Official records released by the National Archives (NARA) contradict President Joe Biden’s assurance that an “absolute wall” existed between his family’s foreign business ventures and government business.
In response to a lawsuit by America First Legal (AFL), NARA divulged 861 records encompassing communications between January 2011 and December 2013 with the name of Hunter Biden’s company, “Rosemont Seneca.” NARA did not release about 200 related records, citing executive privilege.
AFL’s requested scope of emails includes Hunter Biden’s earliest communications with then-Vice President Joe Biden’s office concerning Rosemont Seneca Partners, an entity associated with Devon Archer, Eric Schwerin, CCP-liked entities, and Che Feng, who Hunter Biden identified as the “Super Chairman.”
The emails revealed Wednesday by AFL show that Hunter Biden and his business associates frequently used their direct line of communications to contact then-Vice President Joe Biden’s office.
Rosemont Seneca employees obtained information about White House guest lists, seating assignments, and official events, such as the 2013 Turkey State Luncheon, the 2014 France State Dinner, and the 2012 United Kingdom State Dinner.
In a 2013 email exchange, Schwerin, Hunter Biden’s business partner, asked Katie Dodge, Hunter Biden’s assistant, to ask Joe Biden’s office about arranging a last-minute White House Christmas tour on behalf of Schwerin’s lobbyist associate.
Schwerin asked Dodge to email “friends” at the White House to book the tour. Dodge emailed Kellen Suber, an executive assistant to Joe Biden, asking for the “Big favor for Hunter”:
On a different occasion, emails released by AFL show Hunter Biden in 2011 involved himself in planning a state dinner for Chinese officials at the White House, just months before he traveled to China to begin forming the relationships to launch BHR Partners.
Through the “Super Chairman,” Hunter Biden formed the joint venture, BHR Partners, in which Hunter Biden’s company, Skaneateles LLC, held a ten percent equity stake. BHR Partners is co-owned by the state-controlled Bank of China and still boasts billions of allocated capital around the globe.
“These records provide even more evidence that no daylight existed between Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings and the Office of the Vice President during the Obama Administration,” said Gene Hamilton, America First Legal Vice President and General Counsel. “The evidence accumulating against the Biden family’s malfeasance is staggering,” he added.
In 2019, Joe Biden told the American people that he was not involved in his family’s business. He even alleged “an absolute wall between personal and private and the government.”
“I have never discussed, with my son or my brother or with anyone else, anything having to do with their businesses. Period,” he said. “And what I will do is the same thing we did in our administration. There will be an absolute wall between personal and private and the government.”
Joe Biden also claimed he would impose rules to prevent the gray area between public and private sector business ventures, as it related to American politicians and their families.
“There wasn’t any hint of scandal at all when we were there. And I’m going to propose the same kind of strict, strict rules,” he said. “That’s why I never talked with my son or my brother or anyone else — even distant family — about their business interests. Period.”
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.