The House of Representatives had plenty of fireworks Wednesday during the Oversight and Accountability Committee’s hearing into the impeachment of President Joe Biden. Tony Bobulinski, a former business partner of Hunter Biden, was one of the star witnesses of the hearing and so was his Blackberry.
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More than an hour into the hearing, Bobulinski answered questions regarding his business affairs with Hunter Biden and the texts between him and another business associate, Rob Walker. Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland, pointed out to Committee Chair James Comer that with all this talk about certain texts from Bobulinski’s Blackberry, why doesn’t the committee have them in their possession?
“I am wondering whether we could get all of those text messages and I would move the committee would subpoena Mr. Bobulinski’s Blackberry phone on which messages with Hunter Biden and the holding partners are saved,” Raskin said. “He stated he is willing to provide it to the committee so it should be simple.”
What followed was quite the clown show by the Republicans on the committee, which isn’t a surprise for Congress. After Raskin’s motion was seconded, Rep. Jim Jordan, a Republican from Ohio, was quick to motion that the matter should be tabled, which is a sly way of not doing anything at all. Rep. Comer agreed and asked for a vote where the ayes, primarily Republican, were outshouted by the Democrats and their nays. However, Rep. Comer wasn’t convinced so he was quick to say the ayes have it, but a recorded vote was called for. This led to a quick recess as the Republicans scrambled to have more of their party members show up for this vote on whether they should subpoena the texts from a Blackberry with a cracked screen.
Several Republican members of Congress found their way to the hearing to record their votes during a short recess. After 10 minutes of scrambling, it was the ayes from the Republicans with 21 votes winning against the nays from the Democrats with 16 votes.
After the vote, Rep. Gerald Connolly, a Democrat from Virginia, followed up with more questions for Bobulinski and his Blackberry. He asked if Bobulinski would voluntarily provide his phone to the committee.
“I am willing to sit in a room with both the chairman and the ranking member with my phone and their staff and we can go through each and every text message,” Bobulinski said. He went on to say that he had a forensic expert try to download the data from his phone, but wouldn’t you know, that expert couldn’t do it.
A photo of Tony Bobulinski’s three phones pictured on Oct. 20, 2020. Included is the Blackberry with the texts to Hunter Biden mentioned in the hearing. Photo: MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images (Getty Images)
The hearing continued on after this drama over a Blackberry as Republicans continued to do their best to prove that President Biden is the center of a crime family. What resulted, however, was weak ties linking the president to criminal business dealings of his son and partners, and more dirt on Trump and his associates.