Hunter Biden walks along the South Lawn before the pardoning ceremony for the national Thanksgiving turkeys at the White House in Washington, Monday, Nov. 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster) Carolyn Kaster/AP

Unearthed Hunter Biden emails with Obama White House slammed by GOP: ‘Worse than Watergate’

Gabe Kaminsky June 01, 02:48 PMJune 01, 02:48 PM Video Embed

EXCLUSIVE — Unearthed emails between Hunter Biden and his business partners with the Obama White House may ramp up the House GOP’s “influence peddling” investigations into the Biden family, lawmakers say.

The heavily redacted trove of emails, released Wednesday by the conservative nonprofit group America First Legal, come as President Joe Biden has often denied knowledge of Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings. Records, for instance, indicate Hunter Biden’s longtime business partner at the since-dissolved investment firm Rosemont Seneca Partners, Eric Schwerin, emailed Joe Biden’s top aides to see if an associate could attend a State Department lunch in 2010 with Chinese government officials.

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“The Biden Department of Justice is scrambling to cover up the depth of the Biden family’s corruption because of the vast network of Democrat bureaucrats involved in their scheme,” Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN), ex-chairman of the Republican Study Committee, told the Washington Examiner. “This is a scandal far worse than Watergate, and they must be held accountable.”

Congressional Republicans, particularly on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, have been bolstering new pathways to investigate the Biden family’s finances. Rep. James Comer (R-KY), the committee’s chairman, said Thursday on Fox News he is drafting legislation to hold FBI Director Christopher Wray in contempt of Congress in connection to his outstanding subpoena in May for records purportedly detailing “a bribery scheme involving a foreign national and Joe Biden when he served as vice president.”

The Oversight Committee also released a memo in mid-May based on bank records showing that the Biden family, including Hunter Biden, took $10 million from foreign nationals in Romania and China while Biden was vice president.

The National Archives and Records Administration, which provided the records to America First Legal, cited executive privilege in redacting a significant portion of information. One email shows that Schwerin contacted Joe Biden’s then-executive assistant Michele Smith over a “China lunch” in November 2010 and copied Hunter Biden on the chain.

However, a version of the email available on Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop shows that Schwerin was referring to a luncheon event as part of a “China State Dinner” in January 2011. Hunter Biden sought to invite Walmart board member Greg Penner to the luncheon, which was honoring Hu Jintao, China’s then-president, according to the email. Hu ended up being honored there by Biden and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, though it’s unclear if Penner, Hunter Biden, or Schwerin were in attendance, records show.

The White House did not return a request for comment.

“These emails raise serious alarm bells, as they provide additional evidence that the corrupt Biden family has been deeply entrenched in the official business of the United States government for the last decade,” Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA), a member of the Appropriations Committee, told the Washington Examiner. “As Oversight Committee Chairman Comer ramps up his investigation into the Biden crime family, this new trove of emails bolsters the Committee’s case and takes us one step closer to providing real accountability to the American people.”

Separately, the unearthed records show Hunter Biden contacted Joe Biden’s then-deputy chief of staff, Alan Hoffman, on June 3, 2020, and asked to “talk about Africa.” Seconds later, Hoffman responded, “Always available for you.”

Hunter Biden also contacted Anthony Bernal, a then-adviser for Jill Biden, later that day in an email titled “Nairobi ideas,” according to records. The Biden son messaged Nancy Orloff, Joe Biden’s executive assistant, with the subject line “Summary Africa.”

Two months later, in August 2010, Hunter Biden notably traveled to South Africa as a Secret Service protectee, according to a 2020 report by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Ron Johnson (R-WI). The 87-page report was titled “Hunter Biden, Burisma, and Corruption: The Impact on U.S. Government Policy and Related Concerns” and detailed, among other things, Hunter Biden’s prior business relationship with Ye Jianming, the former chairman of CEFC China, a defunct energy conglomerate.

Hunter Biden and his associated businesses are believed to have received up to $5 million from Chinese accounts linked to CEFC and Jianming. The energy tycoon has since vanished into China after being linked to a 2018 bribery case in U.S. federal court, according to multiple reports, which have indicated he is being detained by China’s government.

Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC), a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus, told the Washington Examiner that the new records released by NARA further show that the Biden family is “compromised and corrupt.”

“We’ve had enough evidence come out through James Comer’s committee and the Commerce Committee, and it’s no surprise,” Norman, who noted that the FBI must release the records sought by the Oversight panel, said. “I think what the American people are waiting for are consequences.”

On Wednesday, Comer said in a statement that Wray has confirmed the existence of the alleged FBI form detailing a “criminal bribery scheme” involving Joe Biden. The congressional investigator teamed up with Grassley to obtain it as part of a May 3 subpoena, which has yet to be met.

The Africa-related records unearthed by America First Legal could compel Republicans to further their inquiries into Hunter Biden’s long record of deals in the continent. In January, Comer requested that the National Archives turn over documents related to the role Hunter Biden played in 2016 in the sale of a cobalt mine in Congo.

In 2013, Hunter Biden co-founded the company Bohai Harvest RTS, also known as BHR, which in 2016 helped the mining group China Molybdenum Company Limited, now called CMOC Group Limited, purchase the cobalt mine, records show. One major investor in the Chinese company was the Shanghai-based private equity firm Cathay Fortune, which donated $1 million to the University of Pennsylvania in 2019, foreign gift records show.

In turn, the university houses the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, a think tank named after Joe Biden, where between 25 and 30 classified documents from his vice presidency days were found from November 2022 to January 2023. The documents were in an old office that Joe Biden had used.

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As far as the emails between Hunter Biden and the Obama White House, one Oversight Committee member told the Washington Examiner that he imagines Congress will be briefed next week.

“Hopefully, the American public is appalled,” Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI) said. “Joe Biden’s entire family, led by his son, was getting wildly wealthy by using his access.”

© 2023 Washington Examiner

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