How Russian TV producer PRAISED Hunter for joining Burisma board to try and get an interview with Joe: New emails reveal White House was peppered with questions about ethics violations and president’s son cocaine use in 2014
- Former President Barack Obama’s White House was peppered with questions about Hunter Biden joining Ukrainian gas company Burisma in 2014
- New emails from the National Archives show that the White House was tracking coverage of Hunter’s dismissal from the Navy Reserves over cocaine use
- Emails from President Joe Biden’s tenure as VP are being released as part of a lawsuit filed by a group started by Trump aide Stephen Miller
Former President Barack Obama‘s White House was peppered with questions about Hunter Biden when he joined Ukrainian gas company Burisma’s board and kept track of coverage of his Navy Reserve dismissal for cocaine use.
On Wednesday, Politico’s Playbook reported on newly released emails from President Joe Biden‘s tenure as vice president, which were put out by the National Archives as part of a lawsuit filed by American First Legal, a group founded by hard-right Trump immigration adviser Stephen Miller.
In one highlighted exchange, a Russian TV producer named Natalya Usenko who worked for the NTV network praises Hunter Biden’s work with Burisma in an email to the vice president’s office and then asks for an interview with Joe.
‘Mr. Hunter Biden has recently become a member of Committee of Directors of Burisma company. We would like to congratulate him and wish him good luck!’ she wrote. ‘Would you be so kind to help us to organize an interview with Mr. Joseph Biden so that he could tell us his attitude towards and tell us if it will influence the foreign policy of the USA.’
Shailah Murray, then Biden’s communications director, commented to colleagues: ‘What a charming letter!’
Hunter Biden’s (left) decision in 2014 to join the board of Burisma prompted a flurry of inquiries to then Vice President Joe Biden’s office (left), with his spokesperson telling a reporter off-the-record that the White House Counsel’s office was never consulted
Politico’s Playbook reported Wednesday on emails released by the National Archives that show that President Barack Obama’s White House was keeping track of reports about Hunter Biden (pictured) being ousted from the Naval Reserve due to cocaine use
The interview requested was never granted.
The emails show that Vice President Biden’s office was blindsided by Hunter Biden’s 2014 decision to join the Burisma board.
‘What a charming letter!’ Biden’s then communications director Shailah Murray commented when a Russian TV producer reached out complimenting Hunter’s Burisma deal and asking for an interview with Joe
The now president’s then spokesperson Kendra Barkoff told ABC’s Ann Compton off the record that ‘the lawyers weren’t consulted because Hunter is a private citizen and the VP has no association wiht this company.’
Compton had pressed the vice president’s office on whether the White House counsel’s office had been consulted before Hunter signed on.
‘OFF the record doesn’t help. I would however be willing to use this with or without quoting YOU,’ Compton replied to Barkoff.
The Archives released full email conversations involving Hunter Biden – even those with ‘off the record’ agreements between White House staffers and reporters, Politico noted.
Barkoff also spoke with Hunter Biden at one point about the flurry of inquiries directed at the White House, State Department and U.S. Embassy in Ukraine.
‘What exactly are they asking?’ Hunter wrote to Barkoff. ‘For the time being I’d just refer them to my office. FYI I joined the board of Burisma Holdings Ltd….an independent/private natural gas producer in Ukraine along with the former president of Poland. I think the press release is on their web site.’
Hunter Biden’s Burisma business deal opened his father up to a multitude of political attacks and was the basis for former President Donald Trump’s first impeachment, with Trump withholding $400 million in Congresionally passed funds for Ukraine’s defense, while pushing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to open an investigation into Joe and Hunter.
Now with Republicans in control of the House, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer is deadset on probing what he calls ‘Biden family influence peddling,’ focusing on Hunter Biden’s business deals in Ukraine and China.