Part 1, Prepared Floor Statements by Senators Grassley and Johnson Before The US Senate On March 28, 2022
Today, Senator Johnson and I will begin our series of speeches on our investigation into the Biden Family’s financial deals.
We’ll make these presentations with two themes:
First, we’ll refute and dismantle the talking point that the liberal media and our Democratic colleagues pushed on the American people: That our investigation advanced and spread Russian disinformation.
On November 29, 2021, May 11, 2021, March 18, 2021, December 14, 2020, December 10, 2020, October 19, 2020, and September 29, 2020, I came to the floor to rebut those false charges.
The liberal media and my Democratic colleagues ought to be ashamed of themselves for the outright lies they peddled about our investigative work.
As a result, Senator Johnson and I did what any good investigator would do: We gathered even more records to prove them all wrong.
Which brings me to the second theme: Senator Johnson and I will produce new records to show additional connections between the Biden Family and the communist Chinese regime.
Before we get to those records, I’m going to discuss the background for our investigation.
We started this investigation last Congress, when I was Chairman of the Finance Committee and Senator Johnson was Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
It began in August of 2019 when I started an inquiry into a transaction involving Hunter Biden that was reviewed by the federal government’s Committee on Foreign Investment.
On September 23, 2020, Senator Johnson and I released our report.
On November 18, 2020, we released our supplement to that report.
Those reports were based in large part on Obama administration government records and almost a dozen transcribed interviews of government officials.
In both reports, we made financial information public that hadn’t been known before. Our report exposed extensive financial relationships between Hunter and James Biden and Chinese nationals connected to the communist regime.
More precisely, these were Chinese nationals connected to the Chinese Government’s military and intelligence services.
One of those individuals was Patrick Ho. According to reports, Hunter Biden said of this man: “I have another New York Times reporter calling about my representation of Patrick Ho – the [Hunter Biden says the F word] spy chief of China who started the company that my partner, who is worth $323 billion, founded and is now missing.”
We’ll get into more detail with respect to Patrick Ho in future speeches. We’ll do the same with Gongwen Dong, another close associate of Hunter Biden who was connected to the communist regime.
Now, Hunter Biden’s reference to “my partner” is an apparent reference to Ye Jianming.
Ye had connections to the People’s Liberation Army.
Ye had a company called CEFC which had multiple variations. Today, and in future speeches, Senator Johnson and I will simply refer to it as CEFC.
Documents show that CEFC’s corporate mission was “to expand cooperation in the international energy economy and contribute to the national development.”
Let me emphasize the word “national.”
CEFC existed for the communist state. Indeed, records show that CEFC is dedicating itself to serving China’s national energy strategy, developing national strategic reserves for oil, and “partnering with centrally-administered and stated-owned enterprises.”
Records prepared by one of Hunter and James Biden’s business associates, James Gilliar, say the following about CEFC:
“At the time, China was hungry for crude, but its state-backed companies were having difficulty closing some deals abroad. The optics of China’s state-backed giants marching into a country to buy and extract oil weren’t great for central Asian politicians. This paved the way for private firms like CEFC, which can strike oil deals in Europe and the Middle East where Chinese State Owned Enterprises could bring political liabilities.”
Documents also show that CEFC “is building an energy storage and logistics system in Europe” to connect China, Europe and the Middle East.
Why?
To serve “China’s ambitions to have overseas storage locations connected with world markets.”
The document further states that CEFC’s investment bank division has investments in the energy sector “which are in tandem with the government’s 4 trillion dollar One Belt One Road foreign investment program.”
CEFC operated under the guise of a private company but was for all intents and purposes an arm of the Chinese Government.
Hunter Biden and James Biden served as the perfect vehicle by which the communist Chinese government could gain in-roads here in the United States through CEFC and its affiliates.
And these in-roads were focused on China’s advancement into the global and U.S. energy sector. Hunter and James Biden were more than happy to go along for the right price.
Let’s turn to the first poster next to me which shows a bank record that hasn’t been made public before. This is a portion of a document that we’ll release in full.
The top of this poster shows a wire transaction on August 4, 2017, from CEFC to Wells Fargo Clearing Services for one hundred thousand dollars.
Now, look at the bottom of the poster.
This is the underlying data for the transaction. It states, “further credit to Owasco.”
Owasco is Hunter Biden’s firm.
There’s no middle man in this transaction.
This is one hundred thousand dollars from what is effectively an arm of the communist Chinese government direct to Hunter Biden.
To the liberal media and my Democratic colleagues: is this official bank document Russian disinformation?
Beyond this document, in future speeches Senator Johnson and I will show you more transfers between and among companies such as CEFC, Northern International Capital, Hudson West Three, Hunter Biden’s Owasco and James Biden’s Lion Hall Group.
In doing so, keep in mind the players in this game: Hunter Biden, James Biden, Ye Jianming, Gongwen Dong, Mervyn Yan and Patrick Ho, to name a few. All of these individuals mixed and mingled with related corporate entities over a period of years and with respect to millions of dollars.
