Then-Vice President Joe Biden’s office worked with Hunter Biden’s business associate to respond to media inquiries about Ukrainian energy firm Burisma in December 2015, according to the House Oversight Committee.
The committee wrote a letter to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) on Wednesday, requesting all documents and information related to Hunter Biden’s business associates’ communication with the vice president’s office from Joe Biden’s tenure.
House Oversight’s letter singles out Hunter Biden’s former business associates Eric Schwerin, Devon Archer, Vuk Jeremic, Rob Walker and Jeffrey Cooper in its request.
On Dec. 4, 2015, Schwerin wrote an email to then-VP Biden communications staffer Kate Bedingfield with statements for the White House to give journalists who were looking into Hunter Biden’s relationship with Burisma ahead of Joe Biden’s trip to Ukraine. Bedingfield informed Schwerin the “VP signed off on this,” according to emails reviewed by House Oversight.
READ THE EMAILS:
The emails between Bedingfield and Schwerin highlighted by House Oversight are held by the National Archives and are publicly available.
“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 statement Bedingfield sent to Schwerin reads. Schwerin had sent Bedingfield a statement on Hunter’s behalf.
“The Vice President has pushed aggressively for years — both publicly with groups like the US-Ukraine Business Forum and privately in meetings in with 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.”
Devon Archer testified to House Oversight in July about how Hunter Biden “called D.C.” because of pressure from Burisma executives Mykola Zlochevsky and Vadim Pozharskyi. Hunter Biden was making more than $80,000 per month as a Burisma board member at the time, according to bank records released by House Oversight. Archer could not confirm whether Joe Biden was on the receiving end of the phone call.
Hunter Biden’s call took place in Dubai at Burisma’s December 2015 board meeting, Archer testified, at an appointment Hunter Biden had with the Burisma executives. Burisma’s board meeting was planned for Dec. 4, 2015, according to emails on Biden’s laptop archive.
The board meeting and Biden’s attendance are confirmed by flight and hotel records in his laptop archive. Hunter Biden emailed multiple people about his trip to Dubai and the meetings he had planned during his time there.
Internal State Department emails released by the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee show Bedingfield sent the State Department talking points on Zlochevsky on Dec. 6, 2015, in order to handle media inquiries.
Joe Biden delivered a speech to Ukraine’s parliament Dec. 9, 2015, in which he urged the nation to tackle corruption and make sure “oligarchs and non-oligarchs … play by the same rules,” White House archives show.
Archer testified to House Oversight that the Biden family “brand” represented by Joe Biden protected Burisma from legal scrutiny and kept the firm in business. He further testified that Joe Biden spoke with Hunter’s business partners more than 20 times, including a spring 2014 dinner with Russian oligarch Elena Baturina and a spring 2015 dinner with Pozharskyi.
WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 31 White House Communications Director Kate Bedingfield delivers remarks during a daily press briefing at the White House on March 31, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
House Oversight named former Obama administration staffers Kate Bedingfield, Michael Carpenter, Kathy Chung, Amos Hochstein, Colin Kahl and Alexander Mackler in its request for communications about Hunter Biden and Jim Biden. In addition, House Oversight is asking for all executive calendars created for Vice President Biden during his two terms in office.
“Joe Biden never built an ‘absolute wall’ between his family’s business dealings and his official government work – his office doors were wide open to Hunter Biden’s associates,” Republican Kentucky Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said in a press release Wednesday. “There is evidence of collusion in the efforts to spin media stories about Burisma’s corruption while Vice President Biden was publicly pushing an anti-corruption agenda in Ukraine.”
“Suspiciously, Hunter Biden’s associate had a media statement on Burisma approved by Vice President Biden himself the same day Hunter Biden ‘called D.C.’ for help with the government pressure facing Burisma,” Comer continued. “Americans demand accountability for this abuse of government office for the benefit of the Biden family.”
House Oversight has also requested records from NARA pertaining to Joe Biden’s apparent aliases he used for government activities and his apparent flights with Hunter Biden on Air Force Two.
NARA confirmed to the Daily Caller that it received Comer’s request and will respond in accordance with the Presidential Records Act.
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