Hunter Biden Reached Out to Joe's Secretary of State Pick While on Burisma Board
Hunter Biden reached out to his father’s secretary of state pick, Antony Blinken, while serving on the board of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings, according to State Department emails.
Records show that Hunter Biden and Blinken had scheduled meetings while Blink served as deputy secretary of state in the Obama administration, Fox News reported.
“Have a few minutes next week to grab a cup of coffee?” the younger Biden wrote in a May 22, 2015, email to Blinken that was released in 2019 following a Freedom of Information Act request.
“I know you are impossibly busy, but would like to get your advice on a couple of things.”
Blinken replied, “absolutely,” and several emails discussing logistics followed, according to Fox.
Blinken’s assistant listed a 3:30 p.m. meeting with Biden on Blinken’s May 27, 2015, calendar, according to the outlet. An unnamed source told The Washington Post last year the meeting never happened due to the death of Hunter’s brother, Beau, later that month, but that they did meet in July and “they spoke about Beau and the Biden family.”
The interactions raised concerns from Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson.
The two senators asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in a Nov. 7, 2019, letter for the records related to both meetings.
The senators wanted the records in order “to better understand what actions, if any, the Obama administration took to ensure that policy decisions relating to Ukraine and Burisma were not improperly influenced by the employment and financial interests of family members,” according to a news release from Grassley’s office.
Hunter Biden’s relationship with the Ukrainian firm while his father was vice president has long been questioned by President Donald Trump.
A series of emails and other materials on a laptop reportedly belonging to Biden that was seized by the FBI allegedly gave insight into Hunter Biden’s business activity abroad, revealing how he may have allegedly used his father’s position to get ahead.
Hunter Biden was on the board of Burisma from 2014 to 2019 and is reported to have made $50,000 a month, despite not having any significant prior experience in the energy industry.
Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, obtained a copy of the materials and sent them to the New York Post to report.
Presumptive President-elect Joe Biden and Blinken worked together on the Obama administration as well as in the Senate, Politico reported.
Blinken spent six years in the Senate as one of Biden’s top aides, starting in 2002 as the Democratic staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
He was also Biden’s national security adviser while Biden was vice president, The New York Times reported.
Blinken is known as an interventionist who advocated for U.S. involvement in the Syria conflict and broke with Biden to support intervention in Libya, according to Politico.
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