“Joe Biden was never a part of anything we did,” Hunter Biden’s former business partner Rob Walker told the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees during a closed-door interview in late January. While Walker remained adamant on that point, the transcript of his testimony released on Tuesday calls into question the veracity of Walker’s claims and further cements the influence-peddling case against Joe Biden.
On Jan. 26, Walker sat for a transcribed interview as part of the House’s impeachment inquiry. The questioning began with Walker telling the committees he believed “the allegations against the President and his son are unfounded.”
“To be clear, President Biden, while in office or as a private citizen, was never involved in any business activities we pursued. Any statement to the contrary is simply false. Hunter made sure there was always a clear boundary between any business and his father, always,” Walker continued.
However, Walker’s claim can’t be squared with the evidence — or even with his prior testimony.
Contradictions
The first inconsistency came early on during the two-hour-plus interview, when House investigators confronted Walker with the statement he had made to investigators on Dec. 8, 2020. On that day, one IRS and one FBI agent went to Walker’s house in Arkansas to question him as part of the criminal probe into Hunter Biden. Unbeknownst to Walker, the agents were recording their conversation — the transcript of which the House Ways and Means Committee has released.
During that interview, the FBI agent asked Walker whether Joe Biden had ever shown up at any meetings with CEFC, the Chinese Communist-connected energy company Hunter and his partners were soliciting for business that paid Walker’s LLC $3 million in March 2017. Walker later gave Hunter Biden more than $1 million of that money.
After telling the agents that Joe Biden had come to the Four Seasons to greet members of the CEFC delegation in early 2017, the FBI agent asked Walker if there were “any times when he was in office, or did you hear Hunter say that he was setting up a meeting with his dad with them while dad was still in office?”
Walker responded, “Yeah.”
While Walker confirmed in that 2020 interview that Hunter had said he was setting up a meeting with his dad and CEFC representatives, Walker changed his story during last month’s House questioning.
“I would like to point out that this was, I believe, being recorded off a device that I didn’t know about,” Walker began. “I certainly don’t recall Hunter setting up with a meeting with his dad…”
The House investigator asked Walker to explain what he was referring to when he said “yeah.”
Walker’s attorney quickly interjected, “If you know.”
Walker then dutifully responded, “I don’t know.”
Tipping Off Biden’s Team
This exchange, when contrasted with the Dec. 8, 2020 interview, perfectly capsulizes the harm inflicted on the Hunter Biden investigation by someone tipping off the Biden presidential transition team on Dec. 7, 2020, about agents’ plans to interview witnesses the following day.
During his testimony to the House Ways and Means Committee last year, whistleblower and IRS Special Agent Gary Shapley explained that he learned someone had informed the transition team of their plans to interview individuals as part of their Hunter Biden investigation. While testifying that he couldn’t “know for certain whether FBI’s advance notice played a role or not,” Shapley stressed that “of the 12 interviews we hoped to conduct on our day of action, we only got one substantive interview. It was with Rob Walker in Arkansas, and it was exactly the sort of interview we expected to have if the FBI hadn’t tipped off Secret Service and the transition team.”
The rest of Walker’s testimony last month confirmed Shapley’s take that witnesses are more frank and less guarded when approached by surprise. Now, some three years later, with plenty of time to strategize and with a lawyer there to guard his every word, Walker downplayed every document, email, and conversation.
“Here you have Hunter Biden talking about his family brand; talking about chairman, his dad, being involved; Hunter Biden bringing his father to the Four Seasons to meet with different CEFC business people. All indications are that Joe Biden was involved with the deal, based upon Hunter Biden and James Biden’s interactions,” the House investigator stressed during last month’s interview with Walker. “So why is it that you are so emphatic that Joe Biden was not involved?”
“Because he was not involved in anything we were doing, period,” Walker replied, adding that Hunter’s text messages looked like “somebody being aggressive, protecting their name, and not happy about the deal. … This long, drawn-out message would be typical of Hunter when he’s not in a sober state.”
