WASHINGTON — Former first son Hunter Biden got help from the Obama administration — which his father, Joe, served as vice president — while repping Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings, which paid the younger Biden a million-dollar salary based on his political connections, bombshell federal files published Friday show.
The documents — which emerged 73 days after Joe Biden’s presidency ended — show Hunter, now 55, solicited and received commitments of State Department assistance for a Burisma geothermal subsidiary’s work in Italy.
Then-US ambassador to Rome John Phillips, who had received a letter from Hunter asking for help, wrote to the then-second son in July 2016 that he was designating a subordinate to help grease the wheels for Burisma, which was seeking to firm up relations with then-Tuscany regional president Enrico Rossi.
“Dear Hunter, It seems like yesterday that you were in Rome. I hope this finds you well. Thank you for your letter. I know Enrico Rossi well and have a good working relationship with him,” the ambassador wrote in a response printed by the New York Times.
“I spoke to the Senior Commercial Officer at the Embassy, [name redacted], and though the amount of direct support we can provide to a Ukrainian company is limited, I’ve asked him to be the point of contact, see where our interests may overlap, and facilitate contact with Mr. Rossi.”
One month prior, Hunter had written the embassy asking for “your support and guidance in arranging a meeting for representatives from Burisma with the President of Tuscany Region, Mr. Enrico Rossi” — writing in that message, “It was great seeing you in Rome recently.”
Phillips told The Times that he understood Hunter to be referring to a three-day stay by then-VP Biden at the official ambassador’s residence in November 2015, with Hunter joining for part of the visit.
A rep for Hunter Biden told the newspaper that his reference to his powerful dad’s trip “was heartfelt appreciation for courtesy and comfort” shown by Phillips.
The publication of records shores up Republican claims of influence peddling as part of Hunter’s lucrative consulting work in countries such as China and Ukraine during his father’s eight years as VP — though they are surfacing after the political salience of that evidence has passed.
As president, Joe Biden repeatedly denied ever having contact with Hunter or first brother James Biden’s foreign business partners — despite photos, emails and witness testimony indicating he met their associates from Kazakhstan, Mexico, Russia, Ukraine and two Chinese government-linked ventures.
The elder Biden pardoned his son in December of tax-fraud and gun convictions, and in January pre-emptively pardoned other members of his family, including James.
House Republicans ended an impeachment inquiry into then-President Biden in August after he dropped his re-election candidacy July 21, but released a report accusing him of abuse of power and obstruction of their investigations.
“This is yet another example of the Biden family’s playbook,” House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said in a statement, “then-Vice President Joe Biden lets Hunter hitch a ride on Air Force Two, where he cozies up to U.S. and foreign officials and cashes in on the Biden name.
“Time and again, Hunter Biden leveraged his father’s position to peddle influence to enrich the Biden family. It’s no surprise that Hunter Biden tried to exploit his last name with the U.S. Ambassador in Rome to assist a corrupt Ukrainian energy conglomerate,” Comer added. “This appears to be a violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, and he should be held accountable.”
Burisma hired Hunter to serve on its board in early 2014 to help the company’s pro-Russia oligarch leader, Mykola Zlochevsky, navigate the aftermath of the country’s anti-Moscow political revolution. Hunter led the geothermal subsidiary to put an environmentally friendly face on the natural gas supplier.
Although Hunter had no relevant industry experience, his father had just taken control of the Obama administration’s Ukraine portfolio, and the scandal-plagued son has admitted he would “probably not” have been hired had he had a different last name.
Key questions about the Biden family’s entanglement in Ukraine remain unanswered — including the precise chronology of Joe Biden’s successful months-long campaign to use $1 billion in US loan guarantees to oust Ukrainian prosecutor-general Viktor Shokin, whose office had investigated Zlochevsky for awarding his own firm permits while serving as a member of former President Viktor Yanukovych’s administration.
Democrats argued the probe was inactive at the time of Shokin’s dismissal.
But the elder Biden’s January 2016 decision to use the US aid as leverage shocked fellow administration officials, according to previously released documents — and came weeks after Hunter called his dad during a business summit in Dubai with Zlochevsky and Burisma board adviser Vadym Pozharskyi in December 2015, according to sworn testimony by former Hunter business partner Devon Archer.
“Yikes. I don’t recall this coming up in our meeting with them on Tuesday,” National Security Council aide Eric Ciamarella wrote in a Jan. 21, 2016, email, adding that “we were super impressed with the group” from Shokin’s office that visited DC.
Documents published by The Post in October 2020 from Hunter’s abandoned laptop showed that Joe Biden dined at DC’s Cafe Milano in April 2015 with Pozharskyi. The meeting was vaguely denied by the then-Biden campaign, but was confirmed by Hunter himself in congressional testimony last year.
Also uncertain is the extent of long-time Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko’s purported involvement with Burisma’s geothermal subsidiary.
Klitschko met repeatedly with Joe Biden and was described in laptop documents as a “core shareholder” in the subsidiary that did work in Italy — stoking further intrigue.
A former business associate told The Post that Hunter would refer contacts to the former world heavyweight champion, though Klitschko has denied any role in the enterprise.
