What is Hunter Biden doing in Ukraine and China?

President Donald Trump has repeatedly accused Democratic rival Joe Biden of misconduct in relations with Ukraine and China when he served as vice president, which Biden denies.

The story was rekindled after a New York Post article about an email in which an adviser to the Ukrainian energy company thanked Hunter, his son Joe Biden, for inviting him to see Hunter’s father. .

When asked about the accusation, Joe Biden told a reporter that it was a “smear campaign.”

Allegations of influencing relationships are not uncommon in Washington, DC, and Trump’s children are also accused of having a conflict of interest in lucrative overseas businesses. And they also deny any wrongdoing.

Article of the New York Post What what?

An article that appeared in the New York Post turned into an April 2015 email in which a Burisma adviser thanked Hunter Biden for inviting him to see Hunter’s father in Washington.

Hunter, Joe Biden’s second son, was a director of the board of Burisma, a private Ukrainian energy company, during the time his father led the administration’s US-Ukraine relations. Obama Mr. Hunter is one of the few foreigners on the board.

This article did not provide evidence that the meeting took place. Biden’s campaign says there is no record of such a meeting on the former vice president’s “official calendar” during that time frame.

But in a statement in Politico magazine, Biden’s campaign also admitted that Biden may have had “unofficial contact” with a Burisma adviser who was not registered with the official program. The announcement also said that this meeting, if there is one, is simply “temporary.”

“The media investigation, and also the investigation of two Republican-led Congressional committees, whose work was said to be ‘illegal’ and political in their work by a fellow Republican. I have the same conclusion: Joe Biden has implemented the policy. US official towards Ukaine and has not been misbehaving, “said Andrew Bates, a spokesman for Joe Biden.

Biden’s campaign also criticized the story in the New York Post as “Russian breaking news,” though they did not say the email in the post was fabricated.

John Ratcliffe, director of the US National Intelligence Service, said in an interview with Fox Business that the emails in the publication had nothing to do with Russia’s attempt to spread bad news.

The New York Post article was shared by President Trump and his allies. His two former advisers, Steve Bannon and Rudy Giuliani, were involved in providing information and delivering the hard drive containing the emails cited in this article to the newsroom.

Other US media said they could not confirm the authenticity of those emails.

Hunter joined Burisma in 2014 and remained on the board of directors until April 2019, when he decided to leave the company.

The New York Post also cited an email from Mr. Hunter Biden as saying he received a $ 10 million annual fee from a Chinese billionaire just for “referrals,” although it is currently unclear who was involved in that alleged referral.

Another email, which Fox News claims to have confirmed, speaks of a deal Hunter has struck with one of China’s largest private energy companies. This email is said to contain a cryptic reference to “10 saved by H for the great man”.

Fox News quoted an anonymous source as saying that the “big man” in this email was a reference to Joe Biden.

In 2013, Hunter flew Air Force Two with his father, then vice president of the United States, during an official visit to Beijing, where he met investment banker Jonathan Li.

Hunter told the New Yorker that he only met Mr. Li “have a quick coffee,” but 12 days after the trip, a private equity fund, BHR Partners, was licensed by the Chinese government. Mr. Li is the director and Mr. Hunter is a member of the board. Mr. Hunter owns 10% of the shares in the fund.

BHR is backed by some of China’s largest state banks and local governments, according to US media.

Hunter Biden’s attorney said he joined the board in an unpaid position “based on an interest in seeking to bring Chinese capital to international markets.”

His attorney also said his client had no stake in BHR until 2017, after his father stepped down as vice president of the United States.

Hunter resigned his position on the BHR board in April 2020, but as of July this year, he still holds a 10% stake in BHR, according to the company’s report.

President Trump and his allies accused Joe Biden of misconduct because, as vice president, he urged the Ukrainian government to fire a senior prosecutor. At the time, he was investigating a company where Mr. Hunter worked.

In 2016, Joe Biden called for the removal of Ukraine’s judge Vicktor Shokin, who led an investigation into Burisma and other companies.

However, Western leaders and major organizations that have provided financial support to Ukraine also want the prosecutor to be fired because they believe that he is not active enough in the fight against corruption.

There was no proven criminal activity and no evidence emerged that Joe Biden deliberately did anything to benefit his son. However, questions have been raised about potential conflicts of interest.

A State Department official raised these concerns since 2015.

Republican lawmakers opened an investigation and argued that Hunter’s work at the Ukrainian company was “problematic,” but there was no evidence that US foreign policy was affected by it.

There is no evidence that Burisma was wrong. The company issued a statement in 2017, saying that “all legal proceedings and criminal charges” of the company are closed.

Last year, Yuriy Lutsenko, the Ukrainian prosecutor who replaced Vicktor Shokin, told the BBC that under Ukrainian law there is no reason to investigate Biden’s father and son.

It is not illegal for a person to join a company board while another family member works for the government, although Hunter Biden now says he has a board. Burisma’s was probably the “bad decision.”

Hunter Biden’s attorneys said in an October 2019 statement that he had “conducted these businesses independently. He did not believe they warranted a discussion with his father, and he did not.” do.”

Hunter told the New Yorker that he only mentioned Burisma once with his father. “My father said ‘I hope you know what you’re doing.’

While being examined, the Democratic candidate said last year that if he were elected president, no one in his family would have a job or business relationship with a foreign company or government.