Newly disclosed FOIA docs reveal Hunter Biden influence peddling for foreign policy organization

New documents uncovered by as part of a Freedom of Information lawsuit against the National Archives for documents related to the Biden family’s dealings during the Obama Administration reveal how Hunter Biden used his influence with his father’s staff to provide benefits to an organization where he served as a board member.

The documents were provided to America First Legal (AFL) after it sued the National Archives and Records Administration in the District of Columbia federal court for documents related to now-President Joe Biden’s time as vice president during the Obama Administration.

The most recent document production shows that in 2015 Hunter Biden lobbied for his father, the then-vice president, to be the featured speaker at the Truman National Security Project’s conference, while the younger Biden served as a board member at the organization. Last year, the Truman Center's keynote speaker was left-wing media personality Rachel Maddow. The Truman Project did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Just the News. President Biden's 2015 tax forms appear to show that he was not paid for the speech while he was vice president. 

Hunter Biden also appears to have used his foreign policy contacts through the administration to help secure a donation for the Truman Project and to attempt to further his own business interests.

“Our critical lawsuit has revealed evidence about the extent to which Hunter Biden and his business associates used the Office of the Vice President—with apparent full knowledge of Joe Biden himself—as leverage for personal enrichment. This is particularly problematic because the records establish that substantial portions of the enrichment at issue were the result of favors for and connections made with foreign nationals. Biden first, America last, apparently,” said Gene Hamilton, AFL’s Vice President and General Counsel said in a statement.

Hunter Biden served on the board of the Truman Project’s Center for National Policy alongside Blue Star Strategies principal Sally Painter, with whom he would work to end Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin’s investigation into Burisma later the same year that he secured his father’s speaking role for the organization.

In March of 2015, the Truman National Security Project invited then-Vice President Biden to be the keynote speaker at the annual conference held by the organization in Washington, D.C. “On behalf of the Truman National Security Project and the Center for National Policy, I am writing to invite you to be a featured speaker at our annual conference,” the letter sent to Vice President Biden by Truman Project President Michael Breen reads.

You can read that letter below, obtained by AFL:

At the time that the letter was sent, Hunter Biden served on the board of the Truman Project. He was appointed in 2011, not long after his father assumed the office of the vice presidency.

During its existence, the Truman Project has been stocked with board members who are prominent Democratic national security figures, including Jake Sullivan, a Clinton State Department official and current Biden National Security Advisor; Matthew Spence, a senior aide to Obama’s National Security Advisor; and Steve Israel, a former Democratic elected official, according to the Washington Free Beacon. Biden served on the board until at least 2019, according to the Beacon.

Just two days after Breen wrote the letter inviting the then-vice president to the conference, Hunter Biden emailed the letter to his father’s scheduler. “For scheduler. Please let me know if it’s possible. Thanks,” Hunter Biden wrote to the vice president’s office.

The day before that and shown earlier in the email chain, Breen had emailed Hunter Biden asking for his assistance in securing his father’s speaking role.

“I am hoping you can assist us in delivering the attached letter inviting the Vice President to speak at our annual conference in June,” Breen wrote. “If you have any questions, I would be happy to discuss this request in greater detail next week,” he continued.

You can read the email thread, obtained by AFL, below:

After Hunter Biden’s email to the office, the vice president’s scheduler Kathy Chung conferred with Joe Biden and the vice president agreed to speak at the conference. AFL noted public reporting indicated Hunter Biden had helped Kathy Chung to secure her job in the administration prior to this interaction.

“Kathy spoke to the VP about this and he has agreed to do it,” EOP staff member Anne Marie Person wrote. “Just wanted to circle back and make sure we have gotten back to them if we have not already,” she continued.

You can read that email, obtained by AFP, below:

Hunter Biden also appeared to use official foreign diplomacy of the Obama Administration to further the interests of the Truman Project and his own personal business interests at the same time, documents from the AFL FOIA production and evidence obtained from Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop indicate.

The year prior to the speaking invitation to Vice President Biden, in 2014, Scott Bates and Michael Been of the Truman Project Board asked Hunter Biden to pitch a donation proposal to the Japanese ambassador on behalf of the organization, according to an email obtained from Hunter Biden’s laptop.

