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“Grassley, Johnson Seek Intel Records Related To Hunter Biden’s Foreign Financial Activities
Convicted Chinese money launderer and Biden family associate was subject of extraordinary U.S. surveillance
03.31.2021
WASHINGTON – Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) Ranking Member of the HSGAC Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, are seeking all U.S. intelligence records relating to Biden family business associates linked to Chinese intelligence services.
 
The senators’ investigative report on the Biden family’s foreign business arrangements detailed financial transactions and connections between and among members of the Biden family and foreign nationals linked to the communist Chinese government, including its military and intelligence services. https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/johnson-grassley-release-report-conflicts-interest-investigation

The senators issued a supplement to their report further detailing troubling financial connections involving the Biden family, their business associates and Chinese and Russian governments. https://www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2020-11-18%20HSGAC%20-%20Finance%20Joint%20Report%20Supplemental.pdf
 
One individual, Chi Ping “Patrick” Ho, who had a close association with James and Hunter Biden, and who reportedly paid Hunter $1 million for legal representation, was the subject of a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant, suggesting he posed a potential counterintelligence threat to the United States. He was later convicted of international bribery and money laundering offenses stemming from his work with a Chinese organization with deep ties to the communist regime. Hunter Biden was reportedly aware of those ties.
 
“It’s imperative that Congress better understand the relationship Ye Jianming, Gongwen Dong, and Patrick Ho had between and among themselves, with the communist Chinese government, CEFC China Energy, and their activities in the United States, including those relating to the Biden family.  Accordingly, please produce all intelligence records, including but not limited to, all FISA-derived information relating to these three individuals no later than April 14, 2021,” the senators wrote today in a letter to the Director of National Intelligence and the Justice Department. 
 
Full text of the letter follows: https://www.grassley.senate.gov/download/grassley-johnson-to-odni-justice-department-biden-family-china-associates
 
March 31, 2021

VIA ELECTRONIC TRANSMISSION
The Honorable Avril Haines
Director of National Intelligence
 
The Honorable Merrick Garland
Attorney General
Department of Justice
 
Dear Director Haines and Attorney General Garland:
 
As you know, we have been reviewing financial transactions and connections between and among members of the Biden family and foreign nationals connected to the communist Chinese government, including its military and intelligence services.[1]  In particular, Hunter Biden had a close and personal relationship with Ye Jianming, who reportedly had links to the communist regime’s People’s Liberation Army.[2]  According to an October 2017 text message, Hunter Biden spoke to Ye on a “regular basis,” was the “first guest in his new apartment,” “[Ye] cooked [Hunter Biden] lunch himself and [they] ate in the kitchen together,” they had a “standing once a week call,” and he helped Ye “on a number of his personal issues (staff visas and some more sensitive things).”[3]  In addition, Hunter Biden had a close association with Gongwen Dong and Chi Ping “Patrick” Ho, who were also business associates of Ye’s. 
 
In December 2017, Patrick Ho was charged and in December 2018 was convicted of international bribery and money laundering offenses stemming from his work for Ye’s China Energy Fund Committee, a subsidiary of Ye’s CEFC China Energy, a company with extensive links to the communist regime.[4]  After his arrest, his first call was reportedly to James Biden, President Biden’s brother.[5]  Hunter Biden reportedly represented Patrick Ho for a period of time and received at least $1 million in payment.[6]  According to recent reporting and a federal government filing, the federal government obtained at least one Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant relating to Patrick Ho, indicating his potential counterintelligence threat to the United States.[7]  Indeed, Hunter Biden was well aware of Patrick Ho’s links to the communist Chinese government, specifically its intelligence services.  According to records reportedly released from Hunter Biden’s laptop, Hunter Biden allegedly said the following:

I have another New York Times reporter calling about my representation of Patrick Ho – the f***ing spy chief of China who started the company that my partner, who is worth $323 billion, founded and is now missing.[8]
 
Moreover, news reports made publicly available a September 21, 2017, email from Hunter Biden to an office manager that asked for keys to be made available to then-former Vice President Biden, James Biden, and “Gongwen Dong (Chairman Ye CEFC emissary)” and referred to them as “office mates.”[9]  Hunter Biden also requested that the office sign reflect “The Biden Foundation” and “Hudson West (CEFC US).”[10]  If accurate, the sharing of office space with Chinese nationals and entities linked to the communist regime and its military demands additional explanation.      
 