Let’s turn to the next poster. Those connections are illustrated by this second poster next to me, which I made public last November. It’s an original bank record, with one typographical error and all.
Here, you have Hunter Biden, Gongwen Dong and Mervyn Yan executing an assignment and assumption agreement together.
To the liberal media: is this official record Russian disinformation? In our next speeches, we’ll show you more records that haven’t been seen before – records that undeniably show strong links between the Biden Family and communist China.
Today is just a small taste.
I’d like to note one thing before I turn it over to Senator Johnson who will describe to you the ridiculous attacks that we received claiming that our reports were Russian disinformation.
On March 16 of this year, the New York Times unwittingly substantiated our reports by reporting on Hunter Biden’s connections to foreign corporations and his potential criminal exposure.
So, what Senator Johnson and I made public last Congress is now the prevailing fact pattern that even the liberal media can’t ignore any longer and falsely label Russian disinformation.
I’ll turn it over to Senator Johnson to provide additional examples of the media’s attacks last Congress.
Remarks from Senator Ron Johnson
Thank you, Senator Grassley.
I want to first thank you for your tenacity in pursuing the truth and ignoring all of the false attacks leveled against us during the course of our multi-year investigations into corruption at the highest levels of the federal government. Both of us have been first hand witnesses, and at the same time victims, of the dishonesty of our Democrat Senate colleagues and their willing accomplices in the media. When it comes to our investigation into the vast web of foreign financial entanglements of the Biden family, those attacks have had one goal in mind – to cover up the extent to which President Biden might be – and almost certainly is – compromised.
Over the course of our investigation into how Hunter Biden used his father’s position and name to enrich himself and his family, the dishonest press published countless stories reporting on the Democrat’s false charge that we were soliciting and disseminating Russian disinformation. Once we issued our September and November 2020 reports, which were based almost exclusively on U.S. sourced documents and interviews with U.S. citizens, the media largely ignored it. When they did write a story on it, they declared that our reports found nothing new. A classic media cover-up.
I’ve always said the bias in the media is revealed far more in what they don’t report versus what they do report.
But all the false attacks have not deterred us. We have continued to uncover the truth, and fortunately, our reports also served as a catalyst for others to come forward and for more investigative journalists to keep digging. The American people deserve the truth.
That’s why we’re presenting additional evidence today and over the next few days. For example, this is the first time this document is being made public. It shows that money from CEFC – which is effectively an arm of the Chinese Government – went directly to Hunter Biden.
Bank records like this piece of evidence are pretty hard to deny and sweep under the rug. Our reports were chocked full of irrefutable evidence like this. And yet, the media buried those details, in an attempt to keep it hidden from the American people.
Because the mainstream media and our Democratic colleagues had no substance to refute our reports, they reverted to their time-honored tradition of lying, making false accusations against us, and engaging in the politics of personal destruction.
Again, their goal was to destroy the credibility of our reports before the American people even had a chance to read them.
For example, listen to what New York Times journalist Nicholas Fandos said about our report:
“lack of meaningful new information” and “overlap with a Russian disinformation campaign.” The then-Democratic Minority Leader was quoted saying about our report: “as if Putin wrote it, not United States senators.”
A Democratic senator described our investigation as being “rooted in disinformation” from Russian operatives.
Separately, a Democratic senator also said about our report: “Bottom line: the Johnson-Grassley investigation is baseless. It’s laundering Russian propaganda for circulation in the U.S.”
But all of those quotes were disinformation.
As Senator Grassley reiterated, our reports were based almost exclusively on government records from the Obama administration and transcribed interviews of government officials.
So, how did the Democrats and their liberal media allies carry out this false attack on us? We describe part of what they did in Section 10 in our September 2020 report. Their disinformation and smear campaign against us and our reports was extensive, but in the interest of time, I’ll give you a shorter, cliff notes version.
On July 13, 2020, then-Minority Leader Schumer, Senator Warner, Speaker Pelosi, and Rep. Schiff sent a letter to the FBI to express a purported belief that Congress was the subject of a foreign disinformation campaign. The letter included a classified attachment that had unclassified elements that attempted to tie Senator Grassley’s and my work to Andriy Derkach, a Russian agent. The Democrats speculated that based on this unclassified information, Senator Grassley and I had received materials from Derkach. This was false. But this information linking Senator Grassley and I to Derkach was leaked to liberal media outlets to start a false narrative to smear us.
Until news reports of this false allegation surfaced, I had never even heard of the man. We immediately, and forcefully, denied the false allegation, but Democrats and the media continued to spread the lie. To this day no one has ever apologized to either of us for spreading this lie.
Next, my staff and Senator Grassley’s staff did a transcribed interview of George Kent.
During that interview, Democrat staff members introduced Derkach’s materials into the record. Then Democrat staff members asked Mr. Kent about it. He stated, “What you’re asking me to interpret is a master chart of disinformation and malign influence.”