“Attached is a one page script for your pitch to the Japanese Ambassador on behalf of CNP and the Truman Project,” Bates wrote to Biden.

“This one pager sums up our engagement with the Japanese and provides a dollar amount ask which is realistic based on their previous overture and giving to other think tanks in DC,” he continued later. Time was of the essence to the Truman Project team because of delegation of their representatives was traveling to Tokyo shortly after the request, according to the email.

“I wanted to let you know that I was unable to reach the Ambassador this week due to conflicting schedules,” Hunter Biden responded. "However, in the essence of time, I sent a letter to the Ambassador so that he would make the connection between my role on the CNP Board and the upcoming delegation to Japan,” he informed his fellow board members.

You can read the email below:

Later the same month, Hunter Biden was sent an official invitation to attend a “BBQ dinner” at the Japanese Embassy by the social secretary of the ambassador himself.

"Ambassador & Mrs. Sasae will be so delighted if you will be able to join in the BBQ dinner.   Could you or your office please let me know if you could attend the BBQ dinner?” the social secretary wrote to Hunter Biden and his then-wife, Kathleen.

A selling point that the secretary made sure to highlight: “It will be a small gathering around 20 people!” an intimate setting with the direct representative of the Japanese government in Washington, D.C.

The invitation can be viewed below:

Though the Truman Project did not secure funding from Japan that year—2014—Hunter Biden appeared to be seeking business benefits from the meetings in addition to his work for the group.

A few days before the BBQ dinner, one of Hunter Biden’s business partners with Rosemont Seneca Technology Partners emailed Eric Schwerin and Hunter Biden about securing business opportunities for the firm in Japan. The firm, abbreviated RSTP, was formed as a branch off from Rosemont Seneca Partners, the more famous firm that Hunter Biden founded with longtime associate Devon Archer and John Kerry stepson Christopher Heinz.

“Eric, Were you able to connect with your contact in Japan re helping us with RSTP in the region?” said John DeLoche, co-founder of the firm. The BBQ at the ambassador’s residence was scheduled just two days later, though it is unclear if Hunter Biden ever attended. It is also not known if RSTP secured any business in the country.

Hunter Biden’s lawyer Abbe Lowell did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Just the News.

The Truman Project did eventually secure its desired donation from the Japanese government. The following year, Bates emailed Hunter Biden to notify him that he had secured a $100,000 commitment to the Truman Center from the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

“I’m teaching American politics this week at the University of Tokyo. Meeting Foreign Ministry official Tuesday..and word is we've secured $100,000 for the Truman Center,” Bates wrote to Hunter Biden.

“Thanks for your supportive letter on this some time back. It's taken a bit of patience but we've gotten there,” he continued, directly thanking the younger Biden for his efforts to forward the letter to the Japanese ambassador.

You can read that email below:

The White House did not respond to a request for comment from Just the News about Hunter Biden’s contacts with official staff of Vice President Biden on behalf of the Truman Project nor about Hunter Biden’s apparent use of official diplomatic events in an attempt to advance the interests of the project and his own businesses.

This latest FOIA release marks the latest in a series of documents uncovered by America First Legal in its wide-ranging investigation into the vice presidential records of Joe Biden that involved his son and his foreign business dealings.

“The American people deserve answers about Joe Biden’s use of his office while serving as Vice President to advance the financial and other interests of his family. Since January 20, 2022, the records from his service as Vice-President during the Obama Administration are now subject to the Freedom of Information Act,” AFL Vice President Gene Hamilton said when the investigation was launched.

AFL’s investigation closely mirrors an inquiry by House Oversight Chairman James Comer into Joe Biden’s vice presidential records. Comer requested all documents and communications where then-Vice President Biden used a pseudonym and where Hunter Biden and his business partners are copied. Shortly after the request, Comer accused the Biden Administration of stonewalling his requests for records.

Hunter Biden’s contacts with vice presidential staff will likely remain a focus of the House Republicans' impeachment inquiry into now-President Joe Biden in the new year. “[The President] must be held accountable for this corruption & abuse of public office,” Comer said on Thursday in a post to X.