Then-Vice President Joe Biden’s office appeared to offer assistance to Hunter Biden with coordinating his business trips to China, newly released emails show.
Donald Cloud, an advisor to then-VP Biden, reached out to Hunter Biden’s assistant, Katie Dodge, and suggested she communicate with the U.S. Embassy in Beijing to connect with then-U.S. Ambassador to China Max Baucus about Hunter Biden’s travels to China, according to emails released on Oct. 26 by the America First Legal Foundation (AFL). (RELATED: Comer Unveils Bank Records Showing Joe Biden Received $40,000 Of ‘Laundered’ Chinese Money)
/3 The new emails from May 2014 show the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, Ambassador Max Baucus, and the Office of the Vice President proactively reached out to help Hunter on his China trips, and Hunter’s Executive Assistant, Katie Dodge, thanked “everyone stepping forward to help” pic.twitter.com/PuCfPCYwcq
— America First Legal (@America1stLegal) October 26, 2023
“The reason I’m emailing you is that I received a call from Embassy Beijing this morning, and as I understand it, they (specifically Ambassador Max Baucus) has heard that Hunter Biden is in China. He would like to connect with Hunter (either himself or a member of his Embassy staff) to offer any support he may need during his travels,” Cloud wrote, according to the emails.
Cloud apparently sent Dodge contact information for Baucus’ special assistant and his personal phone number. Baucus’ phone number is redacted in the batch of emails AFL released. Dodge reached out to Baucus’ assistant and suggested a meeting with Baucus the next time Hunter Biden was in China because Baucus was not in China at the time, according to the emails.
“I spoke with Mr. Biden and he said that he was hoping to stop by if it happened to work for Ambassador Baucus know he was given short notice. Since the Ambassador won’t be in Beijing while Hunter is, Hunter said that frequently he travels to China and that he would try again the next time and hopefully be able to give more time to plan,” Dodge wrote with Cloud cc’ed on the email.
“Thank you to everyone for being so responsive and we hope to be able to arrange something in the future,” she added.
Baucus became U.S. Ambassador to China in February 2014 and served until the end of the Obama administration, according to his archived government bio. The State Department declined to comment on the apparent coordination.
Emails from Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop archive suggest he and his business partners scheduled meetings with Baucus beginning in spring 2014.
READ THE EMAILS:
“I am currently arranging a meeting with the new US Ambassador to China Max Baucus for late April / early May to meet our leadership team in Beijing,” Hunter Biden’s former business associate Devon Archer wrote in an April 2014 email to Chinese business associate Jonathan Li. Hunter Biden and other Chinese business associates were put on Archer’s email thread.
“No problem, Devon,” Li said, according to the emails. “We can arrange you meet them when you come for the Ambassador,” he added. Archer and Li appeared to be discussing meetings with potential Chinese investors in the email thread.
Biden and Archer’s investment firm Rosemont Seneca Partners and Li’s investment firm Bohai Capital worked on a joint business venture called BHR Partners beginning in early 2014, Archer testified to the House Oversight Committee. Li was initially the CEO of the company.
Archer testified to the House Oversight Committee in July and described how Li met with Joe Biden for coffee in Beijing and secured a college recommendation letter for his daughter from then-VP Biden. The Oversight Committee in September released a $250,000 loan payment Li sent to Hunter Biden in August 2019 with Joe Biden’s residence listed as the beneficiary address.
Hunter Biden was living in California at the time of Li’s payment, his failed guilty plea with the Department of Justice (DOJ) indicates. The $250,000 loan debt was later assumed by Hollywood attorney Kevin Morris, the wealthy benefactor identified as the third part who paid roughly $2 million of Hunter Biden’s overdue taxes, according to the Oversight Committee.
READ THE EMAILS:
Hunter Biden alluded to a meeting with Baucus in the middle of an email exchange with Archer about Ukrainian energy firm Burisma, where Biden was paid more than $80,000 per month as a board member from 2014-19, bank records released in August by the Oversight Committee show.
“On Baucus- we have a very very good relationship and I can ask anything we need- don’t need his best friend if that’s why you are [meeting] him,” Hunter Biden told Archer in late April 2014. Archer appeared to schedule a meeting with Baucus in late 2014 ahead of an upcoming BHR board meeting, emails show.
“As you know I was waiting for a confirmation for our meeting at the US Embassy with Ambassador Baucus October 8th. That being said we have pressing matters and we can postpone that reception until next Board meeting,” Archer told Li with Hunter Biden cc’ed.
A few months later, Archer and Biden appeared to arrange a meeting with Baucus in early 2015 at the Beijing Embassy’s office, according to emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop archive.
“Also spoke to Ambassador Baucus’s office and they were willing to do a meeting next week. Tentatively,” Archer said to business associate James Bulger with Hunter Biden cc’ed. An email from February 2015 indicates that a meeting with Baucus was scheduled for Feb. 4, 2015. The apparent meeting with Baucus appeared to go well and a BHR business associate expressed satisfaction with the meeting afterwards.
READ THE EMAILS:
“It was a pleasure meeting each of you in person and I hope you are now safely ensconced in your respective homes after last week’s whirlwind of activities. Many thanks for travelling halfway across the world to attend the board meeting and for setting up the meetings with SASAC and the Ambassador,” the BHR business associate said, according to the emails.
Later that year, the same BHR associate suggested inviting Baucus to a private dinner in Beijing scheduled for November or December of 2015, emails show.
“Met up with Jimmy this morning and had a great chat, he will come to the seminar on the 28th regardless of the board meeting. We will be hosting a private dinner after the seminar for a select group of guests and it would be great if Ambassador Baucus could make an attendance then. I will leave it to you to work your magic,” the Chinese business partner wrote to Archer, according to the emails. Hunter Biden, Jonathan Li and additional business associates were put on the email exchange.
“I will be available in Beijing at any later date in November or December. I appreciate that and will work on the Ambassador in the meantime,” Archer replied. It’s unclear if another meeting with Baucus took place.
Hunter Biden traveled with his father on Air Force Two to at least 15 countries when Joe Biden was vice president, Fox News reported. The Oversight Committee wrote a letter to the National Archives in August requesting records from Hunter Biden’s flights with Joe Biden.
The Biden family and its business associates received more than $24 million from Ukraine, Russia, China, Romania and Kazakhstan, according to a House memo released in September.
Hunter Biden has accused his political opponents of weaponizing his past drug addiction and unfairly targeting him. His attorney and the White House did not respond to requests for comment.