So the actual truth of the matter is that Democrats, NOT Senator Grassley or I, introduced known Russian disinformation into our investigation record. They did the exact thing they were falsely accusing us of doing.
Again, not my staff. Not Senator Grassley’s staff. Democrats were disseminating Russian disinformation. Just like they did with the Steele dossier.
Then-Ranking Members Wyden and Peters sent me and Senator Grassley a letter asking for an intelligence briefing relating to our investigation.
Such a briefing was completely unnecessary. But it was an effort by our Democrat colleagues to further falsely taint our investigation hoping to discredit the truth.
On July 28, 2020, Senator Grassley and I reminded them that the FBI and relevant members of the Intelligence Community had already briefed the committees in March 2020 and assured us that there was no reason to discontinue our investigation.
Then, in August 2020, Senator Grassley and I were provided a briefing from the FBI – a briefing that we did not request – that was also leaked to the press to further smear us.
This unsolicited FBI briefing was also not necessary and was completely irrelevant to the substance of our investigation.
The FBI briefers did tell us that they weren’t there to “quash, curtail, or interfere” in our investigation in any way.
No government entity ever warned us that our investigation into the Biden family’s financial deals was connected to any kind of Russian disinformation campaign – because it wasn’t.
But, again, the substance of that FBI briefing was later leaked and contorted to smear us – which was exactly why, we suspect, we were given the unsolicited briefing in the first place. Those briefers promised confidentially. Clearly, that confidentiality was breached and resulted in another smear operation on Senator Grassley and I to deflect allegations of corruption and conflicts of interest that could compromise President Biden.
To-date, we do not know who all was involved in this smear campaign, but after repeated requests, Director Wray and Director Haines have refused to come in and fully explain who requested and directed this briefing, and why it was provided.
So, to review. Senior Democrats and liberal media cooperated to smear me and Senator Grassley with false accusations of receiving and spreading Russian disinformation.
They created documents, leaked them, asked for briefings and then leaked those, too. And then they, themselves, disseminated Russian disinformation.
Fortunately, they failed to discredit our investigation because we stayed true to government records. We stayed true to the facts and the evidence. And the evidence is stunning and it is growing.
Over the next few days, Senator Grassley and I will come to the floor to present additional evidence that has not yet been made public.
These records show extensive connections between the Biden Family and elements of the communist Chinese regime.
We’re talking high-dollar transactions- some of which we’ve already highlighted in our September and November 2020 reports.
But, our speeches will introduce new financial documents into the public record for all to see.
We expect Democrats and the media to continue to use their power to smear us and cover up for the Biden’s. But the truth has a power of its own, and we intend to continue to reveal the truth.
I yield the floor.
Related Files:
Ye Jianming CEFC Updated Profile
$100,000 Wire – Bank Statement
$100,000 Wire Transaction
Assignment and Assumption of Interest
Part 2, Prepared Floor Statement by Senators Grassley And Johnson Before The US Senate On March 29, 2022
| Yesterday, Senator Johnson and I discussed our joint investigation into the Biden family’s foreign financial entanglements. We reviewed much of our earlier work, and provided a brief preview of new material. Today, we will give our second speech in our Biden Investigation series. Once again, we’re going to make public and describe new financial records relating to Hunter Biden and his connections to the communist Chinese government. Most of that focus will be on his connections to CEFC, a company that’s effectively an arm of the Chinese Government. But first, we must go back to 2015. At that time, Hunter Biden served on the board of Burisma and was paid tens of thousands of dollars each month. Its owner was a corrupt Russia-aligned Ukrainian oligarch. But, that’s not all that Hunter Biden was up to. In that year, CEFC International announced an agreement with Northern International Capital Holdings. Northern International is incorporated in China. It’s involved in the energy sector. One of Ye Jianming’s companies was the majority shareholder for CEFC International. Northern International purchased $123 million worth of CEFC’s shares binding the two companies together. We must also mention Hudson West Three and its financial connections to CEFC. Hunter Biden was an investor and a manager for Hudson West Three. He was tasked with advancing its interests. Hudson West Three also involved Chinese nationals connected to the communist regime, such as Gongwen Dong, whom I talked about yesterday. Now, let’s look at this first poster. And I should note that Senator Johnson and I will make these documents public in full. We’re providing snapshots for these speeches. Here, we have one portion of an LLC Agreement from a bank. It shows the companies that have bound themselves together: Hudson West Five, Hudson West Three and Owasco, Hunter Biden’s firm.  Now, let’s turn to the second poster. The paragraph at the top shows the purpose for which the LLC Agreement exists.  So, what this tells us is that Hunter Biden and James Biden linked up with companies connected to the communist regime to assist them with finding projects for global and domestic infrastructure and energy. And as we know from my and Senator Johnson’s report from last Congress, some energy project explrations between the Biden Family and China were here in the United States. One example is a multi-million-dollar natural gas project in Louisiana. Let’s move to the next paragraph at the bottom, which defines the word “Affiliate” in the Agreement.  “For the avoidance of doubt, CEFC China Energy Company Limited or any of its Affiliates shall be deemed as an Affiliate of Hudson.” Accordingly, this Agreement between Hunter Biden’s firm and Hudson West Three and Five directly connects Hunter Biden to CEFC. So, was this agreement executed? Let’s look at this third poster, which contains a signature block executing the agreement.  Here you see Hunter Biden’s signature with Gongwen Dong. As previously noted, Gongwen was an associate of Ye Jianming. Both men were connected to the communist regime including its military elements. Notably, Hunter Biden worked for Ye Jianming to get him involved in the natural gas project in Louisiana. It eventually fell through. Now, let’s bring up a fourth poster labeled a Joinder Agreement relating to the LLC Agreement. Again, Hunter Biden is signing with Gongwen Dong with respect to the LLC Agreement.  Accordingly, we can now conclude the following: Hunter Biden was financially connected to CEFC, a company that was an arm of the communist Chinese regime, for the purpose of advancing its energy interests. This Agreement shows two additional findings: First, Hunter Biden’s responsibility to advance Hudson West Three’s interests as of August 2, 2017. Second, Hunter Biden’s close association with Hudson West Three, CEFC and its affiliates as of August 2, 2017. That date is important, as you’ll soon see. Let’s turn to the fifth poster. Look at the top.  This is a bank record showing an August 8, 2017, wire transfer from Northern International Capital to Hudson West Three for $5 million. This is $5 million from a company connected to Ye Jianming and CEFC and its affiliates, which are essentially arms of the communist Chinese regime. And that transfer took place after Hunter Biden became closely involved with Hudson West Three as the LLC Agreement shows. So, what was the money for? As noted, Hunter Biden was working with Chinese nationals linked to the communist regime to help them explore energy projects. Now, look at the bottom of this poster.  This is a paragraph from the LLC Agreement. It shows that Hunter Biden will be paid $100,000 per month. James Biden will be paid $65,000 per month. And Hunter Biden will be paid a one-time retainer fee of $500,000. Again, this is money connected to Hudson West Three. A company connected to CEFC and Gongwen Dong. Both are connected to the communist Chinese regime. We can now conclude this with respect to James Biden: James Biden was financially connected to CEFC, a company that was an arm of the communist Chinese regime, for the purpose of advancing its energy interests. After this LLC Agreement was signed, money flowed from CEFC and its shareholder into the bank account of Hudson West Three, including the five million from Northern International. This LLC Agreement was the trigger point for high-dollar financial transactions involving Hunter and James Biden. Now, let’s turn to poster six at the top.  This is a Hudson West Three bank record that shows a wire transfer on August 31, 2017, for $165,000. Notably, this is the same month as the $5 million wire from Northern International. It’s also the same month Hunter Biden signed the August 2, 2017, LLC Agreement. This wire is to Wells Fargo Clearing Services. Now look at the bottom of this poster. Senator Johnson and I have acquired more than just the bank statement. We’ve acquired underlying wire data. Look at the fourth line from the bottom. “Further credit to Owasco PC.” The underlying wire data shows that it went to Owasco, Hunter Biden’s firm.   Senator Johnson and I have years of bank records that show multiple one hundred and $65,000 wire transfers from Hudson West Three to Owasco. There were also wire transfers for other amounts, some more and some less. Most likely, some of those payments were for expenses under the LLC Agreement. So, you have an August 2, 2017, LLC agreement with Hudson West Three and Owasco noting $100,000 a month to Hunter Biden; $65,000 to James Biden. Then you have an August 8, 2017, wire transfer of $5 million from Northern International to Hudson West Three. After that August 8 wire, you see years of wire transfers from Hudson West Three to Hunter Biden’s company. The majority of them for $165,000. The exact amount due under the LLC Agreement. Based on the timing of the transactions, Hunter Biden’s and James Biden’s payments under the LLC Agreement came from that $5 million wire. A wire, mind you, that came from a company connected to Ye Jianming and CEFC, which was an arm of the Chinese Government. These years of records show that Hunter Biden and James Biden were more connected to the communist regime’s elements than had been previously known. These records place them at the center of Hudson West Three, Gongwen Dong and CEFC. This is a finding that Senator Johnson and I made public in our Biden Reports last Congress. So, I say this to the liberal media and our Democratic colleagues who tried to smear our work all those years and accused us of peddling Russian disinformation: Are these official bank records Russian disinformation? To our Democratic colleagues and the liberal media, we deserve an answer. Because you made several efforts to smear our reputation as we were starting this investigation two or three years ago. Now, I’m going to turn it over to Senator Johnson to discuss Patrick Ho related records that we’ve acquired. Remarks from Senator Ron Johnson Thank you, Senator Grassley. As my colleague, the senior Senator from Iowa, has shown, Hunter Biden and James Biden received millions of dollars from companies connected to the communist Chinese regime. But, frankly, it’s worse than that. These companies were effectively an arm of the Chinese Government. This isn’t Russian disinformation. These are hard facts backed up by bank records of actual financial transactions that prove just how connected the Bidens were, and now how compromised President Biden probably is. I’ll use this series of transactions to prove my point.  