The January 5, 2017, meeting in the Oval Office to discuss the investigation into incoming National Security Advisor Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn (Ret.) was not on then-Vice President Joe Biden’s official schedule — though he acknowledged it later.
The official schedules of both President Barack Obama and former Vice President Biden are preserved by the government at the Obama White House’s archive website. The entry for January 5, 2017, reads: “No public schedule available at this time.”
On Wednesday, the Biden presidential campaign pushed back on a report by the New York Post that Biden had met with an adviser to Burisma, the corrupt Ukrainian energy company on which Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, served as a board member.
The Biden camp denied that a meeting “as alleged by the New York Post” took place, and cited the fact that no such meeting was recorded in Biden’s “official schedules.” But presidents and vice presidents also participate in off-schedule meetings.
The January 5 meeting included the president, vice president, and senior administration officials to discuss the Flynn inquiry. Biden has admitted he was there and that he was aware of the investigation. Other officials also place him at the meeting.
Biden had previously denied ever discussing Hunter Biden’s overseas business activities with him. The Post story suggests that Biden was not telling the truth — and hint at further conflicts of interest between the vice president and his son’s firm.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His newest e-book is The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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