Bedingfield Vowed Reporter Would Block Bloomberg Story on Burisma

Then Vice-President Joe Biden’s Communications Director Kate Bedingfield reassured Hunter Biden’s top lieutenant in 2015 that a damaging story from Bloomberg reporter Margaret Talev about the family’s business dealings in Ukraine would be quashed unless “editors hold a gun to her head,” emails obtained from the National Archives show.

The emails are just one more record revealing a close working relationship between Joe Biden’s White House team and the family’s business, via partner Eric Schwerin, who is apparently cooperating with House investigators.

“Absolutely — we have had two conversations about it — she will only use if her editors put a gun to her head. She absolutely will not do the second thing,” Bedingfield replied to Schwerin about a potential Bloomberg story about Hunter’s role at Burisma, and another about his discharge from the Navy.

Despite Bedingfield’s efforts to prevent the story from being published, it appears Bloomberg did publish the story on December 8, the same day as the communication.

Margaret Talev is now the managing editor for politics at Axios and a CNN political analyst. Bedingfield, meanwhile, departed the White House in 2023, just as the House Oversight Committee probe into Joe Biden heated up.

Before assuring Schwerin the story would not run, Bedingfield relayed a familiar script used by Biden over the years to wave away scrutiny of his potential role in the family enterprise. The conversation followed a New York Times article about the family’s business in Ukraine.

“VP just finished an interview with the Bloomberg reporter traveling with us and she asked about it [Times story], though she assures me she is doing everything she can do to not use it,” she told Schwerin, noting her talking points for Joe Biden. “No one has any doubt about my record on corruption, I don’t talk to my son about his business, and my children don’t talk to me about mine, I have complete faith in my son,” she recounted.

After the Bloomberg story was published, Schwerin complained to Bedingfield, “Guess Bloomberg reporter didn’t have the ability to convince her editors not to make her write the story……”

Bedingfield responded, “Really frustrating,” noting her hope the article would not “trigger” a third article on the topic.

The 2015 stories from the Times and Bloomberg were spawned by Hunter’s board membership on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma. Hunter joined the board in April 2014, two years before Joe Biden stated he forced the firing of Ukraine prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who was investigating Burisma. Despite Hunter’s lack of experience in Ukraine or the energy sector, he was paid $83,000 per month by the energy company, or $1 million per year — just weeks after his father was announced “point person” on U.S. foreign policy toward Ukraine.

The email thread between Bedingfield and Schwerin is the latest trove uncovered from the National Archives by America First Legal. The new troves of emails unearthed by a lawsuit against the Archives show Biden and Hunter coordinated through their respective associates to respond to questions from reporters about if Hunter’s position on Burisma’s board undermined then-Vice President Biden’s credibility in pushing anti-corruption measures.

On Monday, America First Legal revealed then-Vice President Biden approved an official statement in December 2015 about Hunter Biden’s position on a Ukrainian energy company’s board despite claims he was not involved with the family’s business.