A former business associate of Hunter Biden, Tony Bobulinski, invited by President Donald Trump to attend the final presidential debate, alleged beforehand in a news conference that he discussed a business deal involving a Chinese firm with Joe Biden and his son after the former vice president left office.
That allegation about Hunter Biden has climaxed in the final days before the Nov. 3 vote, with Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, claiming to have obtained Hunter Biden's private emails, photos and texts from a Delaware computer repairman and given them to the New York Post.
Bobulinski's accusations involve activities that are alleged to have taken place in 2017 -- after Joe Biden had left public office, when it was far from clear he would be a candidate in the 2020 race. Biden was permitted to engage in business at that point like any private citizen, though he has denied any overseas dealings.
Bobulinski alleged that in May 2017, he met the former vice president, his son Hunter, and his brother Jim to discuss a joint venture with the Chinese energy firm CEFC, disputing the Democratic nominee's long-standing assertion that he never discussed foreign business dealings with his son.
Bobulinski was one of the recipients on an email from May 2017 that Giuliani provided to the New York Post in which another business associate appeared to ask if Hunter Biden would hold a stake in the new venture with the Chinese firm for "the big guy." Bobulinski said the email was authentic and described "the big guy" as a reference to Joe Biden. The deal didn't proceed as outlined in the email.
"Joe Biden has never even considered being involved in business with his family, nor in any overseas business whatsoever," Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement.
A report about Hunter Biden's activities, released in September by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., indicated that Hunter Biden and Jim Biden ultimately undertook business dealings with CEFC, but Bobulinski said they did so without him.
Ye Jianming, the founder and former chairman of CEFC, was taken into custody by Chinese authorities in 2018 after one of his top aides was convicted in a U.S. federal court of scheming to bribe officials in Chad and Uganda for oil contracts.
According to the GOP-led report, a subsidiary of Ye's company wired $5 million to the bank account of a U.S. company called Hudson West III, which over the next 13 months sent $4.79 million to Hunter Biden's firm. Over the same period, according to the report, Hunter Biden's firm wired some $1.4 million to an entity associated with his uncle.
The report said Hunter Biden was also paid $1 million in early 2018 to represent Ye's aide while the aide was facing the federal bribery charges in the United States.
A person familiar with Hunter Biden's business activities said last month that after the vice president left office, his son entered into a joint venture named Hudson West to pursue energy deals in the United States with investment from CEFC.