This is a bank record showing a $1 million wire transfer into the account of Hudson West Three from CEFC on November 2, 2017. As Senator Grassley and I have already established, CEFC is effectively an arm of the communist Chinese regime. It’s also important to note that at the time of this transfer, in November 2017, Hunter Biden was already invested in and providing management for Hudson West Three. So a company that was effectively an arm of the Chinese government transferred $1 million in November 2017 to a company that Hunter Biden is managing and is invested in. Now, let’s bring up the second record. Focus on the one million dollar wire out on March 22, 2018.  Again, this is a record from Hudson West Three’s bank account. Like the previous record, this is showing the transfer of $1 million, but this time the money is being transferred out of Hudson West Three and to Owasco, another one of Hunter Biden’s firms. This transfer took place on March 22, 2018, a little less than five months after the one million dollar transfer from CEFC to Hudson West Three. Hunter is transferring $1 million between two firms he manages and has ownership in. So what is the purpose of these two $1 million transfers? This next record seems to answer that question.  This record shows Owasco’s receipt of the March 22, 2018, $1 million transfer. It also shows what the transfer is for on the OBI line. OBI is an abbreviation for Originating Beneficiary Information. In this case, the OBI indicates the transfer is being made for “Dr. Patrick Ho Chi Ping Representation.” So, to recap: on November 2, 2017 Patrick Ho’s company CEFC wired $1 million to Hunter Biden’s company, Hudson West Three. On March 22, 2018, Hudson West Three wired $1 million to Owasco, another Hunter Biden company. The bank record clearly states the $1 million payment was being made for the purpose of representing Patrick Ho. Represent him for what? Here’s where things get interesting. We know that Patrick Ho was arrested by U.S. authorities in November 2017 for iinternational bribery and money laundering charges. Keep in mind that this arrest occurred in the same month that Patrick Ho’s company, CEFC, is wiring $1 million to Hunter Biden’s company, Hudson West Three. According to the Department of Justice “Ho orchestrated and executed two bribery schemes to pay top officials of Chad and Uganda in exchange for business advantages for CEFC China, a Shanghai based multibillion-dollar conglomerate that operates in multiple sectors, including oil, gas, and banking.” Crimes for which he was eventually convicted and sent to federal prison. So, the company that Patrick Ho was making bribes for sends $1 million to a company Hunter Biden manages and is invested in. That company in turn transfers a million dollars to another Hunter Biden company for the purpose of representing Patrick Ho, who was eventually convicted of international bribery and money laundering. And guess what Ho did around the same time he was arrested by the FBI for corruption and bribery. He contacted James Biden. Ho’s decision to call the Biden family around the same time he got arrested is revealing, particularly in light of the fact that the same month a million dollars just happened to be transferred to Hunter Biden’s company. Hunter Biden isn’t a criminal defense attorney. Patrick Ho was charged and convicted for bribery and related federal offenses. So what kind of representation was Patrick Ho’s company paying Hunter Biden’s firm to provide? Were they paying his firm for its legal expertise, or for Hunter’s political connections? In March 2021, Senator Grassley and I asked the Justice Department about Patrick Ho. Why? Because there’s a federal court filing that says the Department has FISA records on Patrick Ho. We requested those records. In response, the Department wouldn’t confirm whether they even had his records. Unfortunately, the Attorney General refuses to clarify that outrageous contradiction for Congress. Oh, one more tidbit. In a recently uncovered audio extracted from his laptop, Hunter Biden referred to Patrick Ho as the “[expletive deleted] spy chief of China.” This quote alone tells you that Hunter Biden knew exactly who he was dealing with. He was dealing with the expletive deleted spy chief of China. And that fact should alert the media and our Democrat colleagues to seriously consider the implications the Biden family’s vast web of foreign financial entanglements have in the conduct of this administration’s foreign policy and our national security. In October 2020, Senator Grassley and I requested to interview Hunter and James Biden about their financial dealings. If they had nothing to hide they could have volunteered to come in and sit for an interview. If there was an innocent explanation for their foreign financial transactions, they could have used that interview to clarify what those transactions were about. Unfortunately, rather than be transparent and forthcoming, they declined to speak to us. Their silence speaks volumes. Fortunately, facts are stubborn things. As the Bidens, our Democrat colleagues, and the media is learning, it is difficult to keep them hidden forever. Senator Grassley and I will continue to investigate the Biden family’s foreign financial entanglements and provide the American people with the truth to the best of our abilities. Our challenge is that the deep state does not give up its secrets easily. New evidence of Biden family influence peddling is surfacing on a regular basis – often coming from records from Hunter Biden’s laptop. The same laptop that the media and deep state former intelligence agencies officials inferred was, you guessed it, Russian disinformation. But it wasn’t Russian disinformation. Nor is any of the information we presented in our reports and here on the floor of the Senate. We may never know all the details of the Biden family foreign entanglements, or the full extent to which those entanglements compromise our current President. But I’m pretty confident I know who does know – intelligence operatives in Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea. Elements within U.S. intelligence agencies probably also know, they’re just not going to tell us. Senator Grassley and I will return for a final speech on the Biden family’s foreign financial entanglements. Until then, I yield the floor. |
Part 3, Prepared Floor Statement by Senators Grassley And Johnson Before The US Senate On April 6, 2022
Today, Senator Johnson and I will present our third speech in our Biden Investigation series.
