OPINION | This article contains the author's opinion.
For years, President Joe Biden has repeatedly denied any involvement in his son’s shady overseas business dealings.
On the presidential campaign trail in 2019, Biden said, “I have never discussed, with my son or my brother or with anyone else, anything having to do with their businesses. Period. And what I will do is the same thing we did in our administration. There will be an absolute wall between personal and private [business interests] and the government.”
Our fact-check rating: FALSE.
Strong evidence contradicts Joe Biden’s assurance that an “absolute wall” existed between his family’s foreign business ventures and government business.
A lawsuit by America First Legal (AFL) has obtained official records from the National Archives (NARA) that show 861 documents from January 2011 to December 2013 between Joe Biden and the name of Hunter Biden’s company, “Rosemont Seneca.”
The NARA has refused to release 200 related records due to “executive privilege.” In 2013, an email from Hunter’s business partner Eric Schwerin asked Joe Biden to arrange a last-minute White House Christmas tour on behalf of Schwerin’s lobbyist associate. Schwerin said this was a “big favor for Hunter.”
Rosemont Seneca employees were included on White House guest lists, seating assignments, and official events. This included the 2013 Turkey State Luncheon, the 2014 France State Dinner, and the 2012 United Kingdom State Dinner.
Hunter’s longtime friend and business partner, Devon Archer, confirmed that Hunter put his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, on speakerphone while meeting with business partners at least 20 times. “Archer described how Joe Biden was put on the phone to sell ‘the brand,'” Archer explained in his troubling testimony.
Moreover, one of Joe Biden’s most infamous lies was that his son, Hunter, never made money in China. This begs the question: If Joe wasn’t aware of his son’s business dealings, how does he know that Hunter never made money in China?
In October 2020, during a presidential debate, Biden said, “My son has not made money in terms of this thing about — what are you talking about — China. The only guy who made money from China is this guy [Donald Trump]. He’s the only one. Nobody else has made money from China.”
Left-wing fact-checkers came rushing to Biden’s defense by claiming “there is no evidence” that the Biden family received cash from China. Fast-forwarding to 2023, it turns out that Hunter was receiving money from China as part of the Biden family’s international bribery scheme.
Appearing in federal court, Hunter Biden’s lawyer, Chris Clark, admitted the president’s son received $664,000 from CEFC China Energy Co. in 2017. Clark told Judge Noreika that Hunter made over one million dollars in foreign business transactions, including $664,000 from CEFC.
Despite having no personal or business ties to Ukraine, and no experience in the energy sector, Hunter and Archer were placed on the board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma. They received millions in this position. In exchange, Archer testified that Hunter was required to get help from then-Vice President Joe Biden “regarding the Ukrainina prosecutor Viktor Shokin.”
Shokin was investigating Burisma on corruption charges. Biden publicly admits that he demanded that Shokin is fired. An FBI informant says Burisma CEO Zlochevsky paid off the Bidens with $10,000,000 for this service.
Democrats as well as left-wing “fact-check” articles, including one from CNN, have claimed that Shokin was not investigating Burisma or considered a threat to the company.
“He was a threat,” Archer said of Shoken. “He ended up seizing assets of [Burisma owner] Nikolai [Zlochevsky] — a house, some cars, a couple properties. And Nikolai actually never went back to Ukraine after Shokin seized all of his assets.”
Shokin won a court order on Feb. 2, 2016 and seized Zlochevsky’s property. Shokin was fired roughly two months later on March 29. Biden later bragged that he demanded that Ukraine fire Shokin or else the U.S. would withhold $1 billion in aid.
“Well, son of a b****. He got fired,” Biden said gleefully.
“You understood me correctly. This is how it was,” Shokin told Fox News. “There were no complaints whatsoever and no problems with how I was performing at my job. But because pressure was repeatedly put on Poroshenko, that is what ended up in him firing me.”
When asked if Joe Biden or Hunter Biden received bribes, Shokin said, “My firm personal conviction is that, yes, this was the case. They were being bribed. And the fact that Joe Biden gave away $1 billion in U.S. money in exchange for my dismissal, my firing — isn’t that alone a case of corruption?” he asked.
Democrats notoriously impeached former President Donald Trump on far less in December 2019. Democrats claimed Trump allegedly threatened to withhold military aid and a White House meeting from Ukraine if the country failed to investigate corruption within its government. Democrats claimed this was “abuse of power and obstruction of Congress,” which led to his impeachment on December 18, 2019.
In comparison, Biden has openly admitted to threatening to withhold aid while his son raked in millions as part of an international influence-peddling scheme.
In 2019, a text message from Hunter to his daughter revealed that his father, Joe Biden, takes half of Hunter’s business salary stemming from their work together. Critics say this illegally and unethically exploited the Biden’s power and position while working as vice president in the Obama administration in order to personally profit himself and his family.
Hunter told his daughter, “I hope you all can do what I did and pay for everything for this entire family for 30 years. It’s really hard. But don’t worry, unlike Pop [Joe], I won’t make you give me half your salary,” Hunter wrote.