Hunter Biden says he sought State Department help for a Ukrainian energy company while President Joe Biden was vice president The New York TimesThe company obtained the information from the agency through a FIOA request dating back to 2021.
The release of these documents is significant for three reasons: First, they were released after Joe Biden announced he would not seek reelection, highlighting Republican concerns that the Biden administration covered up Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings that enriched the Biden family while Joe Biden was Vice President.
Second, Hunter did not register as a foreign agent for his work with Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings, which was paying him $83,000 per month, or $1 million per year, just weeks after Hunter’s father was appointed “head” of U.S. foreign policy toward Ukraine. Hunter had no experience in energy or Ukraine before joining the company’s board of directors and seeking U.S. government assistance.
Third, the State Department left the documents lying around during the 2019-2020 impeachment proceedings against former President Donald Trump, who accused the Bidens of wrongdoing surrounding Burisma. Democrats falsely alleged that Trump made a deal to get information about the Bidens from Ukraine. The Senate acquitted Trump.
In 2016, Hunter asked the U.S. ambassador to Italy for help with Bursima’s “struggles to gain regulatory approval for a geothermal energy project in Tuscany.” Times Reported Tuesday:
The difficulties were illustrated by emails found in a cache on Biden’s laptop sent by a Biden aide to an Italian businessman who claimed to have ties to Enrico Rossi, who was then prime minister of the Tuscan region.
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Rossi said in an interview that he has never met with Biden and doesn’t recall the U.S. Embassy contacting him about the project.
Biden’s letter to the ambassador is mentioned in the letter, but The Times was unable to review it because the State Department appears to have redacted the entire letter. The State Department cited exceptions that allow it to withhold records that could violate personal privacy, attorney-client confidentiality or government deliberative process.
Joe Biden was allegedly unaware of Hunter’s request in 2016. Times Joe Biden bragged about forcing the firing of Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin that same year. Investigated Burisma was indicted on corruption charges. In 2015, Burisma was accused of money laundering and official corruption. Shokin was fired under pressure from then-Vice President Biden, who threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. aid to Ukraine if the Ukrainian government did not fire the prosecutor who was investigating Burisma.
Although the Bidens’ work in Ukraine is well documented, the Justice Department did not charge Hunter with violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which requires disclosure of any lobbying activity against the U.S. government on behalf of a foreign interest.
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Special Counsel David Weiss You can still claim Hunter was charged with violating FARA, but this comes as his sweet plea deal, negotiated in 2023 to give Hunter blanket immunity, fell apart under judicial scrutiny, after which Weiss filed separate gun and tax charges in Delaware and California, respectively. A tax trial is scheduled for September.
In tax-related court documents filed last week, Weiss, after years of failing to prosecute Hunter for FARA violations, dropped his accusations that Hunter “improperly coordinated with the Obama Administration,” choosing instead to prosecute the president’s son on tax and firearms violations. Republicans argue this potential wrongdoing is unjust.
But court documents say Hunter Biden received $3,101,258 from his Romanian partner, Gabriel Popoviciu, for the purpose of “influencing U.S. government agencies” while Joe Biden was vice president.
Wendell Fsebo is a political reporter for Breitbart News and a former war room analyst for the Republican National Committee. He is the author of: The Politics of Slave MoralityFollow Wendell “X” @WendellHusebø or The truth of society @WendellHusebo.