And, today, we’ll focus on James Biden, the president’s brother.
Hunter Biden wasn’t the only Biden family member who had connections to the communist regime.
James Biden did as well.
Before we begin our discussion, we’ll need to mention CEFC again.
In the first two speeches, Senator Johnson and I established the connections between CEFC and the communist Chinese government.
We established the connection between CEFC and Hudson West Three.
We then established the connection with Hunter Biden’s Owasco, Hudson West Three and CEFC.
We showed that Hunter Biden and James Biden actively assisted CEFC as it worked to expand its footprint and holdings in the global and U.S. energy sector.
And, today, we’ll add James Biden’s Lion Hall Group to the list of Biden Family companies connected to the communist regime.
In my and Senator Johnson’s September 2020 report, we showed that Hunter Biden and James Biden-aligned firms received approximately $4.8 million from Hudson West Three from August 2017 to September 2018. During that same time frame, Hunter Biden’s Owasco sent 20 or so wires to James Biden’s Lion Hall Group.
Those 20 wires totaled just about $1.4 million dollars.
The liberal media and our Democratic colleagues originally tried to claim our findings were Russian disinformation.
Last week, the Washington Post reported the following:
“Over the course of 14 months, the Chinese energy conglomerate [CEFC] and its executives paid four point eight million dollars to entities controlled by Hunter Biden and his uncle, according to government records, court documents and newly disclosed bank statements, as well as emails contained on a copy of a laptop hard drive that purportedly once belonged to Hunter Biden.”
The Post also reported:
“During that time period, about one point four million was transferred from Hunter’s account to the Lion Hall Group, the consulting firm that James Biden ran, according to other government records reviewed by the Post.”
Senator Johnson and I were right two years ago. We knew it then but it’s been a long road to defend our work product.
The liberal media and our Democratic colleagues aggressively tried to make the case that we were peddling Russian disinformation.
What will the liberal media and my Democratic colleagues say now in light of last week’s Washington Post article that substantiated our work?
Senator Johnson and I still haven’t received any apology from our Democratic colleagues for their false claims against us these past several years. They haven’t apologized to the American people either. I’m not holding my breath.
When will the big time media in Washington awaken to respect my reputation for the thorough investigation and oversight work I do as a senator and my constitutional responsibility to do it.
Now, we have more records to discuss today.
Today, Senator Johnson and I will show you financial transfers direct from Hudson West Three to the Lion Hall Group. In other words, in these transfers Hunter Biden’s Owasco isn’t the middleman.
So, let’s look at the first poster next to me.
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This is a January 2018 bank statement for Hudson West Three. There’s a lot going on here, so I’ll just mention several items.
First, we’ve got two examples of more wire transfers from Hudson West Three for $165,000. The underlying wire data, which Senator Johnson and I will make public today, shows that money went to Hunter Biden’s Owasco.
That money was for the August 2017 LLC Agreement which by its terms saw James Biden become a manager of Hudson West Three. That agreement sent $100,000 to Hunter Biden and $65,000 to James Biden every month.
Those transactions occurred after the $5 million wire from Northern International Capital to Hudson West Three in August 2017.
Northern International was connected to Ye Jianming, who was connected to the communist regime.
We explained all that in our second speech last Tuesday.
Second, this statement shows several examples of wires from Hudson West Three to CEFC.
As Senator Johnson and I have established, that company is an arm of the communist Chinese regime.
This new record shows how closely connected Hudson West Three was with CEFC while Hunter Biden and James Biden received money from Hudson West Three.
Third, we’ve got a January 17, 2018, wire to the Lion Hall Group. That’s James Biden’s company.
James Biden received $18,000 from Hudson West Three, the same month that company sent money to CEFC. This is just one example of many.
Accordingly, this official bank record makes clear the financial connections between and among James Biden and communist Chinese elements.
To the liberal media and my Democratic colleagues: is this official bank record Russian disinformation?
Now, let’s turn to the second poster.
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This is a Hudson West Three bank record from April 2018.
Here, you can see wire transfers to Coldharbour Capital. That company was connected to Mervyn Yan, who was an associate of Ye Jianming and Gongwen Dong. As Senator Johnson and I have established, all of them are connected to the communist regime.
