White House spokesperson Ian Sams claimed Wednesday that then-Vice President Joe Biden’s office in no way colluded with Hunter Biden’s business associates, despite correspondence dating back to 2014 and 2015 about Burisma Holdings.
“More lies by @JamesComer,” Sams posted on X. “Total nonsense.”
Despite the White House’s immediate pushback, emails previously unearthed by America First Legal show Kate Bedingfield, Joe Biden’s former communications director, responding in 2015 to Hunter Biden’s associate about an approved press release regarding Bursima Holdings.
Hunter Biden joined the board of Burisma in April 2014, four years before Joe Biden stated he forced the firing of Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who investigated Burisma for corruption. Regardless of Hunter’s inexperience in Ukraine or the energy sector, Burisma paid him $83,000 per month — just weeks after his father became the U.S. government’s “point person” on Ukraine.
In this Feb. 16, 2015 file photo, General Prosecutor of Ukraine Viktor Shokin speaks during a news conference in Kiev, Ukraine (AP Photo/Sergei Chuzavkov, File).
Via email, Bedingfield told Hunter Biden’s top financial lieutenant Eric Schwerin that Joe Biden approved a statement regarding Hunter Biden’s board position at Bursima.
“VP signed off on this — will give this quote to reporters in my name shortly,” she said, including the quote below in the email:
Hunter Biden is a private citizen and a lawyer. The Vice President does not endorse any particular company and has no involvement with this company. The Vice President has pushed aggressively for years — both publicly with groups like the US-Ukraine Business Forum and privately in meetings in with [sic] Ukrainian leaders — for Ukraine to make every effort to investigate and prosecute corruption in accordance with the rule of law. It will once again be a key focus during his trip this week.
Months earlier, Burisma Holdings announced Hunter Biden’s board position, which made international headlines. Devon Archer, Hunter Biden’s best friend in business, recently told Tucker Carlson the announcement of the position caught Hunter Biden by surprise.
The House Oversight Committee announced late Monday it has subpoenaed Devon Archer (highlighted in red), a Biden family associate, to appear for a deposition to Congress this Friday (Tucker Carlson Tonight).
“Burisma released it, didn’t tell us,” Archer said of the announcement. “And, and it was like the most Googled news story in the world for 18 hours. And I was like, this is going to be different.”
Then-Vice President Biden’s press secretary Kendra Barkoff contacted Hunter one day after Burisma’s announcement on May 13, 2014, according to emails released by the Archives to America First Legal.
“Thanks for talking to me. [L]et me know who I should refer folks to,” she wrote to Hunter Biden.
“What exactly are they asking?” Hunter responded. “For the time being I’d just refer them to my office. FYI I joined the board of Burisma Holdings Ltd. (Burisma.com) an independent/private natural gas producer in Ukraine along with the former president of Poland. I think the press release is on their website.”
Barkoff shared a request for comment from a BuzzFeed reporter alleging the Biden family had a conflict of interest with Hunter holding the board position while his father was vice president:
The news seems rather odd on its face and, if true, would present a fairly glaring conflict of interest given the VP’s role on Ukraine policy – particularly since the company is controlled by Nikolai Zlochevsky, who was energy minister and deputy NSC chief under [former pro-Moscow Ukrainian President Viktor] Yanukovych Is this true? What exactly is going on here?
“Interesting,” Hunter shot back to Barkoff.
“Burisma is completely independent of the Ukrainian government with an independent board of directors. [Zlochevsky] served as Minister of Ecology and resigned in 2010,” Hunter continued. “I joined the board as legal adviser and Burisma also engaged the law firm I am of counsel to Boies Schiller Flexner on matters pertaining to corporate governance, transparency, and expansion. Alana Apter former head of Morgan Stanley Europe is chairman of the board.”
Barkoff asked Hunter whom she could contact at his office for more information.
“Eric- he’s cc’d here,” Hunter replied, referencing Eric Schwerin.
According to Hunter Biden’s “laptop from hell,” Schwerin and Hunter Biden were constantly cc’d on email threads for years before their relationship began to deteriorate in 2018.
Hunter Biden on the phone // Inset: Laptop (iStock, Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
Schwerin responded to Barkoff: “Kendra, I am around the next few days if you need me.”
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.