On Twitter, America First Legal, a non-profit legal center that seeks to challenge left-of-center policies through a lawsuit, shared some jaw-dropping news. Because of their successful Freedom of Information Act case against the National Archives, they got new documents that link Biden to Hunter’s profiteering in Ukraine.
America First Legal’s lengthy tweet on the matter was rather extensive. According to the tweet, although Joe Biden asserted he had no involvement in Hunter’s Burisma appointment, he apparently approved the official statement in response to reporters’ questions about whether Hunter’s position undermined the credibility of the vice president in pushing anti-corruption measures. America First Legal (AFL) showed a 2015 email exchange between a government official and Eric D. Schwerin, an employee of Rosemont Seneca.
Eric D. Schwerin, Hunter’s colleague at Rosemont Seneca Advisers, LLC, fixed mistakes in then Vice President Biden’s formal statement. Moreover, the law center revealed that the Vice President’s office linked reporters (who wrote about Hunter’s appointment to Burisma) to Amos Hochstein in International Energy Affairs at the U.S. Department of State. Hochstein was to offer a ‘unique and valuable perspective’ on Ukraine’s relationships.
According to AFL, Wall Street Journalist Paul Sonne contacted the Vice President’s office to inquire whether Hunter’s association with Zlochevsky at Burisma would weaken the Vice President’s message on Ukraine. AFL also displayed the email written by Sonne.
AFL later revealed that the Vice President’s office had linked the Wall Street Journalist to Amos Hochstein. Politico says Amos Hochstein is the most significant Joe Biden adviser that very few people know about. Per Axios, Hochstein is one of President Biden’s closest confidants. Grassley and Johnson’s committees reported that Hochstein expressed concern to Vice President Biden and Hunter that Hunter’s position on Burisma’s board enabled Russian disinformation efforts and threatened to undermine U.S. policy in Ukraine.
AFL said that Hochstein testified to the committees that he did not suggest Hunter’s departure from Burisma’s board because he did not think it was his position to have that debate either way. James Risen, a writer for the New York Times, was also working on a piece on Vice President Biden’s travel to Ukraine and Hunter Biden’s role with Burisma Holdings. He, too, contacted the Vice President’s office.
They observed that after giving him the formal statement signed by Joe Biden, the Vice President’s Office suggested he communicate with Amos Hochstein, the State Department’s point of contact for international energy affairs. Ultimately, instead of responding to the New York Times’ inquiry about whether Hunter had flown to Ukraine with Vice President Biden, the Vice President’s office advised the newspaper not to publish unflattering data from Hunter’s past.
In practice, Biden’s staff collaborated with Hunter Biden’s business colleagues to develop press statements. Moreover, in the first revealed email exchange, the VP signed off on this. AFL also reported the availability of emails from high-ranking government foreign policy professionals, such as Victoria Nuland, Marie Yovanovitch, Anna Makanju, and Eric Ciaramella, all expressing worry over this problem. The final person in the chain to express his concern is believed to be the whistleblower who led to Trump’s first impeachment.