now, there's a guy named Yuri Lutsenko, who's the former prosecutor general of Ukraine. | ||
| And he also, quote, confirmed that nothing ties the Bidens to criminal activity in Ukraine, right? | ||
| Correct. | ||
| And then there's another prosecutor general named Viktor Shokin, who also said, he conceded, quote, that he had no evidence that either Joe or Hunter Biden had ever interfered with Ukrainian law, right? | ||
| Yes, sir. | ||
| And the reason you know this is because you talk to each of these people, right? | ||
| Yes, sir. | ||
| And your job was to try to 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 wrongdoing, you've called this whole impeachment inquiry a, quote, wild goose chase, 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 Burisma, not less, right? | ||
| Well, the ironic part is the reason why majority of the world and Ukraine and the Obama administration wanted to get rid of Viktor Shokin because he was corrupt, not because he was investigating Burisma, because he was stalling investigations for a UK that was looking into a $23 million they wanted to get out from Zolchevsky, and Shokin stalled that investigation. | ||
| So 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 Burisma, but actually in firing that prosecutor, he increased the chances of prosecuting Burisma, right? | ||
| Absolutely correct, yes. | ||
| So let me just talk to you about what some of the other witnesses in this impeachment inquiry have said. | ||
| Jonathan Turley, the constitutional expert the Republicans brought forward, said there's no evidence of which he was aware to support impeaching the president. | ||
| You agree with that, correct? | ||
| 100%. | ||
| Garrett Graves, a colleague of ours, said just last week, quote, have I seen anything that is impeachable? | ||
| No, I haven't. | ||
| You agree with that statement as well? | ||
| Yes, sir. | ||
| Last year, our Republican colleague Ken Buck, who's about to retire, said... | ||
| That evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden, quote, 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 10 times, I'd say. | ||
| I don't have to count, but lots of times. | ||
| is there anything that you'd like to relate to us about your conversations with Donald? | ||
| 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 really bringing Donald Trump up to speed on that I could go out to Ukraine and get Viktor Shokin, Donald Trump approached me, shook my head, said, thank you for all that you're doing, keep up the good work, patted me on the back, took pictures, and I was off to Ukraine. | ||
| To meet with Viktor Shokin? | ||
| To find Viktor Shokin, to bring him back here to meet with Lindsey Graham. | ||
| Got it. | ||
| Thank you so much. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| The chair now recognizes Richard Cloud from Texas for five minutes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Chairman. | |
| Now, we have heard time after time Biden, Joe Biden, say that he had no knowledge whatsoever about the business dealings and that change. | ||
| He had never allegedly had any conversation with Hunter. | ||
| Then they moved the ball to say that, well, he didn't have any business dealings, he wasn't involved, didn't have any financial contribution. | ||
| Since then, we've uncovered about 20 shell companies, and we have 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, and that is Rosemont Seneca Bohai. | ||
| Rosemont Seneca Bohai is interesting. | ||
| Devin Archer had testified, and he said this in his testimony. | ||
| He said that this entity, quote, was used as a common entity on 50-50 on a handshake deal between Devin and Hunter splitting these shares. | ||
| Actually, that was your words, Mr. Galanis. | ||
| Do you stand by those words? | ||
| Yes, I do. | ||
| And Devin 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 an equity stake of Bohai Harvest. | ||
| Is that correct? | ||
| What I was told by the partners at the time was set up to do that and invest in other businesses. | ||
| I think Devin Archer subsequently testified to that fact. | ||
| It included monies that were paid from the bond fraud, $15 million that was wired to that RSV account as well. | ||
| So it conducted multiple transactions as you depicted in that diagram. | ||
| And even if this were legal and there was no... | ||
| It's very concerning because this company is set up to basically compete against America's energy interest at the behest of CCP. | ||
| Then we have other flows into Rosemont Seneca Bohai from Burisma. | ||
| We all know about Hunter's $1 million salary that he received for sitting on the board and providing no actual function there. | ||
| And so we have $1 million salary going through Rosemont Seneca. | ||
| To Hunter Biden. | ||
| And then this is interesting. | ||
| We have a meeting with Kazakistani Kinsrekashev. | ||
| And what gets me here is the $300 at the end of the $142,300 that goes into this. | ||
| And then the next day went to a Porsche dealership for a car for Hunter Biden. | ||
| Now, what's 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 4th, we have coffee with Jonathan Lee, who was one of the members who started Bohai 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 Two 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 then we see that this relationship continues to be formed. | ||
| Of course, in the Ukraine, we know that April 16, 2015, Joe Biden had dinner with a burisma official at Cafe Milano. | ||
| Seemed to be a popular spot because Joe Biden also had dinner with Keynes Rekhyshev there. | ||
| All in flow to going here. | ||
| And of course, as Tony Pawlinski has pointed out several times, this all comes down to eventually the one big guy who gets 10% for the big guy. | ||
| And so we know that all this money flowed through this to get to Hunter. | ||
| And then we know, of course, 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 then Joe gets a share of that, is that basically what the general practice across many of these shell companies were? | ||
| Congressman, as I outlined, the big guys, clearly Joe Biden. | ||
| The details of some of those transactions, I was not involved in, but that's clearly how they operated. | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's the pattern that we've seen over. | |
| And Mr. Galanis, you said at the beginning that Hunter didn't really provide any sort of intellectual propriety asset value or anything of the sort, that his entire value was the brand. | ||
| Is that correct? | ||
| How did you state that? | ||
| Yeah, we didn't rely on him for any work product other than delivering the Biden lift. | ||
| The Biden lift. | ||
| And one more question for you, Mr. Galanes. | ||
| Did you offer to provide information on Hunter Biden and Devin 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 SDNY. | ||
| And I suddenly also did the same thing to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which was interested in someone who was told to quash that interest. | ||
| I understood that to be an order from the Southern District of New York to quash the SEC information. | ||
| Thank you, Chairman. | ||
| Gentlemen, time's expired. | ||
| Chair now recognize Mr. Goldman for five minutes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| I only have five minutes, Mr. Bobulinski, so I'm going to try to move quickly, and I'd appreciate if you'd just answer the questions. | ||
| You testified that Joe Biden was involved in your business venture related to Oneida Holdings and Hunter Biden, so I want to drill down on the crux of what your testimony is. | ||
| Oneida Holdings is the business venture that you are referring to, correct? | ||
| When I'm referring to what? | ||
| Any business you did with the Bidens. | ||
| My reference is the Sino Hawk Holdings LLC and Oneida Holdings LLC own 50% of that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right. | |
| And Oneida Holdings was the 50% that was on the American side of that Sino Hawk deal, right? | ||
| It was the 50% that was the Biden side of it. | ||
| Some of the, you know, James Giller is not an American, so... | ||
| Sorry. | ||
| Fair enough. | ||
| And it was a joint partnership memorialized in... | ||
| A incorporating document, correct? | ||
| And it had equal shares divided among five partners. | ||
| Is that right? | ||
| I can't... | ||
| Are you asking me about what you're holding up? | ||
| Because you're... | ||
| Was it an equal... | ||
| Were there equal 20% shares among five partners? | ||
| In what? | ||
| Oneida Holdings. | ||
| In the final signed documents? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| Is that what you're asking me? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| It is? | ||
| It's not complicated. | ||
| Well, it is because... | ||
| You're just filibustering now. | ||
| The answer is... | ||
| You're filibustering. | ||
| I get it. | ||
| That there were five partners, Hunter Biden, Jim Biden, Rob Walker, James Gilliar, and you. | ||
| Each owned 20%. | ||
| Well, they didn't each own their LLCs on it, which is a material difference. | ||
| Do you see Joe Biden or an LLC related to Joe Biden on this? | ||
| I don't know if Joe Biden owned any of Jim Biden's LLC or Hunter Biden's LLC. | ||
| I'll leave that up to the committee. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| And do you know when this agreement was entered into? | ||
| The poster board that you're holding up or the actual legal document that was signed? | ||
| The agreement, sir. | ||
| The agreement. | ||
| The agreement was signed May 22nd, 2017. | ||
| Who was the vice president then? | ||
| May 22nd, 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? | ||
| A day or an hour? | ||
| A month is good. | ||
| I believe I briefly met him in New York, but the first meeting I had extensive time with him was in early May 2017. | ||
| That was around the same time that you had those two meetings with Joe Biden, right? | ||
| It was, but prior to that, I had numerous discussions with Hunter. | ||
| I had lawyers working through the documents. | ||
| Can I please reclaim my time, sir? | ||
| As I said, 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 to 60 minutes. | ||
| And you were also asked about that in your transcribed interview. | ||
| And 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, in grandiose terms here today, 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 of irrefutable evidence. | ||
| You provided the committee with a screenshot of a text message that is between James Gilliard and you, dated May 11th, 2017. | ||
| You see this? | ||
| I don't know if you can see it. | ||
| If you can't see, it's just you and James Gilliard though, right? | ||
| You remember this text message, I'm sure. | ||
| Generally, yes. | ||
| All right. | ||
| And in it, Gilear writes, man, you are right. | ||
| Let's get the company set up, then tell H and family the high stakes and get Joe involved. | ||
| And two days later, Mr. Gilear sent an email to you, CCing Rob Walker and Hunter Biden, in which he suggested a division of the company and included a proposal of, quote, 10% held by H for the big guy, question mark. | ||
| You remember that, right? | ||
| The infamous email with the big guy? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I do. | |
| Did anyone ever respond to that email? | ||
| Yes, they did. | ||
| Numerous times. | ||
| Hunter Biden himself did. | ||
| Excuse me. | ||
| You're right. | ||
| Well, no, I think that's important because Hunter Biden has claimed that he didn't respond to it and he responded to it. | ||
| You're just going to filibuster. | ||
| I reclaim my time that's running out, but I will say no one responded to the big guy reference for 10. Thank you for making my point. | ||
| They didn't have to respond because they all knew the big guy was Joe Biden. | ||
| Sir, I reclaim my time. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, please control the witness. | ||
| I would like to say, I would like to get a little extra time, Mr. Chairman, because I want to read what Mr. Gilear said to the Wall Street Journal. | ||
| I would like to clear up any speculation that former Vice President was involved with the 2017 discussions about our potential business structure. | ||
| 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 Gilear wanted Joe Biden involved, and that is why Hunter Biden dumped you and did the business on his own. | ||
| That's a blatant lie, Mr. Goldman. | ||
| You know better. | ||
| Chairman, time's expired. | ||
| Chair now recognizes Mr. Higgins from Louisiana for five minutes. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Mr. Bobulinski, thank you for being here today, and we appreciate the candor of your responses, sir, which is reflective of the way you handled yourself. | ||
| I'm going to ask you about the China Energy Fund Committee, the CEFC. | ||
| You familiar with that, sir? | ||
| I am. | ||
| Is this a multi-billion dollar company, like a Fortune 500 company at one time? | ||
| It's even bigger than that. | ||
| If you go back and look at its financials in 2016 and 17, it was probably one of the five largest private companies in China. | ||
| Exactly. | ||
| So this was a major operation. | ||
| It had a lot of money. | ||
| And apparently, I'm going to hold up a memo here. | ||
| This is a chart from... | ||
| From the second bank memo. | ||
| And it shows disbursement 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 Bidens 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 Bidens other than... | ||
| Electronic transfers of monies. | ||
| Are you aware of payments in diamonds, payment in cash, payment in board memberships, etc.? | ||
| Am I generally aware of it or was I involved? | ||
| I read Jim Biden's 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, but the individual's name is Scott O, who is a surrogate for CFC. | ||
| And then apparently 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 transcript interview. | ||
| Are you aware, Mr. Bobulinski, of a pattern of bribery, of bribe payments coming from the China Energy Fund Commission? | ||
| I appreciate that question. | ||
| I wish everyone on this committee would read the 1,200 pages of testimony in an eight-day trial in the SDNY where Mr. Goldman used to work while the actual trial was going on. | ||
| that accused numerous executives, ultimately Patrick Ho of corruption, bribing, Exactly. | ||
| So, Mr. Bobulinski, from your perch, within the Biden family operations and their interactions with major... | ||
| We've tracked them through bank records, through suspicious activity reports, through emails, through communications that this committee has documented. | ||
| There's no debate that millions and millions of dollars flowed into the Biden family's bank accounts. | ||
| But the existence of other forms of payment is fascinating. | ||
| Because diamonds are untraceable. | ||
| We really don't know how many diamonds Biden's received, do we? | ||
| We don't. | ||
| And for somebody who's been to mainland China, probably 10 plus times. | ||
| Hong Kong, probably 15 plus times. | ||
| Hundreds of people working for me in mainland China. | ||
| At one point, I never got a diamond from any businessman or woman. | ||
| So, Mr. Bob Malinsky, I shift quickly to a text message. | ||
| Are you familiar with this? | ||
| It's from a gentleman named James. | ||
| Generally, yes. | ||
| Yeah, 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 there's a response saying, okay, they should be paranoid about things. | ||
| And then there's a response saying, for real. | ||
| So, what is meant by don't mention Joe being involved. | ||
| It's only when you're face-to-face. | ||
| I know you know that, but they are paranoid. | ||
| Well, I think it outlines how the Bidens operated, not specifically just with CFC. | ||
| You have Golanus here testifying and numerous other witnesses that have given you tremendous amount of evidence that outlined they worked to obfuscate it. | ||
| Create layers of obstruction. | ||
| That's the reason why Rob Walker was getting sent millions of dollars instead of Hunter Biden directly. | ||
| That's the reason why Devin Archer was receiving millions of dollars instead of going to Hunter directly. | ||
| You guys have a mountain of evidence that stacks high and answers that question on how they obfuscated they lived in a world of plausible deniability. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Bob Molenski. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, my time has expired. | ||
| I yield. | ||
| Chair now recognizes Ms. Norton from D.C. for five minutes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | |
| Mr. Galanis, 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, but 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, longshoremen, housing authority workers, and city employees, hardworking people. | ||
| Everyday people, among others. | ||
| The court also noted that you personally benefited from these schemes, and again, 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, and here I quote, an extremely, 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. | ||
| Ms. Norton, thank you very much. | ||
| So for more than a year now, we've heard innuendo, rumors, propaganda, big lies, but 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. | ||
| 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 a president for. | ||
| And now 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 his talent towards the purposes of exploiting Native American, Indian tribes, pensioners, and other innocent investors. | ||
| And then Mr. Bobulinski, who offers a lot of rhetoric and a lot of hot air, but absolutely no facts that could indict the President of the United States for high crimes and misdemeanors, impeachable offenses against the Republic. | ||
| The kinds of offenses which James Madison said are great attacks on the republic itself. | ||
| Great affronts to our republican form of government. | ||
| And nobody on their side can even tell us what is the impeachable high crime and misdemeanor which suggests that they are moving in the direction of criminal referrals and they should start by looking at their own witnesses. | ||
| I yield back to you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| And I'd like to remind the ranking member and Ms. Norton, the witness, Mr. Galanis, 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. | ||
| Yeah, Donald Trump's partner, Mr. Parnas. | ||
| It was working with Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani. | ||
| Rudy Giuliani's partner. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
|
unidentified
|
All right. | |
| Chair recognizes Mr. Grokman. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, we got a variety of things I'd like to go through. | |
| But first, Mr. Lynch complained about Mr. Galanis testifying from prison. | ||
| So I'd like to ask unanimous consent to enter into the record. | ||
| The Department of Justice's own press release announcing the sentencing of the Democrats' witness, Lev Parnas, to 20 months in prison for, among other things, making false statements. | ||
| Without objection on Donald Trump's partner. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Now, Mr. Chairman, we had originally hoped that we'd see a few more witnesses here today. | ||
| They're not here, but I would like to run a brief tape because I showed up today. | ||
| Hoping I'd be asking these witnesses a little bit more about this tape. | ||
| I know that there's some mystery or some people feel it's still ambiguous as to how this prosecutor was fired in Ukraine. | ||
| And I wonder if this tape could do a little bit 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. | ||
| I remember going over convincing our team, our brothers too, convincing us that we should be providing for loan guarantees. | ||
| And I went over, I guess, the 12th, 13th time to Kyiv, and I was supposed to announce that there was another billion-dollar loan guarantee. | ||
| And I had gotten a commitment from Poroshenko and from Yatsenyuk that they would take action against the state prosecutor, and they didn't. | ||
| So they said, they were walking out to the press conference and said, no, I said, we're not going to give you the billion dollars. | ||
| They said, you have no authority. | ||
| You're not the president. | ||
| The president said, I said, call him. | ||
| I said, I'm telling you, you're not getting the billion dollars. | ||
| I said, you're not getting the billion. | ||
| I'm going to be leaving here, I think it was, what, six hours? | ||
| I looked, I said, we're leaving in six hours. | ||
| If the prosecutor's not fired, you're not getting the money. | ||
| Oh, son of a bitch. | ||
| You got fired. | ||
| And they put in place someone who... | ||
|
unidentified
|
I just wanted to put that up there because I do eventually want further efforts made to get Hunter Biden or Mr. Archer here because we have Joe Biden himself bragging that he got rid of a prosecutor who would have provided his son's business dealings with a little bit. | |
| More tough going, 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 while 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 just simply telling the truth. | ||
| The obfuscation around these 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 of CFC were at, with Chairman Yee and Director Zhang. | ||
| Director Zhang I interacted with extensively. | ||
| And James Gilliam was in that room. | ||
| Rob Walker, Hunter Biden was in that room. | ||
| And my understanding, based on Rob Walker's testimony, is that 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 obfuscate that meeting like Joe Biden was walking in there to ask about the weather. | ||
| And Rob Walker said that... | ||
| The Chinese didn't even know that Joe Biden was the former vice president of the United States, which is beyond absurd. | ||
| The power that those 10 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. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| You stated that the Biden family concocted a scheme to give Joe plausible deniability. | ||
| Can you elaborate on that in a little bit? | ||
| I would just point to all the different text messages and communications. | ||
| They call him the big guy. | ||
| I wasn't involved with Mr. Galanis or Mr. Archer, but they're giving you numerous data points. | ||
| There was obfuscation. | ||
| They didn't use his name. | ||
| They used the big guy. | ||
| You weren't supposed to talk about it. | ||
| It was just, you know... | ||
|
unidentified
|
And you personally met with the vice president? | |
| I did, twice. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay, and it was obvious that he said anything that indicates that you wanted him to help his son, that sort of thing. | |
| Well, 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 Milken Conference. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| Just one other follow-up, and this is kind of maybe a vague question, but I'd like to know it. | ||
| One of the things that disturbs me about that is the interaction with the Chinese, or that's what we're dealing with today, but 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, say, a corrupt city council or something like that. | ||
| In other words, you know, you give them money and you get what you want. | ||
| Do you want to comment on that, or did you hear any stories about that, or did you hear stories that they were surprised how easy it was to buy the U.S. government? | ||
| Well, I think it was subject to argument, but answer the question. | ||
| Please feel free to answer the question. | ||
| Yeah, I think CFC, and there's tremendous evidence, believed that they were... | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Mr. Parnas, can you tell me about your meetings with Dmitry Fertes and why you believe the Trump campaign used his services? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I was sent to meet with Dmitry Fyrtys because Dmitry Fyrtys had resources. | |
| He's an oligarch that was in Vienna waiting to be extradited to the United States. | ||
| But he was very close with Vladimir Putin, Ukraine, and lots of characters in that part of the world. | ||
| And my objective at the time was to have him help us lean on Nikola Zlachevsky and get dirt on the Bidens. | ||
| And what type of dirt were you trying to get? | ||
|
unidentified
|
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 was given to me, Hunter's personal bank records that was given to me by John Solomon that he said he got from the FBI. | ||
| To validate certain payments that were going for car purchases. | ||
| But the objective was to try to find a link from any of the payments that would go into Joe Biden's account. | ||
| And who told you to get this dirt? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, who told me? | |
| Rudy Giuliani. | ||
| Anyone else that you remember? | ||
|
unidentified
|
John Solomon. | |
| I mean, everybody that was part of the team. | ||
| Did Bill Barr know that you were involved in getting this dirt? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Absolutely. | |
| Bill Barr was notified of our investigation from the day he took office. | ||
| Did you ever have a conversation with Bill Barr of being lenient towards Dimitri in his role, in Bill Barr's role as Attorney General? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I personally did not, but I was witness to Victoria Tunzing and Joe DiGenova having a conversation with Bill Barr about Dimitri Firtis. | |
| What did they say to Bill Barr? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Basically, they were telling him that the... | |
| And why did they tell him to drop the charges on this Russian oligarch? | ||
| So my understanding is you have the Trump campaign telling you to talk to a Russian oligarch 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? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Absolutely. | |
| Did Bill Barr indicate any willingness to drop the charges? | ||
|
unidentified
|
After a meeting that Victoria Tunzing and Joe DiGenova had with DOJ, they came back and informed me that we're going to Vienna because to tell Dmitry Fiertisch everything's going to be okay. | |
| Do you know if Bill Barr in any way told you to say that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I was not privy to in that meeting, no. | |
| Do you have any evidence that Bill Barr... | ||
| Would have indicated to signal to Dimitri that the charges would be dropped? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Only from conversations from Rudy Giuliani or Victoria Tunzing. | |
| And what did they say about what Bill Barr said? | ||
|
unidentified
|
They basically told me that this would be taken care of as long as Firtish played ball. | |
| And that's the message they relayed to me to tell Firtish. | ||
| And they said that Bill Barr was conveying that to them directly? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, after meetings. | |
| There were several meetings. | ||
| One, there was a private meeting where Rudy Giuliani went and bumped into actually Bill Barr at the Trump International Hotel. | ||
| And he used that as a moment to take him aside, speak to him. | ||
| And then there were certain official meetings through official channels where Victoria Tunzing met with him. | ||
| So, yes. | ||
| Do you know anything if anything was done with the charges? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Till this day, Dimitri Pirtis is not here. | |
| Do you believe that Bill Barr should be investigated for his conduct in potentially dropping these charges? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I absolutely believe that. | |
| But not only that, I believe Bill Barr should be investigated into the cover-up and trying to silence me to get the truth out of what really happened in Ukraine. | ||
| And explain the cover-up and what you believe he should be investigated with your last minute. | ||
|
unidentified
|
My arrest was set up strictly to shut me up, to seal my documents, take away all my information, and turn me into a crazy man that had no way to prove what was going on. | |
| But the real story was Bill Barr was trying to save Donald Trump from impeachment and use me as a scapegoat. | ||
| What he didn't realize was Donald Trump was not going to stop and would continue doing what he wanted to do. | ||
| And that's why it blew up in Bill Barr's face. | ||
| He also hired a special counsel at the time, Brady, to look into Ukraine. | ||
| When we tried to reach out with 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. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Mr. Parnas, I just want to say you have stuck to the facts today. | ||
| We don't hear bombast and rhetoric from you, but you're telling a true story, and you've conducted yourself with great purpose and great dignity, and I know your son is here with you today, and I hope he and the rest of your family are proud of what you're doing for America. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Chair now recognizes Mr. Donald from Florida for five minutes. | ||
| Thank you, Chairman. | ||
| It's been an interesting hearing so far. | ||
| Let's actually 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, WhatsApp text message between Hunter Biden and one chairman, one Mr. Zhao. | ||
| Real quick, Mr. Bobulinski, who is Mr. Zhao? | ||
| Congressman Donalds, I'd just actually like to spend 20 seconds. | ||
| If you noticed, Congressman Khanna scurried out of here very quickly, and I'm actually disgusted as I sit here that he didn't address me based on the fact that 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 both the Democrats and the Republicans that Ro Khanna 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 emails with Congressman Ro Khanna in 2021 and 2022 where I begged him and his staff to sit down with me and look at my BlackBerry phone. | ||
| that the Democrats are so focused on to hire forensics experts and go through all of the factual information I had. | ||
| So the fact that he did not even address me, Sorry, Mr. Donalds. | ||
| I'll answer your question now. | ||
| All right, so we're going to have to come off of that because now we're at three minutes, 30 seconds. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, for the record, I want to submit into the record two different WhatsApp text messages. | ||
| One, July 31 between Hunter Biden and Chairman and Mr. Zhao of CEFC, which stipulates that Hunter Biden wants to be able to move on and get the contract resolved, get the deal resolved, and that Mr. Zhao responds and says, yes, 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. Ganwe Dong. | ||
| And in this message, they're talking about the stipulations of the arrangement between the Biden family and CEFC. | ||
| I want to submit both WhatsApp text messages for the record, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Without objection to order. | ||
| Okay, now, to the money flow, because this is where the rubber meets the road. | ||
| On August 3rd, they actually stipulate through WhatsApp text messages the exact stipulations of the deal. | ||
| On August 4th, $100,000 is wired into a Wasco PC from CEFC infrastructure. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, I want to submit for the record a portion of the bank statement for the time period August 3rd of 2017 to August 31, 2017, stipulating $100,000 going from CEFC. | ||
| Into the bank account of Hunter Biden through OWASCO PC. | ||
| Without objections ordered. | ||
| On August 8th, 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. Gon Wang, a.k.a. | ||
| Kevin Dong, who is a CEFC. | ||
| Associate. | ||
| That money comes from a Northern International Capital bank account, a bank account that is tied to the CCP. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, I want to submit for the record the bank statement demonstrating that transfer. | ||
| Without objection to order. | ||
| Okay, moving on. | ||
| On August 8th, the same time period, there is a wire transfer of $400,000 to Owosco PC. | ||
| 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 objections ordered. | ||
| Now here's where the fun stuff comes in, everybody, and I got a minute to do it, so we're going to get this done. | ||
| On August 14, there is $150,000 that is transferred from a Wasco PC. | ||
| Which is controlled by Hunter Biden, to Lion Hall Group, which is controlled by James Biden. | ||
| I have the records here, Mr. Chairman, of the $150,000 that has gone to Lion Hall Group from Owosco PC. | ||
| I want to submit that for the record. | ||
| Without objection to order. | ||
| On August 28th, and I believe we have a screenshot for everybody in the room. | ||
| On August 28th, Mr. Chairman, we have the withdrawal ticket from Lion Hall Group. | ||
| That is signed by Sarah Biden, who is the wife of Jim Biden, for $50,000 to withdraw from Lion Hall Group. | ||
| I want to submit that withdrawal receipt for the record. | ||
| Without objection to order. | ||
| On September 3rd, on August 28th, actually, Mr. Chairman, we have the deposit reference into Sarah Jones Biden's account on the same day she withdrew it from Lion Hall. | ||
| I want to submit that. | ||
| Without objection to order. | ||
| Last document. | ||
| On September 3rd, 2007, from Sarah Biden's own personal account, there is a check that is written to Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., the President of the United States today, for $40,000, signed loan repayment. | ||
| A loan repayment, by the way, that Joe Biden's own personal accountant, Mr. Eric Schwerin, has no record for. | ||
| I want to submit that for the record, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Without objection to order. | ||
| To the members of the committee, it is clear that the source of this money came from CEFC. | ||
| And that CEFC is a company that is directly linked to the CCP and actually the chairman of the CCP, the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, Chairman Xi Jinping. | ||
| With that, I yield. | ||
| Very good. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, I've got a UC request, if that's okay? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Go ahead. | |
| First, White House for Sale, the staff report of the minority side, which details the CEFC's business interactions with Donald Trump. | ||
| They own a $5.5 million unit in Trump World Tower and others. | ||
| And then the Department of Justice press release announcing the sentencing of Jason Galanis in federal court to a term of 189 months in prison, ordering him to pay restitution of more than $80 million for three criminal fraud conspiracies against a Native American tribe, pension funds and other investors. | ||
| Without objection to order. | ||
| Chair now recognizes Mr. Mifume for five minutes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Chairman, thank you. | |
| I'm sitting here and imagining what I would be thinking if I were not here, but rather somewhere around the country watching the Congress of the United States, and in this case this committee, for 15 months hold these hearings on Hunter Biden and come up with not one impeachable offense in 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 not to 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, Asian, Latino, Native American, and their families are wondering what the hell is going on. | ||
| Is this another investigation hearing in this 15 months that has yielded nothing at all? | ||
| It's the do-nothing Congress. | ||
| You thought Harry Truman said it in 1948. | ||
| Anybody can say it today. | ||
| Look at what we've done in 15 months. | ||
| Virtually nothing. | ||
| Nothing at all. | ||
| Senior citizens sit in their homes and watch. | ||
| C-SPAN or some other outlet carry this. | ||
| Some of them sitting in nursing homes, all of them worried about losing their Social Security. | ||
| They're on fixed incomes, and they expect the Congress to use its time and its energy to deal with things that affect them directly. | ||
| Students are defaulting on loans to colleges all over the country, and no one wants to talk about that. | ||
| Health care 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's cancer, cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, diabetes, HIV, stroke, the disparities in the health system, say, please, please give us a little bit of your time also when you're not dealing with Hunter Biden and when you can't prove that he's done anything wrong. | ||
| Crime is out of control. | ||
| White collar as well as black collar. | ||
| And assault weapons are still being used every day to shoot and kill innocent children and Americans. | ||
| And we're sitting up here talking about something that we've talked about for 15 months with no substantial evidence. | ||
| Can't get humanitarian aid to Palestine. | ||
| Can't get military aid to the Ukraine. | ||
| Children are looking and wondering what the hell is going on. | ||
| Is that what politics are about? | ||
| So we are doing a disservice. | ||
| I know I'm supposed to be asking questions, and Mr. Parnas, 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, looking for real help. | ||
| Can't deal with immigration. | ||
| Because Donald Trump calls up and kills the immigration bill, and yet people say that's a major issue, is it? | ||
| I haven't seen the sort of attention that we thought we were putting to that or anything else. | ||
| And 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 haven't done a damn thing to move the ball forward. | ||
| Except make accusations. | ||
| Life is too short. | ||
| Now, maybe some of you have a guarantee you're going to be around forever, but I don't. | ||
| I came to this body first in 1987. | ||
| 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's not like the previous Congresses, trust me. | ||
| That's why people have such a low esteem. | ||
| Of those of us who said, well, I'm Congressman so-and-so. | ||
| People on the street don't buy that. | ||
| They don't see the action. | ||
| So I'm done. | ||
| I know I've exhausted my time. | ||
| Mr. Parnas, a couple quick questions, and I'll let you go. | ||
| Is it your understanding that Rudy Giuliani worked for an individual identified by the Trump administration as a Russian agent? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| Do you know what these Russian line actors were trying to do quickly? | ||
| Push a conspiracy theory about the Bidens. | ||
| Did you know that... | ||
| Did you warn Rudy Giuliani? | ||
| Yes, I did. | ||
| And what was his response succinctly? | ||
| He told me that he... | ||
| I mean, he agreed with me, but then proceeded to work with these people behind my back. | ||
| And these people have been identified as Russian agents? | ||
| Yes, sir. | ||
| And we've got a meeting here of Mr. Giuliani with one of those. | ||
| I'm just... | ||
| I'm 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 buy contempt. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Chair recognizes Lisa McClain for five minutes. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| I want to start off by saying I think most Americans are taught at a very young age that you are who you surround yourself with. | ||
| I think keep that in a premise as I sat here and listened to everyone talk about how Hunter Biden is just this golden boy. | ||
| I mean, are we really supposed to believe that Hunter Biden is the golden boy? | ||
| His associates, such as Jason Galanis and Devin Archer, are felons convicted of fraud. | ||
| Yet he is the golden child. | ||
| I want to talk about examples of Biden's influence peddling scheme. | ||
| This time it was Romania. | ||
| It follows the same general pattern as we have seen with other countries like China, Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan. | ||
| Here's the pattern. | ||
| It's really simple. | ||
| A corrupt foreign oligarch needs access to the U.S. government. | ||
| Hunter Biden sells influence. | ||
| To the U.S. government. | ||
| The oligarchs pay up. | ||
| So let's just take a deeper dive into this Romanian scheme. | ||
| Mr. Bobulinski, who is Gabriel Popovich? | ||
| Gabriel Popovich is a businessman from Romania, probably worth hundreds of millions of dollars, I'd envision. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Is it true that Gabriel Popovich faced corruption charges in Romania in 2015? | ||
| It is. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| And when you were in Europe with the Bidens to close on that CEFC deal with the Chinese, you separately negotiated with Popovich to get a 17th payment. | ||
| Is that also correct? | ||
| I did. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| But Popovich did not want to pay him. | ||
| Is that correct? | ||
| Correct. | ||
| You're talking about a 17th payment that would go to Rob Walker and then Rob Walker would distribute to Hunter Biden. | ||
| That is correct. | ||
| And is it because Hunter Biden had failed in the work he was engaged by Popovich to do, which was to get the corruption charges dismissed by the Romanian authorities? | ||
| Isn't that correct? | ||
| Well, it's two things, that they had failed to do that, but also that Joe Biden had left the White House at that point. | ||
| Okay, so there's a dot. | ||
| So I get 16 payments while Joe Biden's in the White House. | ||
| Correct. | ||
| But after Joe Biden leaves the White House, coincidentally, the payments stopped. | ||
| Correct. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Just want to make sure that we can connect the dots very simply. | ||
| But obviously it wasn't a coincidence. | ||
| Right. | ||
| I'm not much for coincidences, which neither are the American people. | ||
| But, Mr. Bobulinski, what do you think Popovich wanted Hunter Biden to do? | ||
| I don't have to think because Gabriel told me personally. | ||
| He expected, and didn't want the details, he expected Hunter Biden, Rob Walker, and James Gillier 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. | ||
| Okay, so there's another dot that we can connect. | ||
| Would that be a conspiracy theory? | ||
| That's not a conspiracy theory. | ||
| Okay, thank you. | ||
| I would encourage you to interview Gabriel Popovich. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Lastly, after claiming he wanted a public hearing, Hunter Biden decided to skip today. | ||
| Why do you think he skipped the hearing today? | ||
| Is that a rhetorical or serious? | ||
| Well, I don't think he wanted to sit next to me because obviously I've emphatically stated he perjured himself in his transcribed interview with the committee as did his uncle. | ||
| Jim Biden and for every fact he claims or wants to say I was high on drugs or obfuscate I can show a document a text message Well, let's not let the facts get in the way of a good story, right? | ||
| Here are the facts. | ||
| Highly disappointing that he's not here, though. | ||
| I would agree. | ||
| I would agree. | ||
| Here are the facts. | ||
| Hunter Biden was engaged by a foreign principal, Gabriel Popovich. | ||
| It is well known that Hunter Biden met with the ambassador to Romania, Hans Clem, in November of 2015. | ||
| Hunter Biden was not registered under Farah. | ||
| He stopped getting paid as soon as his father leaves office until you got Popovich to send Hunter Biden one more payment. | ||
| Seriously. | ||
| What services was Hunter Biden providing to the Romanian oligarchs for millions of dollars? | ||
| We've 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 would be in more trouble than he is already in. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, there are real FARA issues here that we need to continue to look at. | ||
