- The Daily Caller News Foundation’s reporters have been poring over the contents of Hunter Biden’s alleged hard drive, which show how Hunter tried to leverage his father’s position for financial gain.
- One email on the drive details how Hunter Biden leveraging his father’s actions as vice president to show he was “adding value” to Burisma.
- Joe Biden offered to help Hunter Biden financially on at least four occasions between November 2018 and March 2019, text messages on the hard drive show.
- The DCNF has not fully reviewed the more than 40,000 messages on the drive, but no direct evidence has yet surfaced showing that Joe Biden financially benefited from Hunter’s foreign business dealings.
Daily Caller News Foundation reporters have been poring over the contents of Hunter Biden’s alleged laptop since former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani provided a copy of the computer’s hard drive on Wednesday.
Emails on the drive reveal how Hunter Biden tried to leverage his father’s actions as vice president in 2014 to show he was “adding value” to Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian energy firm where he served as a director.
A cybersecurity expert previously authenticated a key email from the laptop that the New York Post called “smoking gun” evidence that Joe Biden was introduced by his son to a Burisma executive in 2015.
The DCNF has not been able to review all of the more than 40,000 emails and scores of text messages on the drive, but no direct evidence has yet surfaced showing that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden received any financial benefit from his son’s overseas business dealings.
However, text messages from the drive show that Joe Biden offered to help his son financially on at least four occasions between November 2018 and March 2019.
Hunter Biden touted father’s comments to show he was “adding value” to Burisma
Shortly after joining the board of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings in 2014, Hunter Biden suggested to his business partner that they take credit for his father’s remarks in a speech pledging U.S. support for the Ukrainian energy industry.
“Imagine where you’d be today if you were able to tell Russia: Keep your gas. It would be a very different world you’d be facing today,” Joe Biden told a group of Ukrainian legislators, according to an article that Hunter Biden forwarded to his partner, Devon Archer.
“It takes some difficult decisions, but it’s collectively within your power and the power of Europe and the United States. And we stand ready to assist you in reaching that,” Joe Biden also said in his remarks.
Hunter Biden suggested forwarding the remarks to Vadim Pozharskyi, a top Burisma executive.
“You should send to Vadim – makes it look like we are adding value,” Biden wrote to his business partner Devon Archer in the April 22, 2014 email.
It is not clear from the email whether Hunter Biden had spoken to his father about Burisma or Ukraine, or whether he merely wanted to represent to Burisma that he had influenced the vice president’s remarks.
Burisma had that same month hired Hunter Biden and Devon Archer to serve on the company’s board of directors. The gig paid the pair roughly $80,000 a month.
Hunter Biden’s position with Burisma has come under scrutiny in the media, from within the Obama administration, and most recently, from Republicans.
Some U.S. officials expressed concern in 2014 and 2015 that Hunter Biden’s work for Burisma undercut the Obama administration’s efforts to fight corruption in Ukraine.
President Obama tapped Joe Biden in early 2014, following the overthrow of Ukraine’s pro-Russia president, to lead an initiative to help the Ukrainian government fix its longstanding problems with corruption.
Burisma’s owner, Mykola Zlochevesky, had been under investigation in the U.K. for money laundering and bribery.
Burisma’s U.S. lobbyist offered to contact U.S. officials to influence Ukraine tax law
A lobbyist hired by Burisma offered to contact U.S. officials in Fall 2014 as part of an effort to influence Ukrainian lawmakers to oppose raising taxes on private energy companies, according to one email found on Hunter Biden’s purported laptop.
“Thanks for sharing the info about these newest legislative initiatives which could cause even more damage to the private gas industry in Ukraine,” David Leiter, the owner of ML Strategies, wrote Vadim Pozharskyi, the Burisma executive, on Sept. 24, 2014.
“We will do our best to alert U.S. officials who might be able. To [sic] influence Ukraine to not adopt such harmful measures.”
Burisma hired ML Strategies in May 2014, a month after tapping Hunter Biden and Devon Archer to serve on the company’s board.
Pozharskyi, the Burisma executive, had written to the ML Strategies partners that the Ukrainian parliament was considering raising taxes on the private energy sector in Ukraine. Pozharskyi asserted that the bill “would kill the entire private gas production sector.”
Leiter, who had been an aide to then-Sec. of State John Kerry when he served in the U.S. Senate, did not disclose in his lobbying registration filings that he would lobby for Burisma to influence Ukraine’s tax policies.
ML Strategies’ lobbying disclosure reports say only that the firm would lobby U.S. lawmakers and the State Department on “General issues pertaining to promoting transparency, good corporate governance, and energy security.”
Joe Biden offered to help Hunter Biden financially
An incomplete review of the alleged Hunter Biden hard drive has uncovered no direct evidence that Joe Biden benefited financially from his son’s business dealings.
Text messages on the laptop indicate that Joe Biden offered to help his son financially on numerous occasions between November 2018 and March 2019.
The offers of financial assistance came before Joe Biden declared his candidacy for president in late April 2019.
“Dad can you please cash app me $2,000,” Hunter Biden texted Joe Biden on March 15, 2019. “I’m again overdrawn in my account for bills that can’t be left unpaid.”
“I’ll have it all paid back next week I hope,” Hunter Biden texted his father after he was asked if the transfer went through.
Emails on the computer suggest that Hunter Biden was under significant financial duress when he asked his father for financial assistance.
Hunter Biden said he was stuck at a rest stop with no money for gas in a March 6, 2019 email to his business partner Jeff Cooper while he awaited a $50,000 wire for his company, Owasco, LLC.
“Buddy do you have cash app to send me … $100 until wire goes,” Hunter emailed Cooper. “I have no money for gas and im literally stuck at a rest stop on 95 on my way from Boston to DC.”
On March 1, Joe Biden texted Hunter Biden about his daughter, asking: “Do you want me to do anything about Maisy dentist bill.”
“Let me know if you need anything cash,” Joe Biden said in another text to Hunter Biden on Feb. 6, 2019.
And in a Nov. 28, 2018, text, Joe Biden told his son: “Do you need anything. I have cash. Love Dad.”
Hunter Biden owed $37,000 a month to his ex-wife
Emails on the hard drive reveal that Hunter Biden owed $37,000 in alimony payments each month to his ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle Biden, after they reached a settlement agreement in April 2017.
Kathleen Buhle Biden filed for divorce against Hunter Biden due to allegations of infidelity and drug use, according to the Associated Press.
An email on the hard drive shows that Hunter Biden faced bills exceeding $130,000 in the month of July 2017.
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