One of the Biden family’s closest business associates told the FBI that President Biden met with Chinese energy company officials on behalf of his son Hunter on several occasions.
The meetings occurred when the elder Mr. Biden was vice president in the Obama administration and later as he prepared to launch his 2020 White House run, according to the associate, whose statements to the FBI shot holes in Mr. Biden’s steadfast denials that he had any knowledge or involvement in his son’s lucrative foreign business deals.
The FBI interviewed Hunter Biden’s business associate, Rob Walker, as part of a tax fraud probe of the president’s son. Mr. Walker provided crucial details that put the president physically in the middle of his son’s business dealings.
Mr. Walker’s revelation comes as a second business associate, Devon Archer, is set to cooperate in July with House lawmakers investigating the Biden family’s foreign business deals, a source told The Washington Times.
Like Mr. Walker, Archer knows details about then-Vice President Biden’s involvement in Hunter Biden’s efforts to score big-money payouts from foreign energy company officials. Emails show he helped plan a 2015 dinner that included Mr. Biden and foreign officials and business executives.
Rob Walker’s Dec. 8, 2020, interview with FBI and IRS agents, revealed in a new whistleblower report, flags another appearance by Mr. Biden that suggests a pattern of involvement by the president in his son’s business deals.
SEE ALSO: IRS investigator says Justice Dept. protected Hunter Biden in tax probe
In the interview, recounted by IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley, Mr. Walker said Mr. Biden showed up at the Four Seasons hotel, where Mr. Walker and Hunter Biden were having lunch with the executives of CEFC, a Chinese energy company tied to the Chinese Communist Party.
“He stopped in, just to say hello to everybody,” Mr. Walker told the agents.
Mr. Biden “literally sat down. … I don’t even think he drank water,” Mr. Walker said, describing the meeting, which he said took place sometime after Mr. Biden was no longer vice president.
The elder Mr. Biden dropped by at the request of his son, who, Mr. Walker said, hoped his father’s presence would bolster his chances of securing a deal with CEFC.
Hunter Biden asked his father, according to Mr. Walker, “I may be trying to start a company or try to do something with these guys and could you?”
Mr. Biden told his son, “If I’m around” he would show up, according to Mr. Walker.
The FBI agent then asked Mr. Walker if Hunter Biden said he set up similar meetings between his father and Chinese energy company officials while the senior Biden was vice president.
“Yes,” said Mr. Walker.
No more details about Mr. Biden’s involvement in his son’s foreign business deals came from the interview because the FBI agent “inexplicably changed the subject,” Mr. Shapley reported in testimony to the House Ways and Means Committee.
Whistleblowers also have told lawmakers that high-ranking Justice Department, FBI and IRS officials derailed probes of Hunter Biden’s potentially criminal activities.
In the China deal, bank records revealed CEFC and an affiliate paid millions of dollars to Hunter Biden, Mr. Biden’s brother, James Biden, Mr. Walker and other business associates. The payments began two months after Mr. Biden left the post of vice president in 2017.
Mr. Walker has emerged as the centerpiece of the congressional investigation into the Biden family business deals. He once said that exposing his financial dealings with the first family would “bury all of us.” He has been deemed a critical witness in a House Oversight and Accountability Committee probe. He is refusing to cooperate with the panel.
The FBI interview recounted by Mr. Shapley provides rare insight into Mr. Walker’s knowledge of Mr. Biden’s involvement in Hunter Biden’s foreign business deals. His statements to the FBI coincide with other evidence that Mr. Biden had at least peripheral involvement in his son’s deals.
Emails found on Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop computer document Mr. Biden as vice president attending a dinner with foreign business associates on April 16, 2015.
The emails, first reported by The New York Post, show a guest list for the dinner held at Cafe Milano in Georgetown that included the now-deceased former Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkovhis and his wife, Yelena Baturina, as well as Vadym Pozharskyi, an executive from Ukrainian energy firm Burisma, three officials from Kazakhstan and other foreign officials.
The guest list email was sent to Archer, one of two Biden business associates who has agreed to cooperate with the House Oversight investigation. Archer and Hunter Biden planned the guest list in back-and-forth messages.
Hunter Biden wrote to Archer: “Obviously save a seat for your guy (and mine if he’s in town.)”
While Hunter Biden was referring to his father, it’s not clear who Archer’s “guy” is.
In an email sent to a guest ahead of the Cafe Milano dinner, Hunter Biden said, “The reason for the dinner is ostensibly to discuss food security.” He said, “Dad will be there but keep that between us for now.”
The dinner took place in a private dining room at the Georgetown restaurant and emails found on Hunter Biden’s laptop revealed a thank-you note sent the next day from Mr. Pozharskyi.
“Dear Hunter, thank you for inviting me to DC and giving an opportunity to meet your father and spent some time together,” Pozharskyi wrote.
It is not clear whether Ms. Baturina showed up at the dinner but bank records obtained by congressional investigators show Ms. Baturina, sent a $3.5 million payment to a company linked to Archer and Hunter Biden in February 2014.
An FBI whistleblower said a paid informant claimed Mr. Biden accepted a $5 million bribe from Burisma CEO Mykola Zlochevsky sometime in 2015 or 2016. The allegation has not been substantiated.
Mr. Biden’s appearances at his son’s business meetings add to the evidence that has surfaced suggesting he knew about and perhaps had involvement in securing the lucrative deals.
In a WhatsApp message Mr. Shapley provided to House investigators, Hunter Biden told businessman Henry Zhao he was sitting next to his father and wanted to see action on an energy deal.
“Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight,” Hunter Biden wrote in 2017 about the proposed deal. “And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction.”
Several days after sending the message, beginning on Aug. 4, 2017, CEFC Infrastructure Investment wired $5.1 million to two companies associated with Hunter Biden.
Mr. Biden earlier this week denied being untruthful in his repeated statements that he has never had knowledge or been involved in his son’s business deals.
“No,” Mr. Biden said responding to a reporter’s question about whether he lied about speaking with Hunter Biden about business deals.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.