The FBI on Friday requested an interview with Hunter Biden’s former business partner Tony Bobulinski, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee said in a statement.

Bobulinski’s lawyers told the committee that besides asking for a sit-down interview, they requested copies of his phones.

Senate Homeland Security Chairman, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) told The Epoch Times in a statement that he is pleased investigators are taking an active interest in the case, which centers on claims that Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, and his associates were pursuing a potentially lucrative deal with a Chinese tycoon and that the former vice president was allegedly in the loop.

“I appreciate that the FBI has a job to do, and I am glad they are finally taking an interest in these concerning financial matters that our committees have been investigating for months,” Johnson said in the statement.

“I expect that Mr. Bobulinski will speak with our committee as soon as possible and fully share his insights into the Biden family’s business dealings,” Johnson added, with the committee statement indicating Bobulinski has committed to sitting for an interview with the panel.

Bobulinski said at a Thursday press conference that he met Joe Biden in May 2017 and spent one hour discussing a range of issues, including a deal with a Chinese energy conglomerate. This challenges the narrative that Biden has never discussed his son’s business dealings.

“I have heard Joe Biden say that he has never discussed business with Hunter. That is false. I have firsthand knowledge about this because I directly dealt with the Biden family, including Joe Biden,” Bobulinski said at the press conference. “On May 2, 2017, the night before Joe Biden was to appear at the Milken conference, I was introduced to Joe Biden by Jim Biden and Hunter Biden. At my approximately hourlong meeting with Joe that night, we discussed the Bidens’ history and the Biden family’s business plans with the Chinese, with which he was plainly familiar, at least a high level.”

“On numerous occasions, it was made clear to me that Joe Biden’s involvement was not to be mentioned in writing but only face to face. In fact, I was advised by Gilliar and [Rob] Walker that Hunter and Jim Biden were paranoid about keeping Joe Biden’s involvement secret,” Bobulinski said.

According to Bobulinski, Hunter Biden and his associates brought him into the deal in 2017 to serve as the CEO of SinoHawk LLC, a business entity created to formalize an investment partnership with Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC China Energy.

Bobulinski said that the 20 percent stake assigned to an “H” in an email that was part of a trove of documents found on a laptop hard drive and reported by the New York Post, was meant for Hunter Biden. Bobulinski added that the mention in the email of a 10 percent stake “held by H for the big guy” referred to equity to be held by Hunter Biden on behalf of his father, Joe Biden.

The former vice president has denied any wrongdoing and in Thursday’s debate against President Donald Trump characterized the recent flurry of apparently compromising revelations as “malarkey.”

Trump, during the debate, leveled several accusations against Biden for his alleged improprieties in foreign business dealings involving family members, and referred to the recent explosive reports about the contents of a hard drive allegedly belonging to Hunter Biden as “the laptop from hell.”

“If this stuff is true about Russia, Ukraine, China, other countries, Iraq—if this is true, then he’s a corrupt politician. So don’t give me the stuff about how you’re this innocent baby,” Trump said.

Shanghai-based conglomerate CEFC China Energy was China’s largest privately-held oil company before it was caught in Beijing’s crosshairs in 2018. The oil conglomerate made billions of dollars in Russia, eastern Europe, and parts of Africa, while its now-disgraced founder and chairman, Ye Jianming, fostered ties with high-level Chinese Communist Party officials.

Ye Jianming has been missing since early 2018 after he was placed under investigation by the Chinese regime for “suspected economic crimes” and detained. A state-owned enterprise took control of CEFC in March 2019, and the firm declared bankruptcy early this year, according to Chinese media Caixin.

The FBI responded to a query from The Epoch Times with the following statement: “We have no comment, in keeping with our standard practice of neither confirming nor denying the existence of an investigation.”

Ivan Pentchoukov contributed to this report.