IRS whistleblower disclosures revealed fresh allegations about President Joe Biden's ties to his son's foreign dealings, including a Hunter Biden text message demanding payment from a Chinese businessman threatening, "I am sitting here with my father."
The IRS whistleblowers also said in newly-released transcripts that a Hunter Biden business associate told the FBI that Joe Biden had stopped by at least one China-related business meeting at Hunter Biden’s apparent request, that "optics" prevented a search warrant at Joe Biden's guest house, and that the assistant U.S. attorney in the Delaware federal prosecutor’s office had told investigators "don't ask about the big guy" — in reference to Joe Biden.
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The whistleblower claims came from two IRS agents who played key roles in the Hunter Biden investigation — Gary Shapley, a supervisory special agent with the IRS’s criminal investigation, and an unnamed IRS case agent who is referred to as “Whistleblower X.”
Shapley’s transcribed interview included a portion of a December 8, 2020, recorded conversation in Arkansas between an FBI agent and Hunter Biden business associate Rob Walker, where Walker said Joe Biden had made an appearance at a meeting regarding efforts by Hunter Biden, Walker, and others to set up a lucrative deal with since-defunct Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC.
CEFC was founded by Ye Jianming, whom Hunter and James Biden had attempted to work out numerous deals with and from whose company the duo ultimately received millions of dollars.
The now-infamous “big guy” email which publicly emerged in October 2020 detailed an attempted business deal between the Chinese company and Hunter Biden. The email referenced “10 held by H [Hunter] for the big guy.”
The email is from businessman James Gilliar to Hunter Biden and others, dated May 13, 2017, and it discusses “expectations” of a potential deal and its "remuneration 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 “the equity will be distributed” with “20” (20%) for “H” (Hunter). The email also points to "10" for "Jim” (James Biden).
Tony Bobulinski, a former Navy lieutenant who had been business partners with Hunter Biden, was one of the email recipients, and said in October 2020 that “the big guy” is "a reference to Joe Biden." Bobulinski said before the final Trump-Biden debate that "Hunter Biden called his dad ‘the Big Guy’ or ‘my chairman,’ and frequently referenced asking him for his sign-off or advice on various potential deals."
Shapley said the FBI gave “advance notice” to Hunter Biden and Joe Biden’s presidential transition team of the bureau’s intention to interview potential witnesses in December 2020, and that “of the twelve interviews we hoped to conduct on our day of action, we only got one substantive interview” — that of Walker.
"The famous email that Tony was pointing out like the equity split, can you tell me your opinion of that, when it's going through like, you know, ten B dot-dot-dot held by H?" the FBI agent asked the Hunter Biden associate.
Walker answered: "I think that maybe James was wishful thinking or maybe he was just projecting that, you know, if this was a good relationship and this was something that was going to happen, the VP was never going to run, just protecting that, you know, maybe at some point he would be a piece of it, but he was more just, you know — it looks terrible, but it's not. I certainly never was thinking at any time the VP was a part of anything we were doing."
Shapley said that “Walker went on to describe an instance in which the former Vice President showed up at a CEFC meeting.”
Walker told the FBI, "We were at the Four Seasons and we were having lunch and he [Joe Biden] stopped in, just said hello to everybody. I don't even think he drank water. I think Hunter Biden said, 'I may be trying to start a company or try to do something with these guys and could you?' And I think he [Joe Biden] was like, ‘if I'm around,’ and he'd show up."
The FBI agent then asked, "So you definitely got the feeling that that was orchestrated by Hunter Biden to have like an appearance by his dad at that meeting just to kind of bolster your chances at making a deal work out?"
"Sure,” Walker replied.
The FBI agent then asked if there were “any times when he was in office, or did you hear Hunter Biden say that he was setting up a meeting with his dad with them while dad was still in office?"
"Yes,” Walker replied.
Shapley said that the FBI agent then “inexplicably … changed the subject.”
Texts from Bobulinski also suggest that Joe Biden met with him, Hunter Biden, and James Biden as the president’s son and brother pursued a deal with CEFC. That alleged meeting appears to have taken place on the night of May 2, 2017, in Los Angeles.
