Category: US Politics

Emails from a former business associate of Hunter Biden’s inner-circle who’s serving time in prison for a 2016 investment scheme reveal that Hunter and his colleagues used their access to the Obama administration to peddle influence to potential Chinese clients and investors – including securing a private, off-the-books meeting with the former Vice President.

The emails, given to investigative journalist Peter Schweizer by former Biden associate Bevan Cooney and published by Breitbart also reveal that in 2011, the younger Biden and his business associates discussed strengthening relations with "China Inc." as part of a "new push on soft diplomacy for the Chinese."

As Breitbart notes, these emails are completely unconnected to the Hunter Biden emails released by the New York Post.

Cooney believes he was the "fall guy" for an investment scheme in which Hunter and business associate Devon Archer avoided responsibility. He reached out to Schweizer after the journalist published Secret Empires in 2018. Archer was initially spared jail and handed a second trial, however a federal appeals court reinstated Archer’s fraud conviction in the case last week.

Cooney provided Schweizer with written authorization, his email account name, and password to his Gmail account to retrieve these emails. He authorized, in writing, the publication of these emails— notable because it is the first time a close associate has publicly confirmed Hunter’s trading on his father’s influence. –Breitbart

More revelations:

In a November 5, 2011 email, one of Archer’s business contacts suggested helping to arrange White House meetings for a group of Chinese executives and government officials who would make "potentially outstanding new clients." The group, the China Entrepreneur Club (CEC) included CCP loyalists, Chinese billionaires and at least one "respected diplomat" from Beijing. According to the report, CEC – established in 2006, has been referred to as "a second foreign ministry" for China’s communist regime. The gross income of CEC members is estimated to be equivalent to roughly 4% of China’s GDP, according to the email.

"I know it is political season and people are hesitant but a group like this does not come along every day," said intermediary Mohamed A. Khashoggi on behalf of the CEC to a Biden / Archer associate. "A tour of the white house and a meeting with a member of the chief of staff’s office and John Kerry would be great," reads the email.

The outreach to Hunter Biden’s group came after several failed attempts to secure meetings with top Obama-Biden administration officials with no success.

"From the DC side as you will see below they [CEC] have written letters to several members of the administration and others and have so far not had a strong reaction," reads an email.

"This is China Inc," wrote Khashoggi – referring to Chinese billionaires. "Biggest priority for the CEC group is to see the White House, and have a senior US politician, or senior member of Obama’s administration, give them a tour… If your friend in DC can help, we would be extremely grateful."

And according to Breitbart, Hunter and Devon Archer apparently delivered for the communists.

The original Oct. 19, 2011, email from Khashoggi was sent to Gary Fears — a controversial political fundraiser with a checkered history who was caught up in a riverboat casino scandal in the mid-1990s — who forwarded it on to Archer a couple weeks later on Nov. 5, 2011.

Time was short, as Khashoggi’s original email noted that the Chinese delegation would be in DC on Nov. 14, 2011. Fears told Archer to “reach out” to Khashoggi about the request regarding getting the Chinese businesspersons and officials into the Obama White House, adding it would be “perfect for” Archer to also “attend” with them and then “get guys for the potash deal.”

The same day Fears sent Khashoggi’s message to him, Archer took the email from Fears and sent to Khashoggi a business proposal for a potash mine deal he had lined up.

Six days after the initial overture, Archer received a followup email asking how a meeting with CEC’s representative went. The email closed with “Do me a favor and ask Hunter [Biden] to call me — I’ve tried reaching him a couple of times.” Archer responded, “Hunter is traveling in the UAE for the week with royalty so probably next week before he will be back in pocket…. The meeting with [CEC representative] was good. Seems like there is a lot to do together down the line. Probably not a fit for the current Potash private placement but he’s a good strategic relationship as the mine develops. Definitely have a drink with Mohammed and let him know how impressed I was with his whole deal.”

"Couldn’t confirm this with Hunter on the line but we got him his meeting at the WH Monday for the Chinese folks," reads a reply from Archer, one minute later.

