On August 13, The New York Times brought up the issue of the first son’s lobbying activities, but there are various official documents and emails that demonstrate Hunter Biden’s facilitation of communication with State Department officials to advance his interests.
Concerns regarding his lobbying and compliance with the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) have been raised for over four years.
One notable instance is his involvement in assisting the Ukrainian gas company Burisma in halting an investigation by Ukrainian authorities.
Since 2015, Hunter Biden personally met with at least one State Department official and facilitated the company’s connection with the Democrat-affiliated consulting firm Blue Star Strategies, which directly lobbied the State Department.
According to The New York Times, Hunter Biden reached out to the U.S. Ambassador to Italy in 2016 seeking State Department support for a profitable natural gas venture in Tuscany.
State Department documents reveal that Biden penned a letter to the ambassador, but the details have been redacted.
“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 Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement.
However, this is not the sole recorded occasion on which Biden sought to leverage his influence to secure benefits for his clients or employers from the State Department.
Meeting with Amos Hochstein
In November 2015, amid mounting pressure against Burisma, Hunter Biden contacted Amos Hochstein, then-Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs at the State Department, to arrange a coffee meeting on Nov. 4, 2015.
Hochstein, who served during the Obama Administration and was known to be a close advisor to then-Vice President Joe Biden, currently holds a position in the Biden State Department as a Special Presidential Coordinator.
Shortly before Hunter Biden’s outreach to him, Hochstein reportedly discussed Hunter Biden’s work on Burisma’s board directly with Joe Biden, as per testimony given to the Senate Committees on Homeland Security and Finance.
The communications between them continued after the meeting. “Amos Hochstein called,” Hunter Biden’s secretary emailed him shortly after. “Please call back today if possible,” she wrote.
Hunter Biden didn’t just meet with Hochstein; he also tried to set up a meeting with Antony Blinken and later introduce the official to Blue Star Strategies.
In an investigation by GOP Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson, it was found that Biden directly emailed Blinken, who was then Deputy Secretary at the State Department, to arrange a coffee meeting.
This occurred while Blinken was serving as deputy secretary of state under President Barack Obama and Vice-President Biden.
“Have a few minutes next week to grab a cup of coffee?” Hunter Biden asked in May 2015. “I know you are impossibly busy, but would love to get your advice on a couple of things.”
Blinken confirmed his willingness to arrange the appointment through his office, but later informed congressional investigators that the meeting never occurred.
Further investigation revealed that Biden also communicated with Blinken’s wife, Evan Ryan, in an attempt to facilitate a connection between Blinken and Blue Star Strategies principals Karen Tramontano and Sally Painter. It remains unclear whether this effort was successful, although Blinken mentioned in an internal State Department email from July 2016 that he “may call” Tramontano.
Biden has not been accused of violating FARA, which carries a penalty of up to $10,000 or imprisonment for up to five years.
In its extensive efforts to influence the U.S. government on behalf of Burisma, Blue Star Strategies repeatedly referenced Hunter Biden’s name as part of its determined campaign to secure meetings with senior State Department officials, as previously reported by Just the News.
During this time, State officials grew increasingly frustrated with the firm’s persistent attempts to access U.S. Embassy officials in Kyiv, including newly appointed U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.
“We had already offered our regrets to Blue Star. But they keep trying through every channel they can,” State Department official Catherine Croft wrote July 29, 2016 in an email to George Kent, one of the department’s top officials at the embassy. Kent would later confirm to Senate investigators that he believed Burisma and its founder were corrupt.
The records indicate that Blue Star successfully arranged a meeting with Ambassador Yovanovitch on December 8, 2016. A memo, with some information redacted, obtained by Just the News explicitly stated that the discussion centered around Burisma.
“An Atlantic Council member and Washington veteran, Tramontano informally represents Mykola Zlochevsky, the Burisma CEO, who has long been the target of law enforcement proceedings in Ukraine,” the key unreacted sentence reads.
Additional records indicate that Painter or Tramontano had additional meetings or phone conversations with Yovanovitch, George Kent, Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt, USAID officials, and Ambassador Daniel Fried in 2016.
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