| And with that, I thank you for being here and I thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Absolutely. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Good job. | ||
| Chair now recognizes Ms. Ocasio-Cortez from New York. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chair. | ||
| Mr. Bobulinski, I heard your opening statement. | ||
| It's submitted to the record, part of our proceedings. | ||
| I have a quick question. | ||
| Simple. | ||
| Is it your testimony today that you personally witnessed President Joe Biden commit a crime? | ||
| I believe the fact that he was sitting with me while I was putting together a business deal. | ||
| Did you witness the president commit a crime? | ||
| Is it your testimony today? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| 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 and conspiracy. | ||
| What is it? | ||
| What is the crime, sir? | ||
| Specifically. | ||
| You asked me to answer the question. | ||
| I answered the question. | ||
| RICO, you're obviously not familiar with. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Excuse me, sir. | |
| RICO is not a crime. | ||
| It is a category. | ||
| What is the category of crimes that you're then charged over? | ||
| You have charges. | ||
| You have charges. | ||
| Sir, please name. | ||
| Well, it's funny. | ||
| In this committee room, everyone's not here. | ||
|
unidentified
|
There's over 18 lawyers that went to law school. | |
| I'll leave it up for you guys. | ||
| 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 whomever 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, H-Res 918, the House resolution to open this impeachment inquiry. | ||
| Without objection to order. | ||
| This resolution does not outline a high crime or misdemeanor. | ||
| It's not here. | ||
| Now, when we compare... | ||
| The chairman's opening, from his previous opening, he's talking about Ukraine and Burisma and all of this. | ||
| This entire inquiry is based on a blockbuster piece of information that was in a classified SCIF 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 happened? | ||
| 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. | ||
| This entire impeachment inquiry is based on an actual, provable individual who has lied. | ||
| Now, responsible leadership would withdraw 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, warned by Trump Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and yet they proceeded anyway. | ||
| The chairman proceeded anyway. | ||
| This committee was warned by Rudy Giuliani Associate right here, Lev Parnas, after that document about the falsehoods of this. | ||
| Then held hearings. | ||
| Where your own expert witnesses said that there was no grounds for impeachment 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, to quote the chairman, heart of the matter to launch this 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's 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 presidents of the United States with. | ||
| I'm hearing about Biden family. | ||
| I'm hearing about this and that. | ||
| I am not hearing the specific allegation by this committee. | ||
| What is it? | ||
| It's not here. | ||
| And that is the problem. | ||
| The story is when this committee knew that they were working with falsified evidence. | ||
| That's the story. | ||
| And with that, I yield back. | ||
| Gentle lady yields back. | ||
| Chair now recognizes Ms. Mace from South Carolina for five minutes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | |
| On March 1st, 2024, Joe Biden stated he did not interact with Hunter or Jim Biden Business Associates. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, I'd like to ask unanimous consent to enter into a record New York Post article. | ||
| Biden insists he did not interact with. | ||
| Without objection to order. | ||
|
unidentified
|
We're going to go fast here. | |
| I have strictly yes or no questions. | ||
| On that note, the New York Post article, Joe Biden also said, read the record of every single witness. | ||
| So, I did. | ||
| I first read Devin Archer's deposition, and he interacted with Joe Biden. | ||
| Then I read the transcripts of Rob Walker, Eric Schwerin, George Burgess, Kevin Morris, Tony Bobulinski, and Jason Galanis. | ||
| And every single one of them interacted with Joe Biden. | ||
| And that's just the people we interviewed. | ||
| Mr. Galanis, my first questions are for you. | ||
| Did Hunter Biden call Joe Biden with Elaine Baterina on the line on May 4, 2014, yes or no? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| Yes, he said that as well. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| phone call? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Did Hunter Biden ever take a call from Joe Biden while at the Peninsula Bar in New York? | ||
| I'm sorry, I didn't hear that. | ||
| Did Hunter Biden ever take a call from Joe Biden while at the Peninsula Bar in New York? | ||
| Yes, he did. | ||
| During this call, did Hunter Biden update Joe Biden on progress in a landing, a business partnership with Harvest Fund Management? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Was Harvest a $300 billion Chinese financial services company closely tied to the Chinese Communist Party? | ||
| Yes, it was. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Is Hunter Biden involved with Harvest? | ||
| Yes or no. | ||
| Is Hunter Biden involved with Harvest? | ||
| Yes or no? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| As part of the deal, did Hunter Biden want the company to reserve a board seat for Joe Biden? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Did Henry Zhao, a Chinese businessman, want assurances Joe Biden would join the board? | ||
| Yes or no? | ||
| Yes, he did. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Did Hunter Biden... | ||
| Okay, thank you. | ||
| Hunter Biden... | ||
| Did Hunter Biden draft an email stating, please also remind Henry Zhao of our conversation about a board seat for a certain relation of mine. | ||
| Devin and I golfed with that relation earlier this week, and we discussed this very idea again. | ||
| And as always, he remains very, very keen on the opportunity. | ||
| Here is a photo of Joe Biden and Devin Archer and Hunter Biden golfing days before the alleged email draft. | ||
| Do you believe a certain relation of mine refers to Joe Biden? | ||
| I don't think there's any question. | ||
| It was based on firsthand conversations with Devin Archer, who was in that picture and at that golf meeting. | ||
| Did you ever meet with Devin Archer where Hunter took calls from his father? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| During one of these phone calls, Hunter Biden told Joe Biden that he and Henry Zhao needed help getting, quote, getting across the finish line. | ||
| Yes, that's correct. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Mr. Bobulinski, do you recall receiving an email that floated the possibility of giving 10% ownership of C&O Hawk to Joe Biden through Hunter Biden? | ||
| Yes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay, my last questions are for both of you very quickly. | |
| Mr. Bobulinski and Mr. Galanis, you both stated you were told not to use Joe Biden's name in communications, correct, Mr. Bobulinski? | ||
| Correct. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Galanis? | |
| Yes. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Did Joe Biden participate in phone conversations and meetings with Hunter Biden, his business associates, and foreign interests, yes or no? | ||
| Mr. Bobulinski? | ||
| He clearly did. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay, Mr. Galanis, yes or no? | |
| Yes. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| In Hunter Biden's deposition, he said he did not involve his father in his business. | ||
| Did Hunter Biden lie under oath, yes or no? | ||
| Mr. Bobulinski? | ||
| Yes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Galanis? | |
| That's what he said, yes. | ||
| Is Joe Biden lying when he says he did not interact with Hunter Biden, Jim Biden, their business partners, or forward interests? | ||
| Yes or no? | ||
| Yes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Galanis? | |
| Yes. | ||
| All right. | ||
|
unidentified
|
In a debate on October 22, 2020, Joe Biden denied Hunter Biden made money from China. | |
| Then Hunter Biden and his business associates and foreign interests include money from Chinese businesses, business partners, and or interests. | ||
| Yes or no? | ||
| Mr. Bobulinski? | ||
| I'm sorry. | ||
| Did the Biden family make money? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Did Hunter Biden receive money from Chinese business interests? | |
| Mr. Galanis? | ||
| Did Hunter Biden receive money from Chinese business interests? | ||
| Yes or no? | ||
| Yes, he was. | ||
| Yes, the economic interest said yes. | ||
| All right, Joe Biden has repeatedly claimed that he was not involved in Hunter Biden, Jim Biden, or any other Biden family business deals. | ||
| Today, our witnesses have proved otherwise. | ||
| Today, we've established Joe Biden lied about interacting with Hunter Biden's business associates. | ||
| It is my belief Joe Biden is the closer for Hunter Biden, Jim Biden, and their business associates in foreign interest. | ||
| Good luck to the left proving otherwise. | ||
| Thank you, and I yield back. | ||
| Gentle lady yields back. | ||
| chair now recognize Miss Porter from California. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The title of this hearing is influence peddling examining Joe Biden's abuse Look, the impeachment inquiry is dead. | |
| If it was on life support, my colleague Ocasio-Cortez just killed it. | ||
| There is no allegation of a specific crime. | ||
| President Biden didn't do anything wrong. | ||
| There's zero evidence of that. | ||
| And still, both Democrats and Republicans and the media treat these hearings like the Super Bowl. | ||
| But no one ever wins, and Americans always lose. | ||
| So I've got a fresh direction 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 positions 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 employers' 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 peddle influence. | ||
| That's wrong. | ||
| For the panel of witnesses, by show of hands, as Americans, would our witnesses support extending this one-year waiting period to at least two years? | ||
| No, I would. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay, so 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 so don't want to make it harder for government officials to become lobbyists. | ||
| Ultimately, Democratic leadership under then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi let the amendment get stripped out of the final bill. | ||
| When I 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, regardless of party, should know that an investigation was conducted into whether Joe Biden did anything wrong. | ||
| We followed the evidence 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 problem. | ||
| Let the American people believe that the rules that prevent corruption are way too weak. | ||
| To stop politicians on both sides of the aisle from influence peddling. | ||
| This committee should be working together in a bipartisan way to change the culture of Congress, to crack down on influence peddling and 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 worked for lobbying firms. | ||
| 467 members of Congress take corporate PAC 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, on what a bipartisan ethics reform package could look like. | ||
| Here are the organizations that could have come today as witnesses so we could have had a productive conversation. | ||
| Oversight staff, do you have your notebooks ready? | ||
| Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. | ||
| Common Cause. | ||
| Project on Government Oversight. | ||
| Public Citizen. | ||
| With the right witnesses. | ||
| And the 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 guardrails. | ||
| That would be real work, not a real circus. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Before I recognize Mr. Timmons, Ms. Porter, I think you are sincere, and I look forward to working with you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Chairman, can we take a five-minute break? | |
| I need to go to the bathroom. | ||
| Let us get one more, and then we'll do that. | ||
| Chair recognizes Mr. Timmons for five minutes, then we'll take a break because we have votes coming up anyway. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | |
| At our hearing last July, I laid out the scheme that the Bidens concocted to sell the Biden brand, netting almost $30 million for various members of the Biden family. | ||
| This scheme was repeated with various clients in Kazakhstan, China, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine. | ||
| I'm going to spend my time on just one instance, Ukraine, specifically involving Burisma, which netted Hunter over $3 million during a three-year period. | ||
| And to clarify the criminal offenses being alleged, for Hunter Biden, it is conspiracy to commit bribery, 18 U.S.C. | ||
| Section 201B2A and C. And for Joe Biden, it's conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right, 18 U.S.C. | ||
| Section 1951B2. | ||
| And if you want a refresher on those, just look up Senator Menendez and his wife's indictment. | ||
| So, let's start with this. | ||
| A foreign client has a problem. | ||
| I've got an email here from Vadim Pozarsky, the Secretary of Burisma, and he is advocating that Hunter Biden intervene with high-level U.S. officials to facilitate meetings and communications expressing their positive opinion of Zlachevsky, the President of Burisma, to the Ukrainian President, Chief of Staff, Prosecutor General, with the ultimate purpose. | ||
| To close down any cases against Zlachevsky in Ukraine. | ||
| This is dated November 2nd. | ||
| Now keep in mind, again, a foreign client has a problem. | ||
| Zlachevsky is being investigated by Viktor Shokin, the inspector general of Ukraine, and he needs help, the Biden brand. | ||
| So here we got... | ||
| Bank records galore of Hunter Biden receiving, prior to this email, over a million dollars. | ||
| After this email, two million dollars. | ||
| You'll find out in a second he really earned his fee. | ||
| So, again, client pays a Biden. | ||
| Three million dollars. | ||
| Next. | ||
| What happens? | ||
| What happens? | ||
| This is great. | ||
| Eleven days later. | ||
| Eleven days later. | ||
| We have the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine announcing that Vice President Biden is traveling to Ukraine on December 7th. | ||
| Oh, interesting. | ||
| Vice President Biden travels to the country. | ||
| Here we got a great photo of him touching down. | ||
| They're very proud of themselves. | ||
| So, Vice President Biden leverages U.S. policy to achieve a favorable outcome for the client. | ||
| We've all seen the video. | ||
| He brags about leveraging U.S. foreign loan guarantees to get The Ukrainian government to fire Viktor Shokin to end the investigation. | ||
| Again, we've got the email from Podarski saying that we need to leverage you, who have not provided value yet for your million dollars in service, Hunter. | ||
| He brings in the big guy. | ||
| Biden leverages U.S. influence, withholds a billion dollars in loan guarantee to fire Shokin. | ||
| So if that's not enough, we got the victory lap here. | ||
| We got an email just a few months later saying, whoa, we won in less than a year. | ||
| You brought us in, so take a victory lap. | ||
| So look, I mean, this is straightforward. | ||
| This is straightforward. | ||
| Pay to play. | ||
| It is bribery. | ||
| Hunter Biden was paid $3 million at the lowest point in his life. | ||
| He testified in the deposition that he was drug addicted, that he's never been to Ukraine, yet he's paid $3 million to get his father to go to solve his client's problem. | ||
| That is the scheme. | ||
| Mr. Bobulinski. | ||
| Does this sound like the scheme that you've seen the Biden family do? | ||
| I wasn't involved in Ukraine, but the facts surrounding this are very similar to CFC and Romania. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you for that. | |
| So, this is the thing. | ||
| If Hunter Biden were here, we would be able to ask him some questions, maybe clear this up. | ||
| But he's not. | ||
| He's not here. | ||
| And what's interesting is that just yesterday, Peter Navarro reported to federal prison in Miami for four months. | ||
| For not showing up in front of the January 6th committee. | ||
| And I want to point out to everybody that the January 6th committee was procedurally defective under House rules. | ||
| It was procedurally defective because the minority leader did not get to appoint members to that committee. | ||
| The United States House of Representatives Oversight and Accountability 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 leverage U.S. foreign policy so he would get $3 million. | ||
| This is no different than what Senator Menendez did. | ||
| And look, the American people are not buying this nonsense y 'all are selling. | ||
| We have to restore, we must restore their faith in our institutions. | ||
| And we have to stop this ridiculous two-tiered system of justice where the Department of Justice persecutes President Trump and... | ||
| Hides Hunter Biden behind every corner. | ||
| I mean, this is not the United States of America that the American people deserve. | ||
| And we have to get our country back on track. | ||
| With that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, part of my inquiry, did the committee subpoena Hunter Biden today? | ||
| The chair recognizes pursuant to the previous order and at the request of the minority witness, the chair declares the committee in recess. | ||
| For 10 minutes, then we're going to come back in here, and then we may have to recess again for votes. | ||
| Okay, baby. | ||
| Here we are in 1998. | ||
| MS Paint graphics from the committee, and we are definitely not in 1998 when it comes to committee decorum. | ||
| Man, I have never seen a... | ||
| UFC, like, octagon fight like that. | ||
| I mean, this is getting rowdy. | ||
| This is getting brutal. | ||
| Both sides coming at each other. | ||
| I mean, it's very interesting, actually, to see. | ||
| I like seeing Congress. | ||
| I like seeing some fireworks in Congress. | ||
| We do have a new meme template that just dropped. | ||
| I can give you the entire Democrat side of the argument in one meme from Katie Porter. | ||
| There you go. | ||
| This has been the Democrat side of the argument. | ||
| I guess if you were to put something on that screen right there, it would be orange man bad. | ||
| That's it. | ||
| This is the third, fourth, fifth. | ||
| We take these hearings. | ||
| Whenever these hearings come up and they're of great interest, we take them live. | ||
| And the Democrats go to explanation for every crime that they've committed, for every sin that they've done, for everything that they are actively trying to do. | ||
| To subvert the American people and to damage our nation is Orange Man bad. | ||
| Donald Trump! | ||
|
unidentified
|
Donald Trump! | |
| But Donald Trump! | ||
| That's it. | ||
| That's the entire argument. | ||
| It really is fascinating exactly how broke brain the left is. | ||
| And by the way, what does that mean for them as a party? | ||
| When Donald Trump wins, and he's going to mentally break these people, and then when you get like a... | ||
| President Vivek, or Byron Donald, or whatever, or whoever carries the torch of MAGA forward, America First forward. | ||
| Like, what will they do? | ||
| Their entire ethos, their entire life, I've never seen people more like psychotically obsessed with one man. | ||
| They have nothing to offer the American people because everything has been just an abject failure for the last four years. | ||
| Nothing in this country has gotten better. | ||
| Everything has gotten demonstrably worse. | ||
| But this is the meme template. | ||
| This plus Orange Man Bet. | ||
| That's it. | ||
| That's the meme template. | ||
| Orange Man Bet. | ||
| I've never seen anything like it. | ||
| And we're seeing this in hearing after hearing after hearing after hearing. | ||
| What was the hearing last week, ALX? | ||
| What was the hearing last week where the exact same thing happened? | ||
| I mean, it's really... | ||
| Okay, well, the memes are now actually pouring in. | ||
| Please feel free to make your own meme of this and we will pop it on screen. | ||
| Here's a special one. | ||
| Joe Biden. | ||
| Don't confuse the two. | ||
| Weed dope. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| I love myself a good boomer meme. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, we had Robert Herr last week talking about how Joe Biden is mentally incapacitated and all Democrats can say is Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Donald Trump. | ||
| So what is the evidence? | ||
| That has been presented in this hearing. | ||
| Well, it's been pretty shocking. | ||
| One, that the Biden family was directly involved not only with getting millions in Chinese cash into their bank accounts and millions in Russian cash into their bank accounts, but also that number one, number one, Xi Jinping, the chairman of the Communist Party of China, the guy who Joe Biden often mules about in some story. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I remember going to the Futhalm's Himalayas. | |
| I went to the Futhalm's Himalayas and J.J. Bang. | ||
| and This guy, Joe Biden is obsessed with this guy because Xi Jinping could end the Bidens, could snap him like a twig. | ||
| Because apparently, now we have on the record from MTG proof that the Bidens were directly communicating with Xi Jinping. | ||
| We're going to go through the bombshells that we learned in the first three hours of this testimony. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, we've been live for the entire time. | ||
| I've been listening along with you. | ||
| Sometimes I feel as though I want to scream at the screen. | ||
| We try very hard not to interrupt the process here, but now we get our chance to actually talk about what we've learned. | ||
| Okay, so here we go. | ||
| Now is my time, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Gaveled in. | ||
| Gaveled in, and here are my five minutes. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen. | ||
| Joe Biden directly communicating with Xi Jinping for his business deals. | ||
| Insane. | ||
| This is what MTG got out of her questioning. | ||
| Let me show you another message. | ||
| This message doesn't call Zhang Chairman Zhang, 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, Zhang is implied, has implied that the number one has made it clear and available to him. | ||
| Who is the number one? | ||
| The number one is Xi Jinping. | ||
| Xi Jinping, the president of China? | ||
| Yes or no? | ||
| The leader of the Communist Party, the CCP, is the number one. | ||
| Yes, that's the number one that Hunter was referencing in that message. | ||
| I'm sorry. | ||
| I'm laughing at all the memes. | ||
| I just want to say thank you to everyone who's making a meme based on the meme template. | ||
| Please post the meme template. | ||
| Yeah, there you go. | ||
| We've posted the meme template. | ||
| Now we're asking people to make memes, and my God, they are very, very funny. | ||
| That seems like treason. | ||
| That's a good one. | ||
| Let's leave that on screen for a second. | ||
| That seems like treason. | ||
| Oh, so Joe Biden and his family are coordinating with the communist leader of our number one geopolitical enemy everyone agrees with? | ||
| That is China. | ||
| And so Joe Biden is directly communicating with their chairman? | ||
| The number one? | ||
| Wow. | ||
| That seems really bad. | ||
| Certainly there's no direct evidence of all of the cash from the communist Chinese going directly into Joe Biden's bank account. | ||
| Oh wait, Byron Donalds got that one, ladies and gentlemen. | ||
| Check out this demonstrable outline from Byron Donalds who clearly did his homework here, baby. | ||
| A man who, according to recent reporting, is top of Donald Trump's... | ||
| Vice presidential selection list. | ||
| Very interesting, Matt. | ||
| The man clearly knows what he's talking about. | ||
| A dear friend of the show, Byron Donalds, going in. | ||
| Now, to the money flow. | ||
| This is where the rubber meets the road. | ||
| On August 3rd, they actually stipulate through WhatsApp text messages the exact stipulations of the deal. | ||
| On August 4th, $100,000 is wired into a Wasco PC from CEFC infrastructure. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, I want to submit for the record... | ||
| A portion of the bank statement for the time period August 3rd of 2017 to August 31, 2017, stipulating $100,000 going from CEFC into the bank account of Hunter Biden through OWASCO PC. | ||
| Without objections ordered. | ||
| On August 8th, 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. Gon Wang, a.k.a. | ||
| Kevin Dong, who is a CEFC associate. | ||
| That money comes from a Northern International Capital bank account, a bank account that is tied to the CCP. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, I want to submit for the record the bank statement demonstrating that transfer. | ||
| Without objection, so ordered. | ||
| Okay, moving on. | ||
| On August 8th, the same time period, there is a wire transfer of $400,000 to a Wasco PC 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 objections ordered. | ||
| Now here's where the fun stuff comes in, everybody, and I've got a minute to do it, so we're going to get this done. | ||
| On August 14th, There is $150,000 that is transferred from a Wasco PC, which is controlled by Hunter Biden, to Lion Hall Group, which is controlled by James Biden. | ||
| I have the records here, Mr. Chairman, of the $150,000 that has gone to Lion Hall Group from a Wasco PC. | ||
| I want to submit that for the record. | ||
| Without objection to order. | ||
| On August 28th, and I believe we have a screenshot for everybody in the room. | ||
| On August 28th, Mr. Chairman, we have the withdrawal ticket. | ||
| From Lion Hall Group that is signed by Sarah Biden, who is the wife of Jim Biden, for $50,000 to withdraw from Lion Hall Group. | ||
| I want to submit that withdrawal receipt for the record. | ||
| Without objection to ordered. | ||
| On September 3rd, on August 28th, actually, Mr. Chairman, we have the deposit reference into Sarah Jones Biden's account on the same day she withdrew it from Lion Hall. | ||
| I want to submit that. | ||
| Without objection to ordered. | ||
| Last document. | ||
| On September 3rd, 2007, from Sarah Biden's own personal account, there is a check that is written to Joseph Robinette Biden Jr., the President of the United States today, for $40,000, signed loan repayment. | ||
| A loan repayment, by the way, that Joe Biden's own personal accountant, Mr. Eric Schwerin, has no record for. | ||
| I want to submit that for the record, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Without objection to order. | ||
| To the members of the committee, it is clear that the source of this money came from CEFC. | ||
| And that CEFC is a company that is directly linked to the CCP and actually the chairman of the CCP, the chairman of the Chinese Communist Party, Chairman Xi Jinping. | ||
| With that, I yield. | ||
| Hot damn. | ||
| Maybe that's a man trying out to be vice president. | ||
| We'll see, ladies and gentlemen. | ||
| We'll see. | ||
| We've been doing a number of phone calls about this, but nobody, nobody can question. | ||
| Byron Donald's research there and how Byron Donald's is the one who has actually just proven the facts that the cash from the communist Chinese went directly into Joe Biden's bank account, that Joe Biden was interacting with number one, who is the number one chairman. | ||
| That's Xi Jinping. | ||
| What other fascinating bombshells have we learned? | ||
| Well, Hunter Biden didn't show up. | ||
| It's a little curious here. | ||
| Hunter Biden was subpoenaed to testify. | ||
| Don Jr. testified for 50 plus hours. | ||
| Eric Trump testified. | ||
| Ivanka Trump testified. | ||
| Jared Kushner testified. | ||
| None of these people were able to flaunt or flout or flip off their congressional subpoenas. | ||
| Yet the opening remarks from Tony Bobulinski is, hey, where's Hunter? | ||
| Should I allow Hunter to give his opening statement first? | ||
| Well, it doesn't appear Mr. Biden showed up for his public hearing, so we'll recognize you, Mr. Bobulinski. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Great question. | ||
| What happens then to Hunter? | ||
| Well, what has to happen now to Hunter is he needs to be put in jail. | ||
| Let me explain. | ||
| Yesterday, Peter Navarro, who's a big-time China hawk, isn't that interesting? | ||
| The guy who was big on making sure that China didn't railroad the United States with tariffs and obviously with stealing our IP and unfair trade practices. | ||
| Peter Navarro was put in prison. | ||
| Why? | ||
| Well, because he refused to comply with a congressional subpoena, which now Hunter Biden has done. | ||
| So now where are the criminal referrals? | ||
| Steve Bannon is supposedly going to be going to prison for doing the exact same thing. | ||
| But Peter Navarro is having to spend four months in jail, a high-level Donald Trump official, for not complying with the January 6th committee subpoena. | ||
| So where's the turnabout? | ||
| Where's the Hunter Biden criminal referrals? | ||
| You've already voted to hold him in contempt. | ||
| That vote was confirmed. | ||
| And so let's continue that vote. | ||
| Hunter Biden did not show up for his subpoenaed congressional testimony, what I think is particularly wild. | ||
| Okay, ladies and gentlemen, they are coming back. | ||
| That's too bad because I really want to show you the AOC clips. | ||
| We'll show you those in a second. | ||
| AOC having a true psychotic break live on TV, which is pretty much every time she's live on TV. | ||
| As I said, ladies and gentlemen, we are back. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Good luck. | |
| You're about to hear more screaming, wailing, and orange man bat. | ||
| And mitigate the threat of gun violence. | ||
| Republican members of Congress continue to chase after Russian disinformation campaigns from the 2020 election, which have been thoroughly debunked again and again. | ||
| And as usual, in this committee, we know who is in charge. | ||
| It is the bondless, broke, bluffer, twice impeached, four times indicted, insurrection initiator, election denying, self-declared dictator on day one, and puppet for Putin. | ||
| The one who wants to terminate the Constitution and defund the FBI. | ||
| The one who romanticized exchanging of love letters with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. | ||
| The one who just last week embraced autocrat Orban of Hungary to discuss their diabolical plans to destroy our democracy. | ||
| The one who proposed a policy to ban Muslims from this country. | ||
| The one who just this week said any Jewish person who votes for a Democrat hates their religion and Israel. | ||
| The one who called neo-Nazis carrying tiki torches chanting Jews will not replace us good people. | ||
| It's a lie. | ||
| That's a provable lie. | ||
|
unidentified
|
He was talking about Haiti. | |
| taking a knee in protest of the ever-present racial inequality and police brutality. | ||
| No, they're kneeling for the national anthem. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Our justice system. | |
| The one who called Mexicans rapists and promised to build a wall and have them pay for it. | ||
| And in case you missed it, it didn't happen. | ||
| The one who told women of color from the United, born in the United States, elected to Congress and serving on this very committee to go back to their own country. | ||
| The one who has publicly mocked people with disabilities. | ||
| The one who dodged the draft and referred to prisoners of war as losers, the very people who pay a high price so we could enjoy the freedoms that far too many of us take for granted. | ||
| The one who boasted about being able to stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue to shoot someone and not lose votes. | ||
| The one who promoted political and physical violence multiple times, including most recently at my rally in my home state of Ohio, where he declared there would be a bloodbath if he didn't win. | ||
| Hoax, hoax, hoax, hoax. | ||
|
unidentified
|
denies COVID was deadly and eventually suggested testing, injecting bleach into our bodies to kill the respiratory virus that took the lives of 1 million people in the United States. | |
| The one who ordered his son-in-law get top secret security clearance, overruling concerns flagged by official intelligence officials who, according to this committee's chairman admitted the former president's son-in-law crossed the line of ethics by accepting a two-year-old, Billion-dollar investment into that very same son-in-law's fledgling firm only six months after leaving the White House. | ||
| If any of this sounds crazy, it's because it is. | ||
| This might sound unbelievable, but it's all true. | ||
| These are facts. | ||
| Indisputable facts. | ||
| A thing that is known and proven to be true. | ||
| This may be a foreign concept to some of my colleagues, but for those of us who still have a relationship with the truth, please know this is not an exhaustive list of inappropriate, unethical, and questionable behavior by the maniacal manipulator of Mar-a-Lago because I could go on, but I only have five minutes. | ||
| Yet here we are again, trying to make sense out of nonsense. | ||
| I would humbly, respectfully ask... | ||
| My Republican colleagues on this committee to stop falling over yourselves to win the approval of one, because millions of people are depending on you to defend our delicate democracy. | ||
| And with that, I yield the remainder of my time to the ranking member. | ||
| Oh, wow. | ||
| Great. | ||
| I don't know there's much time left, but thank you for that eloquent and compressed recitation. | ||
| Of some of what we've lived with over the last time. | ||
| Slam poetry. | ||
| He recognizes Mr. LaTurner from Kansas for five minutes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Bob Alinsky, I want to talk about May of 2017. | |
| To be clear, Hunter Biden was doing business with CEFC while his dad was VP. | ||
| Are you aware of that now? | ||
| Rob Walker told us that during his transcribed interview before the committee. | ||
| But I want to talk to you about your meeting with Joe Biden. | ||
| Hunter Biden and Jim Biden in May of 2017. | ||
| Other members are going to bring up the meeting you had with Joe Biden at the Beverly Hilton the night before the Milken Conference, but I want to talk about the next day when you win as Joe Biden's guest to the Milken Conference. | ||
| So, you watched Joe Biden deliver a speech that day. | ||
| Then you had a follow-up conversation with Joe Biden. | ||
| Isn't that correct? | ||
| Correct. | ||
|
unidentified
|
What did Joe Biden tell you during that conversation? | |
| Well, as I've already publicly shared, you know, I was brought backstage by his team because he had just given his keynote and we just exchanged pleasantries and then I walked him out to his car. | ||
| And he specifically thanked me for the work I was doing with his son and his brother and asked me to keep an eye on them. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And my understanding is, Mr. Bobulinski, that after Joe Biden had left, you went across the street to the Peninsula Hotel and had a long conversation with his brother, Jim Biden. | |
| Isn't that correct? | ||
| It's my understanding that you asked him how the Biden family does the business that they do, while Joe Biden is such a prominent political figure. | ||
| What was Jim Biden's response to you? | ||
| Correct. | ||
| I was actually concerned and asking from a position of concern, and Jim Biden's response to me was plausible deniability. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Plausible deniability. | |
| And by that you mean Joe Biden would be kept in the loop, but you weren't supposed to talk about it, especially in writing. | ||
| Mr. Galanis, during your transcribed interview with the committees, you said a very interesting phrase. | ||
| Say it, forget it, write it, regret it. | ||
| Does this sound familiar? | ||
| Is this consistent with your understanding of how the Bidens do business, Mr. Golanus? | ||
| Yeah, very much so. | ||
| That was not right in principle, yes. | ||
| But it looks like someone made a mistake. | ||
| Mr. Bobulinski, you created two companies with the Bidens. | ||
| I want to show you an infamous email discussing the ownership structure of one of those companies, CEFC. | ||
| You can see on the screen. | ||
| 20% for H, 20% for Rob Walker, 20% for James Gilear, 20% for Tony Bobulinski, 10% for Jim Biden, and 10% held by H for the, quote, big guy. | ||
| Mr. Bobulinski, who is the big guy? | ||
| The big guy is 100% Joe Biden. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Bobulinski, Hunter Biden didn't respond saying, knock it off. | |
| We can't include Joe Biden. | ||
| Did he? | ||
| No, and that's actually a critical point because remember... | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Bobulinski, did you ever... | |
| No, the whistleblowers actually have a text exchange where they're talking about everything else but that, and the reason why they weren't talking about it is because everyone knew Joe Biden was the big guy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hunter Biden begged for a public hearing, but it turns out he is too afraid of accountability to show up. | |
| And tell the truth to the American people. | ||
| But Americans don't need Hunter's testimony to know they are being gaslit by this president. | ||
| It's blatantly obvious to anyone paying attention that Joe Biden is the big guy. | ||
| The CEFC deal broke the say it, forget it, write it, regret it rule of the Biden family businesses, and now they are trying to cover it up. | ||
| Joe Biden said repeatedly that his family never made a dime from China. | ||
| But Mr. Bobulinski just confirmed that Hunter, Jim, and the big guy himself all got a cut from the CEFC China energy deal. | ||
| Let me be clear. | ||
| The only service the Biden family ever provided was their ability to leverage the office of the Vice President of the United States to cash in overseas. | ||
| My Democrat colleagues are going to try and tell you that Joe Biden wasn't on the final ownership structure agreement. | ||
| But isn't it true? | ||
| If someone was holding... | ||
| Joe Biden's stake in the company, it wouldn't appear in the document. | ||
| Isn't that the whole point of this email, to hold Joe Biden's stake so his name wouldn't be in the document? | ||
| Isn't this just plausible deniability in action, Mr. Bobulinski? | ||
| It appears that way. | ||
|
unidentified
|
But plausible deniability only gets you so far. | |
| Now, I want to fast forward from May to the end of July of 2017 when the Bidens cut you out of the deal. | ||
| I want to show you a message that Hunter sent to his Chinese business partners. | ||
| Please put it up on the screen. | ||
| Hunter writes, quote, So, when Hunter Biden is desperate for money, Jim Biden's old trick of plausible deniability doesn't cut it. | ||
| And when desperate times call for desperate measures, Hunter Biden let the cat out of the bag, said the quiet part out loud, and gave the game away. | ||
| By calling on his father to help him shake down his Chinese business partners for the money. | ||
| And it worked. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, I yield back. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, just a point of inquiry. | ||
| What was the last image we saw that you put up? | ||
| Where did that come from? | ||
| I just want to authenticate that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
This is the Ways and Means Committee Exhibit 300. | |
| Must be there. | ||
| What's the lower note? | ||
| Not an inquiry, though. | ||
| Anyway, Chair recognizes Ms. Stansberry for the last question. | ||
|
unidentified
|
All right. | |
| Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman, and welcome to the GOP's day-long campaign for Donald Trump. | ||
| I want to start with Mr. Galanis to help connect some dots that have not yet been connected in this hearing. | ||
| Mr. Galanis, you are serving just under 16 years for, among other things, as has been said today, defrauding a tribal nation and specifically a tribal corporation held by the Ogallala Sioux, which is why you are testifying from a prison. | ||
| But I'd like to ask you, Mr. Galanis, have you had an attorney representing you before this committee that you retained last December? | ||
| And that attorney's name is Mr. Mark Paoletta, correct? | ||
| That's correct. | ||
| When you first testified before this committee in a taped interview, you were actually stopped by Mr. Paoletta from answering just a simple question about how you met him and who exactly was paying your legal fees. | ||
| Now, I want to make sure that the American people understand exactly who Mr. Paoletta is, because he is, in fact, a former lawyer to Donald Trump, who served in the administration in the Office of Management and Budget. | ||
| The center of the Ukrainian pressure campaign for which Donald Trump was impeached. | ||
| And in fact, Mr. Paoletta was Trump's chief OMB lawyer when he withheld aid to Ukraine to try to extort the Ukrainian government into investigating Joe Biden to support Donald Trump's campaign. | ||
| And Mr. Paoletta literally wrote the memo to help withhold those funds. | ||
| Now, I want to dig in a little bit on this pressure campaign, and Mr. Lev Parnas is here to discuss as an eyewitness who was there. | ||
| Mr. Parnas, we appreciate you being here, and I want to move through this quickly, so just ask for simple yes and no answers. | ||
| You've testified here today that Donald Trump repeatedly asked you, and through Rudy Giuliani, to... | ||
| Put pressure on the Ukrainian government to dig up dirt on Joe Biden to support Trump's campaign, correct? | ||
| 100% yes. | ||
| And as we can see here in this picture, you were very much a business associate of Rudy Giuliani during this time. | ||
| And as established in your testimony, you traveled to and met with Ukrainian officials and told them that the White House would support, would withhold its support and aid to Ukraine if it did not cooperate with this bribery, essentially. | ||
| That's correct. | ||
| And as we all know, Donald Trump's administration and specifically... | ||
| The Office of Management and Budget did withhold that foreign aid in 2019. | ||
| And here's the guy who did it. | ||
| And he's representing the witness who's literally on Zoom with us for this committee today. | ||
| And it's the reason why Donald Trump was impeached the first time. | ||
| And the man at the center of that scheme is involved in the House GOP's inquiry. | ||
| But I also want to point out that Mr. Paoletta is also involved in and very much in bed with the Thomases. | ||
| In fact, he represented Ms. Jenny Thomas, Clarence Thomas' wife, in her involvement in the Stop the Steal before the January 6th. | ||
| Committee. | ||
| And actually also goes on vacation with Mr. Harlan Crowe and the Thomases. | ||
| So this man has quite an interesting roster and participation in this hearing. | ||
