The attorney for Tony Bobulinski, a former business associate to President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden, slammed the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability on Wednesday for working with ABC News to "smear and defame my client."
It is the latest salvo between attorney Stefan Passantino and Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., since Bobulinski was deposed behind closed doors by the committee Feb. 13 as part of the impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden over alleged influence peddling and other criminal activity by the president and members of his family.
Passantino first wrote a letter to Raskin on Feb. 14 expressing concern about "abusive conduct and disingenuous mischaracterizations" his client endured under questioning by House Democrats during the deposition. Raskin responded with a letter to Passantino on Tuesday saying he was "baffled and amused" by the letter.
But Passantino wrote in a letter Wednesday to Raskin, obtained by Newsmax, that Raskin’s letter "appears to have been shared with ABC News in an attempt to smear and defame my client before it was transmitted to me." He said it is concerning that ABC News would publish a report "written in collaboration with your office" containing "such glaring errors."
Among them, Passantino wrote, included an email the story said Bobulinski wrote in 2017 while working on a prospective venture with China CEFC Energy, which has ties to the Chinese Communist Party, proposing a 10% cut for the "big guy," referring to Joe Biden, whose term as vice president had ended. The ABC story noted "others involved in the proposed venture have derided Bobulinski's proposition as ‘not serious,’" and that Rob Walker, another Hunter Biden business associate, testified "nobody responded to Bobulinski's email after he sent it."
"This is disconcerting because the ‘10 held by H for the big guy’ email was marked as Exhibit 14 to Mr. Bobulinski’s transcribed interview and clearly reveals that it was Mr. [James] Gilliar, not Mr. Bobulinski who wrote the email in question," Passantino wrote.
In his opening statement before being deposed, Bobulinski said: "It is clear to me that Joe Biden was 'the brand' being sold by the Biden family. His family's foreign influence-peddling operation — from China to Ukraine and elsewhere — sold out to foreign actors who were seeking to gain influence and access to Joe Biden and the United States government."
Still, Raskin wrote to Passantino that "Mr. Bobulinski did not offer any evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden. He also did not provide any evidence that President Biden was involved in his family's business dealings."
Passantino responded: "You know this is false — and the American people can see for themselves that your allegations are false now that the transcript of Mr. Bobulinski’s testimony has been released" by the House Oversight and Judiciary committees.
"Significantly, Mr. Bobulinski did not limit his testimony to interactions with Joe and Hunter Biden," Passantino wrote. "He also discussed in detail text communications and conversations he had with Joe Biden’s brother, Jim Biden, [and] about the Biden Family’s modus operandi for business dealings around the world.
"Mr. Bobulinski also testified to WhatsApp messages from Hunter Biden to Mr. Bobulinski in which Hunter Biden directly refers to Joe Biden as his ‘Chairman.’ … Mr. Bobulinski also testified that the Biden family business associates were very conscious that they were trading on the Biden name and influence to gain lucrative financial contracts around the world."
Newsmax reached out to Raskin and ABC News for comment.
Michael Katz ✉
Michael Katz is a Newsmax reporter with more than 30 years of experience reporting and editing on news, culture, and politics.
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