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Hunter Biden solicited help from the State Department in 2016 to land an energy project in Italy while his father, Joe Biden, was the sitting vice president in the Obama administration, the New York Times reported Tuesday night. Hunter Biden sought the assistance from then-U.S. ambassador to Italy John R. Phillips on behalf of Ukrainian gas company Burisma, where he was a board member at the time, the Times reported. The Times' report comes from a tranche of records finally released by the Biden administration shortly after Joe Biden announced he was dropping out of the 2024 presidential race. The Times first filed its Freedom of Information Act request in June 2021. The Times then sued after eight months of inaction by the Biden administration. The State Department told the Times that the release of batches of documents was coincidental with Joe Biden's announcement that he was exiting the race. Included in the release of docs was Hunter Biden's letter to the ambassador, however the entire letter was redacted by the State Department, the Times said. The White House told the Times that President Biden was unaware that his son reached out to the American embassy in Italy on behalf of Burisma. Embassy officials were uneasy with such a request from the son of a sitting vice president, according to the report. "I want to be careful about promising too much," wrote a Commerce Department official based in the U.S. Embassy in Rome, according to the report. "This is a Ukrainian company and, purely to protect ourselves, [the U.S. government] should not be actively advocating with the government of Italy without the company going through the D.O.C. Advocacy Center," the official wrote, referring to a Department of Commerce program for U.S. companies seeking business with foreign governments, according to the Times. Hunter Biden did not register as a lobbyist for Burisma under the Foreign Agents Registration Act. Further, documents filed by special counsel David Weiss last week allege that Hunter Biden was hired by a Romanian businessman "to attempt to influence U.S. government agencies." The Times' report will quickly get the attention of House Republicans, who have been on the trail of Hunter Biden's activities with foreign governments and businesses in order to enrich himself off his father's name, they allege. House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., told Newsmax last week that Hunter Biden's Romanian connection would suggest a "potential bribe." "What David Weiss, to his credit, has said in issuing this, is that this was a violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act because Hunter Biden was getting paid by these foreign nationals in Romania to influence the Obama-Biden administration. I think this is the biggest political corruption scandal in the history of our lifetime," Comer said. Mark Swanson ✉Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics. © 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved. |
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