| But the bigger picture here is that Mr. Paoletta's presence is yet another indication of the way in which this hearing... | ||
| And this impeachment inquiry is part of Donald Trump's larger misinformation campaign, just like it was in 2020, where in addition to pressuring and withholding aid to Ukraine, Rudy Giuliani and the Trump Organization, as Mr. Parnas has established, planted the story in the media. | ||
| And now here we are four years later as they've dredged it back up and are planting it back in the media. | ||
| Using Congress, using this committee, and using a baseless impeachment supported by Donald Trump's own allies on this committee to push that information out. | ||
| As members on this committee have trafficked in false evidence that was planted by a Russian operative to the FBI and is now in jail for that. | ||
| This is in the service of propping up the criminal enterprise for which Donald Trump is at the top and has already been twice impeached. | ||
| Rudy Giuliani and others have been exposed as they continue to traffic in Russian disinformation that not only props up Donald Trump, but it props up Vladimir Putin himself and his goals back in Russia and in Ukraine. | ||
| So I just want to point out here that once again, as I said when we had a false impeachment hearing a few months ago, that once again we see the law firm, the little hands of Donald Trump all over this hearing. | ||
| Shut up! | ||
| And just want to state, you made a mistake and said that Mr. Parnas was a Republican witness. | ||
| He is very much your witness, not a Republican witness. | ||
|
unidentified
|
But I was a Republican for Donald Trump. | |
| Mr. Chairman, I did not believe I said that. | ||
| Pursuant to the previous order, the chair declares the committee in recess due to votes. | ||
| Subject to the call of the chair, we will reconvene 10 minutes after the three votes. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Okay, ladies and gentlemen, we have a recess on this hearing. | ||
| It's kind of amazing because many of the members acted like they were in recess the entire time, like in a schoolyard for third graders, name-calling and reading taunts and behaving like absolute animals! | ||
| And what do I mean by that? | ||
| Well, what I mean by that is that they were making animal noises. | ||
| Remember that time that they all said nay together. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, we did have some very interesting and pretty shocking revelations from this committee hearing. | ||
| It is going to be very hard to ignore the demonstrable amount of evidence that is coming from this hearing. | ||
| The number one thing that I'm seeing materialize inside of these social media zeitgeists is the direct connection to Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin, Moscow money, and the Communist Chinese Party money. | ||
| That's the thing that's materializing here. | ||
| And you have the business partners directly with Joe Biden, and so many of these, so many of Joe Biden's business partners have been prosecuted by the DOJ. | ||
| I wonder why that is. | ||
| Really, curious that. | ||
| I wonder why that is, ladies and gentlemen. | ||
| It really is a head-scratcher. | ||
| How are all of the people who are apparently providing fake information to the FBI, not saying you should provide, Information, fake information, the FBI. | ||
| If you do that, you assume that you might get prosecuted. | ||
| But it is incredibly convenient that the guy who blew the whistle on the Bidens and said that there was a $5 million quid pro quo to the Bidens, $5 million for Joe and $5 million for Hunter, in order to get the prosecutor fired for Burisma, that this guy is suddenly being put in jail by the FBI. | ||
| If lying to the FBI is a crime, then where the hell is Christopher Steele walking free? | ||
| Christopher Steele literally went to Russia to get Russian disinformation to put in the Steele dossier to smear Donald Trump. | ||
| Wrap-up smear on Donald Trump. | ||
| To start a fake investigation. | ||
| This country is so lopsided, man. | ||
| I mean, we're the Titanic. | ||
| The entire thing is so unbelievably lopsided. | ||
| I'm not saying you should lie to the FBI. | ||
| I'm saying that when you lie to the FBI, like Hillary Clinton in her campaign did, for literally the last seven years, pushing the Russia hoax, that there should be consequences for both sides. | ||
| But it seems to be only the people that go after Joe Biden or expose Joe Biden with the FT-1023, like that those people get punished. | ||
| I guess we'll watch and see what happens in court. | ||
| And we'll see what happens to that guy. | ||
| Seems really convenient that the star witnesses all get put into prison for deals that they did with the Bidens. | ||
| That's what I think is crazy. | ||
| This defrauding deal, I'm not saying these guys are right in doing it. | ||
| Devin Archer and one of the key witnesses there today, they had this like big, the reason the guy is broadcasting from a penitentiary is because there's this big defrauding deal that they did. | ||
| But they did it with Hunter Biden. | ||
| They did it at Hunter Biden's firm. | ||
| Why is Hunter Biden a free man and all the people that he did deal with are in prison? | ||
| Do you realize what that looks like? | ||
| Do you realize what that actually is? | ||
| I mean, it looks like what it is, right? | ||
| A regime dictatorship. | ||
| That's overseen by, and this is getting into the weeds a little bit, but it's very important, overseen by a specific memo that Eric Holder wrote way back in the Obama years. | ||
| And Eric Holder wrote this memo that says that the DOJ, and this is still the operational memo of the DOJ, you're not allowed to go after and prosecute people that would effectively upset America's ruling class. | ||
| It's wild. | ||
| It's called the Holder memo. | ||
| Guys, see if you can hunt that down. | ||
| I want to be able to name it correctly. | ||
| But it's a specific memo that says you are not to go after and prosecute America's ruling class. | ||
| You're not to go after and prosecute political establishment. | ||
| Because that's too upsetting to the system. | ||
| And that's why you see the amount of crimes that can be committed by Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Joe Biden, Barack Obama. | ||
| And then you also see this happening on the Republican side. | ||
| Cindy McCain was just asked about Jeffrey Epstein, or was asked about Jeffrey Epstein recently. | ||
| And she said, well, we all knew what he was doing. | ||
| But we weren't able to touch him because he was too powerful. | ||
| Because of this Holder memo, ladies and gentlemen. | ||
| Because of this memorandum that says, effectively, we're not going to charge or sentence people that are part of the American political structure and ruling class because it would upset the apple cart. | ||
| And these guidelines exist today. | ||
| And so this is why you see the... | ||
| Persecution and prosecution. | ||
| They don't consider Donald Trump to be part of the legitimate ruling class of the country. | ||
| So this memo gets thrown out the window and there's the get out of jail free card. | ||
| We don't talk about it enough and expect us to put our shoulder into this one on the show. | ||
| This is why situations like this are happening and why they do everything they can to protect people around the Bidens and to not charge. | ||
| I mean, know this, that this memo weighed heavily on the decision of Robert Hurd to not charge Joe Biden. | ||
| We couldn't believe it existed. | ||
| Brett Tolman, federal prosecutor, told us about this. | ||
| And the more we looked into it, the more it was like, wow, this is amazing. | ||
| Eric Holder, who's just the chief architect of the criminal enterprise of the Democrat Party, and is the wingman of Barack Obama, wrote this in order to absolve themselves of crimes. | ||
| And it still stands today. | ||
| It's still standing policy today. | ||
| So, it is remarkable, but it also shows you exactly how contemptible our government is, and how much they hate you, the American people. | ||
| Now, ladies and gentlemen, for a little bit of humor, which is AOC asking questions. | ||
| AOC got a chance to ask questions of Tony Bobulinski. | ||
| Tony Bobulinski's been a great witness, and he's been sharp, he's been cutting, he's been able to clap back and to push back on fake narratives. | ||
| AOC asked him a couple of questions, and She effed around and she found out. | ||
| Probably the best moment of the hearing so far from an entertainment value. | ||
| Let's go. | ||
| Bobulinski, I heard your opening statement. | ||
| It's submitted to the record, part of our proceedings. | ||
| I have a quick question. | ||
| Simple. | ||
| Is it your testimony today that you personally witnessed President Joe Biden commit a crime? | ||
| I believe the fact that he was sitting with me while I was putting together a business deal. | ||
| Did you witness the president commit a crime? | ||
| Is it your testimony today? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| 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 and conspiracy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
What is it? | |
| What is the crime, sir? | ||
| You asked me to answer the question. | ||
| I answered the question. | ||
| RICO, you're obviously not familiar with. | ||
| Excuse me, sir. | ||
| RICO is not a crime. | ||
| It is a category. | ||
| What is the category of crimes that you're then charged? | ||
| You have charges. | ||
| You have charges. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Sir, please name the exact statute under RICO? | |
| Yes. | ||
| Well, it's funny. | ||
| In this committee room, everyone's not here. | ||
|
unidentified
|
There's over 18 lawyers that went to law school. | |
| I'll leave it up to you guys. | ||
| Thank you, sir. | ||
| I reclaim my time. | ||
| So, that's pretty awesome. | ||
| RICO's not a crime? | ||
| Isn't that what they're going after Donald Trump for in Georgia? | ||
| Thanks, AOC. | ||
| You remain so useful to us. | ||
| Thank you! | ||
| We are so thankful for AOC. | ||
| Really. | ||
| Truly. | ||
| A gem. | ||
| Completely a gem. | ||
| Do we have any more of the memes loaded? | ||
| Royce says no. | ||
| Royce! | ||
| No. | ||
| We have some other good ones that have rolled through. | ||
| Check the chat. | ||
| Very good. | ||
| This one. | ||
| This is a very appropriate one for the last clip. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| So, ladies and gentlemen, we are looking at the number of Republicans and the number of... | ||
|
unidentified
|
Nay! | |
| We are looking at the number of Republicans. | ||
| Is Rico a crime? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Nay! | |
| We look at the number of Republicans that have left, that are yet to ask questions. | ||
| There are some great ones on there, including Lauren Boebert and Anna Paulina Luna, dear friends of the show. | ||
| Tim Burchett, obviously great friend of the show. | ||
| It's about 10 Republicans that still have yet to ask questions. | ||
| And there are about half a dozen Democrats, including our favorite, Crazy Crockett, the – We need to come up with a good metaphor for Crazy Crockett from Texas. | ||
| Man, I just... | ||
| She's so entertaining. | ||
| Really do. | ||
| And really do love her. | ||
| Truly. | ||
| Love ya. | ||
| Cori Bush also. | ||
| From the Democrat side. | ||
| And so, ladies and gentlemen, we'd like to carry forward on this broadcast and just sort of see if we can roll on, play some of the greatest hits, and carry on past votes here. | ||
| We'll see how long the votes are taking. | ||
| Our producers are checking right now. | ||
| And then we'll pick up because this is going to go on. | ||
| It's going to carry on. | ||
| It's been wildly entertaining. | ||
| One of the more entertaining moments was when the man who is testifying effectively from prison, one of the witnesses for the Republicans, a guy named Jason Galanis, who was zipped up in one of these crimes that the Bidens were committing in their business, but he gets charged and the Bidens skate free. | ||
| Thanks, Eric Holder. | ||
| Really appreciate your memo there. | ||
| It's super effective. | ||
| Get out jail free card for every member of the ruling class. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, so Galanis just straight up, it straight up breaks down exactly how all of the Biden crime family operated. | ||
| It says, wait, wait, wait, you gotta understand. | ||
| Like, here's how the business worked. | ||
| The business worked like this. | ||
| Like, evil, corrupt entity comes to us. | ||
| It says they want access to the American ruling class. | ||
| They want access to the American treasury. | ||
| They want access to American natural resources. | ||
| They pay a premium in order to get a handshake and a phone call and a wink of an eye from Joe Biden. | ||
| And Joe Biden says, take care of my kid. | ||
| Make sure you pay my kid. | ||
| And we know from Hunter Biden's text messages that then 50% of that goes into the bank account of Joe Biden. | ||
| It's a giant money laundering and influence peddling operation. | ||
| It's totally and blatantly illegal. | ||
| And this is what is happening. | ||
| From a guy who's in jail, so he really has nothing to lose, right? | ||
| A guy who's in prison for committing these operations for the Bidens. | ||
| Jason Galanis outlines how it all worked. | ||
| Here we go. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It was not the only time I heard Hunter speak with his father for business reasons. | |
| I was present when Hunter called his father on May 4, 2014, on a cell phone, put it on speaker mode to have him say hello to Yelena Batarina, a Russian oligarch and an investor in Rosemont Projects, and her husband, Yuri Luzkov, the former mayor of Moscow. | ||
| Devon Archer was also there. | ||
| Hunter said, well, 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 I hope you had safe travels, and a man said, quote, okay, you be good to my boy. | ||
| Hunter responded by saying, everything is good, and we're moving ahead. | ||
| The vice president said something about, quote, being helpful, and Hunter entered the call by saying he was going to call his father later. | ||
| Before this call, Hunter sat next to him and went right at the table, and I heard him speaking on business matters generally. | ||
| A few days after this May 4th party, An email my lawyer provided to this committee shows that Devin had confirmed Ms. Bavarino was committed to a, quote, hard order of $10 to $20 million in a burdened investment banking client. | ||
| In an effort to build this financial platform, I engaged in lawful conduct. | ||
| Our companies were entrusted with $11 billion of union pension money, pension fund money, whose 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 deserve the lengthy sentence I've received. | ||
| Nevertheless, as I set out more fully in my full statement, I believe the SBMI prosecutors did not indict Hunter Biden on the same deal for political reasons, despite then-available documentation that we were partners. | ||
| We're involved in decision-making that involve illegal self-dealing, and all of us had financially benefited from these schemes. | ||
| In fact, Hunter Biden and Devin Archer's company, Rosemont Seneca-Bohai, received $15 million from the tribal bonds fraudulent scheme to be invested in the burner group. | ||
| I've offered slightest information to the government about Hunter Biden's crimes, but the prosecutors have been uninterested. | ||
| So, how much more do you need? | ||
| What else do you need? | ||
| What else do you need? | ||
| That's how the operation works. | ||
| And this has been detailed again and again and again and again. | ||
| This is how it works. | ||
| The Bidens get a dirty business deal going, whether it's with the Chinese or whether it's with the Moscow oligarchs. | ||
| Alina Baturina is the name of the oligarch, the richest woman in Russia, because of her connections to Vladimir Putin. | ||
| It is amazing, though, isn't it? | ||
| That it is Joe Biden. | ||
| Who has Russian collusion? | ||
| And they were able to get these deals locked up because of Joe Biden, his prominence and his position. | ||
| And according to the testimony, Joe Biden was going to go serve on the boards of these companies. | ||
| Joe Biden was going to leave and never come back into politics. | ||
| That was the plan. | ||
| And the way this operation worked was Joe Biden decides to not run for president in 2016. | ||
| Barack Obama humiliates him and drags him out to the Rose Garden, right? | ||
| And forces him to say, I'm not going to run. | ||
| And in order to coerce Joe Biden, who is a real stubborn jack wagon, into making that decision, they were able to just hand Joe Biden these massive plums from these big pies. | ||
| That was when Joe Biden got the Ukraine slush fund. | ||
| After that decision, you can track it all back. | ||
| After that decision, Joe Biden got the China portfolio. | ||
| After that decision, Joe Biden got Russia. | ||
| After Joe Biden decided not to run for president and was disgraced and humiliated by Obama, his consolation prize was you'll get rich beyond your wildest dreams. | ||
| We'll put you in charge of these deeply corrupt regions in the country and you and your little octopus tentacle organization can start shaking down for cash. | ||
| That was the devil's bargain. | ||
| And Hillary Clinton would become president. | ||
| Of course, nobody would ever look into this from a federal level. | ||
| So Joe Biden would know that he would have the holder memo. | ||
| The Eric Holder memo to hang over his head, that's your blanket, get out of jail free card, and that he would be able to effectively like sweep in there and make his family billions, as they've said in this testimony. | ||
| Billions, ladies and gentlemen. | ||
| So, here it is. | ||
| That's the play. | ||
| Now, the Democrats brought in a witness, also a criminal, and someone who was prosecuted, but somebody who was prosecuted for Campaign finance violations, how this isn't a massive campaign finance violation, I don't know. | ||
| Also, this is a massive violation of foreign lobbying, because that's what's been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt here. | ||
| So you have this, and that is a huge no-no, of course, they put Paul Manafort in prison for the exact same thing. | ||
| And so you have this really blatant black and white delineation. | ||
| Where it's like Republicans get charged for these things and Democrats get to skate. | ||
| The real interesting thing will be Hunter Biden. | ||
| Hunter Biden decided to flout, decided to flip off this and not show this committee and this hearing. | ||
| Hunter Biden, who regularly showed up on Capitol Hill to give his own wild press conferences. | ||
| To scream and cry and mule about his own problems. | ||
| Who showed up to his own contempt hearing, wildly. | ||
| And then when Marjorie Taylor Greene started asking questions, he ran away. | ||
| Hunter Biden is nowhere to be found. | ||
| So will Hunter Biden go to prison? | ||
| Will Hunter Biden go to prison the way that Peter Navarro is going to prison right now? | ||
| That's the question. | ||
| Hunter Biden did, after the contempt vote, And the contempt vote was going to lead to them sending that contempt vote over to the Department of Justice to go put Hunter Biden in jail, right? | ||
| Found in contempt. | ||
| Hunter Biden was forced to show up in a closed-door hearing and take questions. | ||
| During that time period, Matt Gaetz left the room and addressed the cameras and talked about what Hunter Biden had to say. | ||
| Hunter Biden's entire argument was this. | ||
| Either I was on drugs, so I don't remember. | ||
| Or I was just doing this in order to fight Russian aggression in Ukraine. | ||
| Pretty special moment here, ladies and gentlemen. | ||
| That's presumably what you would have heard today. | ||
| The best that we got is actually Matt Gaetz out talking about what Hunter Biden said behind closed doors. | ||
| We'll see if Hunter Biden is charged and held in contempt for not showing up when Congress subpoenas him. | ||
| Here's what Matt Gaetz said after listening to Hunter Biden behind closed doors. | ||
| I'd say that there were a number of interesting moments, but perhaps none more interesting than when Hunter Biden told us that he joined the Burisma board to counter Russian aggression. | ||
| I hadn't heard that one before, that thank goodness we had Hunter Biden on the Burisma board because that was central to his strategy to stand up to Vladimir Putin. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Seems like a bad alibi. | ||
| It's not a bad argument. | ||
| In fact, what it really seems like, and we have the Victor Shoken clip, because I think this is very, very interesting. | ||
| Boys, get me that Victor Shoken clip, because Victor Shoken has come up during this hearing a number of times. | ||
| And Victor Shoken actually went on fire. | ||
| It's not like this guy would be hard to get. | ||
| If you can zoom him in from a prison, you could definitely get Victor Shoken into this hearing. | ||
| Victor Shoken is the prosecutor. | ||
| That they leveraged a billion dollars of American taxpayer funds. | ||
| Seems like a small amount now. | ||
| He's the man that was leveraged against on all this to get him fired because he was looking into Joe Biden's business dealings. | ||
| Remember, you're not allowed to do that. | ||
| You can't mess up the apple cart. | ||
| Remember, Eric Holder can't mess up. | ||
| You can't mess with the American ruling class. | ||
| They have, like, blanket protection from ever being prosecuted. | ||
| Victor Shokin went on Fox News. | ||
| Which is a wild get. | ||
| And through a translator did an interview talking about why Joe Biden wanted him fired and saying that it is total and complete corruption. | ||
| So you've heard multiple times, like everybody talking about Victor Shokin and saying that Joe Biden just wanted a really good independent prosecutor. | ||
| You remember the clip of Joe Biden. | ||
| You remember the clip of Joe Biden being like, hey, listen, I just wanted to get a guy in there that was good. | ||
| I told him, you're not getting the money. | ||
| Call Barack Obama. | ||
| You're not getting the money. | ||
| Well, son of a bitch. | ||
| Prosecutor got fired. | ||
| Joe Biden bragging about it. | ||
| And we put in somebody who was good. | ||
| You know, the person that Joe Biden put in there is in prison right now in Ukraine for corruption. | ||
| That's the person that Joe Biden set up as a prosecutor. | ||
| Victor Shokin says that Joe Biden got me fired because I was going after his own business interests. | ||
| So let's let the man speak for himself. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Do you believe that Joe Biden or Hunter Biden got bribes? | |
| I do not want to deal in unproven facts, but my personal conviction is that, yes, this was the case. | ||
| They were being bribed. | ||
| The fact that Joe Biden gave away $1 billion in U.S. Yep. | ||
| Here's how it all works. | ||
| We're shocked that members of the committee haven't used this handy little chart that we had created. | ||
| But this is how Bidenomics works, okay? | ||
| This is actual Bidenomics here. | ||
| Joe Biden. | ||
| He uses a billion dollars in taxpayer funds. | ||
| He holds it up, uses it as a bribe to get the prosecutor who was looking into... | ||
| The prosecutor was awesome. | ||
| Viktor Shogun was a great prosecutor. | ||
| And the leader of Ukraine at this time said so. | ||
| We actually have the tapes of that, I believe. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, this prosecutor was fired at the behest of Joe Biden because he was inconvenient to Hunter Biden's business dealings. | ||
| And then that company then pays the Bidens, right? | ||
| And the circle of life continues, ladies and gentlemen, continues again and again. | ||
| I believe that we actually have the phone call of Poroshenko, the man who was president of Ukraine at the time, on the phone with Joe Biden. | ||
| This is the Privat Bank call. | ||
| This is not the one. | ||
| This is the one about firing, getting choked and fired. | ||
| So let me know where that clip is, ALX, or let's load it. | ||
| So we'll play you that. | ||
| We can prove it. | ||
| And maybe that's why Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, no one from the Biden family is showing up as witnesses today. | ||
| Also, the last time that Hunter Biden showed up, he was asked whether the cocaine found in the White House was his. | ||
| Maybe this is another reason why. | ||
| Hunter Biden was literally mocked and savaged. | ||
| Through the halls of Congress. | ||
| And it was quite funny. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Biden, was the cocaine at the White House yours? | |
| Okay. | ||
| Was the cocaine at the White House yours? | ||
| Hunter Biden, would he have been able to sit through all this without daddy's little helper, mommy's little helper? | ||
| We're not exactly sure. | ||
| The last time Hunter Biden showed up, as soon as Marjorie Taylor Greene got a chance to ask questions, He stormed out of the room. | ||
| It was a bit chaotic and humiliating, is what it looked like. | ||
| Gentlemen, time's expired. | ||
| Chair recognized Ms. Green from Georgia for five minutes. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Excuse me, Hunter. | ||
| Apparently you're afraid of my words. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Whoa! | |
| I'd like to reclaim my time, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Wow. | ||
| So, we have a major problem here. | ||
| Because Hunter Biden, who has used this hearing as an opportunity to make a documentary, which is what was going on there, it's a documentary being made now about Hunter Biden, used it as effectively an opportunity to be a fabulist and to go up and cry about how oppressed he is. | ||
| Everyone feel sorry for me. | ||
| I'm a cokehead son of, like, one of the most powerful men on Earth. | ||
| I blew hundreds of millions of dollars on hookers and drugs. | ||
| I blew the lottery, effectively, being born into this corrupt family. | ||
| I could have just skated for the rest of my life, but instead I had a mental break, or whatever he had, and blew it all. | ||
| And now... | ||
| He's proving that his father was a liar because we have bona fide testimony that Hunter Biden and Joe Biden were in business together, that Joe Biden was the big guy, and that Hunter Biden was effectively hiding all of Joe Biden's cash. | ||
| That's a bribe, right? | ||
| And it's also illegal business practices holding that cash in order to keep Joe Biden's name off the official paperwork, right? | ||
| Because what they were doing was illegal. | ||
| That is what we heard from the testimony today. | ||
| All of that really stands in pretty stark contrast if you play back Joe Biden's conversations about Hunter's business enterprises. | ||
| Lucky for us, we happen to have those clips. | ||
| This is one of the more interesting clips from Axios asking Joe Biden about this Ukraine deal, saying, wait a second, this looks really bad. | ||
| I mean, no matter what, this looks terrible. | ||
| This operation you had going on in Ukraine, that you would fire a prosecutor and withhold the money, that's a quid pro quo. | ||
| That's illegal. | ||
| You set your son up at an oil company there. | ||
| He doesn't speak Ukrainian. | ||
| He doesn't know jack about oil. | ||
| Listen to Joe Biden's response and tell me, like, how easy is it to be a Democrat? | ||
| How easy is it to be a Democrat? | ||
| What a wonderful life. | ||
| When instead of like answering questions, you can just shake your head and smile. | ||
| When presented with the evidence of your criminality by the press, you shake your head and go, ha ha ha ha ha. | ||
| And then you can attack the press, which is exactly what Joe Biden does. | ||
| Watch. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hunter Biden, your son, was getting paid a lot of money to serve on the board of a Ukrainian energy company facing serious corruption charges. | |
| You were the vice president running point on Ukraine. | ||
| The average Joe hears that and says, that sounds fishy. | ||
| What's your understanding of what your son was doing for an extraordinary amount of money? | ||
| I don't know what he was doing. | ||
| I know he was on the board. | ||
| I found out he was on the board after he was on the board. | ||
| And that was it. | ||
| And there's nobody... | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, you've had a lot of time. | |
| Isn't this something you want to get to the bottom of? | ||
| No, because I trust my son. | ||
|
unidentified
|
But that doesn't pass the smell test. | |
| Like, when you're vice president, isn't there a higher standard? | ||
| Don't you need to know? | ||
| What's happening with your family? | ||
| Don't you need to put down some guardrails? | ||
| Unless there was something on its face that was wrong. | ||
| There's nothing on its face that was wrong. | ||
| Look, if you want to talk about problems, let's talk about Trump's family. | ||
| I mean, come on. | ||
| These guys are amazing. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So you think that everything that happened was kosher? | |
| You know there's not one single bit of evidence. | ||
| Not one little tiny bit to say anything done was wrong. | ||
|
unidentified
|
One little tiny bit, says Joe Biden. | |
| Not one little tiny bit to say that anything was wrong or that I was involved in my son's business dealings at all. | ||
| This is not the first time or the last time that Joe Biden looked directly down the barrel of the camera and then lied. | ||
| He lied. | ||
| He is a liar. | ||
| And what do we know about liars? | ||
| They lie about little things. | ||
| They'll lie about big things. | ||
| And this is a big thing. | ||
| Joe Biden denies again and again and again that he had any anything to do with the business of Hunter Biden. | ||
| Here we go. | ||
| President Biden on Ukraine and also China. | ||
| There is polling by the Associated Press that shows that almost 70 percent of Americans, including 40 percent of Democrats. | ||
| I believe that you acted either illegally or unethically in regards to your family's business interests. | ||
| Can you explain to the Americans-- to Americans amid this impeachment inquiry why you interacted with so many of your son and brother's foreign business associates? | ||
|
unidentified
|
The President: I'm not going to comment on that. | |
| I did not. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And it's just a bunch of lies. | |
| The Press: You didn't interact with many of their business associates? | ||
|
unidentified
|
The President: Either lies. | |
| I did not. | ||
|
unidentified
|
There's lies. | |
| Do you think there is any Democrat who could defeat Donald Trump other than you? | ||
| Probably 50 of them. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You do believe that there are? | |
| I'm not the only one to read it, but I will defeat it. | ||
| Who else do you think could defeat Donald Trump as the president? | ||
| So Joe Biden has denied again and again and again. | ||
| What we heard in congressional testimony. | ||
| Now, Joe Biden has done this. | ||
| It really is wild how much of a rat trap the Democrat mind is. | ||
| Because the way it works is as soon as you are presented with horrible criminal evidence for your own side, it goes, snap! | ||
| And the trap closes and you scream the word Donald Trump. | ||
| You literally scream reflectively. | ||
| With spittle going out of your mouth, orange teeth, plastic hair, you just scream the words Donald Trump. | ||
| We saw that in both those clips, and this one's my favorite, okay? | ||
| This one's my favorite. | ||
| This is from when Joe Biden was running for president. | ||
| He was about to get fifth place in Iowa. | ||
| Joe Biden lost Iowa, New Hampshire, got fifth place, fourth place. | ||
| Joe Biden should have dropped out, okay? | ||
| And then the system moves in to rig it all for him, right? | ||
| In South Carolina. | ||
| That is the actual, that is the absolute, nobody wanted Joe Biden. | ||
| Democrats don't want Joe Biden. | ||
| They made music videos about how they don't want Joe Biden. | ||
| And this was Joe Biden in Iowa being asked about his own dirty business dealings and watched the rat trap in action. | ||
| Snap! | ||
| Wrap up smear. | ||
| Snap! | ||
| Watch this. | ||
| It's remarkable. | ||
| I mean, it's unbelievable, especially given the testimony we've seen today. | ||
| And we'll play the testimony in just a second. | ||
| Like, this is the, the bloody cheek. | ||
| The vicious lying. | ||
| I mean, it is demonic. | ||
| Watch. | ||
| Mr. Vice President, how many times have you ever spoken to your son about his overseas business dealings? | ||
| I've never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings. | ||
| And so how do you know? | ||
| Here's what I know. | ||
| I know Trump deserves to be investigated. | ||
| He is violating every basic norm of a president. | ||
| You should be asking him the question, why is he on the phone with a foreign leader, trying to intimidate a foreign leader, if that's what happened. | ||
| That appears what happened. | ||
| Trump. | ||
| Trump's doing this because he knows I'll beat him like a drum. | ||
| And he's using the abuse of power and every element of the presidency to try to do something to smear me. | ||
| Everybody looked at this and everybody's looked at it and said there's nothing there. | ||
| Ask the right question. | ||
| You've never spoken to your son. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Is he being beat for this? | |
| Depending on what the House... | ||
| Ask the right questions! | ||
| What privilege to be... | ||
| I mean, you want to talk... | ||
| Maybe I do believe in white privilege as it pertains to the Biden family, but it has nothing to do with their skin color. | ||
| It has everything to do with the fact that he is a Democrat and that he was selected to be installed, ladies and gentlemen, as president. | ||
| He is the resident of the White House and he gets every pass. | ||
| I mean, it is just breathtaking. | ||
| The same play. | ||
| At the very least, the guy's like... | ||
| The guy's like Woody from Toy Story, right? | ||
| You pull the string and you get the same answer. | ||
| I had nothing to do. | ||
| He gets coached, right? | ||
| They get coached. | ||
| They bring in these big-time consulting firms with all these people from Ivy League schools and they work through these issues and they sit Joe Biden down and they coach him. | ||
| When you're asked about your son's crimes and your crimes, you say, I did nothing wrong. | ||
| Donald Trump's a criminal. | ||
| Ask the right questions. | ||
| That's what he does. | ||
| And that's what he does in interview after interview after interview. | ||
| So he says, I've done nothing. | ||
| And yet, in today's testimony, we heard something very, very different from a man who met with Joe Biden multiple times to be the hatchet man for Joe Biden in this business, Tony Bobulinski. | ||
| Tony Bobulinski telling Jim Jordan, oh yeah, Hunter Biden was literally reserving massive stakes, billion-dollar stakes, 10% of a Chinese energy company. | ||
| We were going to loot American natural gas. | ||
| We were going to sell it to the Chinese. | ||
| And Joe Biden was going to get 10% of that. | ||
| Worth hundreds of millions, billions of dollars? | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| That's 10% held by H for the big guy. | ||
| Who's the big guy? | ||
| Let's listen to Tony Bobulinski. | ||
| The ranking member just said that Joe Biden was opposed to corruption. | ||
| Really? | ||
| So opposed, he leveraged a billion dollars of American tax money to fire the prosecutor in Ukraine who was investigating Zolachevsky at Burisma, the company Hunter Biden set on the board up. | ||
| Wow. | ||
| And the prosecutor who replaced Shokin, that Mr. Parnaz referenced in his opening statement, Mr. Lutsenko, guess what he did? | ||
| He took Zolachevsky off the wanted list and dropped the charges. | ||
| Wow, he's really, really opposed to corruption there. | ||
| Mr. Bobulinski, who's the big guy? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Joe Biden. | |
| Are you sure about that? | ||
| Jordan, Joe Biden. | ||
| You're sure? | ||
| I'm a thousand percent sure. | ||
| Because when Hunter Biden did his deposition under oath, he said, I don't know who it is, even though he was copied on an email that said H will hold 10% for the big guy. | ||
| You sure it's the big guy is Joe Biden? | ||
| A thousand percent. | ||
| And there's other text messages that back that up, that the brave whistleblowers, Shapley and Ziegler, have produced, not from my phones, not from my BlackBerry that I took screenshots from. | ||
| They took them from subpoenas directly from Apple's iCloud that back up the fact that Hunter knew... | ||
| The big guy was Joe Biden. | ||
| The big guy is the brand. | ||
| The big guy is the lift. | ||
| The big guy is the one who showed up at golf outings, who took phone calls and meetings and lunches and dinners with Hunter Biden and his business associates. | ||
| Is that right? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Correct. | |
| So, someone's lying. | ||
| Joe Biden's story has changed. | ||
| It's always the people who change the stories who are lying, right? | ||
| People who tell the truth don't have to change their stories. | ||
| People who tell the truth know it's the truth. | ||
| You might not like the truth, but that's just the truth. | ||
| Joe Biden continued to change his story, change his language. | ||
| Joe Biden used to say, I never met with my kid about his business. | ||
| I never had any involvement. | ||
| And then it went from involvement to influence. | ||
| And then it went from influence to money. | ||
| Joe Biden never got paid. | ||
| And then after they showed the checks and the receipts, it was that Joe Biden was simply giving loans to people, and that's why he was giving loans back. | ||
| And then it was, and then my favorite iteration of all this was, there was no big influence. | ||
| Okay, so yeah, Joe Biden had influence in these deals. | ||
| He met with all their business partners. | ||
| He did all these phone calls. | ||
| But it was not substantial. | ||
| It was not substantial enough. | ||
| The goal, like, the goalposts are going to break. | ||
| The goalposts are going to snap. | ||
| Like the end of a college football upset. | ||
| With the amount of goalposts moving that's happening. | ||
| How bad is it? | ||
| How bad is it? | ||
| I mean, it's so bad that CNN straight up admits that Joe Biden's lying. | ||
| How bad of a liar do you have to be to have CNN admit you are the liar? | ||
| Listen to this. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Despite his denials, a CNN review of the laptop data, as well as other public material, shows that Joe Biden did interact with some of his son's associates while serving as vice president, though it's unclear exactly what was discussed. | |
| One example, the Republican site, Miguel Aleman Magnani, a Mexican businessman and son of the former president who Hunter was trying to woo. | ||
| In 2014, Aleman Magnani and his dad were photographed at the White House with then-Vice President Biden. | ||
| In a later email, Hunter Biden reminds Aleman Magnani of the favors he's done for him. | ||
| We have been talking about business deals and partnerships for seven years. | ||
| I have brought every single person you have ever asked me to bring to the effing White House and the Vice President's House and the inauguration. | ||
| Hunter Biden bluntly acknowledged the power of the Biden name in a memoir, writing that the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, which put him on its board, considered my last name gold. | ||
| I don't think that there's a lot of things that would have happened in my life if my last name wasn't five. | ||
| So Joe Biden says, and an important reminder, this is a Joe Biden impeachment hearing. | ||
| This is about an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden to fact find as to what Joe Biden did. | ||
| Joe Biden is a liar. | ||
| He has lied. | ||
| It is remarkable how putrid and repugnant the Democrat side of the aisle is, being unwilling to acknowledge that. | ||
| Using, of course, the rat trap. | ||
| As soon as you are presented evidence of your criminality, you snap and you scream the name Donald Trump and you scream Orange Man Bad. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, expect to see more of that. | ||
| Votes are now over in the House and members of this committee are filing back into the chamber. | ||
| And so when they begin the questions once more, again, we have Anna Paulina Luna up, Lauren Boebert up. | ||
| Some other great members of the Republican side and then some quite entertaining, super low information members of the Democrat side. | ||
| It should be expected more fireworks. | ||
| But ladies and gentlemen, the evidence is so clear that not only can CNN see it, but CNN using the evidence found on Hunter Biden's laptop, not using the actual phone calls of Joe Biden, but we won't stop just at the laptop. | ||
| We'll go right into Joe Biden's direct phone calls. | ||
| There was a leak of Joe Biden's phone calls with Poroshenko, who was the president of Ukraine. | ||
| And Poroshenko effectively saying, I don't know why you want me to fire this prosecutor who's doing great work for us. | ||
| Everyone loves him. | ||
| He has an incredible background. | ||
| But I'll fire Viktor Shokin because you asked me to and because we need this money. | ||
| We need the money that you're going to give us. | ||
| And you can hear Joe Biden, just like a mafia boss, on the other end of the line being like, yeah, good job, guy. | ||
| We have it in his own words. | ||
| You can listen to it. | ||
| Why this tape isn't played every single day on every single news outlet, I don't know. | ||
| Nobody's ever argued that this isn't Joe Biden or that these tapes are fake. | ||
| These tapes were released right before the 2020 election, and they were psyoped, right, by the regime. | ||
| But they're authentic. | ||
| They're real. | ||
| And this is what Joe Biden said to the leader of Ukraine in order to force him to stop investigating his son. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I have a second positive news for you. | |
| Yesterday I met with the General Prosecutor Schottel. | ||
| And despite of the fact that we didn't have any corruption charges, we don't have any information about he's doing something wrong, | ||
| I especially asked him to resign in his position as a state person and despite of the fact that he has a support in the power and as a finish of my Meeting | ||
| with him, he promised me to give me the statement on resignation. | ||
| One hour ago, he bring me the written statement of his resignation. | ||
| This is my second step for keeping my promises. | ||
| Oh, great. | ||
| So Joe Biden is just like on the other end of the line, like a mafia boss, listening to this installed leader. | ||
| This was after, of course, the 2014 coup that was orchestrated by our intelligence agencies in Ukraine because Ukraine's government was effectively just becoming neutral. | ||
| So our State Department decided to stage a coup. | ||
| In Ukraine, just literally a bread and butter by the numbers coup. | ||