Joe Biden has frequently maintained that he has "never" spoken with Hunter about his overseas business dealings, but he had reassured Hunter Biden in a Dec. 12, 2018 voicemail that his son was in the "clear" following the release of an article covering his dealings with CEFC.
Hunter Biden reached a plea deal on federal charges related to tax crimes and the illegal purchase of a handgun, Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss’s office revealed in a court filing on Tuesday. Two days later, these IRS whistleblower claims detailing the politicization of the Justice Department investigation were made public, including allegations that Weiss had sought special counsel status from the DOJ and sought to file charges in California and in the nation’s capital, but was repeatedly denied.
Shapley said that, prior to the interview with Walker, “we had obvious questions like who was H, who the big guy was, and why this percentage was to be held separately with the association hidden.” But the whistleblower said that Delaware assistant U.S. attorney Lesley Wolf “interjected and said she did not want to ask about the big guy” and stated that she did not want to ask questions about "dad."
The whistleblower said that “when multiple people in the room spoke up and objected that we had to ask, she responded, there's no specific criminality to that line of questioning.” Shapley said, “This upset the FBI too.”
“There were multiple times where Lesley Wolf said that she didn't want to ask questions about dad,” Shapley said. “We referred to Hunter Biden's father, you know, as dad.”
Shapley quoted the Delaware prosecutor as saying, “I don't want to talk about the big guy. I don't want to ask about dad. … Don't ask about the big guy.”
Shapley said, “The IRS and FBI agents conducting this interview [of Walker] tried to skirt AUSA Wolf's direction.” He added that the FBI agent tried to get Walker to talk about the email “while not directly contradicting” the direction by Wolf not to ask about “the big guy.”
The IRS whistleblower argued that “based on guidance provided by the prosecutors on a recurring basis to not look into anything related to President Biden, there is no way of knowing if evidence of other criminal activity existed concerning Hunter Biden or President Biden.”
The whistleblower said that “in August 2020, we got the results back from an iCloud search warrant” and that “the messages included material we clearly needed to follow up on.” Shapley said that “nevertheless, prosecutors denied investigators' requests to develop a strategy to look into the messages and denied investigators' suggestion to obtain location information to see where the texts were sent from.”
Shapley pointed specifically to a July 30, 2017, WhatsApp message from Hunter Biden to Henry Zhao, the group chairman of China’s Harvest Fund Management, where Hunter used his father’s name to demand a payment and to threaten the Chinese businessman.
"I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight,” Hunter Biden wrote. “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. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father."
The second whistleblower said that “We couldn't believe that we saw that” and considered it “more indication that the dad might have been involved.”
Shapley argued that “communications like these made it clear we needed to search the guest house at the Bidens' Delaware residence where Hunter Biden stayed for a time.”
The second whistleblower said that “we wanted to get location data” for that text but the prosecutors came back at him with, “Well, how do we know that? He could just be lying and claiming that the dad — that his dad's there, but his dad is not there.”
The unnamed whistleblower said that “I don't know if the FBI ever did anything with it, but I would think it would be a road we would want to go down or that we could go down, and the reason being that, if President Joe Biden was getting any source of income, whether it's through someone else's entity or for his benefit at some point, that could be income — so that's why it would matter to us.”
Shapley said that during a September 3, 2020 meeting, Wolf “told us there was more than enough probable cause for the physical search warrant” at Joe Biden’s guest house, “but the question was whether the juice was worth the squeeze” and “continued that optics were a driving factor in the decision on whether to execute a search warrant.” Shapley contended Wolf “said a lot of evidence in our investigation would be found in the guest house of former Vice President Biden, but said there is no way we will get that approved.”
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He said on September 21, 2020, he “learned the FBI case agent in Delaware had only recently moved back to his hometown of Wilmington with his wife and family and was concerned about the consequences for him and his family if they conducted these sensitive interviews and executed a search warrant of the President Biden guest house.”
The second whistleblower also said that Hunter “deducted a hotel room for his dad, Joe Biden” in California for “two nights” in 2018 and listed those nights as business expenses.