The transcript of a House impeachment inquiry interview with a jailed former business associate of Hunter Biden sheds light on the Biden family's alleged foreign influence-peddling operation, including the "Biden lift" that tied access to now-President Joe Biden.
Jason Galanis' transcribed Feb. 23 interview under oath exposes how the Biden family allegedly capitalized on then-Vice President Biden's high office with the "goal" of raking in "billions, not millions," including the now-famous incident of Joe Biden telling Russian business clients to "be good to my boy."
"Our goal — that is, Hunter Biden, Devon Archer, and myself — was to make billions, not millions," Galanis said in his opening statement to the House Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways and Means impeachment inquiry investigators, according to the transcript obtained Monday by Newsmax.
As multiple business associates have stated publicly and privately for years, the entire value add of Hunter Biden was his family name and his access to his father, which Galanis called the "Biden lift." The transactions under investigation, as Galanis testified, tie foreign influence peddling by the Bidens to business with Russia, China, and former Soviet Union nation Kazakhstan.
Access to Joe Biden came with an $18 million business transaction but the ties to China and Biden was at the heart deal, according to Galanis.
"The point was less the money and more the Chinese participation," Galanis told investigators in the interview (page 115 of the transcript). "The exchange, the quid pro quo, if you would, was if they invest in us, our financial platform gets bigger, more solidified. They get the benefit of Vice President Biden when he exits office to sit on their board. Both parties get something in the exchange. Now that was what was intended."
Along with the influence-peddling allegations, Galanis testified Hunter Biden called his father and used his father to close deals with the Chinese and Russians, evidence the impeachment inquiry can use to pin knowledge of his son's business dealings on the sitting president.
President Biden has long denied knowledge of what business his son was conducting, and the White House still calls the impeachment baseless and the allegations of the president's ties to Hunter Biden to be a conspiracy theory.
"I was present when Hunter called his father on a cellphone and put the call on speaker," Galanis said in his opening statement, noting Rosemont Seneca business ties to the wife of the late former Moscow mayor, according to the transcript. "Present for the call were Yelena Baturina, an investor in Rosemont projects; her husband Yuri, and the former mayor of Moscow; and Devon Archer."
Galanis detailed a May 4, 2014, call between Hunter Biden and then-Vice President Joe Biden, giving an example of the knowledge of the foreign influence peddling.
"We were told to go to an area of the restaurant to gather because Hunter was going to call his father," Galanis said. "Hunter called his father, said, 'Hello,' and 'Hold on, Pops,' then put the call on speaker phone and said, 'I'm here with our friends I told you were coming to town, and we wanted to say hello.'
"The vice president said, 'hello,' and some pleasantries, 'Hope you had safe travels,' and seemed like he wanted to bring the call to an end by saying, 'OK you be good to my boy.'
"Hunter responded by saying, 'Everything is good, and we're moving ahead.'"
The call "stunned" Galanis, showing how quickly Hunter Biden can get his father on the phone with foreign business operations.
"I recall being stunned by this call, to actually hear the vice president's voice on the phone," Galanis said. "It was clear to me that this was a prearranged call with his father meant to impress the Russian investors that Hunter had access to his father and all the power and prestige of that position."
Galanis was convicted of securities fraud in September 2020 and was subpoenaed this past November to speak to House investigators through the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.
While Democrats might use that to discredit Galanis as a witness, he testified the Justice Department might be engaging in a coverup to protect Hunter Biden and Joe Biden because he offered the DOJ evidence of Hunter Biden's ties to his criminal activity and it was rejected.
"I accepted that I committed these crimes, and I deserved a lengthy sentence for my conduct, even offering from the time of my plea to provide prosecutors at the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York with any information that would assist in the thorough disclosure of the fraudulent conduct of all parties," Galanis said. "The offer was rejected.
"Especially because I was not asking for any reduction in charges on my sentence, my attorney at the time told me that the rejection was highly irregular.
"As I reviewed the facts, I realized the prosecutors in the SDNY, Southern District of New York, had gone lightly on Devon Archer and had not indicted Hunter Biden at all, despite the then-available documentations that we were partners; we were involved in the decision-making that involved illegal self-dealing; and that all of us had financially benefited from these schemes.
"In fact, Hunter Biden and Devon's company, Rosemont Seneca Bohai, received $15 million of the tribal bond fraudulent scheme to be invested in the Burnham Group.
"I believe the SDNY's prosecution strategy was intended to protect Hunter Biden and, ultimately, Vice President Biden."