| So then this guy gets installed and then Joe Biden is able to just muscle him around because it's going to affect Joe Biden's bottom line. | ||
| It's going to affect Joe Biden's business. | ||
| It's exactly what was happening. | ||
| And then something pretty wild changes. | ||
| Joe Biden, who thought he'd ride off into the sunset and be able to milk Ukraine and be able to grift and steal money from that nation forever. | ||
| Donald Trump gets elected. | ||
| And then suddenly Joe Biden's in a panic. | ||
| And this is, again, it is beyond my comprehension as to why these phone calls are not played on every single media outlet in the world. | ||
| Because they're so damning to the resident of the White House and to this entire hearing and why they're not played at this hearing. | ||
| But you can hear Joe Biden demand That that same leader shut down the bank that he was working with. | ||
| The guy who owns Privat Bank, that's the biggest bank in Ukraine, also owns Burisma, a little company called Burisma. | ||
| This guy was facilitating all the payments to the Bidens through this bank. | ||
| Why are there no records? | ||
| Because the payments from this bank went to Malta, where you can hide all your transactions. | ||
| This is why so many rich people do their services offshore. | ||
| And this is what the Bidens are doing. | ||
| So that's why the bank records come up empty on a lot of this stuff. | ||
| It's because the Bidens were effectively not only working to hide the payments, but were also shutting down the banks. | ||
| And why did Joe Biden want to shut down this bank? | ||
| Joe Biden wanted to shut down the bank because Donald Trump might suddenly get wise and learn what they were doing. | ||
| I kid you not. | ||
| Joe Biden is on tape saying this. | ||
| We got to make sure that Donald Trump doesn't get sophisticated enough to understand our operation here. | ||
| And so Joe Biden demanded, like, this is what you do with a vassal state, right? | ||
| When the State Department effectively can run a coup in your country and sets up a proxy government. | ||
| Ukraine is just effectively a state, like a proxy state run by our State Department. | ||
| That's become obviously evidently clear. | ||
| Joe Biden could just order banks to be shut down. | ||
| What a tyrant. | ||
| What a vicious dictator this guy is. | ||
| And that's exactly what he did. | ||
| Why did he order the banks to be shut down? | ||
| Because inside those banks is the evidence of all of the bribes and everything that was paid to Joe Biden. | ||
| And they are scared out of their pants that all this evidence is going to come to light. | ||
| Listen to Joe Biden literally demanding that right now. | ||
| And my producers tell me that the hearing will be coming back on in moments here, ladies and gentlemen, that the witnesses have taken their chairs. | ||
| Of course, we'll cut back to the hearing as soon as it begins. | ||
| Here we go, ladies and gentlemen. | ||
| Joe Biden shaking down the leader of Ukraine in the last hours as vice president under Barack Obama, in the final hours. | ||
| Joe Biden isn't spending time with his grandkids, taking photos at the vice president's house, isn't like doing friendly phone calls with world leaders. | ||
| He's demanding that banks get shut down in third world hell holes like Ukraine. | ||
| Proxy states so that Donald Trump can't hunt down his criminality. | ||
| It is remarkable. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Listen. | |
| Biden goes into overdrive to clean up loose ends. | ||
| November 16, 2016. | ||
| Two weeks after Donald Trump's victory, Joe Biden is on the phone with Poroshenko. | ||
| His voice, tenser now than before. | ||
| This is getting very, very close. | ||
| What I don't want to have happen. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I don't want Trump to get in a position where he thinks he's about to buy onto a policy where the financial system is going to collapse and he's going to be looked to to pour more money into Ukraine. | |
| That's how he'll think about it before he gets sophisticated enough to know the details. | ||
| In other words, Biden does not want Ukraine asking for more money from Trump. | ||
| Doing so would cause Trump to look into the details. | ||
| So anything you can do to push the Privat Bank to closure so that the IMF loan comes forward, I would respectfully suggest is critically important to your economic as well as physical security. | ||
| My God. | ||
| And they say that Donald Trump, like, leveraged, they impeached Trump for a phone call with Zelensky saying, you know, you should look into these guys. | ||
| They're criminals. | ||
| And here's the actual evidence of Joe Biden's criminality. | ||
| Joe Biden's threatening the physical security. | ||
| You heard it right. | ||
| That is an authentic phone call. | ||
| The physical and economic security of the leader of Ukraine. | ||
| If he doesn't shut down the bank, all their dirty business deals ran through. | ||
| Because we're reaching an hour where Donald Trump will take power and will become sophisticated enough to understand what we were doing. | ||
| The crimes we were doing. | ||
| These bastards, man. | ||
| These people. | ||
| The bloody cheek. | ||
| I mean, we really do. | ||
| What is the moment of enlightenment? | ||
| The moment of enlightenment is when you realize that all organized governments, but especially your own, are criminal cartels that are organized against you, the American people. | ||
| My producers are telling me that James Comer is back in his seat. | ||
| I don't know if we have a live feed up yet, but we do want to show you sort of this. | ||
| Funny little graphic that they have. | ||
| They're about to gavel in. | ||
| Maybe we can find another feed that actually has them gaveling in. | ||
| Or something that is... | ||
| Hey, producers, make sure that Royce knows which feed is clean. | ||
| ...underway. | ||
| Here we go. | ||
| ...into the business connections of the Biden family. | ||
| The president... | ||
| Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Mr. Galanis, I'm going to... | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Turn my questions to you. | ||
| I hope I can see you on the screen here shortly. | ||
| Are you there? | ||
| Here we go. | ||
| And we're back. | ||
| If we can jump right into another Biden-Chinese deal made while Joe Biden was in office, a deal I think you described in your interview as a quid pro quo, where the Chinese sent millions in exchange for a post-BP job for President Biden. | ||
| Can you tell us what was Burnham? | ||
| Republican question. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Burnham was an 85-year-old financial services company based in New York. | |
| It owned an asset management firm and a securities dealer. | ||
| But relative to the Chinese, it was an unimportant small player. | ||
| It could scale $1.5 billion versus $300 billion Chinese company. | ||
| So what was Hunter Biden's interest in working with them, knowing that that was the situation? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think Hunter Biden was already working with them through the fund that was created. | |
| The BHR harvest was the age. | ||
| And he was describing some of Hunter's emails that I had provided to the committee. | ||
| He described the activity with BHR, the harvest activity, as one of his only focuses. | ||
| And his other focus would be the activity between harvest directly and burn them directly in a combination. | ||
| So his stated in his own words, in writing, was those were to be his only focus, his only priority working with the Chinese in a go-forward basis. | ||
| Did you also say that he said the interest in working with Burnham was to make billions instead of millions? | ||
| Is that right? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Looking to become a much larger company where his equity interest would be worth a lot of money. | |
| Billions, not millions. | ||
| And you said the Harvest Fund was a $300 billion Chinese financial services company. | ||
| Was it likely connected or was it connected closely to the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese government? | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's my understanding. | |
| Okay. | ||
| And who was Henry Zhao? | ||
|
unidentified
|
He's been described to me consistently by Devin and Hunter as the chairman, but he's essentially the head of Harvest. | |
| I think he's had a couple of different roles over the years, but chairman is the best way. | ||
| He was always characterized as chairman and the decision maker for that entity. | ||
| Right, so he's the chairman of the $300 billion Chinese entity connected to the Chinese government, the Chinese Communist Party, and he was based out of where? | ||
| Where was his base of operations? | ||
|
unidentified
|
In Beijing, China, PRC. | |
| And like you said, you heard him referred to occasionally as Chairman Zhao, right? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Most of the time it was Chairman Zhao out of a sort of respect for the chairman, yes. | |
| Okay, so now there came to a point where Hunter wanted to bring Henry Zhao, the chairman of Harvest, and their billions of dollars from China into business with Burnham. | ||
| Is that right? | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's correct. | |
| That's correct, Hunter. | ||
| And why would he do that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
It was a financial decision. | |
| Chinese offered money, and he offered political access. | ||
| It was an exchange. | ||
| Fair enough. | ||
| It's pretty obvious what Harvest brings, right? | ||
| $300 billion. | ||
| But why would Harvest be interested in Burnham versus other financial institutions? | ||
| I'm sure there are other ones out there. | ||
| And like you said, it was fairly small. | ||
| Harvest is $300 billion. | ||
| Why would they care about this small Burnham? | ||
| What was the interest for them? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I mean, the self-evident answer is the political access. | |
| And then sort of underscoring that is there are at least two emails produced that talk about exactly that, the influence of what Henry Zhao had, Hunter had characterized as Henry Zhao's interest in the access vehicle. | ||
| So that was explicit and in writing. | ||
| Okay, so Joe Biden was going to sit on the board of a Chinese company connected to the highest levels of the Chinese government, the Chinese Communist Party. | ||
| Stepping back in your dealings with Hunter, what was the value that Hunter brought to the table? | ||
|
unidentified
|
It was the access to the inducement to induce companies like this Harvest Group to participate in Burnham. | |
| We'll call it relationship capital that he brought to the table, not financial capital, but an economic value to the business. | ||
| Relationship capital that you described as the Biden lift. | ||
| What was the Biden lift? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Biden lift was simply Hunter's access to his father and his father's power and prestige in influencing the growth of a financial services business, which largely... | |
| Reliant on its reputation and ability to attract other clients. | ||
| I'm running out of time here, but it sounds like a quid pro quo to me. | ||
| Sir, Harvest did, in fact, invest money in Burnham. | ||
| You called it a material inducement. | ||
| Can you explain what that means? | ||
| And do you know how much the Chinese paid? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I believe, and I was out of the picture toward the end of 2015, I believe that they ended up paying $4 million into Burnham. | |
| I believe, though, as a result of the legal entanglement that I encountered that the transactions didn't happen in the way people expected or that they had written about in terms of what the Chinese were expected to do. | ||
| All right, Mr. Galanis, I just want one last question. | ||
| I'm going to show you a draft email that you provided to the committee. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, I yield. | ||
| Objection on time. | ||
| Good job. | ||
| Chair now recognizes Ms. Crockett for one minute or five minutes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
One minute. | |
| All right. | ||
| Oh, boy. | ||
| First of all, Mr. Bobulinski, do you know who Elections LLC is? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Well, it's not a who. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| Well, do you know what it is? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| LLC. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| And is it the LLC that your attorney works for? | ||
| I believe so, yes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You believe so. | |
| Okay. | ||
| So at this point in time, I'd ask unanimous consent to enter into the record a document indicating that the law firm representing Tony Bobulinski was paid $10,000 as recently as January of this year by the Save America PAC, which you may recognize as Donald Trump's PAC. | ||
| Without objection. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Now, so far in this hearing, it has felt like the worst episode of The Apprentice. | ||
| I'm sure you're familiar with that show. | ||
| It seems like my colleagues and maybe you and some others are trying to become the next vice president of the United States of America. | ||
| You're auditioning or something like that because, Mr. Bobulinski, I know that you take exception to the fact that accountability has been called into question over and over. | ||
| But when someone comes to testify under oath, whether it's before this committee, behind closed doors, or in person, then we have to evaluate someone's credibility. | ||
| And sir, I definitely have always had issues with your credibility, as I know that you are very well aware of. | ||
| So let me remind you of what happened behind closed doors. | ||
| I haven't asked you a question. | ||
| You are? | ||
| I haven't. | ||
| So when I ask you a question, that's when you answer. | ||
| Otherwise, I won't. | ||
| So, with my time, because it's my time, I want to be clear that when we were behind closed doors, you called a number of people liars. | ||
| You called the Wall Street Journal. | ||
| You called Cassidy Hutchison a liar. | ||
| You called the FBI a liar. | ||
| You called Rob Walker a liar. | ||
| You called James Gillier a liar. | ||
| You called Hunter Biden a liar. | ||
| You called Jim Biden a liar. | ||
| And just today, you added to your list. | ||
| You called my colleague, Congressman Mr. Goldman. | ||
| A liar as well. | ||
| It seems like, according to you, the only person that's telling the truth is you and everyone else is lying. | ||
| But I want to move on to something else. | ||
| Is that a question? | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's not a question. | |
| You'll know when I ask you a question, I promise. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So, the other thing that I want to talk about is the fact that my colleague from the other side of the aisle talked about the company that we keep. | |
| And she wanted to go through a list of people that she felt like were a bad company because right now the majority has been relying upon the testimony of someone who's currently sitting in federal prison. | ||
| And we know that your company is the company of somebody who's been found liable of fraud as well as defamation, as well as... | ||
| Sexual assault and for whatever reason can't pay his bills at this point in time. | ||
| But I'm going to ask Mr. Parnas. | ||
| So this is a question to him. | ||
| Are you aware if Trump had any associates that have been found guilty of anything? | ||
| Yes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Lots of them. | |
| Lots of them. | ||
| Me included. | ||
| You included. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| So when you were called here to testify. | ||
| You weren't called here to testify for any other reason than to tell the truth. | ||
| Is that correct? | ||
| Yes, Congresswoman. | ||
| Now, we started this whole sham off because of the 1023. | ||
| And that was debunked by you, was it not? | ||
| Yes, Congresswoman. | ||
| Way before we started this impeachment inquiry. | ||
| And you mentioned a number of times this guy by the name of Rudy Giuliani. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| Now, you know, everybody is so stressed about the fact that Hunter ain't here today. | ||
| But, you know, Hunter came and testified behind closed doors for over six hours. | ||
| And every single one of them, they weren't limited to five minutes. | ||
| They could ask whatever they wanted to. | ||
| And there is a full transcript of his testimony. | ||
| So I don't know what else they wanted to do besides the fact that they wanted to put on a show. | ||
| But let me tell you something. | ||
| This whole thing is based upon something that Giuliani came up with. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| And we tried to subpoena him if I'm... | ||
| That's what I remember. | ||
| If anybody else remember, we asked, we said, hey, we should subpoena Giuliani. | ||
| But, you know, kind of like when we were trying to get his cell phone, they shut it down, right? | ||
| Like, they don't want the facts. | ||
| But you would agree with me that considering the fact that you were working under Rudy Giuliani at the time that you went over to Ukraine, that he has maybe some valuable information that he could offer this committee as to whether or not there's anything that we should be investigating in the first place. | ||
| Absolutely, Congressman. | ||
| I wish that this committee would subpoena Rudy Giuliani, put him on their oath alongside me to get to the bottom of the truth of what actually happened in Ukraine and to the manipulation that Trump and Giuliani and the team went to do. | ||
| I agree with you. | ||
| But somehow it doesn't look like we're going to get there. | ||
| And I thank you for your time. | ||
| Tom's expired. | ||
| Chair now recognizes Mr. Biggs from Arizona. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Mr. Galanis. | ||
| On May 9th, 2014, you received an email from Devin Archer confirming that Ms. Botterina was investing with Burnham Investments, $15-20 million. | ||
| Is that true? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, absolutely. | |
| And let's talk about the predicate for that. | ||
| Ms. Botterina is the richest woman in Russia, and you knew her. | ||
| And were you invited to a party that she attended? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, in Brooklyn, yes. | |
| Let's have the invitation up, please. | ||
| And here's a copy of the invitation that you received. | ||
| Is that right? | ||
|
unidentified
|
No, I see it, Congressman. | |
| I did receive an email invitation. | ||
| An email invitation. | ||
| And did you go to that party? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I did attend that party, yes. | |
| And was Hunter Biden at that party? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, he was. | |
| And we know that he was because we have a confirmation of his calendar, which is the next exhibit. | ||
| It was noted on there. | ||
| And he showed up there. | ||
| And so all of that's true. | ||
| It's all verified right there. | ||
| And Yelena Batarina and her then-husband, Yuri, they were at the party, right? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Correct. | |
| With Devin Archer as well? | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's correct. | |
| And during that party, you guys, Hunter pulled you guys, the people we just named, pulled them away from where the party is, and you go to a separate little area where it's quieter because there was over 100 people at that party. | ||
| Is that true? | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's true, yes. | |
| And all of a sudden, Hunter says, okay, I'm going to make a phone call. | ||
| He makes a phone call, does he not? | ||
|
unidentified
|
He does. | |
| To whom? | ||
|
unidentified
|
He called his father. | |
| Then Vice President Joe Biden, who was Vice President at the time. | ||
| What was said on the call, please? | ||
| Wait a second. | ||
| Before you tell us, the reason you know it is because he put it on speakerphone, right? | ||
|
unidentified
|
He did. | |
| After he said hello, then he put it on speakerphone. | ||
| So I was first party to hearing it. | ||
| Please sum it up. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm sorry, Congressman, I talked over you. | |
| Yeah, please sum up. | ||
| Please sum up that phone call for us, Mr. Golanus. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| It was a relatively short call, but it was he indicated that our friends had come in from out of town, that then the exchanges, it testified, was related to the, they were going to proceed, things were going to proceed, and he said, the vice president said, look after my boy. | ||
| And it was five days after that party that you received word from Devin that Ms. Baterina was in for $15 to $20 million with you guys, right? | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's correct. | |
| Let's go to a different issue. | ||
| Let's go to the harvest issue. | ||
| And I'll just refresh everyone's recollection. | ||
| When Devin Archer was there, because at that time... | ||
| He had to come in. | ||
| He came on in. | ||
| I had this great conversation with him. | ||
| I said, hey, did Hunter ever indicate to you that the Chinese anticipated that after his father was out of office? | ||
| He might join their company with one of their companies as a paid advisor. | ||
| Mr. Archer says, did he intimate that? | ||
| I said, did he indicate that to you? | ||
| Mr. Archer, I don't recall, but potentially. | ||
| I don't recall, but potentially. | ||
| And I said, you don't recall, but it's not new to you. | ||
| The concept is not new to you. | ||
| Is that what you're saying? | ||
| He said, no, it's not new to me. | ||
| Why wasn't it new to him? | ||
| Why wasn't it new to him? | ||
|
unidentified
|
It was an explicit discussion amongst us that that was an inducement to the Chinese to invest in the Burnham business. | |
| That being the VP's position post... | ||
| His position, official position. | ||
| On a board of advisors, paid board of advisors? | ||
| Of the Chinese company, Harvest, yes. | ||
| And when you say us, who is the us that was discussing that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
What I was referring to and just making that comment was Hunter, Devin, and myself. | |
| Let's go to something else. | ||
|
unidentified
|
There was a broader circulation group about that, and that was reflected in an email from a staff member at Thornton Group who circulated the draft email that also reflected he had a similar conversation and drafted a letter based on that understanding. | |
| How long have you been incarcerated, Mr. Golanus? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I've been incarcerated for eight years. | |
| And you offered... | ||
| To tell the Southern District of New York and SEC about Hunter Biden's company, Rosemont Seneca Bohai, and they rejected your offer, didn't they? | ||
|
unidentified
|
On multiple occasions, that's correct. | |
| Why do you think they rejected that offer? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Insane. | |
| Time's expired, but please answer the question. | ||
| Answer the question. | ||
|
unidentified
|
All I can tell you is what the council said to me. | |
| Which was? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| Counsel had indicated to me that he had never seen a prosecution reject information, particularly paper-based information, that could have corroborated my verbal statements. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| My time has expired. | ||
| Very good. | ||
| Chair recognizes Ms. Bush for five minutes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | |
| St. Louis and I are here today once again to focus on the real issues that affect our communities instead of this partisan circus. | ||
| Let me start by saying that influence peddling is absolutely a very serious issue. | ||
| Full stop. | ||
| But we all know the truth. | ||
| Donald Trump is the quintessential influence peddler in chief. | ||
| Oh my. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Despite this, for well over a year now, House Republicans have spent dozens of hours of precious committee time hearing testimony from nearly 20 witnesses on their baseless and increasingly embarrassing attempts to link President Biden to actions of his family members and implicate him by association. | |
| Even after all this time and effort, They haven't been able to muster up any credible links between the president and his son's business dealings. | ||
| All they have proven is that they will do whatever it takes, including using their razor-thin majority and chairmanships to waste the people's time. | ||
| Let's let today's hearing be the final nail in the coffin of this sham impeachment investigation. | ||
| Republican colleagues to admit that their quest to impeach the president has completely collapsed. | ||
| They have fallen short and with each passing deal they are losing votes and credibility even within their own conference. | ||
| It's time for them to move on. | ||
| But that's not likely to happen. | ||
| Because my Republican colleagues don't care about responsible governance or making people's lives better. | ||
| They don't have an affirmative agenda. | ||
| They would rather distract us all with these unfounded accusations against the president. | ||
| So it's no coincidence that under Republican leadership, 2023 marked the most unproductive year in modern history for Congress. | ||
| Aside from a failed impeachment investigation and unprecedented three-week stint without a speaker, And bringing our country to the brink of a catastrophic government shutdown multiple times. | ||
| Republicans have done absolutely nothing to demonstrate why they deserve to control any member, any chamber of Congress, let alone the White House, for which their cult leader, a twice impeached, four times indicted former president, is running to gain influence and control again. | ||
| They're just grasping at straws, and it'd be comical. | ||
| If it wasn't leading to real harm and real hurt in our communities, the people of our country are the ones paying the price for their failure to actually govern. | ||
| Instead of wasting all of our time, our hours and hours and hours going down fake rabbit holes and amplifying baseless conspiracies, we could focus on actual policy. | ||
| We could focus on substance. | ||
| We could focus on saving and improving the lives of our constituents. | ||
| Not misusing precious time and resources of this committee. | ||
| What I'd rather focus on is the people who don't have the money and resources to buy influence. | ||
| The millions of people in our districts who have been harmed by the ongoing refusal of the federal government to take full responsibility for the Manhattan Project waste and who are still getting sick from exposure to toxic radioactive waste their own government created. | ||
| It still lingers in communities all across the country, like in St. Louis, Missouri, where proper cleanup still remains undone. | ||
| I am ranking member on the Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs. | ||
| I have repeatedly requested a hearing on Manhattan Project Waste and its countless victims. | ||
| I'm still waiting. | ||
| What the hell is she talking about? | ||
| Every day, 327 people are shot in the United States. | ||
| Every year, 42,654 people die from gun violence. | ||
| more children die from guns than anything else in this country. | ||
| Why are we not acting to protect them? | ||
| How are we not treating this like the public health emergency that We should be allowed to vote. | ||
| Why not enfranchise them? | ||
| What about reproductive rights and freedom? | ||
| We have... | ||
| A public health crisis in this country where millions of people of reproductive age can't get the care that they need. | ||
| People in St. Louis are being forced to give birth against their will. | ||
| Republicans need to use abortion care just like the rest of us. | ||
| Why not meaningfully address this issue? | ||
| We need to focus on ending the atrocities in Gaza and Israel. | ||
| Since January, malnutrition in children under five has doubled, nearly doubled. | ||
| Global experts warn... | ||
| Famine is imminent for 1.1 million people. | ||
| Half the population due to catastrophic food insecurity. | ||
| Why are we not acting to reinstate UNRWA, prevent famine and the spread of disease, and ending the continued slaughter of Palestinians? | ||
| We do not have time, have infinite time and resources. | ||
| I will stop there. | ||
| Thank you, and I yield the balance of my time to Rep. | ||
| Goldman. | ||
| Oh, ma 'am, this is Wendy's. | ||
| This is Wendy's drive-thru. | ||
| Oh, ma 'am. | ||
| Mr. Bobulinski, you have testified that... | ||
| Would you like a Baconator or not? | ||
| That you met Mark Meadows, then Chief of Staff for Donald Trump, at a Trump rally in Georgia behind Secret Service cars. | ||
| You were wearing... | ||
| Time's expired. | ||
| Sir, you went over a minute late with Mr. Perry. | ||
| We could have a little extra time. | ||
| Correct. | ||
| If you... | ||
| Trump rally that you said... | ||
| Time's expired. | ||
| Chair now recognizes Mr. Sessions for five minutes. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, could we have some basic equity? | ||
| If someone else wants to yield... | ||
| She had eight seconds to yield him, and he's got up here with a speech. | ||
| He's already... | ||
| Abused his privilege by making a motion that wasn't even a motion. | ||
| Chair has ruled. | ||
| The chair has ruled. | ||
| The chair has ruled. | ||
| What are you afraid of, Mr. Chairman? | ||
| What are you afraid of? | ||
| Why don't you let me ask the question? | ||
| Chair recognizes the gentleman from... | ||
| Oh, what purpose do you seek recognition, Mr. Biggs? | ||
| Unanimous consent to introduce the documents into the record. | ||
| Without objection? | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Here they are. | ||
| One is the invitation that was mentioned. | ||
| Another is Hunter Biden's calendar. | ||
| Another is the email mentioned confirming that Yelena Batarini was going to invest $10 to $20 million with him. | ||
| Another one is page 180 of the Galanis interview, page 56 of the transcribed interview of Hunter Biden, and also pages 41 and 42 of the Galanis. | ||
| Without objection, so ordered into the record. | ||
| What purpose do you seek recognition? | ||
| I have a UC motion, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Proceed. | ||
| I would like to enter into the record the portion of the Devin Archer transcript where he says that Yelena Batterina never had any business dealings with Hunter Biden and that money went into their joint account was done by mistake. | ||
| By mistake. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Without objection. | ||
| And, Mr. Chairman, I have one UC request as well. | ||
| This is from Salon Magazine. | ||
| It's embarrassing. | ||
| Republicans worry they have zero accomplishments to run on in elections. | ||
| Salon Magazine. | ||
| Chair now recognizes the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Sessions, for five minutes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Chairman, thank you very much. | |
| I'd first like to enter into the record 302s that were done with Mr. Bobulinski, what's known as Exhibit 400A. | ||
| Thank you very much. | ||
| Mr. Pawlinski, thank you for being here. | ||
| Mr. Parnas, thank you for being here and those of you who are appearing extraneously on our screen. | ||
| Mr. Pawlinski, tell me about, very quickly, about the professionalism of the organization that you work for in terms of paychecks, getting paychecks, providing the IRS with documentation of people who were paid out of the organization. | ||
| I'm not sure I'm following your question. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Were you ever paid? | |
| I was not. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So you were never paid by this organization? | |
| I was not. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Did you ever receive any enumeration? | |
| When we were in the process of trying to shut down Sino Hawk Holdings LLC and Oneida Holdings LLC, I was compensated. | ||
| It wasn't a compensation. | ||
| It was a reimbursement of $50,000 of money I'd come out of pocket, traveling around, paying for hotels and stuff like that. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So, in other words, people did not get paid or you didn't get paid that you were aware of. | |
| Were you aware that other people were being paid? | ||
| The Biden family was paid. | ||
| Hunter and Jim Biden were clearly paid millions of dollars. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And how would you think that that... | |
| Information would be transmitted about them receiving that payment and going to the IRS. | ||
| I'm not sure of those specifics. | ||
| I'm just aware that they received those millions of dollars, obviously, based on the brave testimony of Shapley and Ziegler that came public with a bunch of information, and then Senator Johnson and Senator Grassley's report I never saw. | ||
| The only bank account I ever saw is the one I set up at J.P. Morgan for Sinohawk Holdings and Oneida Holdings LLC. | ||
| J.P. Morgan was well aware that the Biden family were owners in that business. | ||
| They authorized it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
What social security number was utilized to set up that account? | |
| For Sino Hawk and Oneida? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| We had to represent the owners of the underlying entity, so they were aware that Hudson West 4 owned 50% of Sino Hawk Holdings, and they provided their information. | ||
| On the Oneida side, we represented that each of us owned 20%, and I'd have to go back and look. | ||
| I, as the CEO, probably provided my social security number. | ||
| I'm not sure if we provided social security numbers for all five members. | ||
| Or, excuse me, tax IDs for their LLCs. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Or tax IDs. | |
| And yet you never received money except reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses that were related to the business. | ||
| Correct. | ||
| And imagine that $50,000 I was paid was actually from the legal side of Sino Hawk Holdings and the Chinese while the Bidens had defrauded me and were receiving millions of dollars into their own pockets. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Were you aware that they were receiving millions of dollars at the time? | |
| I was not. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Did you spend time with the Department of Justice on this matter? | |
| I did. | ||
| I did. | ||
| I had a voluntary interview with the FBI on October 23rd, I believe, 2020. | ||
|
unidentified
|
They approached you or you approached them? | |
| My lawyers coordinated me. | ||
| I, which is obviously public knowledge, went to the second debate. | ||
| I flew to D.C. with the intent of sitting in front of Senator Johnson, Senator Grassley, and their committee. | ||
| And then my lawyers sought counsel, had discussions, and decided it was a better focus on my time to walk voluntarily into the FBI. | ||
|
unidentified
|
So where did you do that? | |
| In Washington, D.C. Main Justice, Main FBI, or the field office? | ||
| I believe it was the leading field office. | ||
| They didn't want to do it in Maine justice for some of their reasons. | ||
| They decided I would have gone wherever they asked me. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Did they tell you at the time that you were providing information that if you provided information that was not true and correct? | |
| That you could be held liable for that under criminal statute? | ||
| Yes, of course. | ||
| I appreciate you asking that question. | ||
| I was operated as if I misrepresented, misstated, lied that I was committing criminal offenses, which I take very seriously based on the fact that I was willing to die for this country. | ||
| And to just correct Ms. Crockett's statement earlier, I didn't accuse the FBI of lying. | ||
| I stated in my transcribed interview that the FBI made mistakes in their 302. | ||
| My lawyers never saw that document after my interview until it was made public to the world. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And then you attempted to correct that 302. | |
| I did. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Is that the same 302 known as Exhibit 400A that I have entered in the record today? | |
| It is. | ||
| Do you have any other dispute with that? | ||
| And have you looked at it? | ||
| Do you have any other dispute? | ||
| Well, there's numerous mistakes in it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| Thank you very much. | ||
| Do you have any reason to believe that all of these SAR reports that have come out of banks were all fraud? | ||
| Gentleman's time's expired, but he asked a question about the SARS report. | ||
| I mean, just the number of SARS reports should give every American pause. | ||
| The average American in this country will never receive a single SAR in their entire life. | ||
| So for a family or an individual to have over what I've publicly seen, 150 of them, is just extraordinary. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I want to thank all the witnesses that are here today, Mr. Chairman. | |
| Thank you very much. | ||
| Gentlemen, time's expired. | ||
| Chair now recognizes Mr. Frost. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Kassar. | |
| Thank you, Chairman. | ||
| If I could have my full five minutes, I'd appreciate that. | ||
| Reset the clock for five minutes for Mr. Kassar. | ||
| Thank you, Chairman. | ||
| While we clearly disagree on the merits of this meritless investigation, I hope, Chairman, that we can at least come to an agreement on some basics. | ||
| I believe that you and I can agree that presidents and White House officials should not be unduly influenced by foreign powers. | ||
| So, Chairman, I'd be happy to yield to you briefly for a yes or no. | ||
| Can we all agree that White House officials should not be bribed or unduly influenced by foreign actors? | ||
| It's your time. | ||
| You can ask. | ||
| We have witnesses here. | ||
| I would assume that you would agree. | ||
| We have witnesses if you want to ask the witnesses question or you want to waste time with me. | ||
| I'm not wasting time with you. | ||
| I think that we've been disagreeing all day. | ||
| I hope we can come to an agreement that White House officials should not be bribed or unduly influenced by foreign powers. | ||
| I think you and I agree on this point. | ||
| I see you nodding your head. | ||
| I assume that that is a yes. | ||
| I'm glad that we can work as an oversight committee on investigations. | ||
| Do the work we need to do and make sure that no one in the White House has betrayed the public trust. | ||
| We've spent countless hours talking about Hunter Biden, investigating every single person that seems like he's ever shaken hands with. | ||
| We've not found a shred of evidence that connects it to the President of the United States or anyone with any say over US policy. | ||
| But someone who has worked in the White House did accept money from a foreign power. | ||
| Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, received a staggering $2 billion from Saudi Arabia for his brand new private equity firm. | ||
| And while Hunter Biden never had any say over U.S. policy, Mr. Kushner got this $2 billion six months after working in the White House as a senior advisor on Middle East policy. | ||
| Mr. Kushner had no experience in private equity. | ||
| In fact, he was so inexperienced that Saudi officials tried to block the transfer of the money until the crown prince overruled them. | ||
| While working at the White House, Mr. Kushner pushed through a $110 billion weapon sale for Saudi Arabia. | ||
| I'm finishing my point and then I'm happy to talk about it. | ||
| He then defended the deal in the wake of the Saudi government's murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. | ||
| And while this may all just be a coincidence, there's many questions. | ||
| Like, was any of this money passed along to Trump? | ||
| Was the Saudi money a thank you for a job well done in the White House? | ||
| Was Jared given this money in exchange for anything else? | ||
| Or did someone with no experience just have a lucky payday? | ||
| These are questions we should have answers to. | ||
| These are questions that the oversight committee should look into. | ||
| But we can just add another question. | ||
| What was the role that Jared Kushner played in covering up the assassination and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi? | ||
| We should absolutely ask that question. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Oh, my God. | |
| And so… So, I want to know, if Hunter Biden had accepted $2 billion from the Saudi government, I'm sure we'd be looking into that today. | ||
| And, Mr. Chairman, I believe we can agree that there should not be undue influence in the White House, and I believe we should be able to agree that we should look into these questions about Mr. Kushner. | ||
| And, in fact, Mr. Chairman, you were on CNN and said, Quote, I've been very vocal that I think what Kushner did crossed the line of ethics. | ||
| And then in our deposition of Hunter Biden the other day, when we were discussing Mr. Kushner, you said, Mr. Chairman, and I quote from the deposition, when we deal with influence peddling, we'll ask about Jared Kushner. | ||
| Well, today's hearing is titled Influence Peddling. | ||
| So we are here. | ||
| So, Mr. Comer, I would love to hear from you. | ||
| Can we fulfill our responsibility as an oversight committee and determine if Saudi Arabia bribed or unduly influenced Jared Kushner or other White House officials? | ||
| Is that something we'd be willing to look into? | ||
| We've already had a conversation with Ms. Porter. | ||
| I'm going to answer one time. | ||
| Ms. Porter and I have pledged to work on influence-peddling legislation. | ||
| We'll take up all the people who have been accused of influence-peddling. | ||
| We'll try to determine whether Jared Kushner has a real business. | ||
| We haven't been able to find a real business that the Bidens have had yet. | ||
| Still your time. | ||
| So could we expect to subpoena Mr. Kushner's correspondence with the Saudi government or his firm's financial records or financial transactions between Mr. Kushner and his father-in-law? | ||
| Is that something that we would consider doing as part of that hearing you just discussed? | ||
| What was the question? | ||
| If we are serious about looking into foreign money, I saw recently a poster board here about $100,000 to a car dealership. | ||
| Are we going to be serious about the $2 billion from the Saudi government to Mr. Kushner? | ||
| My question is, would we be at least subpoenaing Jared's correspondence with the Saudi government and his firm's financial records? | ||
| Can we commit to doing that? | ||
| I think it's important to see if there were real legitimate businesses. | ||
| Let me ask you a question. | ||
| What business was Hunter Biden in? | ||
| We heard explicitly from Mr. Biden about his extensive business record and his experience on boards. | ||
| We heard about that. | ||
