Newly released emails have revealed that Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, sought assistance from the U.S. government in securing a potentially lucrative energy deal with Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, while his father was vice president. The emails, disclosed under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, show Hunter reaching out to then-U.S. Ambassador to Italy, John Phillips, in 2016, seeking help for a geothermal energy project in Tuscany.
The revelation comes at a time when Hunter Biden's business activities are under intense scrutiny, with Republicans alleging that Joe Biden's political influence was leveraged to benefit his son's foreign ventures. Although the emails do not provide evidence that Hunter's request was granted or that Joe Biden was aware of it, the disclosure is likely to fuel ongoing claims of corruption against the Biden family.
In the email exchange, Hunter Biden asked the U.S. ambassador for assistance in securing meetings with Italian officials to discuss Burisma's geothermal project. A Commerce Department official based at the U.S. Embassy in Rome responded cautiously, advising against promising too much support, as Burisma is a Ukrainian company. The official noted, "U.S.G. [United States government] should not be actively advocating with the government of Italy without the company going through the D.O.C. [Department of Commerce] Advocacy Center."
Hunter's lawyer, Abbe Lowell, confirmed that Hunter had reached out to "various people" in 2016 to facilitate the geothermal project but insisted that no meeting took place and no project materialized. "No request for anything in the U.S. was ever sought, and only an introduction in Italy was requested," Lowell stated, describing the outreach as a "proper request."
The emails were released as part of a FOIA request filed by The New York Times in June 2021, which followed other discoveries related to Hunter's business dealings found on an abandoned laptop. The State Department's document release, cleared by the White House a week before President Biden announced his withdrawal from the 2024 presidential race, comes as Hunter prepares to stand trial on charges of tax evasion and illegal gun ownership.
Republicans have long sought to link Joe Biden to his son's business activities, and these latest revelations are likely to intensify those efforts. James Comer, the Republican chair of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, has called the situation "the biggest political corruption scandal in our history's lifetime." Comer and other Republicans have used Hunter's overseas business dealings as a basis for their unsuccessful impeachment attempt against President Biden.
Despite the lack of direct evidence tying Joe Biden to his son's business requests, the release of these emails adds another layer of complexity to the ongoing investigations. Critics argue that Hunter's efforts to secure U.S. government support for a foreign business deal while his father was vice president raises ethical concerns. Meanwhile, the White House has maintained that President Biden was not aware of his son's outreach to the U.S. Embassy in Italy.
John Phillips, the former U.S. ambassador to Italy, told The New York Times that he did not recall Hunter Biden's specific request, but he would have ensured a response out of courtesy. "I wouldn't even want to encourage it, because I wouldn't get us involved in something like that," Phillips said, distancing himself from any potential controversy.
The timing of the document release, just days after President Biden ended his re-election bid, has raised questions about whether the disclosure was politically motivated. However, sources familiar with the matter insisted that the decision to release the documents was made weeks in advance and was unrelated to Biden's withdrawal from the race.
