America Creating Opportunities for Manufacturing, Pre-Eminence in
Floor Speech
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Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, today, Senator Johnson and I begin a series of speeches on our investigations into the Biden family's financial deals. We will make these presentations with two themes.
First, we will refute and we will dismantle the talking points that the liberal media and our Democratic colleagues pushed onto the American people. Their talking points said that our investigations over the years advanced and spread Russian disinformation. On November 29, 2021; May 11, 2021; March 18, 2021; December 14, 2020; December 10, 2020; October 19, 2020; and September 29, 2020, I came to this Senate floor to rebut those false charges.
Now--or at least then--the liberal media and my Democratic colleagues ought to be ashamed of themselves for the outright lies that they peddled about our investigative work. As a result, Senator Johnson and I did what any good investigator would do: We gathered even more records to prove all these people wrong, which brings me to the second theme.
Senator Johnson and I will produce new records to show additional connections between the Biden family and the communist Chinese regime. Before we get to those records, I am going to discuss the background of our investigation.
We started this investigation last Congress. Then, I was chairman of the Finance Committee, and at that time, Senator Johnson was chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.
It began in August 2019. I started at that time an inquiry into a transaction involving Hunter Biden that was reviewed by the Federal Government's Committee on Foreign Investment.
On September 23, 2020, Senator Johnson and I released our report. On November 18, 2020, we released our supplement to that report. Those reports were based in large part on Obama administration government records and also almost a dozen transcribed interviews of government officials.
In both reports, Senator Johnson and I made financial information public that hadn't ever been known before. Our report exposed extensive financial relationships between Hunter and James Biden and Chinese nationals connected to the communist regime. More precisely, these were Chinese nationals connected to the Chinese Government's military and intelligence service.
One of those individuals was a person by the name of Patrick Ho. According to reports, Hunter Biden said of Patrick Ho:
I have another New York Times reporter calling about my representation of Patrick Ho--
Then Hunter Biden says the f-word-- [denoting] the spy chief of China who started the company that my partner, who is worth $323 billion, founded and is now missing.
We will get into more detail with respect to Patrick Ho in future speeches. We will do the same with Gongwen Dong, another close associate of Hunter Biden's who was connected to the communist regime.
Now, Hunter Biden's reference to ``my partner'' is an apparent reference to Ye Jianming. Ye had connections to the People's Liberation Army. Ye had a company called CEFC, which had multiple variations. Today and in future speeches, Senator Johnson and I will simply refer to that company as CEFC.
Documents show that CEFC's corporate mission was ``to expand cooperation in the international energy economy and contribute to national development.'' Now, let me emphasize that word ``national'' in that quote, ``national development.'' CEFC existed for the communist state. Indeed, records show that CEFC is dedicating itself to serving China's national energy strategy, developing national strategic reserves for oil, and ``partnering with centrally-administered and state-owned enterprises.''
Records prepared by one of Hunter and James Biden's business associates, James Gilliar, say the following about this company, CEFC:
At the time, China was hungry for crude, but its state- backed companies were having difficulty closing some deals abroad. The optics of China's state-backed giants marching into a country to buy and extract oil weren't great for central Asian politicians. This paved the way for private firms like CEFC, which can strike oil deals in Europe and the Middle East where Chinese State Owned Enterprises could bring political liabilities.
Documents also show that CEFC ``is building an energy storage and logistics system in Europe'' to connect China, Europe, and the Middle East. You may ask, why? Plainly, to serve ``China's ambitions to have overseas storage locations connected with world markets.''
The document further states that CEFC's investment bank division has investments in the energy sector ``which are in tandem with the government's 4 trillion dollar One Belt One Road foreign investment program.''
Then CEFC operated under the guise of a private company but was for all intents and purposes an arm of the Chinese Government.
Hunter Biden and James Biden served as the perfect vehicle by which the communist Chinese Government could gain inroads here in the United States through CEFC and its affiliates.
And these inroads were focused on Chinese advancement into the global and U.S. energy sector. Hunter and James Biden were more than happy to go along, of course, for the right price.
So now let's turn to the first poster, which shows bank records that haven't been made public before now. This is a portion of a document that we--meaning Senator Johnson and I--will release in full.
The topic of this poster shows a wire transaction on August 4, 2017, from CEFC to Wells Fargo Clearing Services for $100,000.
Now, look at the bottom of the poster. This is the underlying data of this transaction. It states:
Further credit to OWASCO.
OWASCO is Hunter Biden's firm.
Now, there is no middleman in this transaction. This is $100,000 from what is, effectively, an arm of the communist Chinese Government direct to Hunter Biden.
So a second question, a question to the liberal media and my Democratic colleagues, who accused us, over the last 2 years, of distributing Russian disinformation: Is this official bank document Russian disinformation?
Now, beyond this document, in future speeches, Senator Johnson and I will show you more transfers between and among such companies as CEFC, Northern International Capital, Hudson West Three, Hunter Biden's OWASCO, and James Biden's Lion Hall Group.
In doing so, please keep in mind the players in this game: Hunter Biden, James Biden, Ye Jianming, Gongwen Dong, Mervyn Yan, and Patrick Ho, to name a few. All of these individuals mixed and mingled with related corporate entities over a period of years and with respect to millions of dollars.
Now, the next poster, those connections are illustrated by this second poster which I made public last November. It is an original bank record with one typographical error and all. Here you have Hunter Biden, Gongwen Dong, and Mervyn Yan executing an assignment and assumption agreement together.
Now, a third question to those who accuse us of disseminating Russian disinformation, so especially to the liberal media who are the ones who ought to be policing our government system to make sure that everything is done honest--they shouldn't have to have Members of Congress giving all this information out--but is this official record Russian disinformation?
In our next speeches, we will show you more records that haven't been seen before, records that undeniably show strong links between the Biden family and communist China.
Today is just a small taste. I would like to note one thing before Senator Johnson takes over. He is going to describe to you the ridiculous attacks that we received, claiming that our reports were Russian disinformation.
On March 16 of this year, the New York Times unwittingly substantiated our reports by reporting on Hunter Biden's connection to foreign corporations and his potential criminal exposure.
So what Senator Johnson and I made public last Congress is now a prevailing fact pattern that even the liberal media can't ignore any longer and falsely label ``Russian disinformation.''
I will turn it over to Senator Johnson to provide additional examples of the media's attack last Congress.
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