Former Hunter Biden Associate Tony Bobulinski Sues Rep. Dan Goldman for Defamation

(Left) Tony Bobulinski, on Oct. 22, 2020. (Right) Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) on Jan. 27, 2023. Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images; Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

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.

Mr. Bobulinski’s lawsuit alleges he has suffered personally from mental anguish and has endured reputational harm impacting his business ventures and professional work as a result of Mr. Goldman’s claims. He is seeking an award of compensatory, special, and punitive damages totaling $20 million.

NTD News reached out to Mr. Goldman about the lawsuit but did not receive a response by press time.

Bobulinski Goes on Legal Offense

The lawsuit against the New York congressman is just one of three defamation claims Mr. Bobulinski is advancing.

Mr. Bobulinski filed a lawsuit on March 4 against former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, alleging she had defamed him by claiming former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows had handed him a folded-up note or envelope at a secretive meeting outside a Trump campaign rally in Georgia in 2020.

Mr. Bobulinski has denied claims that Mr. Meadows had handed him anything during the 2020 encounter and argued Ms. Hutchinson’s claims were meant to cast “an innocuous interaction” between the two men as an illicit, immoral, or even illegal encounter.

The businessman also filed a defamation complaint against liberal political strategist and Fox News commentator Jessica Tarlov last week. That complaint alleges Ms. Tarlov, who works as a rotating co-host on Fox News’ “The Five” program, defamed Mr. Bobulinski during a March 20 episode by saying a Trump Super PAC had played a role in covering Mr. Bobulinski’s legal fees.

Ms. Tarlov modified her original claim in a March 21 follow-up.

“During an exchange with my colleagues about the hearing, I said that Mr. Bobulinski’s lawyers’ fees have been paid by a Trump super PAC as recently as January. What was actually said during the hearing was that the law firm representing Mr. Bobulinski was paid by a Trump PAC,” she began. “I have seen no indication those payments were made in connection with Mr. Bobulinski’s legal fees and he denies that they were.”

Mr. Bobulinski’s lawsuit argues Ms. Tarlov’s March 21 clarification was “half-hearted, incomplete, and unacceptable” and called on her to issue a more clear-cut apology but that she refused.

From NTD News