Hunter Biden received special treatment from the Office of the Vice Presidency and former President Barack Obama’s ambassador to China for his business trips to China in 2014, documents obtained by America First Legal from the National Archives released Thursday show.
The latest tranche of emails uncovered by America First Legal raises the question of why Hunter Biden, a private citizen, would receive white glove treatment for foreign business travels. Joe Biden claimed he never spoke to his son about business, that Hunter Biden made no money from his Chinese ventures, and that there was an “absolute wall” between his personal and professional life — claims disproven by evidence House impeachment inquiry investigators produced.
Hunter received special treatment regarding a 2014 trip to China, where he launched BHR Partners, a joint venture formed in 2013 and controlled by the Bank of China, which still boasts billions of allocated capital around the globe. Hunter formed BHR Partners in which his company, Skaneateles LLC, held a ten percent equity stake. Hunter’s stake in BHR Partners is controlled by his lawyer, Kevin Morris, Breitbart News exclusively reported in April.
During his vice presidency, Joe Biden took 411 trips to China. One of them transpired in 2013, when he went to Beijing under the “trappings” of a family vacation. Ten days after that visit to China, Hunter secured a ten percent interest in BHR Partners.
Months later, in May 2014, Ambassador Max Baucus and the Office of the Vice President proactively worked with Hunter regarding one of his trips to China, emails obtained by America First Legal show. Hunter Biden’s executive assistant, Katie Dodge, who frequently worked with Biden business associates, thanked “everyone stepping forward to help” to facilitate the travel.
America First Legal’s emails do not specify with whom Hunter met during this specific visit to China. However, Devon Archer, Hunter’s best friend in business who conveyed his stake in BHR Partners to his wife in 2017, told House investigators in July that Joe Biden spoke on speakerphone during 20 Biden family business meetings. One of those calls included a dinner in China with Jonathan Li, a cofounder of the BHR Partners joint venture, Archer said.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.
