Biden Document Dump: White House Releases Emails Showing First Son Hunter Asked US Government for Assistance With Lucrative Burisma Business Deal
The landlord slammed Hunter after claiming he tried to pay his past-due rent with disgusting art.
Aug. 14 2024, Published 3:45 p.m. ET
Newly released documents show Hunter Biden once asked the U.S. government for help securing a potentially lucrative energy deal while his father was still vice president.
RadarOnline.com can reveal Hunter, 54, wrote a letter to then-U.S. Ambassador to Italy John Phillips in 2016 on behalf of Burisma – a Ukrainian energy company Hunter was a board member of.
A Commerce Department official, who was based in the U.S. Embassy in Rome and tasked with responding, replied: “I want to be careful about promising too much.
Hunter was accused of failing to pay rent and damaging another Venice Beach rental home.
“This is a Ukrainian company and, purely to protect ourselves, U.S.G. should not be actively advocating with the government of Italy without the company going through the D.O.C. Advocacy Center.”
Abbe Lowell, Hunter’s lawyer, confirmed President Joe Biden’s son reached out to “various people” for help securing a geothermal project between Burisma and Tuscany eight years ago.
Lowell, 72, also described Hunter’s solicitation as a “proper request” and insisted “no project materialized” despite Hunter’s inquiry.
He said: “No meeting occurred, no project materialized, no request for anything in the U.S. was ever sought and only an introduction in Italy was requested.”
Hunter’s 2016 request was revealed on Tuesday after the U.S. State Department released records and interviews to The New York Times following a FOIA request the newspaper filed in June 2021.
The Times said it filed the initial FOIA request after other emails connected to Burisma and the geothermal energy deal were discovered on Hunter’s infamous abandoned laptop.
Hunter's former landlord claimed he owed rent from 2019 to 2020.
One email between Hunter’s longtime business partner Eric Schwerin and an Italian businessman named Enrico Rossi dated the time of the potential deal to July 2016.
Schwerin wrote to Rossi that July: “Burisma is hoping that some of its executives can get a meeting with the president to discuss their geothermal business in Tuscany.”
Hunter reportedly wrote his email to the unnamed Commerce Department official around the same time.
The Commerce Department official then wrote in an email to other U.S. government officials: “The Ambassador already replied to one letter from Mr. Biden. He may be shopping for more support than he got here.”
Phillips, 81, also told the Times he did not remember Hunter writing to him about Burisma in 2016 – although he “certainly would pay attention to it” if Hunter had.
The former U.S. ambassador to Italy said: “Out of courtesy, I’d probably make sure he got a response of some sort, but not necessarily from me.
Then-U.S. Ambassador to Italy John Phillips does not remember corresponding with Hunter in July 2016.
“And I wouldn’t even want to encourage it, because I wouldn’t get us involved in something like that.”
A White House spokesman said President Biden was not aware his son had ever reached out to the U.S. Embassy in Italy.
As RadarOnline.com reported, the revelation Hunter once asked the U.S. government for help with a deal on behalf of Burisma comes after members of the House GOP scrutinized President Biden over his son’s overseas business dealings.
GOP Congressman James Comer, who serves as chair of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, called the matter “the biggest political corruption scandal in our history’s lifetime”.
The revelation also comes days after President Biden, 81, ended his 2024 re-election bid and dropped out of the race for the White House.
An insider familiar with the timing of the State Department’s document dump insisted the release was planned weeks before Biden announced his decision to drop out of this year’s election race.
The State Department’s document dump comes shortly after President Biden dropped out of this year’s White House race.
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The release was also reportedly cleared by the White House one week before Biden decided to step aside.
RadarOnline.com has reached out to the White House for comment.
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