| Mr. Kushner, on the other hand. | ||
| Chair now recognizes Mr. Fallon for five minutes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Before I start my questions, I'd like to enter into the record, submit to the record an article from the Kyiv Post. | |
| And then the second article from the Key Post entitled Prosecutor General Shulkin resigns and it's updated. | ||
| Without objection to order. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | |
| I sat in on the entire seven-plus-hour deposition that Hunter Biden gave to this committee, and one of the things that stood out to me was his assertions with a rather braggadocious flair of his business experience and his acumen and his impeccable qualifications. | ||
| He claimed... | ||
| With quite some vigor, I might add, that he was a brilliant, accomplished, and highly sought-after business commodity. | ||
| He's very successful, and he had an unparalleled resume that he recited to us, chapter and verse, to prove it. | ||
| That was at least the face his lawyers, this administration, and the House Democrats wanted him to wear. | ||
| Of course, there's another possibility, one that is a pesky little thing we call reality, that he was a spoiled, entitled East Coast patrician. | ||
| With a senator and then VP daddy who squandered his many life advantages and spiraled into a decadent behavioral pattern of narcissistic excess and criminal addiction. | ||
| And to feed his very large carnal appetites, he acted as his family's bag man in an influence-peddling and access-selling scheme that netted the Biden tribe over $24 million in illicit foreign cash. | ||
| Lots of money, little effort. | ||
| In a get-rich-quick scheme. | ||
| If he was such a skilled and gifted businessman, as he claimed, his services would be sought after, in fact, even fought over. | ||
| Mr. Boblinski, to your knowledge, how many Fortune 500 companies retained Hunter Biden on their board of directors? | ||
| Now or in his... | ||
|
unidentified
|
Ever? | |
| I can't confirm any. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah, because there aren't any. | |
| Zero. | ||
| How about, how many energy companies retained Hunter Biden, I'm sorry, how many American energy companies retained Hunter Biden on their boards of directors? | ||
| Zero. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Zero, nada, correct. | |
| There was one energy company that retained him on their board of directors. | ||
| Do you know what the name of that company was? | ||
| Yes, Burisma. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Burisma, correct. | |
| Where's Burisma located? | ||
| Ukraine. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Really? | |
| It's interesting because, and he was hired actually for no small sum, a million dollars a year. | ||
| Hunter Biden said in his deposition he could bring, and Mr. Chairman, I apologize for laughing, but he said his corporate governance to the table. | ||
| He brought something far more valuable than his corporate governance. | ||
| In his fictitious business acumen, he brought his daddy with him. | ||
| You see, Joe Biden just happened to have been given the country of Ukraine in his portfolio of responsibility to oversee by the Obama administration. | ||
| So let's go over some facts, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Told you. | ||
| Burisma and CEO Mikhail Zilchevsky had been investigated for corruption. | ||
| Fact. | ||
| In September 2015, then U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Jeffrey Pyatt, specifically mentioned Burisma as a corrupt entity. | ||
| Fact. | ||
| Burisma was paying the son of the vice president of these United States a million dollars a year to serve on their board. | ||
| Fact. | ||
| December 2015, Joe Biden visits Ukraine, demands Viktor Shokin, the prosecutor general of Ukraine, who's investigating Burisma, his son's boss, be fired. | ||
| Fact. | ||
| February 2nd, 2016, Kiev Post reports, Viktor Shokin won a court order to seize assets of Burisma's CEO, Mikhail Zolchevsky. | ||
| Two weeks later, in fact, Shokin resigns. | ||
| President Poroshenko called on him to resign. | ||
| He resigned. | ||
| He essentially was fired at the behest of Joe Biden. | ||
| In fact, 2016 February, two weeks later, there's a little email sent from Vadim Pozarski, COO of Burisma. | ||
| He's an executive of Burisma. | ||
| And to Hunter Biden, asking him, hey, Hunter, will you help us out? | ||
| We want to get the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine to say that we're a good company. | ||
| Now, the ambassador just said they were corrupt a few months prior to that. | ||
| And then, lo and behold, with the seal of the United States Embassy, they say that we have no negative information or feelings about Burisma. | ||
| So what changed in those six months? | ||
| It was magic. | ||
| The power of the vice president's visit when he demands that his son's boss, the prosecutor who's investigating his son's boss, be fired. | ||
| And he's going to withhold a billion dollars worth of aid. | ||
| Actually, I think the loan guarantees. | ||
| If Shokin's not fired. | ||
| And then Shokin is fired. | ||
| The embassy says that Burisma's a great company. | ||
| Our Democratic colleagues, but have us believe, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| That that was all magic. | ||
| That there was no coincidence here. | ||
| And with that, I yield the balance of my time to Mr. Jordan. | ||
| I appreciate the gentleman yielding. | ||
| I was just going to point out that Jared Kushner was one of the key officials involved in the Abraham Accords. | ||
| If we want to talk about influencing foreign, how about the President of the United States, what he said in the State of the Union regarding Israel, and how about what the Democrat leader... | ||
| Of the Senate said last week that Israel should change its prime minister, for goodness sake. | ||
| That, to me, is a concern. | ||
| Jared Kushner was doing good work with the Abraham Accords. | ||
| Of course, the Democrats don't want to admit that. | ||
| I appreciate the gentleman for yielding. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, I have a motion. | ||
| I would move pursuant to Clause 2K6 of Rule 11 that the committee issue a subpoena to Jared Kushner to compel testimony related to the $2 billion collected from Saudi Arabia. | ||
| After his service within the White House. | ||
| Second. | ||
| There's a motion. | ||
| For what purpose does the gentleman from Ohio seek recognition? | ||
| Move to table the motion. | ||
| The motion to table is not debatable. | ||
| As many as are in favor of tabling signify by saying aye. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Aye. | |
| All those opposed signify by saying no. | ||
| No! | ||
| In the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. | ||
| And the motion to table is agreed to. | ||
| The committee will now resume consideration of this hearing. | ||
| Dow Chair recognizes, is it Ms. Lee? | ||
| Who's next? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | |
| I think it's fair to say at this point that Republicans on this committee are relying on Mr. Bobulinski as their star witness. | ||
| The only fact witness they have brought in, in person, before this committee. | ||
| So I think we'd all expect that Mr. Bobulinski would have extensive inside knowledge about the involvement they allege that President Biden and in Hunter's business ventures. | ||
| As Mr. Parnas can vouch for, previous impeachment inquiries relied on whistleblowers and witnesses with intimate details of what went on, you know, firsthand accounts of high crimes and misdemeanors. | ||
| You could point to exactly what the allegations were and understand what was going on. | ||
| There were laid out chains of events pointing to a named crime, lying under oath, obstruction of justice, abuse of power, incitement of insurrection. | ||
| Yet we're left floundering here with zero direction and zero real evidence while we watch this kangaroo court struggle to continue on. | ||
| And today we have Mr. Bobuliski whose biggest contribution is that he had, quote, multiple meetings with Joe Biden. | ||
| But let's be clear. | ||
| He spoke with Joe Biden a grand total of two times in the span of less than 24 hours in 2017, and each was short. | ||
| One in public, in the bar of a hotel, and then for a few minutes backstage at the Milken Conference after Biden spoke about the efforts to fight cancer, which took the life of his son, Beau. | ||
| I think we also need to clarify that while Mr. Bobuliski is all of a sudden today claiming that they talked business, but at no point did he mention this during his deposition, under oath with this committee. | ||
| At two different points when asked about what was said in these conversations, Mr. Bobulinski's account made clear that he had zero substantive business discussions with Mr. Joe Biden. | ||
| Mr. Bobulinski described those conversations twice during his transcribed interview, and both times he provided the same account. | ||
| I'll read from the transcript of your interview, Mr. Bobulinski. | ||
| You stated that you and Joe Biden discussed your, quote, family background in detail, as well as the Biden family's background and Joe Biden's, quote, appreciation for the military, pages 48 through 52 and 268 to 271 of the transcript had these accounts. | ||
| Based on your own account, you had zero discussion of CEFC, the Chinese energy company. | ||
| You had zero discussion on shares of equity or capitalization. | ||
| of this failed business venture. | ||
| Based on your own account, you simply exchanged pleasantries about your families and shared values, the kind of small talk any person would make if they had the opportunity to meet the former Vice President of the United States and moved on. | ||
| Yet today, when my Republican colleagues are so desperate for actual evidence, magically that story changes. | ||
| And that's really at the heart of everything we're discussing today. | ||
| Mr. Bobulinski has also been pushing his texts as records as proof, yet the Wall Street Journal found that none of it showed any role for Joe Biden in Sinahawk holdings, and even Fox News reported that there was zero evidence of business dealings involving Joe Biden. | ||
| Mr. Bobulinski would have us believe that everyone is a liar except him. | ||
| And except for when he's under oath. | ||
| That everyone misremembers except for him and except for when he's under oath. | ||
| The FBI, the Wall Street Journal, his business associations, all liars. | ||
| Republicans in this committee and the culture warriors of Fox News keep saying, look at the documents. | ||
| Look at the documents. | ||
| So let's look. | ||
| This purported investigation has received over 100,000 pages of documents and not a single one shows any evidence of any wrongdoing, much less an impeachable offense. | ||
| And taking a step back, even if Joe Biden had discussed his son's business ventures with Tony Bobulinski in 2017, and this is rhetorical, so what? | ||
| What would be the high crime of misdemeanor? | ||
| What would be the impeachable offense? | ||
| We're talking about what private citizen Hunter Biden was doing with his time at the time, private citizen dad. | ||
| This impeachment inquiry is not about facts or evidence. | ||
| It's not even about impeachable offenses. | ||
| It's about keeping the American people distracted while we do nothing on reducing gun violence, nothing on lowering healthcare costs, nothing on reforming our criminal legal system. | ||
| This has been the least productive Congress in decades. | ||
| We're just now, in March, finally funding the government for this year. | ||
| That's shameful. | ||
| This unserious hearing is a waste of our time and our resources. | ||
| I yield with that and I yield the remainder of my time to Representative Crockett. | ||
| Yes, I just want to make sure that I point out, and this is not a question, just in case you wanted to know, that on page 174 of your transcribed interview, line 9, it says, this is an absolute lie. | ||
| In reference to talking about the FBI, what you stated... | ||
| I did not call the FBI agents liars. | ||
|
unidentified
|
What was stated right before that was, first of all, I said that I'm speaking and I did not ask you a question. | |
| First of all, it doesn't say Tony Bobulinski told the FBI. | ||
| This is a summary of two agents that took notes through my interview and their summary. | ||
| Apparently, that they presented says Bobulinski first met in person with members of the Biden family at a 2017 meeting in Miami, Florida. | ||
| This is an absolute lie. | ||
| That is what it says. | ||
| The final thing that I'm going to say is about this. | ||
| What we have from Ken Buck, every Republican. | ||
| I don't think that the impeachment of Biden is appropriate, and so House Speaker Mike Johnson's ability to talk me into staying here is going to be about as successful as his ability about talking me into an unconstitutional impeachment. | ||
| I'll let her have 30 seconds over. | ||
| Chair now recognizes Mr. Burchett from Tennessee. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| On July 30th, 2017, Hunter Biden wrote to his Chinese business associate. | ||
| Raymond Zhao. | ||
| I'm sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. | ||
| Mr. Bobulinski, why did Raymond Zhao work for the... | ||
| Who did Raymond Zhao work for when this message was sent? | ||
| Raymond Zhao worked for Director Zhang at CFC. | ||
| Is CFC connected to the Chinese Communist Party? | ||
| It is. | ||
| Is CFC a corrupt organization? | ||
| It was. | ||
| From your perspective, what has occurred... | ||
| What had occurred with CEFC from the end of May to this July 30th text message? | ||
| Well, it's tough to go through all these details in 20-second clips, but at the end of July, it's important to note Jim Biden was broke. | ||
| Hunter Biden was broke. | ||
| Published by the Brave Whistleblower, Shapley and Ziegler. | ||
| And Hunter made the conscious decision to basically... | ||
| Defraud the partners of Sino Hawk Holdings and Oneida because he needed money immediately. | ||
| They've published pages of text messages where he's trying to get money into his bank account. | ||
| And so that night, for whatever reason, on the 30th, when he asked why hasn't the commitment been fulfilled, the commitment he's talking about is actually the $10 million funding into Sino Hawk Holdings LLC. | ||
| Really key point. | ||
| But the next day... | ||
| He decides that he's going to defraud Sino Hawk Holdings and Oneida, create a new entity called Hudson West 3. Well, actually, change Hudson West 3. It had already previously been created by the Chinese and make himself a 50% owner in that entity. | ||
| So when the Chinese did send money, he would have instant access to it. | ||
| Really important. | ||
| Backed up with tens of pages of communications. | ||
| He wanted to get access to the money the second it came in. | ||
| And in Sinohawk Holdings and Oneida Holdings, he did not have that power. | ||
| I just want to address one thing real quick. | ||
| Hunter Biden represents he's a governance expert. | ||
| That's why Burisma put him on the board. | ||
| Well, he obviously can't do basic math. | ||
| The board of Oneida Holdings had seven votes. | ||
| Each one of them, Hunter, Jim Biden, James Gillian, Rob Walker, had a single vote. | ||
| I had three votes. | ||
| I have a master's degree in electrical and nuclear engineering. | ||
| I think I can do math. | ||
| I had three. | ||
| They had four. | ||
| They controlled Oneida Holdings. | ||
| So Hunter Biden's representations that... | ||
| I was trying to take the business from them or I didn't know is all a sham and a misrepresentation. | ||
| He wanted money in his account instantly and that's why he shook down the Chinese and they were willing to send him that five million dollars because they viewed it as a bribe to the Biden family. | ||
| They say it in their own communications. | ||
| Are you aware or not that they pay taxes on any of that? | ||
| I can only go from public testimony. | ||
| I was not involved in their taxes. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| On July 31st, the next day, Hunter says he hopes Kevin should know that the plan to speak is highly confidential. | ||
| And Raymond Zal responded, CEFC is willing to cooperate with the family and the priorities to solve the problems mentioned last night. | ||
| What family was Raymond Zal talking about? | ||
| Well, the family was the Biden family. | ||
| And more importantly in that text is what is he talking about is the confidential manner. | ||
| The confidential matter he's talking about were four sealed indictments in the SDNY where they were about to indict executives of CEFC that we now know. | ||
| I didn't know that in July of 2017, but the SDNY knew. | ||
| Charles McGonigal, who's now apparently going to serve 78 months in prison, ran counterintelligence for the FBI in New York City where Chairman Yee was dropping $50 million of cash for penthouses in Manhattan. | ||
| So who you should be asking all these questions are the Department of Justice, the SDNY, the FBI, because they have troves of evidence that back up what was going on in July 2017 and in August 2017. | ||
| So I apologize, Congressman, to be so passionate and to take your time, but this is what I need you guys, or the focus has to be of your oversight committee. | ||
| This involved the Chinese Communist Party. | ||
| They were doing a transaction with Rosneft, which was a Russian-sanctioned... | ||
| U.S. sanctioned company at the time, and the Biden family was right front and center in the middle of it. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Let's switch gears for a second. | ||
| I wish Hunter Biden were here because I'd like to ask him about his taxes. | ||
| I want to know if he paid his fair share, just like his dad's asked Americans to do. | ||
| I want to know if he's current on his taxes, and if he isn't, I'd like to ask him when he plans to pay up. | ||
| Mr. Bobulinski, you're a businessman. | ||
| Did you pay your taxes? | ||
| I did. | ||
| Mr. Bobulinski, he actually pays his taxes. | ||
| Unlike the president's son, and yet Democrats on this committee act like Hunter is the believable one out of you two. | ||
| Joe Biden has no right to lecture the American people about their taxes until he gets his own house in order. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Very good. | ||
| Chair now recognizes Mr. Moskowitz for five minutes. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, thank you. | ||
| By the way, how are you doing? | ||
| Good? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| Mr. Bobulinski, over here, how are you doing? | ||
| Good. | ||
| So I just have a question. | ||
| We've been at this for 15 months now in oversight. | ||
| I know this is your first time here. | ||
| But do you think Chairman Comer has proven that Joe Biden has committed a high crime and misdemeanor? | ||
| I believe with all the evidence he's gathered, yes, he's proven that Joe Biden has committed high crimes and misdemeanors. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| And so I assume you believe Joe Biden should be impeached. | ||
| Well, that's up to you guys. | ||
| But do you believe he should be impeached? | ||
| It's yes or no. | ||
| Do I personally believe or under constitutional law? | ||
| No, no, no. | ||
| You personally, do you believe he should be impeached? | ||
| I do. | ||
| Okay, and you believe that because you believe Chairman Comer has proven that he committed a high crime and misdemeanor? | ||
| No, because I know that he committed high crimes and misdemeanors. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| I was involved and saw them happen. | ||
| Right, but obviously, with all the evidence, you must believe that all of these hearings for 15 months, the chairman has proven that, right? | ||
| Did you re-ask the question? | ||
| Sure. | ||
| I'll sum it up. | ||
| I assume you believe he should be impeached. | ||
| But my point is that the chairman has not yet moved for that. | ||
| And so, look, chairman, we've got like three and a half minutes here. | ||
| I mean, let's just do the impeachment. | ||
| I mean, why continue to waste millions of dollars of the taxpayers' money if we're going to impeach because you believe, you've shown he's committed a high crime and misdemeanor? | ||
| What are you waiting on? | ||
| Let's just do it. | ||
| I mean, by the way, we got Chairman Jordan here also. | ||
| The double chairman. | ||
| Why aren't you guys calling for the vote in your committee? | ||
| When is it going to happen? | ||
| When can we tell the American people you're going to stop wasting their money and just call for the vote on impeachment? | ||
| Gentlemen, you? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Sure. | |
| We don't do snap impeachments like you guys. | ||
| We actually do the facts. | ||
| We do oversight according to the Constitution. | ||
| You're never going to call for it. | ||
| You're never going to call for it. | ||
| Now you can predict the future? | ||
| How do you know? | ||
| You guys only have six more months probably in power until the election. | ||
| So are you going to do it in two months? | ||
| Are you going to do it in three months? | ||
| Tell the American people. | ||
| Does the Constitution put a time limit on oversight? | ||
| I didn't read that in the Constitution. | ||
| So if you believe you can't call for the impeachment now, then what you're admitting is you haven't yet proven that he's committed a high crime and misdemeanor. | ||
| You haven't proven it yet. | ||
| Otherwise, you would call for it, I assume. | ||
| We're doing our work. | ||
| Okay, so they haven't proven it. | ||
| Right? | ||
| They haven't proven he committed a high crime and misdemeanor. | ||
| Otherwise, we would call for impeachment. | ||
| So I just, look, you know, the chairman knows me. | ||
| Well, I mean, I'm just here to help him. | ||
| Right? | ||
| And so I just think we should do it today. | ||
| Let's just call for it. | ||
| I'll make the motion, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| I want to help you out. | ||
| You can second it. | ||
| Right? | ||
| Like, make the motion to impeach President Biden. | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
| It's your turn. | ||
| You second it. | ||
| No, nothing. | ||
| Okay, we got nothing. | ||
| So I want to, with my last couple minutes, show the American people that they're never going to impeach Joe Biden. | ||
| It's never going to happen because they don't have the evidence. | ||
| Okay, this is a show. | ||
| It's all fake. | ||
| They just want to do these hearings. | ||
| It's not leading to impeachment. | ||
| They're lying to their base on Newsmax and Fox, leading these people to believe that they're going to eventually impeach the president. | ||
| It's not going to happen. | ||
| At all. | ||
| Ever. | ||
| Period. | ||
| They don't even have the votes, even if they had it in committee. | ||
| They don't have the votes on the floor. | ||
| They know that. | ||
| They got members resigning rather than taking a vote on the fake faux impeachment. | ||
| Just ask Ken Buck, who said the Speaker ain't going to get me to take an unconstitutional impeachment vote. | ||
| I mean, boy. | ||
| I mean, so, look. | ||
| I mean, if these hearings were a success... | ||
| If what we've been doing for the last 15 months had convinced the American people that Joe Biden committed a high crime and misdemeanor, you can be damn sure they would have called the vote by now. | ||
| But they want it to go on. | ||
| Well, they either want it to go on because they don't have the evidence. | ||
| Are you asking me a question? | ||
| No, I'm just looking at you. | ||
| But if you want to talk to me, we can talk. | ||
| Well, no, I think you haven't read recent data that shows American people are well aware of the Biden's corruption. | ||
| Perfect. | ||
| So then ask the chairman why he hasn't called for impeachment, Tony. | ||
| He's right here. | ||
| Ask Comer. | ||
| Hey, Comer, how come you haven't called for impeachment? | ||
| I'll do it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Watch. | |
| Hi, I'm Tony. | ||
| Hey, chairman, how come you haven't called for impeachment? | ||
| When are we going to have the hearing? | ||
| When is the vote going to happen? | ||
| I mean, you believe it. | ||
| He believes it. | ||
| He says it every day on TV. | ||
| I just don't know when we're going to have the vote. | ||
| I mean, let's just go. | ||
| Are you asking me to hold the vote? | ||
| No, I just like looking at you. | ||
| We can save the taxpayers millions of dollars. | ||
| So, I mean, look, I used all of my time to show that this vote is never going to happen because they have no evidence on Joe Biden. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Gentlemen, time's expired. | ||
| Chair now recognize Mr. Burleson from Missouri for five minutes. | ||
| Could it be that we want Joe Biden actually to run now? | ||
| Could it be that you guys have such a corrupted old bastard in the White House that we actually want him to run? | ||
| Have you ever thought about that contention? | ||
| And this is helpful in actually revealing the criminality of that family. | ||
| I don't know if that ever passed your mind, Mr. Moskowitz. | ||
| Is he the guy that also wore a mask to this hearing? | ||
| Yeah, okay. | ||
| This guy showed up in actually a rubber mask to the hearing. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Are we good? | |
| Yeah, we are. | ||
|
unidentified
|
All right. | |
| I want to start with Galanis. | ||
| Mr. Galanis, you've heard the expression, say it, forget it, write it, regret it. | ||
| Have you heard that expression? | ||
| Mr. Galanis? | ||
| Yes, I'm here. | ||
| Have you heard the expression, say it, forget it, write it, regret it? | ||
| Yes, I have. | ||
| It was a practice that we used in our business. | ||
| In whose business? | ||
| Business with Hunter Biden and Devin Archer. | ||
| Okay, so it's their expression. | ||
| Let me ask you a question. | ||
| Who is Harris Youssef? | ||
| Harris Youssef is a Ukrainian investor originally from Syria, a longtime colleague of Dmitry Fertes. | ||
| So he's a colleague of Dmitry Fertes. | ||
| He was mentioned. | ||
| He's a Ukrainian oligarch very close to the Kremlin that made his fortune primarily in trading gas from Gazprom, the Russian state oil gas company. | ||
| So connected to Vladimir Putin, correct? | ||
| Very much so, yes. | ||
| In fact, during Hunter Biden's deposition with the committee, he justified his role. | ||
| I think you'll find this comical. | ||
| He justified his role on the Ukrainian Burisma board by saying, in essence, that it was his patriotic duty, that he was serving freedom, because there were, this is his quote, there were two gas companies inside Ukraine at the time. | ||
| One of them was a state-owned, which was highly corrupt and connected to people like Furtash, which was directly going into Vladimir Putin's pocket. | ||
| The only independent company... | ||
| Was Burisma, end quote. | ||
| Now, my question to you, based on this, you know, he's disparaging Mr. Firtash, and yet, are you aware that Mr. Biden, Hunter Biden, did business with Mr. Firtash? | ||
| Yes, I am. | ||
| So, let me ask you, what kind of financial transactions occurred between them? | ||
| What Harris Youssef described to me, and that was also described to me by others, including Devin and Hunter, was a $5 million payment that was made by Dmitry Furtash as handled by Harris Youssef through Hunter Biden's law firm. | ||
| That was deemed a success fee in order to wash an outstanding indictment, for which in the United States. | ||
| So a Putin-connected Russian oligarch wired over $5 million to Hunter Biden's law firm for... | ||
| For what activity? | ||
| What was Hunter supposed to do for that $5.5 million? | ||
| He was supposed to perform in quashing the indictment that resulted in an arrest warrant for Dmitry Furtash, who is being charged in the United States. | ||
| Yeah, being charged in the United States in Indiana. | ||
| So he's supposed to quash that, use his political influence to do so. | ||
| So my question is, of that money, the $5 million, $3 million made its way to a company that you set up with Devin Archer called Embloom. | ||
| Is that correct? | ||
| That's correct, yes. | ||
| And finally, from that $3 million, there was a transfer that was made, and I've got a copy of that, the bank record to prove that, of $275,000. | ||
| Do you recall that transfer? | ||
| I do. | ||
| And it went to which account? | ||
| Rosemont Seneca, Bohai. | ||
| Rosemont Seneca-Bohai. | ||
| So despite what Hunter said during his deposition, based on your knowledge, was Hunter Biden connected to Rosemont Seneca-Bohai? | ||
| Was he part owner? | ||
| Very much so, and he said as much and had direction and control, and was a beneficiary of the account. | ||
| So there are emails that document he directed monies to be dispersed from that account, including to himself. | ||
| Despite what he's saying, what he told the committee, that this guy was a bad hombre, basically, that this Firtash guy connected to Putin, and therefore he had to get on Ukraine. | ||
| And yet he had no problem doing business for this corrupt Russian oligarch connected to Putin. | ||
| In fact, had no problem taking $5 million and a direct transfer of $275,000. | ||
| Would you agree? | ||
| I agree with that, yes. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Now, Mr. Bobulinski, and I've got just a little bit of time left. | ||
| Sorry, very little time. | ||
| So I want to ask you, you know, for God's sake, Hunter Biden is doing all of these transactions, doing all of this business, and yet his father is vice president. | ||
| And we're to believe that his father isn't aware of all of these. | ||
| He's been on the phone calls, he's been in the meeting, and yet he's not aware that his son is doing business with people connected to Vladimir Putin? | ||
| Are we to believe that? | ||
| It's an absurd expectation. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| My time has expired. | ||
| Very good. | ||
| Chair now recognizes Mr. Frost for five minutes. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chair. | ||
| The claims made against the President of the United States have been so completely Proven to be lies that even House Republicans now are admitting that it's time to close this case. | ||
| Mr. Parnas, I have a few questions for you in limited time, so I really want to try to get through these. | ||
| And I just want everybody to know, especially people watching at home, that you're like one of the most credible witnesses that we've had throughout this entire impeachment inquiry. | ||
| First off, I just want folks to know, for people who aren't familiar, can you tell me who you were working for between 2018 and 2019? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Rudy Giuliani and Donald J. Trump. | |
| And to be clear, you answered to Rudy Giuliani. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| You answered to Donald Trump. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| Directly? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Directly to Rudy Giuliani. | |
| When former President Trump and Rudy Giuliani flew you to Ukraine to look for corruption on the part of President Biden, did you find any? | ||
|
unidentified
|
No. | |
| And following your Ukraine trip, Senate Republicans, Senator Grassley and Johnson, released their Burisma report, which the New York Times concluded was, quote, unproven allegations that echo an active Russian disinformation campaign, end quote. | ||
| Mr. Parnas, are the unproven allegations that are at the heart of the Republican report the same fabricated claims that Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani sent you to Ukraine to go dig up? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| Last summer you wrote a letter to Congress noting that when the media started to get tired of the smoke screens and using this, one of the authors of the Republican Burisma Report would be your, quote, guy in the Senate to push all the information, end quote. | ||
| What did you mean by that? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Senator Ron Johnson was our guy in the Senate. | |
| He was told to me that when we push the information, he's going to push it in the halls of Congress. | ||
| So when the media was getting skeptical about pushing disinformation after they've proven it wrong time and time again, the plan was to have a U.S. Senator, Ron Johnson, to push that disinformation even further. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Correct, because we had Congressman Nunoz already doing it, so Senator Ron Johnson jumped on board. | |
| This Congress, both Chairman Comer and Chairman Jordan, have centered this entire sham impeachment hearing on an FBI tip sheet. | ||
| This tip sheet made wild claims about bribery that didn't even come close to being backed up. | ||
| And in fact, it's all being proved to be one big lie. | ||
| Mr. Parnas, is the allegation in the FBI tip sheet based on the same fabricated claims that Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani flew you to Ukraine to dig up? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| I also want to make it clear that the informant allegedly behind this tip sheet is facing Criminal charges for lying about the Biden family and was a known fraud for years before that. | ||
| The same fabricated claim kept popping up and getting smacked down over and over again. | ||
| In fact, our colleagues at the Foreign Affairs Committee did some amazing work on this investigation and found that this lie dates back to December 2015, almost 10 years ago. | ||
| Do you happen to know the article that I'm referring to? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I don't know the exact article, but I do. | |
| No, the slide has started way back in 2015. | ||
| It started about 10 years ago. | ||
| It was an article entitled, quote, The Ukrainian Scam of the Biden Family, end quote. | ||
| And it was posted to a Russian-language media website registered in a city in Russian-occupied Crimea. | ||
| Mr. Parnas, do you have any doubt that this fabrication claim... | ||
| The claim that Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani sent you to Ukraine to try to dig up more information on is part of Russian propaganda and an effort to destabilize Ukraine and undermine our democracy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
As I sit here today, I have zero doubt that Russia is involved. | |
| This is a Russian campaign to interfere in our elections. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| I appreciate it. | ||
| I appreciate it from someone with first-hand experience. | ||
| Look, to recap... | ||
| There's no evidence that support allegations that President Biden engaged in corruption in Ukraine. | ||
| We know this. | ||
| Mr. Parnas himself has made it clear that we have no doubt, we should have no doubt, that the claims of corruption are lies and conspiracy theories rooted in a Russian effort to undermine our democracy posted to a Russian language website over a decade ago. | ||
| This is exactly what Putin wants. | ||
| And over the years, Republicans have kept moving the goalposts. | ||
| You just look at the past year, right? | ||
| First, it was a bribe. | ||
| Then it was Burisma. | ||
| Nothing. | ||
| Then it was Hunter Biden's laptop. | ||
| Nothing but some nude pics that we keep seeing here. | ||
| Then it was supposed money laundering scheme that turned out to be a family member making a couple of car payments. | ||
| And now Republicans on this committee... | ||
| Have left the pretense of a crime behind and are moving the goalposts to influence peddling, which sounds more like what former President Donald Trump did in his time in office. | ||
| Look, we've been laughing a lot about this, calling it theater and a sham, which it is. | ||
| But I also want to bring up that this is really serious. | ||
| I mean, we have members of Congress and this committee... | ||
| Using Russian propaganda meant to undermine our democracy, to undermine our president. | ||
| It's not just theater or laughable, but it's a betrayal of our democracy. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It was very serious, Congressman. | |
| Chair, time's expired. | ||
| Chair, recognize Ms. Boebert from Colorado for five minutes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Well, Hunter asked for a public hearing. | |
| Here we are, and he is nowhere to be found. | ||
| I guess Haydn really does run in the Biden family. | ||
| Now, Mr. Bobulinski, in your testimony, you state, it is clear to me that Joe Biden was the brand being sold by the Biden family. | ||
| In your experience, what is the value to Joe Biden in helping his family collect millions from foreign adversaries? | ||
| What's the value to Joe Biden specifically? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| Well, his children and brothers were enriched, which to AOC's questions earlier, violate corruption statutes, RICO statutes, FCPA statutes, FARA statutes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, so you would agree that the Biden family was involved in this corruption and influence peddling and selling access to the federal government? | |
| I do. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Bobulinski, in your experience, did President Biden play a more active or passive role in his son Hunter Biden's business dealings? | |
| I quantified it previously as he acted sort of like a chairman. | ||
| He showed up and shook hands. | ||
|
unidentified
|
He's been called the chairman. | |
| Yeah, he showed up, shook hands, and that's all the Chinese, Ukrainians, Romanians, Russians, whoever it was need. | ||
| It's not what the Canadians, the Australians, and Americans need, but in those parts of the world, that's what they need. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| And now I'm going to switch over to Mr. Galanis. | ||
| During his 2020 presidential campaign, then-candidate for president Joe Biden said his son did not make any money from China. | ||
| Did Joe Biden lie? | ||
| Yes or no? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| Mr. Galanis, you are aware of the BHR fund that consisted of Bohai, a Chinese state-backed company, Harvest a China Company, and Rosemont, the Biden entity, correct? | ||
| Yes, I am. | ||
| And Mr. Golanus, you're aware that Hunter Biden formerly held 10% of that Chinese entity? | ||
| And would it surprise you, if you were aware, that Hunter Biden held 10% of this entity well into his father's presidency? | ||
| You know, I'm aware that it was founded as a business that he owned 50% of 20% or 10% directly from the outset, from early on in 2014. | ||
| And would it surprise you, Kevin Morris, Hunter Biden's fake attorney, has testified that he now holds that interest? | ||
| I don't have any knowledge about that, so not much of this would surprise me. | ||
| Mr. Bobulinski, in your testimony, you stated the Chinese Communist Party through CEFC successfully sought to infiltrate and compromise the Obama-Biden White House during 2015 and continued through when Joe Biden left office. | ||
| Would you agree that the CCP compromising the White House is a serious threat to our nation's national security? | ||
| I do. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Now, Joe Biden has leveraged his elected position to enable the Biden family, their business associates, and their companies to receive over $24 million from foreign nationals and their related companies. | ||
| Biden is compromised and is a threat to our national security. | ||
| After today, it's clear that Joe Biden is a bigger CCP... | ||
| A CCP asset than Feng Feng herself. | ||
| Will we ever come to the agreement that it is far time that Congress holds the resident of the White House accountable for selling out the American people? | ||
| Unfortunately, my colleagues to my left have a highly coveted Made in China product, a brand, if you will, and that is Joseph R. Biden. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, I yield the remainder of my balance to my friend from Florida, Matt Gaetz. | ||
| Mr. Parnas, how much time did you spend in prison? | ||
| Four months. | ||
| Four months. | ||
| But you were indicted for crimes that could have resulted in you spending 50 years in prison, right? | ||
| Right. | ||
|
unidentified
|
There were false crimes. | |
| The judge saw through. | ||
| Well, you went to trial and you were convicted, right? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I went to trial, correct. | |
| And the crime was that you were trying to acquire marijuana licenses. | ||
| And you took money from a Russian oligarch and you tried to use that money to go give political donations and do what you had to do to acquire marijuana licenses. | ||
| Is that about right? | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's what the crime was. | |
| That's what the indictment was. | ||
| Sounds like everyone here today, the only one working for a Russian oligarch was you. | ||
| Right? | ||
| I mean, I just heard you wax. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's public information. | |
| Yeah, no, I just heard you wax poetic. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I got paid $200,000. | |
| You know how much I got paid. | ||
| You were really worried about our democracy and you were here to warn us, but you were working for a Russian oligarch wanting to get marijuana licenses, but then you didn't even do it. | ||
| The fraud you committed against the Russian oligarch was that instead you spent the money on yourself. | ||
| So, like, was that what you were doing to fight against Russia's aggression? | ||
| Just taking their money? | ||
| Well, that's what you were convicted of. | ||
| But instead of spending 50 years in prison, you got four months. | ||
| As this hearing continues, I look forward to hearing what Mr. Galanis thinks about how he was treated by the DOJ for telling the truth, as opposed to how you're treated for lying. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The DOJ didn't listen to the truth, because if they would listen to the truth, you guys would have been all again. | |
| The question Mr. Gates had is for Mr. Galanis. | ||
| Look, the truth for you is taking money from Russians to buy marijuana businesses and then going to jail and then coming here to lie about Trump. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You should know better than anybody. | |
| Gentlemen's time has expired. | ||
| You should know better than anybody. | ||
| Gentlemen's time has expired. | ||
| Chair now recognizes Ms. Tlaib from Michigan. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you so much. | |
| It's so exhausting. | ||
| This is really incredibly exhausting, and I can't imagine our residents sitting at home. | ||
| I still, every time I look up and I see our former chairman, our forever chairman, Elijah Cummings, our first ever hearing in this room was about the high cost of insulin. | ||
| I think one of the first witnesses was a mother of twins who had to ration her insulin and lost a child because she couldn't afford it. | ||
| I still remember our previous chairwoman who Really did a phenomenal job continuing to talk about the opiate crisis and how the Sadler family was part of a criminal scheme to increase addiction among family members. | ||
| People just literally losing their family members because of profit, because of folks that were literally drug dealers in suits. | ||
