OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
A witness called to testify before a grand jury hearing evidence in the federal government’s ongoing investigation into Hunter Biden was asked to identify “the big guy” in relation to the first son’s planned deal with a now-defunct Chinese energy conglomerate, as calls have increased to have President Joe Biden added to a conspiracy probe.
The New York Post reported that the question arose after the witness, who was not named in the report, was shown a piece of evidence while appearing before the Wilmington, Del.-based grand jury in secret, according to a source familiar with the proceedings.
The paper continued:
A bombshell email exclusively reported by The Post in October 2020 showed that one of Hunter Biden’s business partners, James Gilliar, outlined the proposed percentage distribution of equity in a company created for a joint venture with CEFC China Energy Co.
The March 13, 2017, plan included “10 held by H for the big guy?”
Another former Hunter Biden partner, US Navy veteran Tony Bobulinski, later revealed that “the big guy” was Hunter’s dad, then the Democratic candidate for president, saying, “I have heard Joe Biden say he has never discussed his dealings with Hunter. That is false.”
Shortly after Joe Biden was elected, Hunter Biden announced that he was under federal investigation over “tax affairs” but since then, according to various recent reports, the probe has significantly widened to now include potential money laundering and violations of lobbying laws on behalf of foreign clients.
“In the wake of last week’s report by the Washington Post — which confirmed $4.8 million in payments from CEFC to entities controlled by Hunter Biden and first brother James Biden during 2017 and 2018 — the White House on Sunday attempted to distance the president from his under-scrutiny kin,” The Post reported.
Ron Klain, the White House chief of staff, said that the president was “confident that his son didn’t break the law” and “confident that his family did the right thing.”
“But, again, I want to just be really clear, these are actions by Hunter and his brother,” Klain told ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos.” “They’re private matters. They don’t involve the president. And they certainly are something that no one at the White House is involved in.”
Some former federal law enforcement and Justice Department officials, however, rejected those claims, with one of them telling The Post that there is already enough evidence he has seen to build a conspiracy case against the Biden family.
“I get that there’s spin, but this is not a complex one,” former Utah U.S. Attorney Brett Tolman told The Post.
He went on to say that confirmation from Bobulinski that President Biden is “the big guy” in a proposed deal involving CEFC China Energy is enough to indicate “that other family members were involved.”
“Conspiracy is a standalone crime in our country, and you’ve certainly got enough to present to the grand jury that there’s a conspiracy among Joe, [brother] James and Hunter to bring in money, to not declare that money, to not pay taxes on that money,” he said.
“And to do so from a country like China, it’s not just red flags — there are potential crimes being committed,” Tolman, now the “Right on Crime” project of the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation think tank, said. He added that depending on the nature and scope” of the case, there may even be legal “predicates” for filing racketeering charges.
Jim Trusty, a former chief of the Justice Department’s Organized Crime Section and now a Washington, D.C., attorney, said Klain’s remarks were “a pretty amazing effort to distance Joe Biden from Hunter Biden” and thus put all blame on the scandal-scarred Hunter Biden.
“While we do not know all the evidence yet, there are credible reports of wire transfers in the millions, emails from the ‘laptop from hell’ of Hunter, and guys like Tony Bubulinski who credibly describe a kickback scheme with the now-sitting president of the US as a beneficiary,” Trusty said.
“When you see millions of dollars pouring into the hands of a reckless and unskilled man, you have to at least ask the question of ‘What did these foreign governments receive for these payments?’”
“The question is whether Joe Biden’s vice presidency was for sale and whether Joe was complicit in that sort of scheme,” he added.
