Even before the debate last night, Wall Street Journal editorial page writer Kimberley Strassel was on Twitter handing out teases of an upcoming column that would “relay a disturbing story of Hunter, Joe and the Chinese.” The column that appeared a few hours later is based on emails and interviews with investor Tony Bobulinski.
Bobulinski was Donald Trump’s guest at the debate on Thursday night, an honor that he earned by claiming that he had been in a meeting in which Joe and Hunter Biden talked about the “the Biden family business plans with the Chinese.” Over on the editorial page, this is described as “Sinohawk Holdings, a venture between the Bidens and CEFC China Energy.” Which leaves out the fact that Sinohawk Holdings was actually Bobulinski’s company. He was both the CEO and majority owner, with other partners dividing up what was left. It also leaves out the fact that after years of scheming, Bobulinski’s plan was an absolute failure.
However, anyone flipping to The Wall Street Journal’s own reporting on the subject gets a slightly fuller take on the story. Because what the actual journalists concluded when they looked into Bobulinski’s claims was simple: The deal was set up after Biden’s time in office, it never collected a penny from any Chinese company, and there was “no role for Joe Biden.”
In fact, the whole plan never completed any deals at all.
While Strassel’s work on the editorial page is careful to show some emails between Bobulinski and James Gillar in 2015 and 2016, or as Strassel says, “while Joe Biden was still vice president,” there’s one thing missing from these communications: any sign that Hunter Biden was involved or even knew it was happening.
What the earlier emails and communications actually present is a scheme between Bobulinski and Gillar to rope Hunter Biden into the deal and use his name for leverage with a Chinese investor. It’s not Hunter Biden talking—it’s Bobulinski trying to glom onto what he describes as “one of the most prominent families from the U.S.” to give his deal an edge. Gillar would go on to be another of the partners in Sinohawk. Between them, Bobulinski and Gillar held 63% of the company.
It’s not until 2017, after Joe Biden is out of office, that Bobulinski appeared to actually approach Hunter Biden and his uncle James Biden about the deal, and he convinced the pair to become involved. At that point it seems that Hunter may well have consulted his father about whether he should invest in the plan, part of which involved an effort to secure a joint venture with Chinese oil company CEFC China Energy Co.
There was nothing either illegal or secretive about the plan. Nothing that depended on Joe Biden bending any rules or even lending his presence. There’s also absolutely no indication that Joe Biden was ever involved at all.
What happened then was … nothing. Instead, CEFC collapsed, no money was ever invested, and the entire plan came to nothing. No one seems to have really lost anything except time, but the “billion dollars” that Bobulinski had bragged about, and which Donald Trump keeps mentioning, absolutely never happened.
On the editorial page, Strassel concentrates on communications between Bobulinski and Gillar as they contemplate whether or not to pull Hunter Biden into their deal. It’s clear that Bobulinski and Gillar genuinely do ponder whether getting Hunter Biden’s name on the deal is worth giving up 12% of the company. But again, neither Hunter nor James Biden appear to be part of these discussions. However, Bobulinski insists that there was a secret 10% of the company set aside for Joe Biden.
Meanwhile in fact land, the journalists point out a few things that Strassel somehow could not squeeze into her column. Among them is that the texts and emails provided by Bobulinski don’t show anyone “discussing a role for Joe Biden in the venture.”
And one of the two people Strassel keeps citing had something to say. “I would like to clear up any speculation that former Vice President Biden was involved with the 2017 discussions about our potential business structure,” said Gillar. “I am unaware of any involvement at anytime of the former Vice President. The activity in question never delivered any project revenue.”
Bobulinski and Gillar planned a scheme to partner with a Chinese energy firm in 2015 and 2016. In 2017, they approached Hunter and James Biden, undoubtedly because they not only thought their names would look good on the deal, but because Hunter was already involved in an international energy company—a thing called Burisma. Somewhere along the line, Hunter Biden may have touched base with his father. If so, Joe Biden seems to have warned him off from the deal. In the end, the whole thing fell apart.
Again, how was this summarized by people with the facts?
The venture—set up in 2017 after Mr. Biden left the vice presidency and before his presidential campaign—never received proposed funds from the Chinese company or completed any deals, according to people familiar with the matter. Corporate records reviewed by The Wall Street Journal show no role for Joe Biden.
Overall, Bobulinski comes off as someone whose deal went south, and rather than accept a share of the responsibility, he’d rather blame someone else. Oddly enough, he seems to support Trump.