These are the players in the game that I mentioned in the first speech last Monday. And, as we’ve established, they appear repeatedly in bank records with high-dollar transfers. These transfers aren’t by accident.
There’s clearly a scheme here.
There’s a plan among and between all these individuals and their respective companies.
Which begs the question: has the Justice Department acquired these records? If so, what have they done about them?
Moving to the next transaction, there’s another $165,000. Again, that relates back to the LLC Agreement that connected Hunter and James Biden to CEFC and its projects in the energy sector.
Then, you have a $34,000 wire to James Biden’s Lion Hall Group from Hudson West Three.
So, what was it for?
Let’s take a look at the third poster. Look at the sixth line from the bottom.
“office expense and reimbursement”
That’s the same reason given for the first poster I showed you. We’ll make all these records public today.
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For those of you who may still doubt my and Senator Johnson’s oversight work, I’m going to present one last transaction to bring this all home.
Let’s turn to the fourth poster.
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In my and Senator Johnson’s September 2020 report, we found that James Biden and Hunter Biden went on $99,000 global spending spree courtesy of Gongwen Dong.
The spending spree included airline tickets, purchases at Apple stores, hotels and restaurants.
This bank record next to me shows a $99,000 transaction in September 2017.
But that’s not all we’ve got.
Let’s turn to the final poster, number five.
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This is a credit card authorization form for $99,000. Look at the bottom.
There’s the signature block with Hunter Biden and Gongwen Dong.
To the liberal media and my Democratic colleagues: are these official records Russian disinformation?
So, what’s the point of all these records?
Not only have Senator Johnson and I illustrated through new records that Hunter Biden was financially connected to the communist regime, these records show James Biden was, too.
These new records show direct financial links between companies connected to the communist regime and James Biden through the Lion Hall Group.
These new records support the findings in our reports from last Congress in September and November 2020 – reports that the liberal media and our Democratic colleagues said were Russian disinformation.
Forget the facts, forget the evidence, forget investigative journalism. The liberal media wanted to provide cover for then-candidate Joe Biden. They did whatever they could to smear our investigation.
With these new records, there can be no doubt that James Biden was financially connected to corporations and individuals with extensive links to communist China.
And that he and Hunter Biden were in it together, working to help a Chinese government-linked energy company pursue deals and expand its reach in the energy sector.
Now, I’m going to hand this over to Senator Johnson.
Remarks from Senator Ron Johnson
Thank you, Senator Grassley.
What Senator Grassley and I have shown over the course of six speeches are the actual bank records of financial transactions tying President Biden’s son, Hunter, and his brother, James, to businesses that are essentially arms of the communist Chinese regime. But the Biden business ventures include activities in many more countries than just China.
In our September and November 2020 reports we showed a vast web of the Biden family’s foreign financial entanglements that were largely ignored by the media, and falsely labeled Russian disinformation by our Democrat colleagues. As outrageous as the suppression of our reports and the false attacks were, perhaps the most egregious behavior came from 51 former Intelligence Agency officials who lent their names and reputations to an effort designed to convince the American public that Hunter Biden’s laptop had “all the classic hallmarks of a Russian information operation.”
Without any evidence backing their assertion, they engaged in their own “information operation” by signing a public letter right before the election. Their letter was actual disinformation, coming from what are supposed to be trusted former members of our U.S. intelligence agencies.
They should all be ashamed and held accountable for spreading this disinformation. By signing that disinformation letter, they reinforced false claims that the records on the laptop were not legitimate.
By casting doubt on evidence of the Bidens’ corrupt practices, these former intelligence officials interfered in the 2020 election to a far greater extent than Russia could have ever hoped to achieve. Their willing accomplices in the press amplified this disinformation letter and by doing so were equally guilty of egregious election interference.
In August 2020, I wrote a public letter detailing the history, purpose and goals of my oversight and investigations. In that letter, I laid out the timeline of Joe and Hunter Biden’s involvement in Ukraine. The timeline is very revealing.
- February 2014 – The Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine.
- April 16, 2014 – then-Vice President Joe Biden met with his son’s business partner, Devon Archer, at the White House.
- April 21 (Five days later) – Joe Biden visited Ukraine, and the media described him as the “public face of the administration’s handling of Ukraine.”
- April 22 (the very next day) – Archer joined the board of Burisma.
- April 28 (Six days later) – British officials seized $23 million from the London bank accounts of Burisma’s owner, Mykoloa Zlochevsky.
- May 13, 2014 (three weeks later) – Hunter Biden joined the board of Bursima.
Because of the findings in our reports and the excellent investigative journalism on the part of John Solomon, we also now know that Hunter was involved with Elena Baturina, the corrupt and now-sanctioned wife of the former Mayor of Moscow during the very same time period.
- On February 14, 2014 Baturina wired $3.5 million to Rosemont Seneca Thornton, an investment firm co-founded by Hunter Biden.
- Between April 4 and April 5, 2014, Hunter Biden and Devon Archer sent emails about meeting with Baturina potentially relating to a business deal in Chelsea, New York.