The ‘Big Guy’
When confronted with the “10 held by H for the Big Guy?” email discussing a proposed split of proceeds from a deal with Chinese investors, Walker proved no more convincing.
“It has a question mark on the end, and this is an email, and this was not — this is hypothetical, and this was never followed through within any agreement,” Walker complained.
House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan intervened, pushing Walker on the identity of “the big guy.”
“You’ll have to ask James [Gillian],” their other partner who had authored the email, Walker replied.
“I would think that if you had someone losing 10 percent of that money, the other business partners — that they would be upset about this big guy getting 10 percent of the money,” the House investigator pushed.
Walker countered, “I think it could also be looked at that people were like, what the hell are we talking about here? This is ridiculous. And nobody responded to it because I don’t think it was serious.”
Jordan was having none of it, prompting this exchange:
Jordan: “So one of your business partners sends an email to another business partner and copies the rest of the people in the business and says in there that there will be 10 percent held by one of those business partners for the big guy, and you’re telling us here today you don’t know who the big guy is?”
Walker: “I think that people can make assumptions on who the big guy is, but this is a –”
Jordan: “Well, I’m asking you —”
Walker: “This is a bullsh-t email with a question mark at the end.”
Jordan: “I’m just asking you, who do you think the big guy is?”
To the rescue came Walker’s attorney, saying, “[Y]ou’re asking him to speculate about that.” A few more jousts led Walker to say he could speculate the big guy was Joe Biden — but Joe Biden had absolutely nothing to do with Hunter Biden’s business, Walker maintained.
‘My Chairman’
Walker held steady on that, even when pushed on why Hunter referred to his father as “my chairman.” Even Walker, by text, had said Joe Biden was the “chairman.”
The House Committees presented Walker with a text sent by Hunter Biden to a group of investors, including Tony Bobulinski:
Hey, Tony, I have an idea. In light of the fact we are at an impasse of sorts, and both James’ lawyer and my chairman gave an emphatic no, I think we should all meet in Romania on Tuesday next week. Zang will be there and so will the completed agreement if they stick to schedule.
Zang, Walker testified elsewhere in his interview, was Zang Jianjun, the “number-three person at CEFC.” But as far as who “my chairman” was, Walker equivocated.
At the time, in response to Hunter’s text message, Walker had sent Bobulinski a private text saying, “When he said his chairman, he was talking about his dad, and I think your dismissal of it may be offended him a bit, but you didn’t know what he was talking about.”
Under questioning by the House, however, Walker backtracked.
“If Joe Biden had no involvement in the business dealings, why would Hunter Biden refer to him as chairman, and why would you associate the chairman to be Joe Biden?” the House investigator asked.
First, Walker replied, “That is what I was thinking he was referring to. If I reread it, I’m not positive. But it was, I believe, 1:00, 2:00 in the morning, and I’m just trying to stop the traffic. Do I really know he was talking about his father? No. At first glance, yes.”
When pushed on this point, Walker doubled down and blamed Hunter Biden’s addiction:
I’ve never heard him refer to ‘my chairman’ as his father. At first glance, I really didn’t give a damn what was going on, but there was very aggressive traffic going back and forth with each other. And I don’t think there’s a timestamp on here, just a date. But I don’t think that Hunter was healthy at the time, and Tony was coming back with equally aggressive texts. And I was just trying to stop it.
We Already Know Joe Was Involved
Walker’s testimony comes off as incredulous, and Biden apologists can’t blame that on selective leaks by House Republicans because the entirety of the transcript is available to the public. But even if Walker were entirely believable, other witnesses, such as Devon Archer, have already confirmed Joe Biden’s involvement in his son’s business operations.
The House and Senate have already uncovered banking records that establish the flow of funds from Hunter’s pay-to-play operation into Joe Biden’s bank account, including $40,000 from the Chi-Com energy company CEFC. No amount of spin can clean up those facts.