It’s imperative that Congress better understand the relationship Ye Jianming, Gongwen Dong, and Patrick Ho had between and among themselves, with the communist Chinese government, CEFC China Energy, and their activities in the United States, including those relating to the Biden family.  Accordingly, please produce all intelligence records, including but not limited to, all FISA-derived information relating to these three individuals no later than April 14, 2021.  
 
Please send all unclassified material directly to the Committees.  In keeping with the requirements of Executive Order 13526, if any of the responsive documents do contain classified information, please segregate all unclassified material within the classified documents, provide all unclassified information directly to the Committees, and provide a classified addendum to the Office of Senate Security.  Although the Committees comply with all laws and regulations governing the handling of classified information, they are not bound, absent their prior agreement, by any handling restrictions.
 
Should you have questions, please contact Joshua Flynn-Brown of Senator Grassley’s Committee staff and Brian Downey and Scott Wittmann of Senator Johnson’s Subcommittee staff.  Thank you for your attention to this matter.
 
 Sincerely,
 
Charles E. Grassley
Ranking Member
Committee on the Judiciary
 
Ron Johnson
Ranking Member
Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations
 
[1] S. Rep., Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns, S. Comm. on Homeland Sec. and Governmental Aff. and S. Comm. on Fin. (2020).
[2] Ye Jianming is a Chinese national, chairman of CEFC China Energy, a company linked to the communist regime, and a frequent figure in Hunter Biden’s financial dealings in China.  Based on public reports that were available in 2015, when his contact with Hunter Biden began to ramp up, Ye was a founder of CEFC and chairman of the board for its subsidiary, the China Energy Fund Committee.  Although CEFC reportedly remained a private company until state-owned enterprises assumed control of it in 2018, reporting in 2017 indicated that it received financing from the China Development Bank, “hired a number of former top officials from state-owned energy companies,” and had “layers of Communist Party committees across its subsidiaries — more than at many private Chinese companies.”  Our recent report also showed that Ye had connections not just to the communist party in China, but also China’s People’s Liberation Army, the armed forces of the Chinese communist party. S. Rep., Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns, S. Comm. on Homeland Sec. and Governmental Aff. and S. Comm. on Fin. (2020).
[3] S. Supplemental Rep., Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns, S. Comm. on Homeland Sec. and Governmental Aff. and S. Comm. on Fin. at 24 (2020).  https://www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/2020-11-18%20HSGAC%20-%20Finance%20Joint%20Report%20Supplemental.pdf
[4] Andrew C. McCarthy, A Collusion Tale: China and the Bidens, National Review (Oct. 31, 2020), https://www.nationalreview.com/2020/10/a-collusion-tale-the-bidens-and-china/; Press Release, U.S. Attn’y Geoffrey S. Berman, Patrick Ho, Former Head Of Organization Backed By Chinese Energy Conglomerate, Convicted Of International Bribery, Money Laundering Offenses, (Dec. 5, 2018), https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/patrick-ho-former-head-organization-backed-chinese-energy-conglomerate-convicted.
[5] Alexandra Stevenson, David Barboza, Matthew Goldstein, and Paul Mozur, A Chinese Tycoon Sought Power and Influence. Washington Responded., The New York Times (Dec. 12, 2018), https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/12/business/cefc-biden-china-washington-ye-jianming.html. 
[6] S. Rep., Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns, S. Comm. on Homeland Sec. and Governmental Aff. and S. Comm. on Fin., 116th Cong., Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns at 79 (2020).
[7] Chuck Ross, Feds Obtained FISA Warrant Against Hunter Biden’s Chinese Business Associate, Documents Show, Daily Caller (Oct. 27, 2020), https://dailycaller.com/2020/10/27/hunter-biden-patrick-ho-cefc-fara/; https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.485530/gov.uscourts.nysd.485530.45.0.pdf.
[8] Id.
[9] Brooke Singman and Adam Shaw, Hunter Biden request keys for new ‘office mates’ Joe Biden, Chinese ‘emissary’ to CEFC chairman, emails show, FoxNews (Dec. 12, 2020), https://www.foxnews.com/politics/hunter-biden-requested-keys-new-office-mates-joe-biden-chinese-emissary-cefc-chairman.
[10] Id. “ https://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/news-releases/grassley-johnson-seek-intel-records-related-to-hunter-bidens-foreign-financial-activities