OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
An associate of the Biden family said during a deposition on Friday that the former vice president and current president of the United States met with a Chinese government-linked official in 2017, the year he and former President Obama left the White House.
Rob Walker made his claim during the House’s impeachment inquiry regarding Biden. It followed a prepared opening statement in which he said that the president had “never been engaged” in his son’s business transactions.
“Today we learned that Joe Biden met with the now-missing Chairman of CEFC, Ye Jianming, as Hunter Biden and his associates received $3 million from a Chinese entity CEFC controlled. Evidence continues to reveal the Bidens sold the ‘Biden Brand’ to enrich the Biden family,” House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer said in a statement.
“The Chinese company paid Hunter Biden and his associates $3 million shortly after Joe Biden left office as a ‘thank you’ for the work they did while Joe Biden was in office. Members of the Biden family received payments from the Chinese deal even though they did not work on it. This is the type of swampy influence peddling the American people want us to end,” he added.
Another source who spoke to the New York Post claimed that Joe Biden’s appearance was harmless.
“Walker told the Committee that he believes Joe Biden briefly dropped by because Joe Biden simply wanted to lay eyes on his son who was in and out of sobriety,” that source said.
Walker had previously characterized the meeting, which occurred at the Four Seasons hotel in Washington, D.C., to the FBI as an event in which Biden briefly joined his son Hunter Biden and the CEFC associates during their lunch.
There was no mention of Ye as a participant in the FBI interview, which the House Ways and Means Committee previously made public.
Walker’s attorney, Edward McAndrew, and a representative for the Oversight Committee’s ranking member, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., did not immediately contest the claim that Walker mentioned Ye during his deposition on Friday, according to The Post.
Comer noted that his committee is planning to release the full transcript of Walker’s interview very soon.
Walker also testified that the business activities he and Hunter Biden were into were “well within the bounds of legitimate business activities,” according to the source who spoke to The Post.
Walker funneled over $1 million to the Biden family from Romanian businessman Gabriel Popoviciu between November 2015 and May 2017, a period during which then-Vice President Biden was actively addressing corruption issues in that nation.
Additionally, previous reports noted that Walker transmitted more than $1 million to Hunter Biden, as well as to James and Hallie Biden, from a CEFC affiliate, with the transfers beginning in March 2017.
The source also claimed that Walker is said to have first crossed paths with Hunter Biden during President Bill Clinton’s term. He also actively participated in Joe Biden’s presidential campaign in 2008. In addition, the source revealed that Walker’s spouse had previously held a position working for Jill Biden during her husband’s vice presidency under then-President Barack Obama.
Meanwhile, Hunter Biden’s involvement with CEFC reportedly commenced in 2015 while his father was in office, the source added.
Earlier this month, Comer of Kentucky and Jim Jordan of Ohio renewed their investigation into Joe Biden, who allegedly may have attempted to hinder his son Hunter Biden’s cooperation with the House’s impeachment investigation.
An official White House statement suggested that Joe Biden knew about Hunter’s plot to ignore congressional subpoenas in advance, which led to the investigation.
According to their joint statement, “In light of an official statement from the White House that President Biden was aware in advance that his son, Hunter Biden, would knowingly defy two congressional subpoenas, we are compelled to examine as part of our impeachment inquiry whether the President engaged in a conspiracy to obstruct a proceeding of Congress.”