And on the day of the meeting, November 14, 2011, Cooney emailed Fears to confirm that Archer "got the Chinese guys all taken care of in DC."

Meanwhile, White House visitor logs reveal that the Chinese delegation of around 30 members did visit the White House on November 14, 2011. The logs, however, conceal that the delegation met with former VP Joe Biden himself.

Curiously, the Obama-Biden visitor logs do not mention any meeting with Vice President Joe Biden. But the Vice President’s off-the-books meeting was revealed by one of the core founders of the CEC. In an obscure document listing the CEC members’ biographies, CEC Secretary General Maggie Cheng alleges that she facilitated the CEC delegation meetings in Washington in 2011 and boasts of the Washington establishment figures that CEC met with. The first name she dropped was that of Vice President Joe Biden. –Breitbart

Schweizer suggests that the meeting may have opened the door for Hunter and Devon Archer down the road – as just two years later they formed the Chinese government-funded Bohai Harvest RST (BHR) investment fund which saw Chinese money pour into it for investments in CEC-linked businesses. According to the report, " One of BHR’s first major portfolio investments was a ride-sharing company like Uber called Didi Dache—now called Didi Chuxing Technology Co. That company is closely connected to Liu Chuanzhi, the chairman of the China Entrepreneur Club (CEC) and the founder of Legend Holdings—the parent company of Lenovo, one of the world’s largest computer companies. Liu is a former Chinese Communist Party delegate and was a leader of the 2011 CEC delegation to the White House. His daughter was the President of Didi. "

The report adds: "Liu has long been involved in CCP politics, including serving as a representative to the 9th, 10th, and 11th sessions of the National People’s Congress of the PRC and as a representative to the 16th and 17th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. Liu was the Vice Chairman of the 8th and 9th Executive Committee of All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce (ACFIC), an organization known to be affiliated with the Chinese United Front."

What’s Don Jr. been up to again?

Update (1000ET): Donald Trump Jr. has just raised an interesting question in a tweet: Is Twitter censoring the Hunter Biden stories from the NY Post at the behest of the Communist Party of China?

"There needs to be an immediate government investigation into @twitter/@jack. Not just because of their blatant election interference to protect Biden, but to find out if they’re censoring these NY Post stories at the behest of the Chinese Communist Party. Put Jack under oath!!!" Don Jr. tweeted.

There needs to be an immediate government investigation into @twitter/@jack.

Not just because of their blatant election interference to protect Biden, but to find out if they’re censoring these NY Post stories at the behest of the Chinese Communist Party.

Put Jack under oath!!! https://t.co/XCYzRWKsLk

— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) October 15, 2020

We imagine this tweet will be suppressed momentarily, if it hasn’t been already.

* * *

Update (1000ET): While Twitter suppresses this latest Hunter Biden expose, it’s trending topics section is allowing #EricTrumpsUkraineScandal in one of the top spots. The story is essentially a collection of previously reported comments that even the NYT has now acknowledged isn’t accurate.

The 10 top political topics were overwhelmingly ‘anti-Trump’.

* * *

Update (0935ET): Despite last night’s "apology" from Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Twitter and Facebook are already censoring Thursday’s latest Hunter Biden exposé from the NY Post.

Twitter also censoring follow-ups to the original @nypost article — totally separate story on Hunter Biden’s China interests pic.twitter.com/WjCZ6Z6UHV

— Joel Pollak (@joelpollak) October 15, 2020

Congress is demanding an explanation, yet Twitter and Facebook are moving ahead with their outright censorship.

* * *

Rudy Giuliani hinted last night that there would be more emails from the trove discovered by a Delaware computer repair shop owner (who has shared his story on the record with Fox News). And at 0500ET, the NYPost published another lengthy exposé – at least the second front-page piece in what is shaping up to be a fascinating series – citing never-before-seen emails between Hunter Biden and various individuals connected to a major Chinese energy firm that failed earlier this year after its chairman – a party insider with deep ties to China’s military – was "disappeared" by China’s state security apparatus.