| All of that to say is this House Oversight Committee From our committee hearings on the Postal Service, which really matters to our constituents, the high cost of prescription drugs, the housing issues, the number of struggles and challenges of everyday Americans. | ||
| And I say this sincerely. | ||
| I know you all that sincerely. | ||
| Because what a waste of time. | ||
| What a waste of time. | ||
| Just even some of the colleagues of my folks here continue to say this is a waste of time. | ||
| I mean, Representative Neils said, I don't think we have the will to impeach Joe Biden. | ||
| Just for the record, impeachment isn't something you have a will to do. | ||
| It's something you have to have evidence to do. | ||
| Which brings me to next, I mean, you know, you heard about Rep. | ||
| Don Bacon, who said, when the staff tells you that they can't identify a particular crime, there's a problem. | ||
| That's a problem. | ||
| I mean, you can go on and on. | ||
| One top Republicans admit that there's no conclusive evidence of impeachable offense that shows Biden acted improperly while in office to enrich his family members. | ||
| I mean, it goes on and on. | ||
| Former Oversight Chair Daryl Issa, who serves on Judiciary Committee now, said, I think he goes on and says, there's no clear sense of where the impeachment inquiry is going. | ||
| It goes on and on. | ||
| I mean, look, you all, this is an incredibly important We could be doing some phenomenal things and holding, currently, the Biden administration on a number of issues. | ||
| Like, I want to know. | ||
| I want to know about the American Rescue dollars and where that money is being used. | ||
| Is it being used towards public health? | ||
| Is it being used towards the crisis that continues to happen to many of our families being impacted by long COVID symptoms? | ||
| I mean, these are things that we could be doing right now in this chamber. | ||
| We're not. | ||
| We're doing this over and over again, and it's a waste of time. | ||
| I literally, every time I talk to my constituents about this, they don't bring this up. | ||
| They said, God, when is this going to be over with? | ||
| I tell them, my colleagues do not know how to leave the campaigning at the steps of the Capitol. | ||
| When we come in here, we have to literally put that aside and work for our constituents. | ||
| Work on getting some sort of understanding where we can prioritize making sure that we have access to clean water. | ||
| What is going on with the lead abatement program within the administration? | ||
| Talking about the specific challenges that we continue to see in our healthcare system. | ||
| All of that. | ||
| Again, we can hold the Biden administration together, Mr. Chairman, on a number of issues we can see eye to eye on. | ||
| And saying we need to use this committee to open it up, to be the watchdog committee that we are. | ||
| Instead, we're wasting, we really sincerely are wasting the time of the American people doing this. | ||
| This is awful. | ||
| For them to see us going back and forth like this, it's so disenchanting for them. | ||
| And you all wonder why the numbers out there of favorability towards Congress is so low. | ||
| They really have no faith in us because of this. | ||
| This is the kind of stuff we do. | ||
| When literally my folks are literally fighting for the right to breathe clean air and to fight to sit there and figure out how they're going to afford asthma inhalers. | ||
| Yet we're here wasting the people's time. | ||
| Will the gentlelady yield? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, Mr. Chair. | |
| And again, I say this out of somebody that's a social worker at heart. | ||
| We can do so many things in bipartisan in this committee. | ||
| I know it. | ||
| And I think we're right now really missing out on an opportunity to do that. | ||
| We really are. | ||
| I yield to Mr. Array. | ||
| Well, it's for a question I just wanted to ask you, because you've had tremendous success in trying to clean up dirty water across America. | ||
| We can actually get things done, right? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Absolutely. | |
| And, you know, I know my colleague on the other side, we all have a crisis of the water, clean water crisis. | ||
| We could, like, literally bring in folks in the EPA, bring folks into this chamber right now and ask, where is the Biden administration on the development of their lead abatement initiative? | ||
| These are the things that I think very much many of my mayors, my local electeds, many of the state folks are asking. | ||
| What can we do as members of Congress to basically have more transparency in where the priorities are? | ||
| But again, I really say this sincerely to all of you. | ||
| We can do better. | ||
| We deserve to do better. | ||
| I remember Chairman Cummings constantly reminding us that we can be better. | ||
| The gentlelady's time has expired. | ||
| Before I recognize Representative Frye, for what purpose does Representative McLean seek recognition? | ||
| I'd like to enter something in the record. | ||
| My friends on the other side of the aisle are desperately trying to deflect from the Biden family peddling scheme by attacking President Trump and his family. | ||
| I would like to enter into the record an article. | ||
| Actually, Jared Kushner and Hunter Biden are nothing alike, and here are the facts. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Without objection, so ordered. | ||
| Chair now recognizes Representative Fry for five minutes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | |
| One of the inconsistencies that I... | ||
| Have kind of seen as what is on a text message, Mr. Bobulinski, with Raymond Zhao, and what Hunter Biden testified to in his own deposition. | ||
| And so this is infamous. | ||
| We've talked about this a lot. | ||
| Z, please have the director call me. | ||
| Not James, not you, or Jim. | ||
| Have him call me tonight. | ||
| I am sitting here with my father. | ||
| We've talked about this a lot. | ||
| We've kind of got ad nauseum to it. | ||
| And in response, Raymond Zhao says, copy, I will call you on WhatsApp. | ||
| So in Hunter Biden's testimony on page 105, he states that the Zhao that he sent this to was not the Zhao that was connected to CEFC. | ||
| What do you say about that, Mr. Bobulinski? | ||
| Well, I think what he's simply saying is he made a mistake. | ||
| Not that he meant to send that text message, because it's crystal clear that that message was meant for Raymond Zhao, who was the interpreter for Director Zhang at CFC. | ||
| But I think he tried to obfuscate in his testimony that technically, maybe he made a mistake and texted it to the wrong person. | ||
| I can't speak to whether then he corrected that, but I do know, based on the communications, that he got on the phone with Raymond Zhao and set the record straight and exactly went through what he thought he was sending him in that message, because it's followed up where they say, they sort of snap to and say, we'll cooperate with the family. | ||
| Why were they willing to cooperate with the family? | ||
| Because effectively they were bribing the Biden family to get them to help them with the four unsealed indictments. | ||
| In the SDNY, which is the only thing that mattered to CEFC. | ||
|
unidentified
|
And Raymond Zhao, you said he was an interpreter, but he was a little bit more than that, too. | |
| He was like a chief of staff interpreter. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Correct. | |
| So he was kind of the handler for the CEFC business. | ||
| Yeah, he spoke good English. | ||
| Director Zang spoke very little English. | ||
|
unidentified
|
All right. | |
| So to the extent that this was the wrong Zhao, I mean, I'm no rocket scientist, but if I get a text message and it's a different Russell, I'm going to say you've got the wrong guy, correct? | ||
| Yeah, I believe Henry Zhao probably. | ||
| His argument is he sent it to Henry Zhao. | ||
| I'm assuming there's a text message somewhere where either Henry Zhao responded, hey, I think you meant that for somebody else. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Instead, we just say, copy that. | |
| I'll call you on WhatsApp, right? | ||
| So if you were perplexed as to why you received a random text message that wasn't applied to you. | ||
| Well, that's actually Raymond Zhao saying, I'll call you on WhatsApp. | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's what I'm saying. | |
| So the purpose, the issue that he brings up, though, is that he was confused and it was the wrong Zhao. | ||
| I want to ask you a couple more questions real quick. | ||
| Hunter Biden's transcript on page 42, he said, I officially began to work for CEFC when I received a retainer from CEFC in early or spring of 2017. | ||
| Is that true? | ||
| Well, it goes back to the word official. | ||
| He's parsing words. | ||
| Hunter Biden started working for CFC in the fall of 2015 and worked for CFC throughout 2016. | ||
| That was confirmed to me by him, by James Gillier, by Rob Walker. | ||
| Numerous face-to-face conversations on it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Numerous meetings. | |
| So this is not true. | ||
| On page 48 of his transcript, Hunter has asked, he's never interacted with any of your business associates. | ||
| Is that correct? | ||
| The he's he's referring to is Joe Biden. | ||
| Is that true? | ||
| That's a lie. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hunter lied to the committee about important details concerning his money demands and threats to CEFC based on this WhatsApp message right here. | |
| On page 105 of his testimony, Hunter states, quote, Is that true? | ||
| That's a lie? | ||
|
unidentified
|
You also talked about how Jim Biden also lied extensively throughout his own testimony and that Jim was selling plausible deniability for many years that he could not tell the truth from a lie. | |
| On page 100 of Jim Biden's transcript, Jim has asked, do you recall having a meeting with Hunter Biden and Tony Bobulinski and Joe Biden? | ||
| Jim's response was absolutely not. | ||
| Jim states that Joe Biden never met with Tony Bobulinski. | ||
| Is that true? | ||
| That is a lie, and I'm shocked that his lawyer sitting next to him, a former U.S. attorney, allowed him to say that lie three different times in that transcribed interview. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right. | |
| When pressed, he continued to double down on that. | ||
| He got excited. | ||
| His lawyer had to calm him down, and he continued to lie about it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
On page 124 of the transcript, Jim Biden states, quote, It was Hunter Biden, myself, Gilear. | |
| I don't know. | ||
| It was the five okay, and everybody was 20% okay. | ||
| You know what? | ||
| You know it was never executed. | ||
| It was never signed. | ||
| And he's referring, of course, to the contract or the agreement. | ||
| Is that true? | ||
| That's a lie. | ||
| He fully executed the legal document, Oneida Holdings LLC, as did Hunter, James Gillier, Rob Walker, and myself. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you for your testimony today. | |
| Thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yours has been the consistent testimony throughout this process, unlike the other people who have come before this committee. | |
| And with that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back. | ||
| Very good. | ||
| Chair now recognizes Ms. Presley from Massachusetts for five minutes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. | |
| When Elijah Cummings was the chair of this committee, he often reminded us that our role was to be in an efficient and effective pursuit of the truth. | ||
| So I'm going to try to do exactly that because this farce has gone 15 months. | ||
| 10,000 documents and 11,000 hours too long, and we've got a lot of ground to cover here. | ||
| Mr. Parnas, thank you for being here. | ||
| Last year, you wrote a long letter to Chairman Comer detailing your extensive role in the, quote, campaign orchestrated by Giuliani and Trump to dig up dirt on the Bidens and to spread misinformation about them through various networks, including government officials, journalists, and Fox News personnel, unquote. | ||
| When that campaign failed to find dirt, because, well, there was no dirt to be found, the former occupant of the White House demanded that Ukrainian political officials announce investigations into the Biden family in order to smear Joe Biden prior to the 2020 presidential election. | ||
| Yes or no, Mr. Parnes, before Trump and Rudy Giuliani tasked you to try to find dirt on the Bidens in Ukraine, did you ever interact with Mr. Trump? | ||
| Before they ask me, yes, I've had many interactions. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| And you wrote to the committee that in late 2018, you attended a holiday party at Trump's White House, as shown in this picture. | ||
| Can you describe your interactions with Donald Trump during this party? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| We came to the event. | ||
| It was a Hanukkah party. | ||
| Rudy Giuliani joined us. | ||
| We were supposed to all go to the residence. | ||
| But at the last second, Rudy said to wait for him downstairs. | ||
| He was going to go meet Trump himself and update him on everything that was going on. | ||
| He went to meet Trump at the residence. | ||
| We waited at the White House. | ||
| Then eventually, when Trump came down to make a speech, Secret Service came up to us and said that the president wanted to wait for us at the Red Room. | ||
| So we proceeded to the Red Room and waited for Trump to finish a speech. | ||
| Then he came in, approached me, and basically told me, shook my hand and said, Rudy tells me great things. | ||
| Keep up the good work. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| And then we proceeded to take pictures. | ||
| Mr. Pardis, when Trump told you to keep up the good work, what did you understand him to be referring to exactly? | ||
| Well, at that point, the conversation was about Ukraine and Giuliani wanting me to go find Victor Shokin. | ||
| So that's what I took it as, as keep up the good work. | ||
| We would go get Viktor Shokin on our way to Ukraine. | ||
| And Mr. Parnas, after the party, did you interact with Trump again or were you cut off from interacting with him? | ||
| After our trip to Ukraine, we were cut off because then the BLT team was formed and the line of communication started going through Rudy Giuliani because they didn't want anybody to notice me with him because I was in Ukraine doing the stuff. | ||
| I see. | ||
| So is it fair to say, Mr. Parnas, that you think you were no longer invited to interact with Trump to create a buffer between President Trump and your work with Giuliani to generate evidence of Joe Biden's misconduct in Ukraine? | ||
| I was told that you're going to stop going to the events, to the private events and stuff like that, because while you're doing this. | ||
| I see. | ||
| So despite President Trump's efforts to insulate himself from associating with you as you sought evidence of Biden corruption in Ukraine, you maintained your contacts with individuals in Trump's innermost circle. | ||
| Absolutely, yes. | ||
| Well, you know, as the saying goes, a leper can't change their spots. | ||
| And so, Mr. Parnas, you're a prime example of Donald Trump's habit of welcoming people into his inner circle and then creating distance or the appearance of it from them as he relies on them to commit improper... | ||
| acts. | ||
| Now Donald Trump has demanded that Joe Biden be impeached, has enlisted oversight Republicans to do his dirty work, and an attempt to try to win the 2024 presidential election by promoting the same lies about President Biden, lies that are firmly rooted in Russia's disinformation and propaganda effort to influence U.S. elections and undermine Ukraine in the I yield to Mr. Goldman. | ||
| Thank you very much, Ms. Presley. | ||
| I want to get back to this photograph here that I got cut off from before. | ||
| You, Mr. Bobulinski, have called a number of people liars, six FBI agents. | ||
| I did not call this six FBI agents liars. | ||
| If you go to page 174 of the transcript, and you said it's not an accurate statement, it's a lie related to an FBI report. | ||
| I didn't call them liars. | ||
| Sorry, I don't have time. | ||
| Be quiet. | ||
| Now. | ||
| This is a photo that was provided by Cassidy Hutchinson after you called her a liar when she said that you met with Mark Meadows and received an envelope. | ||
| Do you see this photo? | ||
| Do you acknowledge that is Mark Meadows in the red hat? | ||
| Didn't you tell me to be quiet? | ||
| I don't... | ||
| I asked the question, do you acknowledge that that's Mark Meadows? | ||
| Maybe you're a person going to walk closer so I can see it? | ||
| Mr. Chairman, would you indulge? | ||
| Since he's not answering the question, he's filibustering. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Let me just ask it very briefly. | |
| Is that you and Mr. Meadows buy Secret Service cars with you in a mask? | ||
| Are you kidding, Mr. Goldman? | ||
| I'm sitting 20 feet away from him. | ||
| Go up to him, please. | ||
| And your time's expired. | ||
| Maybe Mr. Swalwell will give you some time. | ||
| Could he just answer the question? | ||
| He can answer the question. | ||
| So what I see in this picture is... | ||
| A Secret Service agent five feet from me with a full mask on and a Secret Service agent sitting in a Cadillac Escalade with all the windows up with a full mask on. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Is that you talking to the person in the red hat? | |
| Um, it's the back of his head. | ||
| Is that you talking to the person in the red hat? | ||
| Why don't you ask me this, Mr. Goldman? | ||
| Did I meet Mr. Meadows at a Trump rally in Rome, Georgia? | ||
| I did. | ||
| I acknowledge that. | ||
| Mr. Goldman. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I did. | |
| Of course I did. | ||
| But Cassidy Hutchinson is a liar. | ||
| Cassidy Hutchinson's a liar because she said that he handed me an envelope. | ||
| Mr. Meadows didn't give me a single thing. | ||
| Now, chair recognizes... | ||
| Why do we have the... | ||
| Your time's expired. | ||
| Maybe Mr. Swalwell will yield you some time. | ||
| Chair now recognizes Mr. Langworthy from Buffalo for five minutes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. | |
| Glad it's so quiet in here. | ||
| On the first day of the Biden presidency, then-Press Secretary Jen Psaki claimed that President Biden's objective and his commitment was to bring, quote, transparency and truth back to government, to share the truth even when it's hard to hear. | ||
| That is obviously laughable. | ||
| Just about as laughable as when Hunter Biden claimed that he was trying to avoid wire fees when he had Rob Walker launder a $1 million payment from a Chinese company through 16 different bank wires to Hunter, Halley, and Jim Biden's accounts. | ||
| If you're trying to avoid wire fees, then why send four different wires over three months to the same account? | ||
| It's a total joke. | ||
| A glaring example of President Biden's failure to live up to his promise to bring transparency is his influence peddling in Ukraine, where he pressured the Ukrainian government to fire Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, who was investigating the owner of Burisma. | ||
| While Joe Biden was Vice President in 2014, his son Hunter Biden was asked by Burisma's owners to join the board, a paid position. | ||
| The committee has sought documents from the administration regarding Vice President Biden's influence peddling in the Ukraine. | ||
| The administration, which claims transparency, has failed to produce these documents. | ||
| I'll give you an example. | ||
| On September of 2015, the United States was steadfast in its belief that the owner of Burisma was the face of corruption in Ukraine. | ||
| The administration vowed to work with the prosecutor general to tackle corruption in the country. | ||
| However, that all changed after a phone call. | ||
| From Hunter Biden and the owner of Burisma to Hunter's Washington, D.C. Associates in 2015. | ||
| A few days later, Vice President Biden delivered a speech to the Ukrainian legislature and privately pressured the Ukrainian president to fire the prosecutor general. | ||
| The Oversight Committee has asked the White House for drafts of Vice President Biden's speech to the Ukrainian legislature from 2015. | ||
| They have withheld those draft speeches for nearly seven months. | ||
| To this date, we have not been able to review them. | ||
| We all want to know whether there were edits to the speech after Hunter called D.C. We all want to know whether the then-Vice President changed course to protect his son and his corrupt business associates. | ||
| We all want to know whether the Biden family's business dealings affected American policy towards Ukraine. | ||
| The White House claims to be committed to bringing truth and transparency to government. | ||
| It just seems like it's only interested when it's convenient for his administration. | ||
| Now, Mr. Bobulinski, did Hunter ever tell you at any point the value of the Burisma income to him? | ||
| Call him ever mentioning that to me. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay, did he ever say it was his only income at that time? | |
| Oh, okay. | ||
| Actually, I stand corrected. | ||
| There's a text message. | ||
| I never discussed it with him. | ||
| I was in Monaco at the Grand Prix. | ||
| He was in Monaco for the Burisma board meeting. | ||
| He set up a meeting with me. | ||
| He didn't show up at that meeting. | ||
| Obviously, you can imagine I wasn't too happy. | ||
| And he responded to a text, me asking him what's going on. | ||
| And in that text, he states he's on the back of Kola's yacht. | ||
| Fighting for the only income he has, but it wasn't from Burisma's, from the Kazakh deal that he's talking about. | ||
| I never discussed that with him after that. | ||
| That was a single exchange between him and I. No. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Corruption and a lack of transparency from the Biden family have been common themes through the House Oversight Committee's investigation. | |
| And even when asking for simple drafts of then-Vice President Biden's speech in the Ukraine, the White House has been anything but transparent. | ||
| President Biden is done and will continue to do everything in his power to cover up the truth, especially when it's hard to hear. | ||
| And I yield back, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Gentleman yields back. | ||
| Mr. Bobulinski yields back to me for one minute. | ||
| Is there anything that you want to respond to? | ||
| Don't worry about Mr. Goldman. | ||
| We don't pay any attention to Mr. Goldman either. | ||
| Is there anything that anyone said up here that you want to take about 55 seconds to respond to? | ||
| It's tempting. | ||
| I mean, my biggest appeal to everyone in this room is I wish you would spend the time focusing on the fact that the Chinese Communist Party infiltrated the White House of the United States of America through the Biden family. | ||
| I don't say that lightly. | ||
| It's not a joke. | ||
| I was willing to die for this country, as was my father and both my grandfathers and my brother. | ||
| This is serious, serious stuff. | ||
| We should be asking how that happened. | ||
| Take the Biden name and the Biden family completely out of it. | ||
| How did the Chinese Communist Party infiltrate the White House of the United States of America? | ||
| Let's start there, focus on those facts, what they did, how they did it, why they used money, why they used private enterprises instead of military stuff and other stuff. | ||
| That is huge to our national security. | ||
| So I appreciate you yielding that time to me, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| Well, thank you, and I'll just say this. | ||
| Mr. Tlaib and Ms. Presley criticized the investigation, but I think most Americans care about public corruption, and they realize the FBI hasn't done the job, the DOJ hasn't done their job, the IRS hasn't done their job. | ||
| They've been told to stand down. | ||
| All that's left is the House Oversight Committee, and we will do our job. | ||
| And pursuant to the previous order, because... | ||
| Votes have been called again. | ||
| The committee stands in recess, subject to the call of the chair. | ||
| The committee will reconvene five minutes after floor votes. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you. | |
| Well, ladies and gentlemen, that was a very quick recess. | ||
| What an intelligent group of Democrats that we have asking questions. | ||
| Truly our favorites, Jasmine Crockett, Cori Bush, The Squad. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, they just broke for votes once again. | ||
| We have made a promise to you to broadcast the entire... | ||
| whatever you would call this right now. | ||
| Like, I don't even know. | ||
| Like, the theater kids have totally taken over. | ||
| Are you particularly depressed at the kind of people who run for and win office on the Democrat side? | ||
| This is what happens when the theater kids, the goth kids, the super weirdos who, like, hung out in the dark all day and, like, were shoved into lockers left and right and, like, never play sports and were hung up by their underwear. | ||
| Like, these are the kids. | ||
| These are the kids who ran for office because of their vengeful lust for power. | ||
| And now they are the theater kids. | ||
| The goth theater kids have taken over Congress. | ||
| And that is why nobody can ask questions without using their hands. | ||
| Every person. | ||
| Nobody can do it. | ||
| Without flipping and flopping around. | ||
| It's crazy, ladies and gentlemen. | ||
| So it's just wild to see some of the more interesting lines of questioning. | ||
| We just had a wonderful little round there. | ||
| I am missing some of my favorites. | ||
| There are still a few Republicans who still have yet to ask questions. | ||
| Producers are filling me in. | ||
| There are a couple of Republicans who still have yet to ask questions. | ||
| Eric Swalwell is a Democrat who still has yet to ask questions. | ||
| He is ripping ass somewhere live on television and texting in Chinese. | ||
| To whoever he's going to meet up with tonight on his dating apps. | ||
| And so, ladies and gentlemen, we await, I suppose, those questions. | ||
| Apparently there's a 20-minute break for votes. | ||
| Anna Paulina Luna is one from the Republican side that I very much look forward to. | ||
| Robbie, get me an updated list, please, for where we are with... | ||
| Where we are with some of our lines of questioning. | ||
| There was a really, really great Republican that I actually didn't know much about who asked a really good, savage line of questioning. | ||
| And then Matt Gaetz jumped in there for a second. | ||
| I wish Matt Gaetz had more time. | ||
| Lauren Boebert surrendered her time to Matt Gaetz. | ||
| And kind of wish Matt Gaetz had done all of the questions for the GOP. | ||
| There are guys who are not ready for prime time. | ||
| And what I mean is there are dudes from the Deep South who are old bankers or car salesmen and stuff, and they run for Congress. | ||
| And they just don't ask the right questions at these things. | ||
| You need a Matt Gaetz style of visceral questioning in these situations. | ||
| And so, ladies and gentlemen, we begin with the Democrat side. | ||
| We begin with our favorite, Jasmine Davy Crockett, who went full Crockett and started, like, spitting and ripping and badgering the witnesses. | ||
| This is a member of Congress from Texas. | ||
| Texas, what the hell are you doing? | ||
| Sending this person to Congress, but nonetheless, still really wildly entertaining. | ||
| Jasmine Crockett, popping off. | ||
| This is probably the best the Democrats had to offer in this round of questioning. | ||
| And no one was quite sure whether this was a question or whether she was just, like, giving a speech. | ||
| Even the witnesses were really confused. | ||
| And then, of course, as ever, she gets offended and starts screaming. | ||
| Here we go. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I just want to make sure that I point out, and this is not a question just in case you wanted to know, that on page 174 of your transcribed interview, line 9, it says this is an absolute lie. | |
| In reference to talking about the FBI, what you stated... | ||
| I did not call the FBI agents liars. | ||
|
unidentified
|
What was stated right before that was, first of all, I said that I'm speaking and I did not ask you a question. | |
| First of all, it doesn't say Tony Bobulinski told the FBI. | ||
| This is a summary of two agents that took notes through my interview and their summary. | ||
| Apparently, that they presented says Bobulinski first met in person with members of the Biden family at a 2017 meeting in Miami, Florida. | ||
| This is an absolute lie. | ||
| That is what it says. | ||
| The final thing that I'm going to say is about this. | ||
| What we have from Ken Buck, a Republican. | ||
| I don't think that the impeachment of Biden is appropriate, and so House Speaker Mike Johnson's ability to talk me into staying here is going to be about as successful as his ability about talking me into an unconstitutional impeachment. | ||
| I'll let her have 30 seconds over. | ||
| Chair now recognizes Mr. Burchett. | ||
| So, like, do you realize that you have to talk into a microphone for people to hear you? | ||
| Do you know that? | ||
| Do you know that you should be able to say the witnesses' names correctly? | ||
| She keeps calling him Bubulinski. | ||
| Bubulinski. | ||
| Do you know that people are allowed to, like, have conversations in these hearings? | ||
| The witnesses are allowed to answer? | ||
| Ooh, they're so prickly on this one. | ||
| Orange Man Bad! | ||
| Orange Man Bad is, of course, the... | ||
| Rally cry of the libs. | ||
| And many of them decided to just do slam poetry about Orange Man. | ||
| This was really a special moment. | ||
| A special moment when literal members of Congress decided to pull the dirty, tear-stained napkins out of their back pockets and read from them the ink sort of bleeding, right? | ||
| They wrote these. | ||
| They went to... | ||
| A organic coffee shop. | ||
| They got themselves a soy burger and they got themselves a soy latte and they began to write poems about Donald Trump. | ||
| There was a member of Congress who literally wrote a poem about Donald Trump. | ||
| And the tears stained the napkin, right? | ||
| And she decided to read that poem like it was a... | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| Slam poetry is the best we can call. | ||
| That's the best descriptor I can come up with for what we just witnessed. | ||
| It's slam poetry, ladies and gentlemen, at your local hippie, organically sourced communist coffee shop. | ||
| That has now entered Congress. | ||
| That's where we are right now. | ||
| Here you go, ladies and gentlemen. | ||
| The performance kids. | ||
| The theater kids. | ||
| Taking over Congress. | ||
| That's a scary moment in America. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It is the bondless, broke, bluffer, twice impeached, four times indicted, insurrection initiator, election denying, self-declared dictator on day one, and puppet for Putin. | |
| The one who wants to terminate the Constitution and defund the FBI. | ||
| The one who romanticized exchanging of love letters with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. | ||
| The one who just last week embraced autocrat Orban of Hungary to discuss their diabolical plans to destroy our democracy. | ||
| The one who proposed a policy to ban Muslims from this country. | ||
| The one who just this week said any Jewish person who votes for a Democrat hates their religion and Israel's. | ||
| The one who called neo-Nazis carrying tiki torches, chanting Jews will not replace us good people. | ||
| The one who referred to African nations as I quote shithole countries. | ||
| The one who called NFL players, the majority whom are black, sons of bitches for taking a knee in protest of the ever present racial inequality and police brutality that continues to pervade our justice system. | ||
| The one who called Mexicans rapists and promised to build a wall and have Have them pay for it. | ||
| And in case you missed it, it didn't happen. | ||
| The one who bragged about grabbing women by their private parts. | ||
| The one who confused his rape victim whom he claimed was not his type for his very own ex-wife. | ||
| The one who is an admitted and committed adulterer who attempted to pay off a porn star for her silence. | ||
| The one who has publicly mocked people with disabilities. | ||
| The one who dodged the draft and referred to prisoners of war as losers. | ||
| The very people who pay a high price so we can enjoy the freedoms that far too many of us take for granted. | ||
| The one who... | ||
| I noticed that she shockingly didn't talk about Joe Biden getting 13 Americans killed in Afghanistan and then looking at his watch during the dignified transfer of those Americans and then Joe Biden regularly committing. | ||
| Stolen valor saying that his son died in Iraq, which he has said many, many times on the record, which is a lie. | ||
| He can't even remember when his son died, according to the Robert Hurr report. | ||
| But whatever, you know, just slap another conspiracy theory on top of all of those hoaxes. | ||
| The Democrat worldview is a just crystal ball, a cotton candy fabric of hoaxes. | ||
| And as soon as you start calling people out on their hoaxes, they have meltdowns. | ||
| And what you saw from the Democrat side is just total meltdowns. | ||
| He's a guy named Jared... | ||
| How do you pronounce his last name? | ||
| Hold on. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Jared... | |
| Moskovitz. | ||
| Sorry, guys. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen. | ||
| There's Jared Moskovitz coming in in a mask. | ||
| He wore a mask. | ||
| This is not a sane person. | ||
| Here is quite literally an insane person wearing a rubber mask to the hearing. | ||
| This is what Congress has descended to. | ||
| We tell you, like, be careful when the theater kids take over. | ||
| This is what happens. | ||
| This guy shows up. | ||
| Is he talking about the money that Joe Biden took from Vladimir Putin? | ||
| Because Joe Biden's the only person that's actually taken $3.5 million from Yelena Baturina. | ||
| It was supposed to be $15 million, but the companies fell apart because they were too corrupt. | ||
| It's Hunter Biden who actually has that check. | ||
| Is that who they're talking about? | ||
| Or the guy who did deals with Russian oligarchs, who's the star witness for the Democrats? | ||
| His name's Lev Parnas. | ||
| Curious how Lev Parnas was let out of jail just in time to testify here by the DOJ. | ||
| Fascinating that. | ||
| But ladies and gentlemen, I digress. | ||
| Jared... | ||
| Jared Moskovitz decided in his time to demand that Joe Biden be impeached. | ||
| That's a bold strategy. | ||
| See if it pays off. | ||
| Bold strategy, Cotton. | ||
| We'll see if it pays off. | ||
| Do we have that clip up, Royce? | ||
| Let's go, baby. | ||
| No, no, no. | ||
| You personally, do you believe he should be impeached? | ||
| I do. | ||
| Okay, and you believe that because you believe Chairman Comer has proven that he committed a high crime and misdemeanor. | ||
| No, because I know that he committed high crimes and misdemeanors. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| I was involved and saw them happen. | ||
| Right, but obviously... | ||
| I'm like sitting here gasping, like watching that clip. | ||
| Can you get a bigger backfire directly into your face from a tailpipe? | ||
| Like, can you? | ||
| Stop sucking on tailpipes, dude. | ||
| Like, maybe that's why he wears a mask. | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| Do you think that Joe Biden should be impeached yet? | ||
| Why? | ||
| Because he committed high crimes and misreaders. | ||
| How do you know? | ||
| Because I saw him do it. | ||
| Because I was working with him. | ||
| Because he was telling me to do it. | ||
| That's why. | ||
| Because I was the guy. | ||
| That's why I'm a witness here for the Republicans, you dumbass. | ||
|
unidentified
|
All right. | |
| No, that's not the only backfire, though, of the day. | ||
| Shockingly, the guy who wore a rubber Vladimir Putin mask, not the sharpest tool in the shed. | ||
| Also, arguing that Joe Biden... | ||
| Should be impeached. | ||
| I mean, his whole argument is let's impeach Joe Biden. | ||
| Now, I will say that as somebody who has been wanting Joe Biden to be impeached, I've got to be honest with you, I actually want Joe Biden to make it to 2024. | ||
| I think Joe Biden will lose 40 states. | ||
| I think Joe Biden has the highest unfavorable... | ||
| Let's look at the presidents who lost, right? | ||
| Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush. | ||
| Donald Trump, Donald Trump, who lost the 2020 election, Donald Trump had a 48% approval rating. | ||
| Jimmy Carter had a 43% approval rating. | ||
| George H.W. Bush had like a 42% approval rating. | ||
| Joe Biden has a 32% approval rating right now. | ||
| I kind of want that guy to stand for re-election, actually. | ||
| These are the kind of things that are making Joe Biden freak out. | ||
| And the best defense that he has are people who wear rubber masks or helmets. | ||
| This is my favorite meme so far of the day. | ||
| AOC. | ||
| Take it away. | ||
| What is the crime, sir? | ||
| Specifically. | ||
| You ask me the answer. | ||
| Rico is not a crime. | ||
| It is a category. | ||
| What is the crime? | ||
|
unidentified
|
of crime. | |
| You can tell. | ||
| It's the theater kids. | ||
| You can tell. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right? | |
| You can tell. | ||
| The theater kids. | ||
| Do you see how they move? | ||
| Right? | ||
| Generally, we kind of do the show like a professional. | ||
| We don't feel the need to flail our arms around like inflatable arm-waving tube men in front of a used car dealership in Flint, Michigan. | ||
| You ever seen those things? | ||
| We don't feel the need to do that. | ||
| Why? | ||
| Well, because we're professionals around here. | ||
| And we're also not the theater kids. | ||
| We're also not flamboyant fabulists who need to, like, I don't know, act like they're doing Bye Bye Birdie. | ||
| But AOC is, again, proving that Democrats, there is no bottom to their ability to self-own. | ||
| AOC was able to self-own in that question. | ||
| It is hysterical to watch that full clip in context. | ||
| Let's just play the exchange with Bobulinski, please. | ||
| Bobulinski, I heard your opening statement. | ||
| It's submitted to the record, part of our proceedings. | ||
| I have a quick question. | ||
| Simple. | ||
| Is it your testimony today that you personally witnessed President Joe Biden commit a crime? | ||
| I believe the fact that he was sitting with me while I was putting together a business deal. | ||
| Did you witness the president commit a crime? | ||
| Is it your testimony today? | ||
| Yes. | ||
| 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 and conspiracy. | ||
| What is it? | ||
| What is the crime, sir? | ||
| Specifically. | ||
| You asked me to answer the question. | ||
| I answered the question. | ||
| RICO, you're obviously not familiar with. | ||
| Excuse me, sir. | ||
| RICO is not a crime. | ||
| It is a category. | ||
| What is the crime? | ||
| It's the category of crimes that you're then charged over. | ||
| You have charges. | ||
| You have charges. | ||
| Sir, please name. | ||
| You want me to name the exact statute under RICO? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| Well, it's funny. | ||
| In this committee room, everyone's not here. | ||
|
unidentified
|
There's over 18 lawyers that went to law school. | |
| I'll leave it up to you guys. | ||
| Thank you, sir. | ||
| I reclaim my time. | ||
| RICO is not a crime! | ||
| But they're charging Donald Trump for RICO crime in Fulton County, Georgia. | ||
| Which, of course, is its own dumpster fire. | ||
| But AOC, like, do you think Joe Biden committed crimes? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Why? | ||
| Because I saw him commit crimes. | ||
| It's amazing. | ||
| I mean, truly, it's just a remarkable showing by Democrats. | ||
| Today, and ladies and gentlemen, it just keeps getting worse. | ||
| To sort of break up the monotony here, Rolls-Royce has instructed me to play a meme of AOC. | ||
| That I haven't seen yet, so I guess we will watch it all together for the first time. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, it is the AOC horse meme? | ||
| Let's go. | ||
| 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 and conspiracy. | ||
| What is it? | ||
| What is the crime, sir? | ||
| Specifically. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| Okay. | ||
| That's pretty special. | ||
| That's very good. | ||
| Alright, ladies and gentlemen. | ||
| Matt Gaetz got a chance to ask some questions. | ||
| Kind of missed this energy from the Republican side. | ||
| Matt Gaetz got an opportunity to go in and kind of make a pretty important point. | ||
| Which is that the only person that actually colluded with Russia in all this is the Democrats' star witness. | ||
| Quite fascinating how that's no longer a sin. | ||
| As long as you can serve the agencies of Democrats, as long as you can serve the power of Democrats, then you are allowed to collude with Russia, whether it be Hillary Clinton in the PP dossier or whether it be Lev Parnas. | ||
| Matt Gaetz, take it away. | ||
| Mr. Parnas, how much time do you spend in prison? | ||
| Four months. | ||
| But you were indicted for crimes that could have resulted in you spending 50 years in prison, right? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Right. | |
| They were false crimes. | ||
| The judge saw through. | ||
| Well, you went to trial and you were convicted, right? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I went to trial, correct. | |
| And the crime was that you were trying to acquire marijuana licenses and you took money from a Russian oligarch and you tried to use that money to go give political donations and do what you had to do to acquire marijuana licenses. | ||
| Is that about right? | ||
|
unidentified
|
That's what the crime was. | |
| That's what the indictment was. | ||
| Sounds like everyone here today, the only one working for a Russian oligarch was you. | ||
| Right? | ||
| I mean, I just heard you wax. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's public information. | |
| Yeah, no, I just heard you wax poetic. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I got paid $200,000. | |
| You know how much I got paid. | ||
| You were really worried about our democracy and you were here to warn us, but you were working for a Russian oligarch. | ||
| On behalf of President Trump. | ||
| But then you didn't even do it. | ||
| The fraud you committed against the Russian oligarch was that instead you spent the money on yourself. | ||
| So, like, was that what you were doing to fight against Russia's aggression? | ||
| Just taking their money? | ||
| Well, that's what you were convicted of. | ||
| But instead of spending 50 years in prison, you got four months. | ||
