Vice President Joseph R. Biden took a call in 2015 from Ukrainian energy firm executives seeking help in thwarting a corruption investigation on the same day he signed off on talking points written by his son’s business partner that aimed to tamp down media interest in Hunter Biden’s lucrative job on the company’s board.
The Dec. 4, 2015, email from Hunter Biden’s business associate Eric Schwerin was sent to the vice president’s assistant, Kate Bedingfield, and provided “quotes” for Mr. Biden to use in response to media inquiries about his son’s job on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings.
Ms. Bedingfield replied to Mr. Schwerin later that day that “VP signed off on this.”
The vice president’s assistant provided quotes four days later to The New York Times in response to a story that called into question Mr. Biden’s “credibility” fighting corruption in Ukraine while his son served on Burisma’s board.
Ms. Bedingfield and Mr. Schwerin exchanged the emails on the same day that Hunter Biden called his father from Dubai. According to former business partner Devon Archer, Hunter Biden put his father on the phone with Burisma CEO Mykola Zlochevsky, who was seeking help from Washington to shake off a state corruption investigation.
Archer, who was on the Dubai trip, provided the information about the call to House investigators in July. He said he heard the Burisma executives talking about the call.
SEE ALSO: Federal prosecutors seeking new indictment against Hunter Biden by end of September
Archer is facing a prison sentence on an unrelated securities fraud conviction.
House lawmakers investigating the president on corruption charges say the email exchange between Mr. Schwerin and Ms. Bedingfield adds to evidence they are compiling that Mr. Biden’s vice presidential office was intertwined with his son and his business associates. It disproves Mr. Biden’s claim that he was never involved with his son’s business dealings, lawmakers said.
Separately on Wednesday, special counsel David Weiss said in a court filing that he intends to seek an indictment on gun charges against Hunter Biden by the end of the month.
House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer, Kentucky Republican, is seeking the email exchange between Mr. Schwerin and Ms. Bedingfield and other related records from the National Archives and Records Administration. The National Archives has published the records in redacted form.
“Joe Biden never built an ‘absolute wall’ between his family’s business dealings and his official government work,” Mr. Comer said. “His office doors were wide open to Hunter Biden’s associates. There is evidence of collusion in the efforts to spin media stories about Burisma’s corruption while Vice President Biden was publicly pushing an anti-corruption agenda in Ukraine.”
Mr. Comer wants the National Archives to turn over unredacted email exchanges that involved Hunter Biden and President Biden’s brother James Biden, who was involved in some of the business deals.
SEE ALSO: House GOP zeros in on Biden impeachment inquiry, but Senate Republicans bristle
The request to the National Archives includes documents and communications to or from the executive office of the president, including the office of the vice president, with a group of Biden family business associates, including Mr. Schwerin and Archer. Mr. Comer is also seeking Mr. Biden’s executive calendars from every day of his vice presidency.
Mr. Comer is particularly interested in the timing of Mr. Schwerin’s emails to Ms. Bedingfield.
“Suspiciously, Hunter Biden’s associate had a media statement on Burisma approved by Vice President Biden himself the same day Hunter Biden ‘called D.C.’ for help with the government pressure facing Burisma,” Mr. Comer said.
Mr. Schwerin sent the quotes to Ms. Bedingfield as Mr. Biden was facing media inquiries about his son’s board position on Burisma and how it clashed with his role as President Obama’s point person on Ukraine. Mr. Biden was tasked with pushing Ukrainian leaders to end widespread corruption. Burisma was under investigation and had some of its assets seized.
Four days after receiving the “quotes” from Mr. Schwerin, on Dec. 8, 2015, Ms. Bedingfield provided a defense of Hunter Biden and Vice President Biden to The New York Times. She was quoted in a New York Times story published ahead of Mr. Biden’s Dec. 9 trip to Ukraine. The story questioned Mr. Biden’s “credibility” in fighting Ukrainian corruption while his son worked for Burisma.
“Hunter Biden is a private citizen and a lawyer,” Ms. Bedingfield told the paper. “The vice president does not endorse any particular company and has no involvement with this company. The vice president has pushed aggressively for years, both publicly with groups like the U.S.-Ukraine Business Forum and privately in meetings with Ukrainian leaders, for Ukraine to make every effort to investigate and prosecute corruption in accordance with the rule of law. It will once again be a key focus during his trip this week.”
House investigators have sought additional records from the National Archives dating back to Mr. Biden’s vice presidency.
In August, Mr. Comer asked the National Archives to provide emails from Mr. Biden’s time as vice president that copied in Hunter Biden or showed one of three known email aliases Mr. Biden used. Mr. Comer also asked for all drafts of a speech Mr. Biden delivered to the Ukrainian legislature during his December 2015 trip.
National Archives officials said they must receive approval from Mr. Biden and Mr. Obama before providing Congress with some material.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.