The first of three email chains explored in the story was sent to biden by a man named Jams Gillar, of the international consulting firm J2cR. The email chain discusses what appears to be a generous compensation package for Hunter Biden, along with other individuals whom the Post was apparently unable to identify (though it’s tempting to hazard a guess).

A subject line on the email, dated May 13, 2017 read "Expectations", and it included details of "remuneration packages" for six individuals involved in the new business venture (the nature of the business wasn’t clear, though it appears to be related to Biden’s international consulting business). However, Biden’s partner in the business appears to be CEFC China Energy, the now-defunct energy firm mentioned above.

Source: NYP

The deal also listed “10 Jim” and “10 held by H for the big guy?” Though neither was positively identified.

In another email, sent by Biden as part of a chain dated Aug. 2, 2017, Biden discusses what appears to be a joint venture – a deal structure common in China, where foreign competitors must build partnerships with domestic firms – involving the former Chairman of CEFC, Ye Jianming. Half the ownership was to be held by Hunter and the Biden family.

Ye disappeared in early 2018 and is believed to have had deep connections to China’s intelligence and security services. Though at one point, Biden wrote that Ye had sweetened the terms of an earlier, three-year consulting contract with CEFC that was to pay him $10 million annually "for introductions alone."

Here’s the excerpt from the NY Post story, accompanied by visual snippets culled directly from the emails, in which Biden asserts that the reason this joint venture is "so much more interesting to me and my family is that we would also be partners in the equity and profits."

The nature of this ‘venture’ wasn’t made clear.

Biden wrote that Ye had sweetened the terms of an earlier, three-year consulting contract with CEFC that was to pay him $10 million annually “for introductions alone."

“The chairman changed that deal after we me[t] in MIAMI TO A MUCH MORE LASTING AND LUCRATIVE ARRANGEMENT to create a holding company 50% percent [sic] owned by ME and 50% owned by him,” Biden wrote.

“Consulting fees is one piece of our income stream but the reason this proposal by the chairman was so much more interesting to me and my family is that we would also be partners inn [sic] the equity and profits of the JV’s [joint venture’s] investments.”

Source: NY Post

What’s more, a photo published by the Post and dated Aug. 1, 2017 shows what appears to be a handwritten flowchart illustrating the ownership structure of “Hudson West”, split 50/50 between two entities ultimately controlled by Hunter Biden and someone else identified only as “Chairman.”

Source: NYP

We know from the Senate report released last month that ‘Hudson West III’ was used as a name for one of Hunter Biden’s shell companies formed with Gongwen Dong. To be sure, some details about Biden’s Chinese consulting practice has already been made public, but details of the dealmaking and discussions that went on behind the scenes have not.

Finally, the last in the triptych of distressing email chains is aa copy of an "attorney engagement letter" between Hunter Biden and one of Ye’s top lieutenants, Hong Kong official Chi Ping Patrick Ho.

He agreed to pay Biden a $1 million retainer for "counsel to matters related to US law and advice pertaining ot the hiring and legal analysis of any US Law Firm or Lawyer."

Later, in December 2018, a Manhattan federal jury convicted Ho for being involved in two schemes to pay $3 million in bribes to high-ranking government officials to help obtain oil rights in Chad and lucrative business deals in Uganda.

Source: NYP

Ho has served his sentence and was deported to Hong Kong in June.

Neither the Biden Campaign, lawyers for Hunter Biden, Gillar, Dong nor Ho returned requests for comment from the NY Post.

After yesterday’s catastrophe, we look forward to watching Facebook and Twitter scramble to suppress this story as well. We’re beginning to see why the Post has decided to publicize details from the trove piecemeal, instead of writing a 10,000-word NYT-style novel about Hunter Biden’s transgressions.

The NY Post also published a handful of new candidate selfies apparently taken by Hunter Biden along with the story.

It’s a suitable tactic for what some conservatives are calling a "digital civil war" over information that could influence the election in President Trump’s favor.