Rob Walker, the Hunter Biden associate who paid Biden family members after he received a $3 million wire transfer from a communist-backed Chinese energy company, has political ties dating to the Clinton administration.
House investigators identified Mr. Walker as a “critical witness” in its probe of President Biden and his family’s finances after uncovering bank records revealing the suspicious payments totaling roughly $1 million just two months after Mr. Biden ended his term as vice president in 2017.
The reason for the payments remains a mystery.
The Biden family’s overseas business deals have fueled suspicions of influence peddling because of the huge profits reaped by the family with ventures that were frequent links to countries where Mr. Biden spearheaded Obama White House policy, including China and Ukraine.
The House Oversight and Accountability Committee has requested an interview with Mr. Walker as part of its investigation of the Biden family finances. He has a Friday deadline to respond and could face a subpoena if he declines to cooperate voluntarily.
Long before Mr. Walker acted as a Biden family financier, he got his start in politics working on President Clinton’s campaign, according to biographic details found in foreign investment proposals.
After serving on the Clinton campaign, Mr. Walker took a role in the Clinton administration as a special assistant to Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater and as an assistant to Federal Aviation Administrator Jane Garvey in the George W. Bush administration.
While in government, Mr. Walker rubbed elbows with officials across the administration, on Capitol Hill and in foreign governments, making contacts he would highlight to potential foreign investment partners. Mr. Walker pitched those connections after leaving government and opening what he described as an international consulting practice specializing in assisting U.S. companies in establishing overseas operations.
He registered as a lobbyist on Capitol Hill from 2009 to 2011 under his firm Robinson Walker LLC, a sole proprietorship formed in Delaware with headquarters at the time at a residential address in a leafy Washington neighborhood on the banks of the Potomac River.
Quarterly filings show Robinson Walker LLC racked up at least $120,000 in fees lobbying on behalf of a West Coast aerospace company.
The Robinson Walker LLC account was later used to facilitate a $3 million wire payment from a Chinese energy company and to make a series of payouts to members of the Biden clan.
Bank records obtained this year by the House oversight committee show Mr. Walker’s company made payments totaling more than $1 million to Mr. Biden’s brother James Biden, son Hunter Biden and daughter-in-law Hallie Biden. The payments went out over three months beginning in March 2017.
Mr. Walker received the multimillion-dollar wire transfer from State Energy HK Ltd., a Chinese company affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party-backed CEFC China Energy Co.
The committee also uncovered several payments to an unknown account identified only as “Biden.”
The details were released by the committee this month in a memo showing the funds were distributed as follows:
• $35,000 to Hallie Biden.
• $610,692 to Hunter Biden.
• $360,000 to James Biden.
• $70,000 to a mystery account labeled simply “Biden.”
The committee memo said a company affiliated with James Gilliar, another Biden family associate, received more than $1 million from Mr. Walker’s business account on March 2, 2017, the day after the Chinese wire transfer.
It is not clear when Mr. Walker, a University of Arkansas alumnus, first crossed paths with Hunter Biden, a Georgetown alum and Yale Law School graduate. Mr. Walker’s wife, Betsy Massey Walker, was a top aide to second lady Jill Biden during Mr. Biden’s stint as vice president.
In her 2019 book, Mrs. Biden named Mrs. Walker among “the many women and men who worked around the clock at the White House.”
By the end of Mr. Biden’s eight years as vice president, Mr. Walker and Hunter Biden had established deep business ties.
According to a 2020 Senate report, Mr. Walker was associated with at least four companies connected to the president’s son including Oldaker, Biden & Belair LLP, Seneca Global Advisors and Rosemont Seneca Advisors.
In a May 2017 email to another Hunter Biden business partner, Tony Bobulinski, Mr. Walker said he had “generally been acting as a surrogate for H around the country and abroad pursuing opportunities.”
Mr. Bobulinski told Fox News host Tucker Carlson in a 2020 interview that Mr. Walker had a “very close relationship with the Biden family.”
He said Mr. Walker pushed for a meeting between Mr. Bobulinski and Mr. Biden in Los Angeles. The meeting, in May 2017, was specifically set up to discuss a joint venture with CEFC, the communist-backed Chinese energy giant affiliated with State Energy HK Ltd.
Mr. Biden has repeatedly denied ever discussing his son’s business deals.
According to Delaware state filings, Robinson Walker LLC has been dissolved. The company is listed as having failed to pay a $1,770 tax bill as of June 2021.
In 2018, Mr. Walker established a separate firm, Loblolly Interests LLC, which had headquarters at his residential address in Little Rock, Arkansas. That firm also has dissolved.
Mr. Walker was listed as co-founder and managing director of a California-based venture capital firm called Pilot Growth Equity.
In his biography, which was listed on Pilot Growth’s website as recently as July, Mr. Walker is described as having “extensive private and public sector experience in international affairs, politics and government.”
Mr. Walker lists Pilot Growth as his current employer on LinkedIn, but his bio has been scrubbed from the company’s website.
Mr. Walker declined to cooperate with the 2020 Senate investigation into Hunter Biden’s business deals. He also did not respond to inquiries by The Washington Times for this report.
Hunter Biden’s legal team said the House oversight memo exposing the suspicious payments was baseless.
“Hunter Biden, a private citizen with every right to pursue his own business endeavors, joined several business partners in seeking a joint venture with a privately owned, legitimate energy company in China,” his attorneys said. “As part of that joint venture, Hunter received his portion of good faith seed funds which he shared with his uncle, James Biden, and Hallie Biden, with whom he was involved at the time, and sharing expenses.”
The White House also brushed off the memo.
Committee Chairman James Comer, Kentucky Republican, said he intends to get answers from the Biden business linchpin.
Days after revealing the Chinese wire and subsequent payouts, Mr. Comer asked Mr. Walker to appear before the panel as it carries out its sweeping probe into the Biden family’s long trail of overseas business deals.
“These records reveal that the three parties likely all received a third of the money from China, and it is unclear what services were provided in return,” Mr. Comer said. “The Oversight Committee has many questions for Rob Walker, and we look forward to getting answers for the American people.”
• Joseph Clark can be reached at jclark@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.