/1🔎READ – Here are the highlights of our investigation into Joe Biden’s Vice Presidential records that helped lead to yesterday’s announcement of an impeachment inquiry.
Our litigation against the gov uncovered thousands of emails between the White House and Rosemont Seneca…
/2 Contrary to Joe Biden’s claim that there is an “absolute wall between the personal and private, and the government,” the White House asserted executive privilege to withhold over 300 of the emails with “Seneca Global Advisors” and “Rosemont Seneca” in their entirety because “Release would disclose confidential advice between the President and his advisors, or between such advisors.”
/3 But, we uncovered over 1,000 emails between the Office of Vice President and Seneca Global Advisors or Rosemont Seneca. As of now, NARA has processed 1,191 emails sent or received between April 2009 and December 2013 that contained the names of Hunter Biden’s companies — “Seneca Global Advisors” and “Rosemont Seneca.”
/4 In these documents, we discovered that even though Hunter had no official role in the Obama-Biden Administration, he was intimately involved in planning for high-profile White House events.
These events included the January 2011 China State Luncheon, the June 2011 State Arrival Ceremony for German Chancellor, the March 2012 United Kingdom State Dinner and Visit, the May 2013 Turkey State Luncheon, and the 2014 France State Dinner.
/5 We also uncovered a cozy relationship between VP Biden’s office, Rosemont Seneca, and the press. According to Biden’s then-comms director Kate Bedingield, a reporter would only write a negative story about Hunter Biden if her editors put a “gun to her head.” The OVP also coordinated directly with Hunter Biden for media responses.
/6 Records also show that there was an unusually close working relationship between VP Biden’s press office and Hunter’s business partner at Rosemont Seneca, Eric Schwerin.
/7 Schwerin provided the White House with quotes from both Hunter and the former Polish President who was also on Burisma’s Board.
/8 Despite Joe Biden’s assertions that he had no involvement with Hunter’s appointment to Burisma, he signed off on the official White House statement in response to questions from reporters about whether Hunter’s position undermined the VP’s credibility in pushing anti-corruption measures.
/9 The records also confirmed that Joe Biden used his personal email for official White House business.
We launched a follow up investigation with the Department of Defense to obtain emails sent from his personal addresses for official business.
/10 Moreover, Hunter Biden and his associates at Rosemont Seneca also frequently used the Biden name to gain access to the White House on behalf of other lobbyists.
/11 In another example, the Rosemont Seneca team, at Hunter’s direction, reached out to the OVP correspondence director to obtain a letter for an associate.
During this exchange, Hunter’s assistant at Rosemont Seneca welcomes the new White House staffer “to the team.”
/12 Additionally, Hunter’s business partner at Rosemont Seneca, Eric Schwerin, emailed Hunter and the Vice President’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Alan Hoffman, at his personal email address about “Mr. Gang’s visit” on the day that China Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Qin Gang spoke at a press conference addressing China’s arrest of employees of Rio Tinto, the world’s second-largest metals and mining corporation, for alleged bribery and espionage.
/13 Eric Schwerin later emailed the Office of the VP about a “China Lunch” a couple of months ahead of President Hu’s official visit to the United States.
/14 Once again, despite Joe Biden’s denial that he was aware of Hunter’s business dealings with China, the National Archives also redacted this email because its “Release would disclose confidential advice between the President and his advisors, or between such advisors.”
/15 In another example, two days before then-Vice President Joe and then-Second Lady Jill Biden departed for Egypt, Kenya, and South Africa in June 2010, their White House staff brainstormed with Hunter “to talk about africa.”
/16 Sometime after the call, Hunter emailed Jill Biden’s advisor, Anthony Bernal, about “Nairobi ideas,” and the National Archives redacted it entirely because its “Release would disclose confidential advice between the President and his advisors, or between such advisors.”
/17 Later that evening, Joe Biden’s White House staff sent Hunter an email entitled “Summary Africa,” and the National Archives redacted it entirely because its “Release would disclose confidential advice between the President and his advisors, or between such advisors.”
/18 Two months later, as reported in @GrassleyPress and @SenRonJohnson Majority Staff Report, Hunter traveled to South Africa as a Secret Service protectee in August 2010.
@GrassleyPress @SenRonJohnson /19 Hunter also used his access to his father to pressure OVP staff to write a letter. Larry Rasky, who is mentioned, ran communications for Biden’s 1988 and 2008 presidential campaigns.
@GrassleyPress @SenRonJohnson /20 Anne Marie Person at Rosemont Seneca Partners was able to influence her brother, Fran, who was hired by the Biden VP team. Rick Vitali is a longtime Biden campaign supporter.
The coordination ran deep into the highest levels of the government.
@GrassleyPress @SenRonJohnson /21 We also obtained emails confirming that Hunter directly represented Burisma in its dealings with the Obama White House. Hunter should have been registered as a foreign agent under FARA.
@GrassleyPress @SenRonJohnson /22 Hunter was both a board member of Burisma, a “foreign principal” under 22 U.S.C. § 611(b), and an attorney at the law firm representing it.
@GrassleyPress @SenRonJohnson /23 So, we filed a formal complaint with DOJ against Hunter Biden for failing to register under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) during his time as a board member of the Ukrainian oil and natural gas company, Burisma Holdings Limited.
@GrassleyPress @SenRonJohnson /24 The DOJ failed to follow official legal procedures and require Hunter to either register as a foreign agent or obtain a waiver — so we sued the DOJ and AG Merrick Garland to hold them accountable under the law.
@GrassleyPress @SenRonJohnson /25 As we obtain more documents from our litigation against the National Archives, we will post them on our website and social media. Be sure to stay updated: aflegal.org/join
@GrassleyPress @SenRonJohnson /26 These records are only public because we sued the National Archives. Our diligent oversight and litigation work continues to expose corruption at the highest levels of our federal government. We will not cease in our legal battle for the truth.
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