Hunter Biden requested assistance from the State Department for a Ukrainian energy company while his father, Joe Biden, was serving as vice president, according to the New York Times. The information was obtained through a FOIA request filed in 2021.
The release of the document is notable for three key reasons. First, it came after Joe Biden announced he would not seek reelection, heightening Republican concerns that the Biden administration may have concealed Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings, which allegedly benefited the Biden family during Joe Biden’s vice presidency.
Second, Hunter Biden failed to register as a foreign agent for his work with Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian energy company that paid him $83,000 a month—totaling $1 million annually—shortly after his father was named the lead U.S. official on Ukraine policy. Hunter had no prior experience in energy or Ukraine before joining the company’s board and seeking assistance from the U.S. government.
Third, the State Department withheld the document during the 2019-2020 impeachment proceedings against former President Donald Trump, who had accused the Bidens of misconduct involving Burisma.
Democrats had incorrectly claimed that Trump sought a quid pro quo to pressure Ukraine into providing information on the Bidens. The Senate ultimately cleared Trump of any wrongdoing.
In 2016, Hunter Biden requested assistance from the U.S. ambassador to Italy regarding Burisma’s difficulties in obtaining regulatory approval for a geothermal energy project in Tuscany, the Times reported Tuesday:
The difficulty is reflected in emails, found in Mr. Biden’s laptop cache, from one of his associates to an Italian businessman who claimed to have ties to Enrico Rossi, the president of the Tuscany regional government at the time.
Mr. Rossi said in an interview that he never met with Mr. Biden. He did not recall the U.S. Embassy reaching out to him about the project.
While Mr. Biden’s letter to the ambassador is referred to in the correspondence, The Times was unable to review its contents because the State Department appears to have redacted it in its entirety. The department cited exemptions allowing the withholding of records that would compromise individual privacy, attorney client privilege or the government’s deliberative process.
According to the Times, Joe Biden was reportedly unaware of Hunter’s 2016 request. However, that same year, Joe Biden boasted about successfully pressuring Ukraine to fire prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who was investigating Burisma for corruption.
In 2015, Burisma faced allegations of money laundering and public corruption. Shokin was looking into these issues before his dismissal, which was prompted by pressure from then-Vice President Biden.
Biden had threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. aid if the Ukrainian government did not remove the prosecutor.
Despite extensive documentation of the Bidens’ activities in Ukraine, the Justice Department did not charge Hunter Biden with violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).
This law mandates that individuals disclose when they lobby the U.S. government on behalf of foreign interests.
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