OPINION:
Hunter Biden’s motive for taking a $1 million-a-year board seat at the Ukrainian energy company Burisma was to help in the fight against Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, who had seized Crimea.
That disclosure comes from the president’s son himself in a Feb. 28 closed-door deposition before the House Oversight and Judiciary committees’ impeachment inquiry.
Republicans have accused Hunter of capitalizing on then-Vice President Joe Biden’s name and power in a family influence-peddling operation. For Ukraine in 2014, the White House made the vice president the diplomatic point man. Soon, Hunter popped up on the Burisma board of directors, as did his business partner Devon Archer.
At $1 million each annually, the two quickly began discussing where to invest the cash through one of their LLCs, laptop emails show. And soon, Vadym Pozharsky, an emissary for Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky, pressed Hunter to use his influence to stop Ukraine’s state investigation of oligarch Zlochevsky, an email showed.
That hefty salary and chronology may smell like influence peddling, but Hunter says that is not the case. Aleksander Kwasniewski, the former president of Poland and also a Burisma board member in 2014, convinced Hunter that he, Hunter, is a freedom fighter, or at least a symbol of freedom.
According to Hunter Biden’s testimony: “I can say to you this: “I know why President Kwasniewski of Poland wanted me to be on the board. He is the one who convinced me, ultimately, to be on the board. He called me up and he told me this. He said, if people in the West do not stand up against Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Putin’s aggression and they allow for companies like Burisma — whatever you think about Burisma, it was a bulwark against Russian aggression [because of its non-state independent ownership].”
Hunter further explained: “And President Kwasniewski said to me, if that ends up being the result, if it shows that me, President Kwasniewski, who is literally the symbol of democracy in Eastern Europe, and you, Hunter Biden, whose name is also a symbol of freedom and democracy, and standing up for the Ukrainians’ desire for a democratic state against Vladimir Putin — then I was comfortable with that. I was completely comfortable with that.”
How do we reconcile Hunter’s assertion that he and Burisma stood as beacons of freedom against Mr. Putin and Russia with Mr. Zlochevsky’s history of allegiances to Russia?
Mr. Zlochevsky served in the Cabinet of Viktor Yanukovych, who fled the country in 2014 — for Russia. He and Mr. Yanukovych were members of the pro-Russian Party of Regions. Some of its former members backed Mr. Putin’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. A court banned the party last year.
Also, State Department officials did not share Hunter’s view that he, coupled with his dad’s influence, was standing up to Mr. Putin by sitting on the Burisma board. Then-Vice President Biden was sent to Ukraine, in part, to urge the most corrupt country in Europe to clean up its act. The Biden family then promptly showed them how to practice good old American cronyism and influence peddling.
George Kent, acting chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, wrote a 2016 email to fellow diplomats that said, “The presence of Hunter Biden on the Burisma board was very awkward for all U.S. officials pushing an anti-corruption agenda in Ukraine.”
Mr. Kent once referred to Mr. Zlochevsky as an “odious oligarch.”
State Department official Amos Hochstein directly told Joe and Hunter Biden that Russia was exploiting the Burisma $1 million-a-year hire with disinformation.
In 2020, a joint Senate Finance and Homeland Security Republican report referred to Mr. Zlochevsky as a “corrupt Ukrainian oligarch.”
The Hunter Biden deposition also illustrated how he moved his foreign proceeds in what some might call money laundering.
For example, Kazakh oligarch Kenes Rakishev and that well-reported $142,300 sports car that ended up in Hunter’s garage.
Mr. Rakishev was looking to score an energy deal with Burisma and CEFC China Energy, which would eventually become another foreign cash cow for Hunter. Mr. Rakishev wired the dough to Rosemont Seneca Bohai, an LCC owned jointly by Hunter and Mr. Archer, his business partner. Mr. Archer controlled the bank account and wired $142,300, the exact purchase price, to a New Jersey car dealership.
Hunter testified that as far as he knew, the car had come from Mr. Archer.
“Devon Archer sent the money for the car from this account,” he said of the convicted former business partner who has already testified at these impeachment depositions. Hunter stung his family by saying that his father was the “brand” for the money hunt.
Asked if the money, exactly $142,300, ultimately came from Mr. Rakishev, Hunter said: “If you’re asking me, does this money come from Kenes Rakishev, I can’t answer directly because I don’t have any full knowledge. All I know is that the money for the car came from Devon Archer from Rosemont Seneca Bohai.”
Hunter was then asked: “Did you obtain custody of the car that was purchased for $142,300?”
Hunter replied: “I did, yes.”
He then was asked: “So you did get this car?”
Hunter admitted: “I got a car, yes.”
Hunter Biden, who is under federal indictment on counts of tax fraud, was not sure any of his foreign contacts paid him.
“I can’t say today whether they came from anybody other than Devon Archer,” he testified.
Mr. Rakishev was among an elite cast of rich foreigners who gave money to Hunter and were graced by the presence of the vice president, Hunter’s father, at dinners in 2014 and 2015 at Georgetown’s Cafe Milano.
Though not at trendy Milano, Mr. Biden also met with Hunter’s largest Chinese donor, CEFC tycoon Ye Jianming, and Chinese banker Jonathan Li. The elder Biden also communicated with Mr. Archer and Eric Schwerin, Hunter’s business partners.
Mr. Biden was obviously selling access to himself through his son to bring the family millions of dollars.
Despite the clear evidence, President Biden says today he wasn’t involved in his son’s overseas deals. He calls assertions he interacted with Hunter’s business associates “a bunch of lies.”
• Rowan Scarborough is a columnist with The Washington Times.
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