Normally, one would not expect the New York Times to investigate a story containing negative information about high-ranking Democrats, but lo and behold, on Tuesday evening dropped an article Revelation that First Son Hunter Biden asked the US Embassy in Rome for help in closing a lucrative deal for the Ukrainian gas giant Burisma, of which he was famously a board member. And the kicker: This was in 2016, when Joe Biden was vice president.
According to the story, the president was unaware of his son’s efforts. One wonders if Joe knew Hunter was, shall we say, busy, but told him not to give any details so he could plausibly deny it.
The documents were released in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from The Times. I keep asking myself: Wait a minute, does The New York Times really investigate such things?
Documents withheld by the Biden administration for years show that Hunter Biden wrote at least one letter to the U.S. ambassador to Italy in 2016 asking for support for the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, where he served on the board of directors.
The embassy staff were obviously concerned about the request from the son of the incumbent vice president on behalf of a foreign company.
“I want to be cautious and not promise too much,” wrote a Commerce Department official at the U.S. Embassy in Rome who was tasked with responding.
“This is a Ukrainian company and for our own protection, USG should not actively solicit the Italian government without going through the DOC Advocacy Center,” the official wrote. These acronyms refer to the U.S. government and a Commerce Department program that supports American companies seeking business with foreign governments.
Looks like Trump was right (again)!
It is confirmed that Hunter Biden, during his term as Vice President, asked the US government for assistance in securing a contract with the Ukrainian gas company Burisma. pic.twitter.com/PGnzLHt35S
— Javon A. Price 🇺🇸 (@JavonAPrice) 14 August 2024
While it’s nice that the Times is actually conducting an investigation into the Democrats, the following sentence is a massive understatement:
His contact with the US embassy in Rome on behalf of Burisma, which has not been reported until now, is reminiscent of other episodes for which he has been criticized: he is said to have implicitly exploited his father’s political influence to advance his foreign business.
I could rephrase that as: “His contacting the U.S. Embassy in Rome on behalf of Burisma, an endeavor covered up by the Biden administration, is reminiscent of many other episodes in which there are mountains of evidence that the First Son wrongfully exploited his father’s family name and position to enrich the Biden crime family, and may have violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), and while Republicans have been busy investigating his schemes, Democrats and most of the corrupt media have willingly turned a blind eye.”
It’s all about the Benjamins:
Biden’s family has every (selfish) reason to want the ailing Joe to stay in the race
Bribery, corruption and international bribery: The Biden family business
Speaker of the House James Comer: “It is no secret that Joe Biden has committed many crimes”
The timing of this document’s release certainly raises eyebrows – it came less than a month after Joe dropped out of the presidential race – but the Times and the State Department assure us that it’s all just a coincidence. Sure. How convenient:
A State Department spokeswoman said the timing was a coincidence, pointing out that the department had released a batch of documents each of the past three months before the tranche revealed Biden’s contact with the U.S. embassy in Rome.
A person familiar with the timing said the release of the Italy documents was planned by the State Department weeks before the president’s decision was announced and approved by the White House a week before Biden’s decision to withdraw.
The State Department is notoriously sluggish when it comes to releasing public records. Its backlog of nearly 19,000 FOIA requests — some dating back many years — was the third largest in the federal government at the end of fiscal year 2022, according to a report released by the Government Accountability Office this year.
Interestingly, the department has completely redacted Hunter’s letter – ostensibly for privacy and legal reasons – so the Times was unable to see its exact contents. I for one would be extremely curious to read it.
The deal never went through, but this episode shows for the umpteenth time what many have been shouting from the rooftops for years: Joe Biden and Co. were up to their necks in corruption during his vice presidency (and perhaps afterward). This story is further proof of that. One can only wonder how much more negative information will come to lightweight about the Biden family business now that he is basically a lame duck who barely shows up for work and no longer has the huge influence he had until recently.
