By Josh Christenson and Samuel Chamberlain
At long last, first son Hunter Biden affirmed during his Wednesday impeachment inquiry deposition that his father, Joe, was “the big guy” referenced in an email about a business deal with a Chinese state-linked energy firm that yielded millions for Biden family members and other associates, more than three years after The Post broke the story — but rejected the notion that the president was ever penciled in for a 10% stake.
The deposition represents the first time the 54-year-old Hunter has admitted that his former business partner James Gilliar was referring to Joe Biden when he raised the prospect on May 13, 2017, of the first son holding a 10% stake in the lucrative joint venture involving CEFC China Energy “for the big guy.”
“I truly don’t know what the hell that James was talking about,” the first son said when asked about the reference, according to a transcript released Thursday.
“All I know is … what actually happened.”
The email, found on Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop, was first reported by The Post in October 2020 as part of a bombshell series of reports on the first son’s influence-peddling schemes.
Hunter Biden and his allies had long insisted that information found on the laptop either was not his or had been manipulated by bad actors — with dozens of former intelligence officials insisting the trove bore the hallmarks of Russian election interference.
Later in his response, Hunter said that Gilliar’s suggestion of his dad getting a stake was a “pie in the sky idea” with Biden leaving public life after eight years as Barack Obama’s vice president.
“Like, ‘Joe Biden’s out of the office. Maybe we’ll be able to get him involved,’” the first son said.
“Remember, again, is that Joe Biden, for first time in 48 years, is not an elected official and is not seeking office. And so James is probably, like, ‘Wow, wouldn’t be great if a former Vice President could be in our business together?’”
Hunter claimed to his interrogators that if he had seen the email from Gilliar at the time, “I would have picked up the phone and said, ‘You’re out of your mind.’”
“I shut it down, and the evidence of me shutting it down is the actual things you have as evidence,” the younger Biden said.
“Remember that. The agreement, the executed agreement, the executed agreement to create a company that was never operated, that’s what happened. That’s the evidence you have … Nothing to do with my dad, zero.”
The president lashed out at a Post reporter in June 2023 when pressed about being repeatedly referred to as “the big guy,” a moniker that his brother Frank also used in addition to several of Hunter’s associates.
