GOP Puts Spotlight on Joe Biden’s Brother James

Hunter Biden may have garnered attention for his messy personal life and a pending Justice Department investigation, but Republicans argue his business partner and uncle, the president’s brother, should be looked at as well.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, who has run a lengthy investigation into the Biden family and its overseas business dealings, gave a floor speech on Tuesday revealing new documents and putting the spotlight on James Biden, specifically his forays into China.

“Hunter Biden wasn’t the only Biden family member who had connections to the communist regime,” Grassley said. “James Biden did as well.”

Hunter Biden is known to be under investigation for his taxes and potentially for overseas business dealings, money laundering, or foreign lobbying, but no such investigation into his uncle has been made public.

Grassley said he and fellow GOP Sen. Ron Johnson established connections between the since-defunct multibillion-dollar CEFC China Energy, whose since-imprisoned energy tycoon leader Ye Jianming was linked to the Chinese military, and the Chinese government. Grassley said they had also established links between CEFC and the Biden family-linked Hudson West III.

Grassley also laid out the links between Hunter Biden’s Owasco, Hudson West III, and CEFC and said records show “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.”

The senator said James Biden’s Lion Hall Group should be added “to the list of Biden family companies connected to the communist regime.”

WHITE HOUSE STANDS BY JOE BIDEN CLAIM THAT HUNTER DIDN’T MAKE MONEY IN CHINA

White House chief of staff Ron Klain said Sunday that President Joe Biden is confident Hunter didn’t break any laws despite a current criminal investigation and that he believes his son and brother didn’t do any unethical business deals with China, although he stressed they were private and “don’t involve the president.”

Grassley pointed to an August 2017 LLC agreement that resulted in James becoming a manager of Hudson West III, with terms including $100,000 sent to Hunter Biden and $65,000 sent to James Biden every month through a CEFC arrangement. Documents also show several wires from Hudson West III to CEFC.

The Republican said those transactions happened after a $5 million wire from Ye-linked Northern International Capital to Hudson West III in August 2017.

Grassley pointed to a Hudson West III bank record from April 2018, with wire transfers to Coldharbour Capital, which the senator said was connected to Ye associates Mervyn Yan and Gongwen Dong.

Grassley said: “These new records show direct financial links between companies connected to the communist regime and James Biden through the Lion Hall Group.”

The now-infamous “Big Guy” email that emerged in October 2020 detailed an attempted business deal between a Chinese company and Hunter Biden.

The email is from businessman James Gilliar to Hunter Biden and others, dated May 13, 2017, and it discusses “expectations” of a deal while claiming that “we have discussed and agreed the following renumeration packages.” The email notes that “Hunter” would receive “850” ($850,000) and lists him as “Chair/Vice Chair depending on agreement with CEFC.”

The email goes on to say that “at the moment there’s a provisional agreement that the equity will be distributed as follows,” including “20” (20%) for “H” (Hunter). The email also asks about “10 held by H for the big guy.”

Tony Bobulinski, a former Navy lieutenant who had been business partners with Hunter, is also listed as one of the recipients of the email and said in October 2020 “the big guy” is a reference to Joe Biden. Bobulinski also said the other “JB” references in the email is Jim Biden.

Texts from Bobulinski suggest Joe Biden met with him, Hunter, and James as the latter two pursued a potentially lucrative deal with CEFC. The meeting appears to have taken place the night of May 2, 2017, in Los Angeles.

Joe Biden spoke at a conference at the Beverly Hilton on May 3, 2017, and texts indicate James helped Bobulinski get credentials to the conference and met with him that day.

Texts also indicate Bobulinski, Hunter, James, and other associates met with Ye that weekend in Miami. Just over a week later, the “big guy” email was sent.

Bobulinski told Fox News he asked James Biden, “How are you guys getting away with this?’ Aren’t you concerned?” He claims the president’s brother chuckled, then said, “Plausible deniability.”

A September 2020 report by Grassley and Johnson said CEFC announced a $9.1 billion deal with Russian state-owned energy company Rosneft in September 2017, and that the same day, Hunter Biden and Gongwen Dong applied to a bank and opened a line of credit under Hudson West III.

The report said Hunter, James, and James’s wife Sara “were all authorized users of credit cards associated with the account” and that the Biden family went on to purchase $101,000 worth of “extravagant items.”

The report also said a $1 million payment from Gongwen Dong was sent to Hunter’s Owasco in March 2018 with a memo line for “Dr. Patrick Ho Chi Ping Representation.”

When Patrick Ho, one of Ye’s lieutenants, was charged by the Justice Department in 2017, he reportedly called James Biden, who has said he thought the call was meant for Hunter. Ho was indicted and convicted for his involvement in a global money laundering and bribery scheme.

Hunter agreed to represent Ho during efforts to work out a liquefied natural gas deal with Ye in the U.S. worth millions of dollars.

The senators wrote that during the same period, between August 2017 and August 2018, Hunter’s Owasco sent 20 wires totaling $1.39 million to James’s Lion Hall Group, which listed James and his wife on the account.

The report said “this transaction was identified for potential criminal financial activity” and “these transfers began less than one week after CEFC Infrastructure Investment wired $5 million to Hudson West III and Hudson West III sent its first payment of $400,000 to Owasco.”

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Grassley pressed the Justice Department in November 2020 to review whether James and Hunter should have been required to register as foreign agents of China.

“We don’t want to have to register as foreign agents under the [Foreign Corrupt Practices Act] … James has very particular opinions about this so I would ask him about the foreign entity,” Hunter texted Bobulinski in May 2017.

“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,” Grassley declared in March, adding that “Hunter and James Biden were more than happy to go along for the right price.”