- On April 13, 2014, Hunter Biden and Devon Archer discuss the potential business deal involving Baturina. Archer wrote that Baturina “confirmed green light to fund deposit.” Archer continued, “Just spent two hours on the phone with Kiev. I am confident at this point this is a good, if not life changing, deal if the Uk[raine] doesn’t collapse in the meantime.”
It is quite interesting to see how much significant activity involving the Bidens and corrupt actors in Russia and Ukraine occurred within a six-week period only two months after the Ukrainian Revolution of Dignity. It sure looks like they intended to cash in on the turmoil in Ukraine.
In my August 2020 letter, I listed a number of questions about then-Vice President Biden’s interaction with Hunter Biden’s business partner and other family members’ foreign financial dealings. In making this letter public, my hope was that the press would begin to ask then-presidential candidate Joe Biden these important questions. It should come to no surprise that the corporate media was completely uninterested and failed to conduct any investigative journalism.
Nearly two years after I wrote this public letter, the mainstream media has still not adequately pressed President Biden for answers to these very legitimate questions:
- Why did Joe Biden meet with Devon Archer at the White House on April 16, 2014? What was discussed? Did they discuss anything related to Ukraine, Hunter Biden, or Burisma?
- Was Joe Biden aware that Devon Archer joined the board of Burisma six days later?
- Does Joe Biden believe Burisma and its owner are corrupt?
- When did Joe Biden first become aware that Hunter Biden joined the board of Burisma?
- When did Joe Biden first become aware of how much Hunter Biden was being compensated by Burisma?
- What does Joe Biden know about Hunter or James Biden’s business dealings in China?
- What does Joe Biden know about financial benefits his brothers and sister-in-law have obtained because of their relationship to him?
Investigative reporter John Solomon has added more questions to this list, including:
- What, if anything, did Joe Biden know about his son’s dealings with Russian oligarch Elena Baturina?
- A 2017 series of memos referred to a Chinese business deal that involved Hunter Biden and included a 10 percent equity for the “big guy.” What did Joe Biden know about this specific deal and who was the “big guy?”
- Emails on Hunter Biden’s laptop, now in the possession of the FBI, refer to shared accounts or bills between Joe Biden and Hunter. Did Hunter ever give Joe Biden any money, gift or financial benefit from Hunter’s business dealings?
After a long-overdue analysis, the New York Times and Washington Post have finally admitted that records from Hunter’s laptop are authentic, which means – although they will never admit this – that Senator Grassley and I were right and they were wrong.
It is interesting to read how limited and muted their mea culpas are. My guess is that they learned a lot from their coverage of Nixon’s Watergate scandal cover-up. They learned that when you’ve been caught in a cover-up – and that is what has happened here – you try to limit the damage by telling a little bit of the truth. In the Intelligence world, this strategy is called a “limited hang out”. The Watergate conspirators called it a “modified limited hang out.”
Regardless of what it’s called, what the New York Times and Washington Post are doing is not telling the whole truth. I doubt they ever will. But just in case they decide to pursue the truth with a bit more rigor, they can use this list of relevant questions as a good starting point for what they should be asking President Biden.
For our part, Senator Grassley and I will continue to ask tough questions, review more information and records and transparently provide that information to the American public.
We intend to pursue and uncover the truth.
I will turn the floor over to Senator Grassley for his closing remarks.
Remarks from Senator Chuck Grassley(entered into the Senate Record)
Thank you, Senator Johnson.
I’ll just quickly say that the journalists in this town have an obligation to investigate. They have an obligation to uncover the facts and the evidence. They’ve failed time and again.
What’s been reported recently is simply the tip of the iceberg. The question now is: instead of accusing us of peddling Russian disinformation, will the media actually engage in true investigative journalism?
Will the media act with intellectual honesty or will the media continue to cover all this up for the Biden administration?
Now, Congress has a constitutional responsibility to engage in oversight of the Executive Branch.
The Biden administration has been totally unresponsive to our oversight requests.
Specifically, requests that relate to the Biden criminal case.
Is Nicholas McQuaid recused from the Hunter Biden case? No answer from the Department.
Does the Department possess FISA information on Patrick Ho, Hunter Biden’s associate? The Department told a federal court they do. They told me and Senator Johnson that they aren’t sure.
Can you imagine that? When Hunter Biden communicated with Patrick Ho, were his communications captured by our Intelligence Community? Is the Biden administration intentionally withholding this material from Congress out of fear of what we’ll find?In light of the Biden administration’s total failure to respond to our questions, these are legitimate questions to ask.
The Biden Justice Department’s actions have cast a cloud over the case.
*****Related Files:
2018-01-17 HWIII to Lion Hal (17,992.99)
HWIII Bank Statement March 31-April 30, 2018
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wtf…………is what going on now in the Ukraine related to any of these business dealings? Will anyone be held accountable?
Will the media hide these findings, and why?