Hunter Biden reportedly asked U.S. officials to help him in connection to an energy deal in Italy while his father was vice president and he worked for the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, according to The New York Times.
Records not released by the Biden administration until after President Joe Biden quit the 2024 presidential race reportedly show that Hunter Biden wrote a 2016 letter to the American ambassador in Italy in which he sought U.S. government assistance related to a project being planned by Burisma, according to the NYT. Specifically, Hunter Biden reportedly wanted the ambassador’s help to set up a meeting between Burisma and the president of Tuscany, a region of Italy where the company was hoping to develop a geothermal energy project.
American officials appear to have been concerned by the then-sitting vice president’s son reaching out to the embassy seeking help for a foreign corporation, according to the Times.
MSNBC: Hunter Biden has been attending WH meetings. pic.twitter.com/a1MhPL68uj
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“I want to be careful about promising too much,” wrote a Commerce Department official based in the Rome embassy who was responsible for responding to Hunter Biden, according to the NYT. “This is a Ukrainian company and, purely to protect ourselves, [the U.S. government] should not be actively advocating with the government of Italy without the company going through the [Department of Commerce] Advocacy Center.”
Hunter Biden reportedly made the effort to reach out to the embassy at the behest of Burisma, which was having difficulty securing approval for its plans from Tuscan officials, a businessman involved in the affair told the NYT. Ultimately, the Tuscany project never came to fruition.
The Department of Commerce Advocacy Center is a program designed to help American companies navigate business arrangements with foreign governments, according to the NYT. Hunter Biden’s attorney, Abe Lowell, disputes the notion that his client’s outreach was inappropriate.
“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,” Lowell said in a statement provided to the NYT. Lowell further characterized Hunter Biden’s communication as a “proper request,” and added that his client “asked various people” about possibly arranging a meeting between the company and the Tuscan government.
Then-Vice President Joe Biden was unaware that his son was reportedly reaching out to the embassy on Burisma’s behalf, the White House told the NYT. The State Department has not yet released the text of Hunter Biden’s letter.
Burisma hired Hunter Biden to serve on its board in 2014 and paid him approximately $80,000 per month for his services, despite the fact that he had never been to Ukraine and lacked experience in the natural gas business. The firm significantly reduced his compensation after former President Donald Trump assumed office in early 2017.
Hunter Biden and his father have been accused by Republican lawmakers of engaging in a vast influence peddling scheme while Joe Biden was serving as vice president. House Republicans and prosecutors have variously probed Hunter Biden’s dealings with business interests in China, Romania, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, with lawmakers finding that the Biden family and its associates received millions of dollars from foreign entities via a complex web of shell companies, according to the House Oversight and Accountability Committee.
The president’s son is set to go to trial in California next month to face felony and misdemeanor federal tax charges, to which he has pleaded not guilty. In June, a jury convicted Hunter Biden on three federal felony counts in Delaware related to his decision to purchase a handgun in 2018 while he was addicted to narcotics.
The White House and Lowell’s office did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
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