Tony Bobulinski, a former Biden family business associate and witness in an ongoing Republican-led impeachment investigation, has filed a lawsuit against Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) accusing the lawmaker of defamation.
The lawsuit, filed in a federal court in Washington and first reported by The Daily Caller on Friday, accuses Mr. Goldman of repeatedly lying about Mr. Bobulinski following a heated exchange at a recent congressional hearing. According to Mr. Bobulinski’s complaint, Mr. Goldman defamed the former Biden business associate in a series of posts on social media by alleging Mr. Bobulinski “has used a Trump campaign-paid lawyer to make false allegations” and that his testimony before Congress was “Russian disinformation.”
Mr. Bobulinski’s complaint says he has spent over $500,000 of his own money on legal fees and neither former President Donald Trump nor any Trump-affiliated entities “have ever paid” for any of those legal fees, contradicting Mr. Goldman’s assertion. The complaint also insists Mr. Bobulinski has not made any false allegations before Congress, as claimed by Mr. Goldman, nor have his claims originated from Russian disinformation.
The lawsuit follows through on a threat Mr. Bobulinski made last week that he would seek recourse through the courts if Mr. Goldman didn’t delete his offending social media posts and publicly retract his statements about Mr. Bobulinski. The legal filing on Friday states Mr. Goldman neither responded to, nor complied with the request for a retraction.
Mr. Bobulinski worked with President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden on a business venture involving a Chinese energy firm called China Energy Company Limited. He has alleged the elder Biden was aware of his son’s foreign business dealings and even personally benefited from those dealings, despite the elder Biden’s repeated public statements to the contrary. Mr. Bobulinski has shared these allegations with House Republicans leading an impeachment inquiry into whether President Biden had engaged in influence peddling to advance his family’s business dealings.
The lawsuit alleges that Mr. Goldman made the contentious claims about Mr. Bobulinski to discredit him and the impeachment inquiry. Mr. Bobulinski’s legal team argues the lawmaker’s statements constituted defamation per se for falsely claiming Mr. Bobulinski lied before Congress, and defamation by implication for suggesting President Trump has paid for Mr. Bobulinski to bring claims about the Biden family before Congress.
By Ryan Morgan