| As this hearing continues, I look forward to hearing what Mr. Galanis thinks about how he was treated by the DOJ for telling the truth, as opposed to how you're treated for lying. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The DOJ didn't listen to the truth, because if they would listen to the truth, you guys would have been all in jail. | |
| The question Mr. Gates had is for Mr. Galanis. | ||
| Look, the truth for you is taking money from Russians to buy marijuana businesses and then going to jail and then coming here to lie about Trump. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You should know better than anybody. | |
| Gentlemen's time has expired. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You should know better than anybody. | |
| Gentlemen's time has expired. | ||
| No, okay. | ||
| Got it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Boom. | |
| Boom. | ||
| Roasted. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Boom. | |
| Roasted. | ||
| So, you, again, have a very, very, like, deranged... | ||
| Level of questioning from the left, you have effectively everyone doing either slam poetry, theater kid auditions, and not a single Democrat. | ||
| I mean, I'm counting. | ||
| We've been counting. | ||
| Not a single Democrat has used their time to do anything other than attack Donald Trump. | ||
| That's it. | ||
| That's the entire slate of Democrats. | ||
| Stood there and attack Donald Trump. | ||
| That's the whole bit. | ||
| That's it. | ||
| When faced with the crisis of their own party and their own leadership and their own crimes, they scream Orange Man bad. | ||
| That is the defense. | ||
| Does it work? | ||
| Will it work with the American people? | ||
| Have you checked the polling? | ||
| That dog don't hunt anymore. | ||
| So moving over to Nancy Mace. | ||
| Nancy Mace had a very spectacular line of questioning. | ||
| We want to see more from Nancy Mace. | ||
| Savage. | ||
| Nancy Mace, unfortunately, we had her booked on the show, but we just couldn't get her today because the timing just didn't work out great with this live hearing and with her staff and her votes. | ||
| And they're in the middle of votes right now. | ||
| It sounds like they're just finishing up relatively soon and we'll be back to this hearing. | ||
| We've made it our obligation to you to obviously stick with this and... | ||
| To cover these things. | ||
| This stuff's really important. | ||
| And to be live, right? | ||
| And to provide programming for us. | ||
| So we're going to do it. | ||
| We're going to do it. | ||
| It's our obligation to you. | ||
| You guys show up for us and we'll show up for you. | ||
| Nancy Mace showed up today during the congressional hearing of Joe Biden and the crime family. | ||
| And, well, ladies and gentlemen, Nancy Mace is a rising star. | ||
| She's a rising star. | ||
| I really look forward to hearing more of her. | ||
| Listen to this. | ||
|
unidentified
|
If that's what he said, yes. | |
| Is Joe Biden lying when he says he did not interact with Hunter Biden, Jim Biden, their business partners, or foreign interests? | ||
| Yes or no? | ||
| Yes. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Mr. Galanis? | |
| Yes. | ||
| All right. | ||
| In a debate on October 22nd, 2020, Joe Biden denied Hunter Biden made money from China. | ||
| Then Hunter Biden and his business associates and foreign interests include money from Chinese businesses, business partners, and or interests. | ||
| Yes or no? | ||
| Mr. Bobulinski? | ||
| I'm sorry. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Did the Biden family make money from Chinese business interests? | |
| Mr. Galanis? | ||
| Did Hunter Biden receive money from Chinese business interests, yes or no? | ||
| Yes, he was. | ||
| Okay, thank you. | ||
| The economic interest said yes. | ||
| Oh, okay. | ||
| So I don't know, like, this is where I'm from, farm country in Iowa, and it's called beating a dead horse. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, that is... | ||
| Absolutely and unequivocally not a pun about AOC. | ||
| And so we're like looking at just the mountains of evidence against the Bidens for money laundering, for influence peddling, for dealing with America's geopolitical foes and enriching them, for obviously using your office to get prosecutors fired, withholding tax dollars. | ||
| Leveraging the American people and the American taxpayer dollar in order to get the net benefit for your family? | ||
| Closing down banks? | ||
| It is totally, unbelievably, on its face, illegal, what's going on. | ||
| I don't think the American people are, like, buying this. | ||
| I think the polls actually show that. | ||
| And to talk more about it, I want to welcome to the stage two of our producers for this program, Robbie and Alex. | ||
| Welcome. | ||
| Yo, yo. | ||
| Oh, we didn't get an ALX update? | ||
| Wow, robbing me of the updates. | ||
| Technically, it's not an X update, okay? | ||
| But, I mean, X is melting down over the hearing. | ||
| I mean, some of the more viral moments have been the Jasmine Crockett's and then the AOC's of the left. | ||
| And then, obviously, like, on our side, we have, you know... | ||
| Jim Jordan and James Comer going off, and then just, you know, Bob Alinsky's... | ||
| We've heard a lot about Bob Alinsky, and then we had the elusive interview with Tucker that we always kind of reference on the show, and this is kind of his first, like, public appearance since then, so he's been kind of quiet, and I think that's been kind of for a reason, because he didn't want to be oversaturated, and then obviously he didn't want to compromise the investigation and everything, but... | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| So I think what we've been seeing today, and he made this point, is that the American people overwhelmingly believe that there is corruption and that they want this investigation to happen. | ||
| And Bob Linsky himself said that. | ||
| So I think it was pretty funny when they're going to like, he's like, oh, what's your evidence of the crimes or whatever? | ||
| Why do you think there's a crime? | ||
| He's like, well, you know. | ||
| I'm a witness. | ||
| I witnessed it. | ||
| He's like, where's your proof? | ||
| He's like, I am the witness. | ||
| I'm the one who saw these crimes. | ||
| So they keep talking about how there's no evidence. | ||
| And then when it's brought to them, they'll cut off the witness and then say, this is my time. | ||
| So I just think it's a joke at this point. | ||
| It's Democratic talking points. | ||
| Every single one of them, as you said, Benny, they're the clown show. | ||
| They're the theater kids. | ||
| They're just reading off talking points, cutting off. | ||
| Bobulinski, every chance they get. | ||
| And they know that he's right and that the only person who has Russian ties right now is Parnas. | ||
| They're the ones that are sitting there with a person up on the stand who actually had Russian ties. | ||
| They are reading off talking points. | ||
| I find it fascinating that no Democrat on the side of the dais can make eye contact. | ||
| Everyone does the entire thing like this. | ||
| Every line of questioning is right like this. | ||
| And some of them are doing slam poetry, man. | ||
| Some of them are reading poems. | ||
| It's not a serious country anymore. | ||
| We don't have a serious country. | ||
| We have a deeply activated activist class who has taken over for the adults in the room. | ||
| And it's pretty embarrassing. | ||
| Uh-oh. | ||
| ALX off. | ||
|
unidentified
|
His quality is bad. | |
| He's resetting. | ||
| Oh, okay. | ||
| ALX resetting, ladies and gentlemen. | ||
| Ah, maybe we should have done the ALX update then. | ||
| That's what happens when... | ||
| So I have all these tabs open trying to monitor the hearing, all of these sort of things. | ||
| So it's kind of frying my computer going on six, almost seven hours at this point. | ||
| So, you know, we've been live for seven hours. | ||
| That's the machinery at work. | ||
| But yeah, it's a complete joke with the slam poetry. | ||
| I mean... | ||
| I keep making the joke that they're going to make Jasmine Crockett the next vice president because it just would be the most entertaining ticket to see her and Fannie Willis run on a ticket. | ||
| And Democrats would do it. | ||
| I'm convinced that AOC will be running for president when she's eligible. | ||
| I think the next election she'll be eligible to run for president. | ||
| So I think they're actually going to... | ||
| That's the direction that entire party is going towards if you watch these hearings. | ||
| The slam poetry and then... | ||
| What was Jasmine Crockett saying that last time about, like, she, like, was talking about the toilet and Mar-a-Lago and all of, like, this bizarre crap. | ||
| So that's the direction that party is going towards. | ||
| And, yeah, I think it was really smart what Matt Gaetz said about, like, the only person that has, like, taken money from Russia is you, provably. | ||
| You've been indicted for it. | ||
| And that was, like, the indictment. | ||
| You know, the entire Democrat talking point of Russian collusion with Donald Trump and then, you know, Moskowitz coming in with the Putin mask. | ||
| And the only person in the room that's involved in Russia is the Democrat witness, Lev Parnas. | ||
| So it really is a joke at this point. | ||
| And anytime the Democrats have their time, they're just focused on Trump. | ||
| And then they're like, let's subpoena Kushner. | ||
| Yes, let's subpoena Kushner in an impeachment hearing for Joe Biden, because that makes tons of sense. | ||
| If you want, you know, Kushner's subpoena, that's a completely different investigation, but like, I don't get it, man. | ||
| It's just like... | ||
| Kushner's not hiding money. | ||
| Kushner's not hiding who he is. | ||
| You know, Hunter Biden, their family's hiding the money, the money trail. | ||
| That's, you know, as AOC couldn't figure out, this is a RICO case. | ||
| This is a case about how they funneled money. | ||
| And the other thing, too, is when they bring up the Trumps, they're like, oh, but Kushner did this and the Trumps did that. | ||
| And the thing that they are missing is that Kushner had a business before Trump was elected president. | ||
| The Trumps had a business before Trump became president. | ||
| It's quite obvious. | ||
| He had buildings with his name on it. | ||
| And their whole emoluments clause argument, too, they're like, oh, yes, Donald Trump became the president because he wanted people to stay at his hotel in Washington, D.C. For $500 a night. | ||
| Yes, because that's the kind of profits that someone who's worth $6 billion is worried about, is that a foreign dignitary comes and spends $500 to stay at his hotel. | ||
| That's the profit that he's making off of the damn hotel. | ||
| And they kept saying, "Oh yeah, he's using the office to profit." He didn't make any money while he was in office. | ||
| He would have taken a salary cut, but he didn't take a salary. | ||
| I think the only president who's lost net worth from entering office to leaving office. | ||
| And maybe one of the only politicians that's on that. | ||
| Because it's like, same with Congress. | ||
| People go into Congress and then they come out richer. | ||
| He went into politics and came out poorer. | ||
| And now they're trying to seize his properties. | ||
| So the idea that he was doing this to profit is insane. | ||
| The other way around, the Bidens, the question that they keep asking is, what was the Biden's business? | ||
| They had no product to sell. | ||
| And they're like, oh, Hunter Biden's expertise on the board. | ||
| What expertise? | ||
| I don't understand what expertise he's talking about just because he served on boards. | ||
| And that is the expertise. | ||
| He served on boards. | ||
| But why? | ||
| He's a prolific artist. | ||
| You know that ALX. | ||
| You've seen the art. | ||
| Yeah, that's true. | ||
| It's beautiful. | ||
| You know, who pays for it? | ||
| We don't know. | ||
| We don't know. | ||
| Is it, you know, is it the Russians themselves? | ||
| Is it the Chinese? | ||
| We don't know. | ||
| But that art, that's something I want to hang on my wall. | ||
| Stuff about Xi Jinping was pretty unbelievable. | ||
| That they were working directly with the Communist Party. | ||
| Yeah, that's another one I was going to say that went pretty viral, is that they're talking about the number one at the company. | ||
| And then they're like, who was the number one at the company? | ||
| Xi Jinping. | ||
| And she's like, Xi Jinping as in like, you know, the president of China. | ||
| And he's like, yep, yep, that's Xi Jinping. | ||
| But yeah, that's how it operates in China. | ||
| The businesses are, you know, tied in with the state and billionaires don't become billionaires in China without being involved with the government. | ||
| So obviously she was involved in any business that had ties with Biden. | ||
| Um, he would be involved as well. | ||
| So, um, but for him to say that under oath and, you know, to testify that it's pretty, pretty bombshell, I think. | ||
| Boys, let's do some super chats here. | ||
| We've had quite a few roll in, but we do our best. | ||
| I just want to let everyone know we. | ||
| Every time that we do programming like this, we do it for the programming. | ||
| As much as we want to scream and yell and throw stuff at Democrats, imagine how hard it was during the Fannie Willis testimony to not lose our minds. | ||
| We don't do it because that's what MSNBC does and CNN does to Donald Trump. | ||
| They cut him off and they just don't allow him to speak, which is actually robbing their viewership, saying their viewership is too stupid. | ||
| To understand Donald Trump. | ||
| Even if their viewership hates Donald Trump, they have a right to see him. | ||
| He's a Republican nominee for president. | ||
| It's all locked up. | ||
| He will run. | ||
| And he will stand to vote. | ||
| To the vote in 2024. | ||
| And so MSNBC and CNN cut him off. | ||
| We cover it every single time. | ||
| They cut off Donald Trump speaking. | ||
| And like, mule and bitch and whine about it. | ||
| Because they hate their audience, actually. | ||
| And we don't. | ||
| We love our audience. | ||
| And so our rule here on this program, as much as we would love to take super chats during that time or would love to, like, talk over what's going on, we do not do it. | ||
| We do not do it. | ||
| We allow what's going on, as insane as it is, we allow what's going on so that you can hear it, so that you can comment. | ||
| We put your comments on screen, and we do our very best, right, to make sure it's a clean broadcast because we actually respect you. | ||
| And we respect your intelligence, and we know that you're, like, you're not so stupid. | ||
| CNN and MSNBC think their audiences are dumb. | ||
| And so they think they're dumb, and they try to protect their audiences from Donald Trump, Mean Orange Man. | ||
| Their audience is too stupid to, like, listen to Donald Trump. | ||
| They may actually agree with what Donald Trump has to say, as most Americans do. | ||
| And so they censor Trump. | ||
| So we'll never do that. | ||
| I guess that's the point I'm trying to make. | ||
| So, ladies and gentlemen, to that point, that's why we have to wait for moments like this to do super chats, because we actually allow the hearings to go on. | ||
| We've only had, like, a 20-minute break. | ||
| So far. | ||
| And so, ladies and gentlemen, here we go. | ||
| What does Hunter Biden and a casino have in common? | ||
| They're both always looking for dealers. | ||
| Very nice. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Good one. | ||
| Good one. | ||
| I just want to shout out to Karen Costello, who sent in a $200 super chat. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| We obviously do the show for you. | ||
| And we do the show with funding and support. | ||
| From you and just watching us is supporting us. | ||
| And so we thank you. | ||
| You won't find a program on the internet that is more thankful for their audience, more appreciative of the people who actually watch. | ||
| So thank you. | ||
| Here we go. | ||
| From Millie Joan. | ||
| Trump, love the way you did that with the America flag emojis. | ||
| 2024 or America is no more. | ||
| God save America. | ||
| Joe Biden's a criminal in America. | ||
| Robbie, your response to that. | ||
| Sorry, I... | ||
| He is... | ||
| I was looking at the floor votes. | ||
| I'm sorry. | ||
| Oh, yeah. | ||
| We're checking the floor votes. | ||
| Robbie says he loves your emoji style, Millie Joan. | ||
| Raskin wrote Parnas' opening statement. | ||
| I think there is actually collusion, obviously, between the Democrats and their witnesses. | ||
| They definitely work together. | ||
| That's not uncommon. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| I mean, they did that like Schiff used to do that with the Russiagate. | ||
| He was colluding with the whistleblower, I remember. | ||
| And then lied about not knowing who the whistleblower was, despite his office working with him. | ||
| I remember that. | ||
| Jake CB says, Dems keep adding left-wing articles to the record to give future historians lies to repeat. | ||
| They are. | ||
| I'd like to add Salon. | ||
| Yeah, Salon and the Daily Beast. | ||
| Like, okay, we'll have the Daily Beast. | ||
| I'd like to add the comment section. | ||
| The comment section of Reddit, I'd like to add that. | ||
| Cowboy Rob, what's the difference between that and Biden's $6 billion holdout, presumably saying handout? | ||
| And I think he's talking about Ukraine here. | ||
| Biden and the Ukraine corruption has gone back a long ways. | ||
| Why, ALX? | ||
| Well, we obviously see he has business interests there, and his son has business interests there. | ||
| And that's one of the rumors now that he's so in bed with them that that's why they're serving essentially with foreign aid and just forking over billions and billions of dollars because he's compromised in those areas and with those deals. | ||
| So he has no option other than to sell out, basically. | ||
| And because Ukraine... | ||
| Because our State Department effectively has always run Ukraine. | ||
| There's a New York Times article about how the CIA has operational bases in Ukraine, like a dozen of them. | ||
| So, like, how much of an owned and operated client state of America do you have to be? | ||
| Like, Ukraine is effectively a 51st state. | ||
| They get funded like a 51st state. | ||
| And we have all of our military resources there. | ||
| And we staged a coup. | ||
| Like, everyone straight up admits it. | ||
| Right? | ||
| Like, Victoria Nuland straight up admits, like, we staged a coup. | ||
| She's caught on, she's caught on tape, Victoria Nuland, the witch of the State Department, the witch of all American coups, she's caught on tape talking about who the new cabinet's gonna be before they even have, like, a revolution in Ukraine. | ||
| I mean, it was like an active coup. | ||
| So, I think the Bidens are running that country like a client state because they believe they actually own Ukraine. | ||
| That's why. | ||
| That's why they take it so personally. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Bubbulinski is a quality name. | ||
| I won't lie. | ||
| Oh, well, thank you, Steven Soar. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Bubbulinski. | |
| Bubbulinski. | ||
| A shot at old Jasmine Davy Crackett. | ||
| Crazy Crackett. | ||
| Thank you, Benny. | ||
| Awesome work. | ||
| Love all you patriots. | ||
| Fight for DJT 2024. | ||
| Love you, MTG. | ||
| What did MTG do today, ALX? | ||
| So, MTG was the one who got that question about Xi Jinping. | ||
| That was, you know, again, with these hearings being like seven hours, that's the thing about these, is that a lot of the bombshells just, like, will get glossed over when you're watching it live. | ||
| But, like, for that to be testified and, you know... | ||
| That's the beauty of social media and platforms like X is because they can be clipped and then those moments can go viral. | ||
| But if you're just watching a seven-hour hearing, you might not pick up on all of the bombshells. | ||
| But yeah, I do think that's the bombshell that came out of this hearing from MTG was that Xi Jinping was the number one who said that he would be made available to Joe Biden. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Regina says, Benny, those dang bams lie and misdirect. | ||
| That's right, Regina. | ||
| They sure as hell do. | ||
| Was there a single, you guys have been watching, was there a single response from Democrats that didn't include the words T-R-U-M-P? | ||
| I don't think so. | ||
| I think they were all, you know, this is their strategy for back when, you know, they had Robert Herr, too. | ||
| They just talk about Trump. | ||
| And again, with the whole, let's subpoena Kushner, let's do this, let's do that, the hearings about the impeachment of Joe Biden, and that's all that comes out of their mouth is Trump. | ||
| We had the slam poetry moment about Trump. | ||
| Like I just said, Kushner. | ||
| And then they just go off on their own little narratives about Donald Trump. | ||
| But yeah, I think every single Democrat mentioned Trump. | ||
| Daytime! | ||
| Bobulinski saying that he's the one taking funds, and they kept on hitting on that all day long, which, you know, there's no evidence of that, that he put forth. | ||
| Daytime looks, looks daytime, daytime semantic. | ||
| I think it's daytime mystic. | ||
| Daytime mystic. | ||
| Nice. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Look. | |
| Into the Blackberries. | ||
| Those phones are important. | ||
| Kerry, Biden, Obama, Clinton. | ||
| They all use the same network. | ||
| Interconnected. | ||
| DC Mafia. | ||
| Not sure you can look at Hillary Clinton's Blackberries because... | ||
| Hammer time. | ||
| They smashed... | ||
| What's the quote? | ||
| They smashed him with the hammer. | ||
| With the hammer! | ||
|
unidentified
|
They smashed him with the... | |
| Remember the fact check thing? | ||
| It's like, fact check that. | ||
| Fact check that live with their hammers. | ||
| They're telling me there were hammers. | ||
| There were hammers. | ||
| There were hammers. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Bleach Bit. | ||
| They didn't bleach the phone? | ||
| No, they didn't bleach the phone. | ||
| They used Bleach Bit. | ||
| It's a service to delete all the evidence on your phone. | ||
| To bleach your phone. | ||
| Love from Auntie. | ||
| Thank you, Auntie LC. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| We love back. | ||
| Hearts. | ||
| Hearts, boys. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| We love you back, Auntie. | ||
| All right, ladies and gentlemen, we continue here. | ||
| From Timah. | ||
| The prosecutor in question was actually the prosecutor general, Ukraine's equivalent to our attorney general, Merrick Garland. | ||
| In part, that's why Ukraine's Poroshenko was so resistant to firing him. | ||
| That's huge. | ||
| I didn't actually know that. | ||
| Thank you, Timah. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Interesting. | |
| Jackson Heights, will he eat her up for this? | ||
| Her district. | ||
| Says Rosa. | ||
| Jackson Heights. | ||
| Where is that? | ||
| Sorry, is that in Dallas? | ||
| Oh, is that in Queens? | ||
| So who is she talking about? | ||
| Is she talking about AOC? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Okay. | |
| Okay. | ||
| Nancy Mace versus AOC. | ||
| AOC gets some horse emojis and some vomit emojis. | ||
| Nancy Mace gets some lovey eyes. | ||
| Says Marvin McClain. | ||
| Here we go. | ||
| Just think there are people dumber than AOC. | ||
| That put her in. | ||
| It says gimme. | ||
| So Grimly. | ||
| Grimly. | ||
| Grimlin. | ||
| Okay, great. | ||
| Star Wars name. | ||
| So, yeah. | ||
| And then you go to Astoria, like we've done, and you talk to people, and you can't find anyone who likes AOC. | ||
| It's very weird. | ||
| It's very weird. | ||
| AOC is just very weird. | ||
| Problem is, it's like, I feel like those people are just so jaded by the fact that they live in Democrat areas and they're like, there's no point in me voting. | ||
| So in turn, that just, you know, that gives Democrats more power because Republicans who actually live there don't end up voting because they just look at the numbers and they say, we're, you know, we're outnumbered at this point. | ||
| There's no point of me voting. | ||
| But that in turn keeps them in power, unfortunately. | ||
| Go to Astoria. | ||
| Go to New York. | ||
| Go to Astoria. | ||
| Ask people if they like AOC. | ||
| Do it. | ||
| Just stay on the street corner for hours. | ||
| We've done it. | ||
| You can't find anybody who likes AOC. | ||
| It's the weirdest thing in the world. | ||
| So where's her support come from? | ||
| I don't know. | ||
| Also, AOC does all these public events. | ||
| She's always getting shouted down. | ||
| She gets protested at every single one. | ||
| AOC had a meltdown on the street the other day. | ||
| Like an F-bomb-laden meltdown. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Keep fighting to save America, Benny. | ||
| God bless. | ||
| Thank you, YS. | ||
| How much were you paid, Parnos, to sell out your own country? | ||
| Lev Parnas. | ||
| From Beanzelbub. | ||
| Beanzybub. | ||
| That's all very coincidental. | ||
| Right, like he was working with the Russians. | ||
| Isn't he a Ukrainian or something like that? | ||
| Like he was working with the Russians, but he's a Ukrainian? | ||
| Okay. | ||
| Cool. | ||
| To get pot? | ||
| What's the scandal there, ALX? | ||
| Do you know? | ||
| I think he was getting money to become a pot salesman, legally, whatever it is, a marijuana distributor or whatever. | ||
| Instead of spending it on becoming a distributor, he spent it on himself. | ||
| It was wire fraud or whatever. | ||
| I don't know the full story, but that's the gist of it. | ||
| Hmm. | ||
| Congressman Karen is scared of Russia. | ||
| Congressman Karen is scared of Russia. | ||
| Congressman Karen, you're going to have to get more specific there, run at Godzilla, because they're all kind of a congressman. | ||
| Karen, yeah. | ||
| You're going to have to find me the non-Karen, please. | ||
| Maybe the guy from Massachusetts. | ||
| That first started asking questions. | ||
| That guy with like the thick Massachusetts, thick Boston accent. | ||
| That guy was like, man, I looked through Hunter Biden's laptop. | ||
| I'll never be the same. | ||
| Like the only honest Democrat. | ||
| Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump 2024. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Thank you, juries08. | |
| Benny, I'm late to this live. | ||
| Can you give me a quick summary of what is on and what's happened so far? | ||
| Says Anna P. I'll start, and you guys can sort of finish here. | ||
| Alex, I just noticed our flags match. | ||
| Look at that in the shot. | ||
| Very nice. | ||
| Okay, beautiful. | ||
| Look at that. | ||
| Wow. | ||
| The sweet continuance. | ||
| Oh, yeah, look at that. | ||
| Yeah, look at that. | ||
| There's the flag. | ||
| Okay, great. | ||
| We planned all this, by the way. | ||
| We planned all this. | ||
| The singularity is here. | ||
| So, here's what's happened in like 10 seconds or less. | ||
| Republicans proved that Joe Biden is a traitor to our nation and went and got hoovered up money, used his office to hoover up money from the dirty chai comms and the dirty communist Russians. | ||
| There wasn't a single communist entity that Joe Biden wouldn't take money from to enrich his dirty ass family. | ||
| From the Democrat side of the aisle, so the Republicans proved that. | ||
| On the Democrat side of the aisle, orange man bad. | ||
| Democrats have been screaming, orange man bad. | ||
| Spit coming out of their mouths. | ||
| Veins bulging in their neck. | ||
| They don't even address anything. | ||
| They've presented no arguments, as far as I can tell. | ||
| I'm watching it as closely as anybody. | ||
| They've presented zero arguments that Joe Biden's innocent here. | ||
| They've effectively just said, orange man bad. | ||
| And every one of them, including one member who decided to read a poem about Donald Trump, including another member who, like, melted down and said, Rico isn't a crime. | ||
| And another member who said that Joe Biden needs to be impeached and, like, called for Joe Biden's impeachment? | ||
| Like, it's just a disaster. | ||
| So, I don't know, boys. | ||
| What else? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| So then another thing is that Bobulinski testified that Joe Biden is 1,000% the big guy and testified that under oath. | ||
| And then just more of what we have already confirmed, that the Bidens didn't have a legitimate business. | ||
| To your point about, you know, when Moskowitz wanted to move articles of impeachment or vote on impeachment, he kept saying, you know, why aren't you guys voting on impeachment when they're... | ||
| That's the point of the investigation and the hearing, is to bring all of its evidence to the table. | ||
| And obviously for the witness, Bob Alinsky, to be called, he must think that there was wrongdoing and that he was the witness to a crime. | ||
| So then he started asking Bob Alinsky if he thinks that the impeachable offenses or crimes are committed. | ||
| And he said yes. | ||
| And he's like, okay, so let's move it to a vote on impeachment. | ||
| The point of these hearings is to bring forth the evidence from the witnesses. | ||
| So that's what's going on right now. | ||
| And then after that's established, that's when you bring it to a vote. | ||
| So for him to make that, you know, again, like you said, it's all like theater kids. | ||
| Because they don't have any arguments to the contrary. | ||
| They just kept saying, they keep saying, oh, if you have the evidence, why don't you bring it to a vote? | ||
| This is the point of these hearings. | ||
| But yeah, so we had Bobulinski. | ||
| Devin Archer wasn't able to make it, but he was invited. | ||
| And then Jason Galanis, he's one of the guys that's, he's testifying from prison. | ||
| And then the other thing from the beginning, they're like, oh. | ||
| We wanted our witnesses to testify on Zoom and you wouldn't let us. | ||
| It's like, okay, this guy was literally in jail. | ||
| So he couldn't be here in person because he's in jail. | ||
| It wasn't because, oh, I don't want to travel or I'm afraid to get on an airplane like the Kavanaugh witness who lied. | ||
| But yeah, it's because he's literally in jail. | ||
| And then they tried to attack the credibility of the witnesses because he's in jail. | ||
| He's like, oh, you're literally in jail. | ||
| Meanwhile, they bring up Lev Parnas, who was also convicted. | ||
| Of a crime. | ||
| But I think you also mentioned this as well. | ||
| Isn't it funny? | ||
| Anyone who comes out against the Bidens are convicted of crimes. | ||
| And there was that text message that went to Devin Archer from Hunter Biden about basically him complaining that the Bidens threw him under the rug and are not helping him. | ||
| And basically Hunter's response is like... | ||
| We're the Bidens. | ||
| This is the Biden family. | ||
| We're going to protect ourselves or something to that effect. | ||
| So yeah, attacking the witnesses' credibility is because they've been locked up is even more proof that they were involved in the Biden wrongdoing and now they're being attacked and targeted because they're now speaking out against it. | ||
| Yeah, that's right. | ||
| If everybody you worked with is now in prison and you're not and you're in charge of the Justice Department, And they're all testifying against you. | ||
| That looks pretty damn bad. | ||
| Yeah, exactly. | ||
| And then they're using that as the opposite effect of why are we going to believe you? | ||
| You're a criminal. | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Speaking of looking bad, there was a very, very bad decision that was just ruled by an Obama judge that seemed like unbelievably coerced. | ||
| It's not exactly what we're talking about today here during the hearing, but we have here a comment from JustGenReacts. | ||
| Benny, this is breaking news. | ||
| Obama-appointed U.S. District Judge has ruled that illegals can carry guns. | ||
| I expect that this, if it hasn't already, has already been interdicted by a responsible gun ownership, which, of course, we are big advocates of here on this program. | ||
| But it's pretty simple. | ||
| The Constitution was written for Americans. | ||
| Criminal aliens aren't Americans. | ||
| Therefore, they don't have a right to the Second Amendment. | ||
| Or the First Amendment, or any amendment, because they're not law-abiding, legal Americans. | ||
| Period. | ||
| Right? | ||
| That, like, seems like it completely stands to reason. | ||
| What an insane, what an unbelievably insane ruling. | ||
| That's a liberal playbook. | ||
| I mean, I remember back in college hearing the same thing, that if you're here on American soil, you have full American rights and everything afforded to it. | ||
| And, you know... | ||
| So what about a tourist? | ||
| What about somebody? | ||
| A Russian comes over here from Moscow. | ||
| Can they get guns? | ||
| Like, they're on, like, a trip to go see New York? | ||
| You can't. | ||
| You probably have to drive 500 miles to find a firearm dealer away from New York. | ||
| But, like, what does that mean? | ||
| What does this even mean? | ||
| Right? | ||
| What if they just decide to stay here, like, after their vacations? | ||
| And they can all get guns? | ||
| This is insane. | ||
| And, by the way, this seems like this ruling, absolutely. | ||
| Seems like it's designed in order to, like, create foreign armies here in America. | ||
| Like, how else can you read this? | ||
| How else can you read this ruling? | ||
| I don't understand. | ||
| It's insane. | ||
| And the thing is, it's like, the states don't have the right to protect their own borders or to, you know, deport illegals, but illegals have the rights to own guns or have, you know, free credit cards or free hotel rooms or... | ||
| Now in New York with the whole squatters rights thing that I don't even understand. | ||
| It's like the squatters have more rights than homeowners and illegal immigrants have more rights than American citizens at this point. | ||
| And I don't understand how we've gotten to this point as a country. | ||
| Well, an American with a criminal record can't have a gun in all states. | ||
| A felon can't have a gun? | ||
| Yeah, that's right. | ||
| So a felon can't have a gun and a legal comes across illegally. | ||
| It doesn't make sense. | ||
| That's a felony based on the 1964 Immigration Act. | ||
| Doesn't make sense. | ||
| But again, like, follow the logic here. | ||
| You have hundreds, if not thousands of people that have been apprehended on the border on the terrorist watch list. | ||
| And now an Obama-appointed judge is saying those people can all get firearms in America. | ||
| Also, how the hell are you going to do this? | ||
| I mean, again, I've purchased many firearms. | ||
| I have many firearms here in the studio with me. | ||
| I'm seldom ever without a firearm. | ||
| And I have my concealed carry license and, you know, I'm here to obviously stay strapped, right? | ||
| Protect your family, protect yourself. | ||
| I'm a legal firearm owner in America. | ||
| Every single time I purchase a firearm, I have to fill out a form that's as long as my arm that has to do with, like, laws I've broken. | ||
| Right? | ||
| Am I a felon? | ||
| Right? | ||
| Am I a legal citizen? | ||
| Like, these are questions on the federal NICS form. | ||
| So, how are you going to fill out a federal NICS form if you're a criminal alien? | ||
| Like, you're obviously here illegally. | ||
| Like, that's why illegal alien is the word to describe you and has been the word ever since they decided to change the lexicon. | ||
| Marxists decided to change the lexicon. | ||
| We do not use the word migrant on this program. | ||
| By the way, that's a banned word on this program. | ||
| That's a psyop word. | ||
| They want to trick all of us into saying migrant. | ||
| We do not use it. | ||
| They are criminal aliens. | ||
| And legally, that's what they are. | ||
| That's what they are legally documented as. | ||
| A criminal alien. | ||
| Not newcomers. | ||
| No. | ||
|
unidentified
|
No. | |
| A newcomer is somebody who shows up at your church on Sunday morning who hasn't been there before and gets greeted by the greeter and gets the little pamphlet. | ||
| That's a newcomer. | ||
| Okay? | ||
| They're not newcomers. | ||
| Anyway, Final thing is, think about Ashley. | ||
| So you have Lake and Riley, and Lake and Riley, what if that guy had a firearm? | ||
| So they're saying that guy needs a firearm. | ||
| It's insane. | ||
| It's crazy. | ||
| Okay, so JustGenReacts, thank you again for that question. | ||
| Let's see, moving on here to something. | ||
| A little more lighthearted. | ||
| FJV forever from CR. | ||
| Thank you, CR. | ||
| Dems, coach the witnesses for sure from intellectual iconoclasticism. | ||
| Rosa says, angry woman! | ||
| That could be multiple ones. | ||
| Gonna have to narrow it down, but we know... | ||
| My favorite is how they go from crying to anger, and they go back and forth in their speech pattern. | ||
| One second they're almost crying, AOC, and the next second she's screaming. | ||
| And Tlaib was almost the same. | ||
| It's that shaky voice syndrome. | ||
| That's what I'm going to call it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Squad. | |
| Shaky squad voice. | ||
| OMG, does this... | ||
|
unidentified
|
Wonderful, ladies. | |
| Mouth have an off switch. | ||
| Again. | ||
| We assume that you're talking about Eric Swalwell. | ||
| Daniel Lanus. | ||
| Rough week for limp-wristed, soy boy-infused Democrats. | ||
| Again, you're just going to have to narrow it down there. | ||
| But Jared Markovits certainly is... | ||
| Moskowitz. | ||
| Moskowitz. | ||
| I'm going to work on it. | ||
| I'm going to work on it. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Markovits. | |
| I don't know. | ||
| Marxist-ovits. | ||
| We're just gonna, like, that dude's gotta take the cake. | ||
| He's gotta take the cake. | ||
| Have you seen Joe Biden do impeachable offenses? | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| Why can you say that? | ||
| Because I was there with him. | ||
| How? | ||
| Well, and let's impeach him. | ||
| Uh, alright. | ||
| It's a bold strategy, Cotton. | ||
| See if it plays off. | ||
| See if it pays out. | ||
| Brandon is finished. | ||
| I mean, again, we'll see. | ||
| But I kind of don't want him to be, to be quite honest. | ||
| I look at the polling, and I look at how it's quite literally impossible for Joe Biden to pull out of this nosedive. | ||
| There's not enough time. | ||
| There's not enough, like, rigging, I think, in the world. | ||
| This is why Donald Trump's new slogan is too big to rig. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yeah. | |
| Where is... | ||
| Man's all right. | ||
| I think that Stephen Soar is quoting... | ||
| Jasmine Davy Crockett. | ||
| Crazy Crockett. | ||
| Who cannot pronounce... | ||
| Bubble Linsky. | ||
| Bubble Linsky. | ||
| Bubu Linsky. | ||
| Bubu Linsky. | ||
| Okay. | ||
| No, Hunter. | ||
| Must be the three jobs that the judge ordered him to get. | ||
| The judge did order him to get a job. | ||
| Hunter does have multiple... | ||
| He has a gun charge coming his way. | ||
| We're going back. | ||
| Oh, okay. | ||
| All right. | ||
| Looks like... | ||
| In your interactions with the Biden family, which you've told us all about throughout the day, did you ever observe the Chinese government grant 22 patents in Joe Biden's children while Joe Biden was in office? | ||
| I did not. | ||
| Did you ever observe the Chinese government... | ||
| I'm sorry. | ||
| Did you ever observe Joe Biden ever own or operate any hotels while he was in public office and take millions of dollars from foreign governments? | ||
| I did not. | ||
| Did you ever observe Joe Biden employ any of his children or their spouses in the White House as vice president or president? | ||
| I did not. | ||
| I can't speak to that. | ||
| Did you ever observe, while observing the Bidens, the Bidens install a family member to be the co-chair of the DNC? | ||
| I'm sorry, ask the question again. | ||
| Did you ever observe the Bidens install a family member to be the co-chair of the Democratic National Committee? | ||
| I did not. | ||
| Did President Biden or anyone in his family take $2 billion from the Saudi government? | ||
| Not that I'm aware of. | ||
| Did President Biden or anyone in his family get fined $355 million for tax fraud? | ||
| Not that I'm aware of. | ||
| Mr. Parnas, as you've observed Mr. Bobulinski today and his fealty and dedication and loyalty to the Trump family, is that something you recognize as somebody who was also in that cult before? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Absolutely. | |
| Is there hope for our man Tony here? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Very little, I think, until he hits a brick wall. | |
| And in your experience on a scale of 1 to 10, how eager was the Trump campaign in your interactions to manufacture dirt on Joe Biden? | ||
| 1 to 10, 10 being the highest. | ||
|
unidentified
|
10 plus. | |
| 10 plus. | ||
| Would it surprise you, Mr. Parnas, that the Russians and in their disinformation campaign outlets have often cited Chairman Comer's testimony and allegations against the Biden family to make their own allegations against Joe Biden? | ||
|
unidentified
|
It doesn't surprise me because that's exactly what they want to happen. | |
| Mr. Chairman, it's over. | ||
| It's over. | ||
|
unidentified
|
It's over. | |
| It's time to pack it up. | ||
| And I want to give you the top ten reasons why impeachment is dead. | ||
| Number ten. | ||
| Your key witness today is testifying from the slammer. | ||
| Number nine. | ||
| Key evidence of a bribe that you all relied on. | ||
| The guy who said that has been indicted for lying about that bribe, and he's a Russian asset. | ||
| Number eight. | ||
| Another key witness has been indicted as a Chinese agent. | ||
| Number seven. | ||
| During the Hunter Biden interview, Mr. Chairman, you didn't even stay for the whole time. | ||
| Number six. | ||
| Chairman Jason Smith didn't show up at all to the Hunter Biden interview. | ||
| The same day, number five, Daryl Isis said, it's a big nothing. | ||
| Number four, today Jim Jordan began his remarks, not by relying on any evidence for this investigation, but he went off attacking the DOJ about what they're doing with the Catholics. | ||
| Number three, you all still have not sent the articles of impeachment for the Mayorkas impeachment to the Senate. | ||
| And that happened last month. | ||
| Number two, you're now talking about a criminal referral, but if you had evidence for a criminal referral, then you have evidence to impeach somebody for high crimes and misdemeanors. | ||
| And number one, and I'm sorry to say this, Fox News isn't even carrying this today. | ||
| In fact, one of their anchors, as they broke away 10 minutes in, said, this is the same hearing over and over and over. | ||
| At what point are you going to fish or cut bait? | ||
|
unidentified
|
So I just have to tell you, it's over. | |
| Impeachment's over. | ||
| Dunzo. | ||
| Bye-bye. | ||
| Rigor mortis. | ||
| Lights out. | ||
