The Hunter Biden laptop holds a treasure trove of information linking Ukrainian energy holding company Burisma, President Joe Biden, his son Hunter, and other Biden family members to an ever-evolving scandal involving corruption at the highest levels.
Through it all, Americans wonder how Hunter got involved with Burisma Holding Companies in the first place. A newly uncovered email may answer that question, revealing an unexpected twist.
In April 2014, Hunter was brought on board by company head Nikolai Zlochevskyi to function as a director and attorney for Burisma Ethics, and conflict of interest concerns were voiced from the start.
As Craig Holman from Public Citizen, a government reform organization, noted at the time, “The primary problem here is the fact that Hunter Biden has set up a financial arrangement with someone who might have business pending before this administration.”
The White House refused to comment on potential conflicts of interest, although then-vice president’s spokesperson Kendra Barkoff stated that Hunter was a lawyer and a private citizen and that his father did not “endorse any particular company” and had “no involvement” with Burisma.
Former Ukrainian ambassador Steven Pifer saw things a little differently, chalking it up to poor judgment on Hunter’s behalf.
“At that point, it was pretty clear that his father was already the lead American policy person on Ukraine,” Pifer explained. “And even if there’s no conflict of interest, I think that he should have been more mindful of how that appears.”
In the latest email revelation, Hunter’s true role in Burisma becomes clear. The November 2015 email, sent from Burisma executive Vadym Pozharskyi to Hunter and his associates Eric Schwerin and Devon Archer, referenced a revised contract between Hunter and lobbyist firm Blue Star Strategies.
In the email, Pozharskyi doubled down on the “ultimate purpose” of the contract, which was to block or negate any investigations against Burisma’s founder, Zlochevsky.
Shortly after the email, then-Vice President Biden visited Ukraine to deliver a speech about combating corruption. At this point, he pressured Ukrainian officials to fire Viktor Shokin, the top prosecutor who was investigating Zlochevsky.
It’s interesting to note that the quid-quo-pro between Biden and Ukraine works for this newly revealed scenario.
Biden’s words in 2018 were, “I looked at them and said: ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money. Well, son of a bitch. He got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time.”
The assumption was the firing was to cover for Hunter, but the newest email makes it plain that Shokin’s firing was necessary to cover for Zlochevsky.
Per representatives of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, the focus of Shokin’s Burisma investigations was between 2010 and 2012, prior to Hunter’s position on the board. During this time, Ukraine’s Ministry of Ecology granted the company “special permits.”
The fact that Shokin’s investigations were taking place during Hunter’s tenure was a bonus benefit to the prosecutor’s firing but not necessarily the primary one. In 2015, according to the new email, Burisma was using the Biden name to stop further investigations into Zlochevsky’s corruption.
Blue Star Strategies, the company that created the contract referenced in the email, has been the subject of federal investigations for its lobbying practices. Reports seem to confirm that Hunter’s appointment to the Burisma board was entirely because of the Biden name and connections.
Hunter confirmed this himself in a 2020 interview with ABC News, stating that being a Biden opened many doors for him.
When asked if he would have gotten his position at Burisma without the Biden name, Hunter admitted. “probably not.” During that same interview, Hunter states, “I gave a hook to some very unethical people to act in illegal ways to try to do some harm to my father. That’s where I made the mistake. So I take full responsibility for that.”
In a 2021 BBC interview, he reconfirmed that his appointment to the board was because of his last name, adding, “I think they saw my name as gold.” And he is right, the Biden name is gold.
But there is a name for gold that ends up being as worthless as the Biden family name.
Fool’s gold.