| Curtain drop. | ||
| Mic drop. | ||
| Peace. | ||
| Adios. | ||
| Sayonara. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Au revoir. | |
| Or a language that you all understand, doi sivdanya. | ||
| Did I say that right, Mr. Parnas? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes. | |
| I dare you to impeach, but you won't because you don't have the evidence. | ||
| And because you don't have the evidence, you don't have the votes. | ||
| Guys, it's dead. | ||
| And so, I'm here to pronounce the time of death. | ||
| Oh, God. | ||
| 516. | ||
| Impeachment is dead. | ||
| 516. | ||
| Biden impeachment's dead. | ||
| Joe Biden has been acquitted. | ||
| Say it in Chinese. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Who is that? | |
| Which time's expired chair now recognizes Miss Luna from Florida. | ||
| for five minutes. | ||
| Mr. Parnas, I want to read to you a few quotes from a letter that you wrote to the House Oversight Committee. | ||
| First, you said that I will remind you that Solchewski's answers are in the report that the House Oversight Committee published. | ||
| In this document, he stated that Hunter Biden was never asked or assigned to speak with anyone in the U.S. on behalf of Burisma. | ||
| Mr. Parnas, are you aware that according to Amos Hochstein, a U.S. State Department official, in a transcribed interview with the Senate, Hunter Biden requested to have a meeting with him in November of 2015. | ||
| Mr. Hochstein testified that he met with Hunter Biden and they... | ||
| You spoke about Burisma. | ||
| So yes or no, that statement that you made to House Oversight was incorrect. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The statement was correct, because that statement... | |
| Yes or no? | ||
|
unidentified
|
The statement is coming from the words of the CEO Burisma. | |
| It's directly conflicting with testimony. | ||
| Next question. | ||
| There were no political or lobbying firm efforts on behalf of Burisma in your statement that you made to House Oversight. | ||
| Mr. Parnes, are you aware that Burisma's engagement of Blue Star Strategies, which was a lobbying firm that was lobbying the U.S. government on behalf of Burisma and Mikhail Slocheski, and according to Sally Painter and Karen Termitano, the heads of Burisma. | ||
| So that statement, again, that you wrote to this committee was incorrect. | ||
| Yes or no? | ||
|
unidentified
|
No, you're incorrect. | |
| No, that is incorrect. | ||
| You're directly conflicting with that. | ||
| My final question for you, Mr. Parnas, is next year that nobody from the company of Burisma has ever spoken to Joe Biden. | ||
| It's okay, Chairman. | ||
| I got him. | ||
| Mr. Parnas, Devin Archer testified to this committee that Vadim Pacharsky... | ||
| Corporate Secretary of Merzma sat down for dinner with Joe Biden. | ||
| So that statement also was incorrect that you wrote to this committee, yes or no? | ||
|
unidentified
|
No, it's not incorrect. | |
| Mr. Chairman, I think this witness's credibility is shot. | ||
| I'd like to give the remaining of my time to the amazing representative from Florida, Representative Matt Gaetz. | ||
| The Democrats could have sent anyone. | ||
| They could have sent Hunter Biden. | ||
| They could have sent Joe Biden. | ||
| They could have sent Rob Walker. | ||
| They could have sent Devin Archer. | ||
| The Democrats could have sought any person. | ||
| To come and refute the direct evidence backed up by bank statements, backed up by calendar entries, backed up by emails, backed up by text messages. | ||
| And who did the Democrats send to clear the name of Joe and Hunter Biden? | ||
| They sent Lev Parnas. | ||
| Lev Parnas, who was charged with enough crimes and violating our campaign finance laws to, like, serve 50 years, but he gets four months. | ||
| And the big, grand criminal conspiracy Mr. Parnas is involved in is using Russian oligarch money to try to get marijuana licenses, which seems odd, and then using that Russian money to plow into campaigns in order to achieve that objective. | ||
| But the fraud he committed wasn't just on our election system by plowing Russian money. | ||
| It was also a fraud on his own investors who didn't get it. | ||
| So I guess, Mr. Bobulinski, as you hear Maxwell Frost, my colleague on the Democrat side, say that Mr. Parnas, fresh off of his prison time, is the most credible witness we've had to address these business dealings. | ||
| What's your reaction to that? | ||
| I think it's laughable that the Democrats are asking Lev Parnas to weigh in on my credibility, a convicted felon that served jail time. | ||
| I have an impeccable record. | ||
| Now, he warned me earlier in this hearing that they're coming for me. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I look forward to that. | |
| I look forward to that, Mr. Parna. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Keep lying. | |
| You'll be there soon. | ||
| Well, and is that a threat, Mr. Baranski? | ||
|
unidentified
|
No, it's just the truth. | |
| No, did you say they were coming for me? | ||
|
unidentified
|
No, I said if you keep lying, you will end up in prison. | |
| I'm not lying. | ||
|
unidentified
|
You're the one who was lying. | |
| You're the one who went to prison for lying. | ||
|
unidentified
|
What am I lying for? | |
| Tell me what we're lying for, Mr. Baranski. | ||
| You don't even know what you're talking about. | ||
| What am I lying? | ||
| You went to prison for lying and defrauding your investors? | ||
|
unidentified
|
What am I lying here? | |
| Oh, the list is long. | ||
| We don't have enough time. | ||
| I think Mr. Gates only has a minute. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think you're a little scared, just like Mr. Gates. | |
| Because Mr. Gates doesn't even ask a question. | ||
| I've been here for six hours and not one of your committee members asked me one question. | ||
| You want to hear the truth? | ||
| I asked a question about your illegal business dealing. | ||
|
unidentified
|
I've been here for seven hours. | |
| Ask me some questions. | ||
| Fraud is a crime, right? | ||
| Go ahead. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Correct. | |
| Fraud is a crime. | ||
| Fraud is a crime, and you observed fraud on the part of the Bidens, right? | ||
| I did. | ||
| Crystal clear. | ||
| So much so, I had an independent law firm spend $300,000 to analyze that fraud and put together a fully ready, fileable lawsuit against the Biden family. | ||
| And bribery is a crime, right? | ||
| Correct. | ||
| And what you observed with Joe Biden trying to get you into this business deal with Hunter Biden, what you later learned about that business deal and how the money was flowing from the Chinese Communist Party to Hunter Biden, to other members of the Biden family, did that concern you as a potential feature of money laundering? | ||
| It did. | ||
| It did. | ||
| I started to grow concerned after I met Joe Biden, and then I sat down with Jim Biden and he used the term plausible deniability with me, and that's documented because I went back to my lawyers and I asked them, something is starting to feel unright, and they went and hired another law firm to give me a full FCPA workup to go through the details of what could be done and what couldn't be done. | ||
| Sounds like high crimes and misdemeanors to me, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| Very good. | ||
| Chair now recognizes the chairwoman of the House Education Committee, Ms. Fox from North Carolina. | ||
| Dr. Fox. | ||
| So it's just Republicans now. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I want to thank my colleagues for what you have been doing here today, unraveling these issues. | ||
| Mr. Galinas. | ||
| In your written testimony, you state that your, quote, objective was to build a diversified private equity platform which would be anchored by a globally known Wall Street brand together with a globally known political name, Biden, end quote. | ||
| Is it correct that Harvest Fund Management, a $300 billion Chinese financial services company closely connected to the Chinese Communist Party, CCP, was interested in partnering with you and your business partners? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, that's correct. | |
| Thank you. | ||
| Why was the CCP-connected Harvest Fund Management interested in doing business with you and your partners? | ||
| Hunter Biden and Devin Archer. | ||
|
unidentified
|
The only plausible reason, and the reason we even discussed, was because of the access that it provided. | |
| There was a quote that was attributed to Henry Zahn, the chairman, that talked about the access that it provided. | ||
| So there's documentation that was contemporaneous that said what their interest was, and that interest was political access. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Is it correct that Harvest Fund Management believed that Joe Biden would take a seat on that company's board after his vice presidency ended? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, that's correct. | |
| There were emails to that effect around that time that were circulated by people who were there as part of those conversations, including the golf outing. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Are you aware of Hunter Biden ever speaking to his father, Joe Biden, about the plan to have him join the board of Harvest Fund Management? | ||
|
unidentified
|
Yes, I witnessed that. | |
| Yes. | ||
| It seems clear that Joe Biden was aware of his family's use of his office and influence to do business with America's adversaries and therefore a choice to pursue personal gain over national security. | ||
| Mr. Bobulinski, is it true that former Vice President Joe Biden met with Li Jingming, the chairman of CEFC China Energy? | ||
| It is based on Rob Walker saying yes to that in a transcribed interview. | ||
| I personally was not at that meeting. | ||
| When did this meeting take place based on what Mr. Walker said? | ||
| In my understanding, it would have been February 2017. | ||
| After they had a meeting in Miami, I believe James Gillier got on the corporate jet of CFC and flew with Yi Jianming and Director Zhang to D.C. in preparation for that meeting. | ||
| After this meeting with former Vice President Joe Biden and Chairman Yee, were any payments made to the Biden family or associates? | ||
| Yes, well it gets to that point of obfuscation. | ||
| Three million dollars was wired. | ||
| To Rob Walker's account on March 1st. | ||
| Actually, they sent two wires. | ||
| The first wire got kicked back, and then they sent a second wire on March 1st, 2017, to Robinson Walker LLC. | ||
| And then, as your committees walked through today, they parsed that out to the Biden family and numerous different payments. | ||
| Thank you. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, it is clear that Joe Biden is the common element in all of Hunter Biden's attempts to do business with China. | ||
| There's a pattern emerging that the Biden family and associates, including Joe Biden himself, deliberately chose personal gain over the safety and best interest of the very Americans Joe Biden was elected to serve, protect and defend. | ||
| I'll yield the balance of my time to Mr. Gates. | ||
| Hunter Biden's deposition. | ||
| Question. | ||
| Do you think some of your business associates we've spoken about today, Mr. Archer, Mr. Bob Yulinski, Mr. Golanus, do you think they had an expectation that your dad had any role or involvement in any of your joint business dealings? | ||
| Answer from Hunter Biden, not an expectation from me. | ||
| There was never a single time I can remember saying, hey, we'll get my dad involved. | ||
| Hey, let's get my dad on the phone. | ||
| Hey, let's, you know, what can we get out of dad for this? | ||
| Mr. Golanus, what's your reaction to that testimony from Hunter Biden in light of you describing the Biden lift? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I think it's patently false. | |
| It's belied by emails. | ||
| And I think that there's documentation that says that that's just an untruthful statement. | ||
| What I'm trying to understand, Mr. Golanus, is there you are sitting in a prison cell for a financial crime where you were an associate with Hunter Biden and some of the other players there. | ||
| Yes. | ||
| They're out enjoying Southern California, and you're sitting in a prison cell, and they've got the ability to come and give this false testimony to Congress. | ||
| Is it your belief that the Biden Justice Department retaliates against people who speak out against the Bidens and their crimes? | ||
|
unidentified
|
I'm living that. | |
| To clarify, I took responsibility for my crimes. | ||
| I pleaded guilty. | ||
| I've served eight years. | ||
| Clean conduct, and I think I've rehabilitated myself quite a bit in that period of time, and that is a track record, but I would say that there is unquestionably a pattern of two tiers of justice, and that's become a popularized term, and that's something that I've lived experience that I've gone through. | ||
| You'll back. | ||
| Before I recognize Mr. Waltz, for what purpose does Mr. Bigg seek recognition? | ||
| I want to include an article in a record. | ||
| The article's entitled, Talib Renuser. | ||
| Quote, impeach the MFR, close quote, call against Trump. | ||
| Without objection to order, for what purposes Mr. Gates seek recognition? | ||
| Mr. Chairman, I seek unanimous consent to enter into the record the press release from the Department of Justice. | ||
| Lev Parnas sentenced to 20 months in prison for campaign finance, wire fraud, and false statement offenses. | ||
| Without objection, so ordered. | ||
| Chair now recognizes Mr. Waltz from Florida. | ||
| Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I find it incredibly rich Mr. Swalwell is going to come to this committee and lecture us about how China penetrates our government. | ||
| I think that's something he may know a thing or two about, but let's talk about how China has penetrated the highest levels of this government, including this president and this White House, because I think the visual is incredibly important. | ||
| Mr. Bobulinski, Hunter Biden portrayed Chairman Yee, the chairman of CEFC, to Jim Biden as a protege of Xi. | ||
| Is that accurate? | ||
| Not only is it accurate, and it wasn't just Hunter Biden, it was James Gillier, Rob Walker. | ||
| I wouldn't have used the word protege. | ||
| They just basically, you know... | ||
| You don't run China's largest state-owned energy company without being close to Chairman Yeh. | ||
| Correct. | ||
| Right? | ||
| Fair enough. | ||
| And by the mid-2000s, Chairman Yeh ran a business empire estimated, as much as you can estimate a Chinese state-owned enterprise, tens of billions, including, and from a national security standpoint, this is the critical piece here, including implementing China's Belt and Road Initiative. | ||
| Not just all over the world, right here in the United States. | ||
| Is that accurate? | ||
| 100%. | ||
| So CFC was effectively the shadow arm of the Chinese government deploying tens of billions of dollars around the world. | ||
| Very well documented. | ||
| At its peak, I think it was doing $50 billion of revenue per year, one of the top five largest... | ||
| Debt diplomacy, where they are taking electrical grids, they are bribing officials, they take as collateral, not just grids, ports, airports, key infrastructure that the Chinese government could then leverage and use against. | ||
| Any country, but also here in the United States. | ||
| That's how the Belt and Road Initiative works. | ||
| Heck, I was just in the Armed Services Committee with the commander of Indo-PACOM, our Pacific Command, talking about how China is basically gobbling up infrastructure around the world, including here. | ||
| By the mid-2015-2016, Hunter Biden's developed a very lucrative business relationship. | ||
| By 2017, Hunter Biden has forged such a partnership with Chairman Yeh that he planned to share an office space with him and then just removed Vice President Biden at the House of Sweden in Washington, D.C., correct? | ||
| Correct. | ||
| So here's what's interesting, and building on Chairman Fox's question, within days of him leaving the vice presidency, Ostensibly for work performed, $3 million flows through these shell companies that we've depicted here. | ||
| I mean, you can see how complicated this is, but the key piece is the flow to Howie Biden, to Jim and Sarah Biden, to Hunter Biden and his various affiliates. | ||
| And the kicker here, Mr. Chairman, is that we know Hunter is then complaining about Paying all his dad's bills. | ||
| He's complaining to the other relatives, saying, you freeloaders, I'm having to use all this money to pay the big guy's bills. | ||
| House renovations and all kinds of things, correct? | ||
| Correct, and it's important for the American people to understand the $3 million was three of $20 million that the Bidens expected to be paid for the work. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, and that's not just my word. | ||
| That is documented. | ||
| That's all documented. | ||
| Bank records, text messages, emails. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, Bob Menendez's wife can't get paid by the Egyptians and then provide that money over to pay Goldbar Bob's, Senator Menendez's bills. | ||
| I can't have my daughter get paid by, I don't know, Kazakhstan, Russia, and China, and then pay my bills. | ||
| And we know also that they had commingled funds with the Vice President of the United States. | ||
| When we talk about crimes, let's talk about the crimes. | ||
| We know he perjured himself. | ||
| That's a crime. | ||
| We know he was acting as a foreign agent. | ||
| And was he registered under FARA? | ||
| Was he registered as a foreign agent? | ||
| Not that I'm aware of. | ||
| Was his dad complicit in him acting as a foreign agent through meetings and dinners and what have you? | ||
| That's crime. | ||
| 100%. | ||
| That's crime number two. | ||
| He was clearly acting in that capacity. | ||
| We have the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and we already have him thanks to the work of this committee for tax evasion. | ||
| So, Mr. Chairman, there are multiple crimes that this committee has established ample. | ||
| We must move to impeachment. | ||
| We cannot allow this to stand. | ||
| And I look forward to seeing those references to the Department of Justices. | ||
| For this alone, this is a critical national security issue. | ||
| The Chinese Communist Party call it the princelings. | ||
| They don't go after the principle they want to influence. | ||
| They go through the sun. | ||
| And it is right out of their playbook. | ||
| And they've done it at the highest levels of the United States government. | ||
| I yield my time. | ||
| Very good. | ||
| Mr. Chairman, I just have a couple of... | ||
| You see requests, if that's all right. | ||
| One is from Devin Archer's transcribed interview testifying that Joe Biden had nothing to do with any of Devin Archer's business ventures with Hunter. | ||
| Second is the declassified intelligence community assessment from the National Intelligence Council, March 2021, detailing efforts by Russian actors to interfere in the 2020 U.S. elections. | ||
| And finally, most importantly... | ||
| The U.S. District Court decision from the Southern District of New York and United States versus Galanis, where Mr. Galanis was described as a con artist who wanted to be in business with Hunter Biden but never was, and how they thought that they could add layers of legitimacy to their con operation. | ||
| If I could have those introduced. | ||
| Without objection, so ordered. | ||
| Now the chair recognizes Mr. Gates from Florida. | ||
| You're a serious business person, Mr. Bobulinski, right? | ||
| I am. | ||
| Unlike the convicted felon next to you, you've served in the military, right? | ||
| Correct. | ||
| You've done big deals, complicated deals, deals that involved foreign businesses, right? | ||
| Correct. | ||
| And so what I'm trying to figure out is when you came to realize that you showed up at the wrong party, because you kind of strike me as a guy who showed up to do a legitimate business deal, and you ended up instead at a bribe. | ||
| And so as you're looking at CEFC, as you're having this meeting with Joe Biden, as Hunter Biden is introducing you to his web of contacts, when did you go from serious businessman Tony Bobulinski working to make a buck in a capitalist system to a guy worried that you had been unwittingly ensnared into Hunter and Joe Biden's bribe operation with the Chinese Communist Party? | ||
| I appreciate the question. | ||
| It wasn't an aha moment. | ||
| It was more of a process. | ||
| I am a serious businessman demonstrated by the different deals I've done around the world and the success of them. | ||
| But remember, the Biden family wasn't my entry into this. | ||
| James Gillier, who I'd known for over 10 years, who traveled the world doing business, kept trying to get me involved. | ||
| I really had no interest. | ||
| I sat down in the spring of 2017 to... | ||
| Walked through things, and then I quickly put together two businesses, Sino Hawk and Oneida. | ||
| After the meetings in Los Angeles with Hunter and Joe Biden, it started to sort of, bells and whistles started to go off when Jim Biden used the term plausible deniability. | ||
| Plausible deniability is the first moment, straight from the lips of Jim Biden, right on the heels of your discussion with Joe Biden, where you start to think, this might not be legit. | ||
| Correct. | ||
| And my lawyers at the time could attest to that because I reached out to them saying, listen, I'm a former naval officer. | ||
| I held a Q security clearance. | ||
| I couldn't collect. | ||
| Somebody couldn't take me to dinner for $50. | ||
| This just does not make sense to me. | ||
| But you proceed. | ||
| But you proceed, and then later this thing starts to get a lot uglier. | ||
| What's the moment you go from, okay, your spidey senses are up, you're analyzing this, to now you know this is a crime that you are bearing witness to? | ||
| The end of July. | ||
| When the Biden family put them right front and center in the middle of a $9 billion transaction between the Russian state-owned energy company Rosneft and CFC, a surrogate for the Chinese Communist Party. | ||
| And was there ever a time in the deals you were involved in where you started to see the money move around the legitimate business enterprise and toward the pockets of the Bidens? | ||
| Well, the challenge, Mr. Gates, with that is at the time they... | ||
| Move the money, right? | ||
| You guys have the text messages where Hunter Biden shook down Director Zhang, but I was not aware of that. | ||
| I spent a year asking questions of, this doesn't make sense to me, where's the money? | ||
| I stepped in and had lawyers work to dissolve the two entities. | ||
| I didn't know until years later that they had defrauded me, they had gotten paid all this money and all this craziness. | ||
| It just seems pretty simple. | ||
| This is either a bribe or a business. | ||
| It was a bribe from the Chinese Communist Party. | ||
| And I don't say that lightly. | ||
| There's 1,200 pages, eight days of testimony in the Southern District of New York. | ||
| I encourage everyone watching me, hearing me say this, they're publicly available. | ||
| Go read them. | ||
| Our Department of Justice... | ||
| Outlines in intimate detail the corruption and bribes that CFC was deploying to political officials all over the world. | ||
| So I'm here to believe that they did this in every other country, but with the Biden family, it was pristine. | ||
| It was an actual clean business. | ||
| That's absurd. | ||
| And you came to know that, and that's when you blew the whistle, right? | ||
| That's when you started to get... | ||
| I stepped away from it. | ||
| The whistleblowers, I can't give them kudos enough for the bravery and the risk they put their family in. | ||
| They publish stuff where I am voicing the concern of the Rosneft deal. | ||
| And you animated your concerns when you saw that this wasn't just a corrupt bribe, a corrupt business deal happening to a guy who used to be vice president. | ||
| When you see that Joe, everyone's made a big deal, like you're a bad guy that you showed up at the debate, or you're trying to give life to these facts that you've observed, that it's so bad that you did that during a political contest. | ||
| But observing this, it kind of seems like it would be unpatriotic for you to stay quiet, of course. | ||
| And so, I mean, Joe Biden running for president clearly motivated the Chinese to consummate this bribe. | ||
| Did it also motivate you? | ||
| Well, I didn't want to go public. | ||
| I wanted to simply unload all the facts, personal experiences. | ||
| It's funny, there's 18 people on this committee with law degrees, including, I think, Mr. Swalwell. | ||
| Evidence, first-hand testimony, is the most powerful evidence you have. | ||
| I've given it. | ||
| Mr. Golanus has given it, along with a whole host of other witnesses. | ||
| Then, on top of that, I have thousands of documents and pages of legals and stuff like that. | ||
| I wanted to simply give this information to congressmen and senators. | ||
| No one questioned any of your facts. | ||
| No one brought a single piece of evidence that even for a moment discredited any of the truthful testimony that you've given us. | ||
| I see my time has expired. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| The gentleman yields back. | ||
| That concludes our questioning. | ||
| Again, I want to thank the witnesses. | ||
| We are going to close now, and I will yield to the ranking member for a brief closing statement. | ||
| Great, and I'll take an extra 32 seconds, as Mr. Gates did. | ||
| Well, and while we're on, Mr. Gates, he seemed to be upset about a couple different things. | ||
| One was fraud, which was fascinating to me, given that his hero, Donald Trump, has just been convicted civilly of bank and insurance fraud in a civil case, and now owes, I think it's $454 million, unless that's gone up with interest. | ||
| I think he's having a hard time making that, but I'm sure that Mr. Gates and constituents will help him out as they're shaking down Republican voters. | ||
| You can pay either for Donald Trump's criminal lawyers or civil lawyers. | ||
| That's the big political choice, I suppose. | ||
| He's also upset about China. | ||
| Well, if you check out the Democrats' report, White House for Sale, how princes, prime ministers, and premiers paid off President Trump, you'll find... | ||
| That China actually gave more than $5 million to Donald Trump while he was president of the United States in direct violation of the emoluments clause, which says that nobody in federal office shall accept a present and emolument, which means a payment, an officer title of any kind, whatever, from a king, a prince, or a foreign state. | ||
| And we spent the day, again, jawboning about Hunter Biden, who has never held public office, and he's never done business with the government. | ||
| And yet, we have right in front of us, in front of our very eyes, mammoth corruption, unprecedented in U.S. history by Donald Trump as president. | ||
| And my friends don't say a single word about it, but he wants to lecture Mr. Parnas about the illegal donations he made on behalf of pro-Trump super PACs. | ||
| I've noticed something interesting with the people who have finally disenthralled themselves and gotten out of the Trump cult, as Mr. Parnas puts it. | ||
| People like Michael Cohen, Sarah Matthews, Cassidy Hutchinson, Alyssa Griffin. | ||
| There's articles about them. | ||
| There are dozens of those people, and I'd be fleeing for the exits now, too. | ||
| What's so fascinating to me about it is that they don't mind when these people lie for Donald Trump than when they get out and start telling the truth. | ||
| That's when they called them liars for what they did when they worked for Donald Trump. | ||
| Mr. Parnas, they're not mad that you lied and went to prison for it and did your time. | ||
| They're mad that you stopped lying for Donald Trump. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Absolutely, Congressman Raskin. | |
| So, when I was a state assistant attorney general, Mr. Chairman, I saw a judge on my very first day of work castigate a lawyer by saying, son, you forgot the very first rule of lawyering. | ||
| When you go to court, you've got to bring the evidence with you. | ||
| You forgot to bring the evidence. | ||
| There's no evidence. | ||
| Hundreds of thousands of pages of documents, dozens of hours of testimony, but not a shred of evidence of presidential wrongdoing, much less an impeachable offense by President Biden. | ||
| And you're making not just the majority a laughingstock, the whole committee a laughingstock. | ||
| So it's hurting us. | ||
| My members are saying, when will they call off this nonsense? | ||
| So here we are. | ||
| Again, Mr. Parnas, I want to thank you. | ||
| You have explained to America that the allegations at the very foundation of this inquiry were predicated on Russian propaganda and disinformation, just as they were at the start of the hit job that you and Rudy Giuliani were sent to do back in 2018 and 19. And I want to thank you for showing America what real intellectual honesty and personal honesty look like and how you can grow out of the deranged Trump syndrome. | ||
| that so many of our colleagues are still suffering from today. | ||
| It's time to call this investigation for what it is, Mr. Chairman. | ||
| It's not just an embarrassing failure and an historic failure at that, but it's an historic betrayal of democracy, freedom, and the rule, We should be spending our time standing up for democracy and not tarnishing it with spectacles like this. | ||
| I yield back. | ||
| I should have brought my waiters from the farm. | ||
| I want to thank our witnesses for being here today. | ||
| Because he's crying so many tears. | ||
| Mr. Golanus have delivered testimony in front of the American people directly implicating President Biden and his family's influence peddling schemes. | ||
| Schemes that brought over $24 million into the Biden family and their business associates' pockets. | ||
| For what? | ||
| I never heard the minority say what they did or what business. | ||
| The Bidens were in. | ||
| Mr. Bobulinski and Mr. Golanus have provided documents supporting these claims and provided hours of testimony to this committee. | ||
| Mr. Bobulinski and Mr. Golanus have not changed their stories. | ||
| Mr. Bobulinski and Mr. Golanus did not ask for this hearing, but they showed up for it because they have nothing to hide. | ||
| I also invited Hunter Biden to this hearing. | ||
| In part, due to his own request that he be allowed to provide transparency and testimony before the American people. | ||
| Or at least, he did request this hearing, and then he sat for a deposition with the Oversight and Judiciary Committees. | ||
| Now he's nowhere to be found. | ||
| Mr. Bobulinski, Mr. Golanus, and others have implicated Joe Biden in the Biden family business. | ||
| Hunter Biden denies his father's role in the Biden family business. | ||
| This is a material discrepancy among witnesses of the highest order. | ||
| I attempted to solve this problem by getting the witnesses in the same room together to straighten out any misunderstandings. | ||
| It should be clear to the American people that Hunter Biden's word is as valuable as the fake services he was selling. | ||
| And this committee will not play games or belittle the institution of Congress by allowing Hunter Biden to call the shots about who he testifies with or when he does it. | ||
| At this point, the only person who can resolve this discrepancy about Joe Biden's participation in his family's influence-peddling schemes is Joe Biden himself. | ||
| As I said at the beginning of this hearing, Joe Biden was either used by his family over and over again and paraded in front of his business partners to rake in millions of dollars, or he knew exactly what he was doing to enrich his family. | ||
| Joe Biden was either complicit or incompetent. | ||
| And the American people deserve to know which one it is, which one it was. | ||
| But neither is acceptable for the leader of the United States. | ||
| I don't think anyone believes that this is acceptable behavior for the family of the President of the United States to receive tens of millions of dollars from our adversaries around the world. | ||
| And they can't say one single thing they did. | ||
| Nobody supports that. | ||
| I don't care if you're Democrat or Republican, if you're from a big city or a small town. | ||
| That's not what this democracy is about. | ||
| That's not what the founding fathers set up. | ||
| They set this up that we have public servants come and provide their public service and then go on. | ||
| They did not set this up for public servants to enrich themselves. | ||
| Through their family, through influence peddling. | ||
| No one is denied. | ||
| Is anyone desiring, Mr. Raskin, that the Biden family was influence peddling? | ||
| Nobody denies that the family was influence peddling. | ||
| What we have here is a major discrepancy on what role Joe Biden played. | ||
| We know the three former Biden associates say that Joe Biden was actively involved and knew full well. | ||
| What the schemes were, what the family was up to. | ||
| But we have Hunter Biden testifying under oath that his dad didn't know. | ||
| So in the coming days, I will invite President Biden to the Oversight Committee to provide his testimony and explain why his family received tens of millions of dollars from foreign companies with his assistance. | ||
| We need to hear from the President himself. | ||
| And I assure the American people that they will be able to evaluate for themselves the President's honesty and fitness for the office he now holds. | ||
| With that... | ||
| Mr. Chairman, are you going to invite Donald Trump to come and talk about his violations of the Emoluments Clause? | ||
| You all have investigated Donald Trump for years, and I'm pretty sure I've read in the paper that there's a lot of investigations of Donald Trump. | ||
| No one's investigated. | ||
| Well, we impeached him. | ||
| You were invited to impeach Joe Biden today. | ||
| Are you supporting, are you going to work with me to see that Joe Biden comes and answers these discrepancies? | ||
| I mean, this is a big deal. | ||
| There's no discrepancies. | ||
| No discrepancies. | ||
| There's no evidence at all that he's committed any high crime and misdemeanor. | ||
| What is it? | ||
| In closing, I want to thank our panelists once again for their important and insightful testimony today. | ||
| Should have answered. | ||
| With that and without objection, all members will have five legislative days within which to submit materials and to submit additional written questions for the witnesses, which will be forwarded to the witnesses for their response. | ||
| If there's no further business without objection, the committee stands adjourned. | ||
| So wait, hold on, wait a second. | ||
| So Jamie Raskin was just able to say, like, what crimes did Joe Biden commit and James Comer didn't answer? | ||
| That's like a golden opportunity. | ||
| Dude, no viral moment when it's sitting there right in front of you. | ||
| I know, man. | ||
| Comer seemed tired. | ||
| I was going to say, he's probably fed up after eight hours with hearing the same Trump, Trump, Trump after, you know, like he said, they impeached him twice. | ||
| They had, you know, hearings on that type of stuff. | ||
| And there's four plus investigations going on into Trump and there's nothing into Biden. | ||
| But, yeah. | ||
| So, if Joe Biden, you know, Joe Biden, of course, will not come and testify. | ||
| Joe Biden couldn't even get through an interview with Robert Herr. | ||
| But, you know, it really does, like, really does kind of bottle the mind. | ||
| If they are going to do this, like if Republicans are going to do this, then they have to then actually list the laws, the rules that Joe Biden, again, it's your guys'job as a committee to then list the rules, uh, and then list the things that Joe Biden did. | ||
| Like if you're, if he's asking what crime did Joe Yeah, I agree with that. | ||
| I can't get over that. | ||
| Can't get over that. | ||
| You did eight hours. | ||
| We've been live for eight hours now. | ||
| You did eight hours. | ||
| And you can't even, like, say, well, let's see. | ||
| Criminal bribery, extortion, use of your public office. | ||
| Like, you're the chairman. | ||
| List out all the crimes. | ||
| I know. | ||
| Right? | ||
| That would have gone viral if he just, like, listed them one by one. | ||
| Come on! | ||
| I'm going to, like, when Conor comes back on the show, I'm going to be like, come on, man. | ||
| Come on. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Let's go. | |
| This is what the internet... | ||
| I also wish they did more with Hunter Biden's empty chair all day long. | ||
| I mean, it's just sitting there with his name played on it. | ||
| Not one of the members really brought it up. | ||
| I think you could have had a lot more fun with that. | ||
| And it's pathetic that they're sitting there hammering Trump when Trump's entire family has been dragged out into these hearings by the other side. | ||
| They've done their time. | ||
| And there are people who are literally doing time while one of them is testifying from jail. | ||
| But we cannot get Hunter Biden sitting there. | ||
| I mean, that should have been a bigger story today. | ||
| I think that's one really big missed moment. | ||
| It's that Hunter Biden empty chair says everything you need to know about what the Bidens fear most. | ||
| They fear this going forward, and they fear having him sitting there and implicating the entire family. | ||
| Yeah, they should have put the laptop. | ||
| In front of it, sprinkle a little bit of white sugar on it, and then put a scarf and a pair of sunglasses on the chair. | ||
| Some Kraft Parmesan cheese on the table. | ||
| Yeah, that's right. | ||
| That is exactly right. | ||
| Yeah, Parmesan cheese. | ||
| Hunter Biden has been here. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen, we are excited to be on our eighth hour of live today. | ||
| We have an obligation to all of you, and that is that we will show up for you. | ||
| Y 'all show up for our channel. | ||
| And got to tell you, we've seen explosive growth. | ||
| We're so thrilled about the audience that we're building here. | ||
| We will work harder. | ||
| Hardest working team on the internet. | ||
| We will work harder. | ||
| We will actually show up. | ||
| We are here for you. | ||
| This is going to be a wild year. | ||
| You don't want to miss things. | ||
| And also, you don't want to tune in to the corporate media, which, by the way, we are just destroying in views, right? | ||
| It's important because we're actually authentic in these things. | ||
| We can also have a little bit of a laugh and also get a little bit of a pick-me-up. | ||
| ALX and Robbie, I want to say thank you to you guys. | ||
| Thank you for producing. | ||
| Great show. | ||
| Eight hours of live production is tough, ladies and gentlemen, so salute to ALX and Robbie. | ||
| Thank you, and everyone join the Benny Brigade while you're at it. | ||
| Thank you to the Benny Brigade. | ||
| You guys keep us going. | ||
| We appreciate every single one of you. | ||
| BennyJohnson.com. | ||
| We have our salt shaker coming that I'm very excited about. | ||
| Be prepared. | ||
| One of our very fervent fans. | ||
| Be prepared. | ||
| Well, we're actually producing a salt shaker on the show, so we're going to actually have our own salt shakers that we'll be sending to members. | ||
| So, very excited about that. | ||
| See you later, boys. | ||
| Let's do the verse of the day, Royce. | ||
| So, our verse of the day from Romans 12, 19. That hearing may not have gone exactly the way we wanted it to go. | ||
| We don't get the phone calls from Jim Jordan or James Comer yet. | ||
| We do get phone calls from other members of Congress asking certain things, but we, ladies and gentlemen, we'll be happy. | ||
| We'll be happy to give you free advice whenever on how to spice up these hearings. | ||
| The number one rule, when somebody asks what crimes Joe Biden committed and you just did an eight-hour hearing and 18 months of investigation, you should answer, right? | ||
| You should answer. | ||
| We answer to God alone on this program, Romans 12, 19, for our verse of the day. | ||
| Beloved, Never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. | ||
| Yep, that's exactly right. | ||
| This is 100% correct, like, especially on a day like today, where it seems like, will the Biden family ever receive any justice, any true justice, any true investigation? | ||
| Will anybody ever actually, like, open up and throw the book at them? | ||
| We'll see. | ||
| We'll see, ladies and gentlemen. | ||
| Got to vote in 2024. | ||
| Got to get Attorney General Ted Cruz. | ||
| That's who apparently Donald Trump wants as Attorney General. | ||
| And if not, have no fear. | ||
| The scriptures say that God will judge evil people in his time. | ||
| And so leave up to God what his gods, all right? | ||
| And then be deeply thankful. | ||
| That you fight on the side of right. | ||
| Be deeply thankful that we are happy warriors. | ||
| We are imperfect warriors. | ||
| We are here fighting, nonetheless, on our own paths. | ||
| And we say, march onward! | ||
| Can we play the meme? | ||
| Oh, did you have the AOC? | ||
| Pop up that up. | ||
| The AOC Babylon Bee. | ||
| This is really, really good. | ||
| Sorry, I forgot about this. | ||
| The Babylon Bee article from the day. | ||
| Why not? | ||
| A little bit of a laugh for the end of the show. | ||
| Ladies and gentlemen. | ||
| Yes, AOC says, Rico not a crime. | ||
| He's the guy who delivers her food. | ||
| Rico's not a crime! | ||
| Yeah. | ||
| How about a laugh, alright? | ||
| How about that, ladies and gentlemen, to end our show? | ||
| Rico didn't make it into this meme, but it's how we kicked off our show, and we cannot help but, like, laugh and say... | ||
| Well, you know what? | ||
| This is exactly what would happen if Hunter Biden did testify in this hearing. | ||
| This is precisely what we missed out on today. | ||
| And we're very sad about it. | ||
| Hunter Biden, unfortunately, didn't show up. | ||
| And so we were robbed of this moment, ladies and gentlemen. | ||
| But we bring it to you. | ||
| As always, it is our job to do a sort of a artist's rendering of what's truly happening. | ||
| And we have the power to do it on the show. | ||
| We use memes as our superpower. | ||
| And ladies and gentlemen, here it is. | ||
| Have a great one at exactly, at exactly eight minutes, eight hours live. | ||
| It's your boy, Benny. | ||
| We'll see ya. | ||
|
unidentified
|
Hunter Biden, the big natural gas tycoon. | |
| I hope you're not too tired from your last art show. | ||
| I'd hate for you to paint yourself into a corner during this deposition. | ||
| I heard you got a new job as a magician because you've been making all of your business dealings disappear. | ||
| I wonder what else he got up his sleeve. | ||
| I got a laptop. | ||
| I got a GoPro. | ||
| I got a Glock 'cause I say all low low low. | ||
| I got a bag of crack and you can probably see. | ||
| I also got a pee. | ||
| I got a pee. | ||
| I got a pee. | ||
| Why is everyone laughing at me? |
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