Hunter Biden to step down from board of Chinese company

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Hunter Biden to step down from Chinese board
By STEVE PEOPLES33 minutes ago

NEW YORK (AP) — Facing intense scrutiny from President Donald Trump and his Republican allies, Hunter Biden announced on Sunday that he will step down from the board of directors of a Chinese-backed private equity firm at the end of the month as part of a pledge not to work on behalf of any foreign-owned companies should his father win the presidency.

Biden, the 49-year-old son of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, revealed his plan in an internet post written by his attorney, George Mesires, who outlined a defense of the younger Biden’s work in Ukraine and China, which have emerged as one of Trump’s chief lines of attack against Hunter’s father despite no proof of impropriety.

“Hunter makes the following commitment: Under a Biden Administration, Hunter will readily comply with any and all guidelines or standards a President Biden may issue to address purported conflicts of interest, or the appearance of such conflicts, including any restrictions related to overseas business interests. In any event, Hunter will agree not to serve on boards of, or work on behalf of, foreign owned companies,” Mesires wrote.

He continued: “He will continue to keep his father personally uninvolved in his business affairs, while availing himself as necessary and appropriate to the Office of the White House Counsel to help inform his application of the Biden Administration’s guidelines or standards to his business decision-making.”

Hunter Biden’s work overseas sits at the center of the House impeachment inquiry into Trump, who has admitted to asking foreign powers to investigate Hunter Biden’s business dealings abroad.

The White House released a transcript of a call in which Trump asks Ukraine’s new president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to probe Biden’s family and Ukraine’s role in the 2016 election that put Trump in office. Trump has also encouraged China to dig into Hunter Biden’s work in that country.

The president’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, is also under increasing scrutiny for his efforts to dig into Hunter Biden’s business background. Late last week, two businessmen who played key roles in Giuliani’s efforts to investigate Hunter Biden’s dealings in Ukraine were charged with federal campaign finance violations.

Still, Republicans reacted to news of Hunter Biden’s decision to step away from the Chinese-backed BHR Equity Investment Fund Management Company with deep skepticism.

“I think this is just another way to save a flailing campaign that’s going down. He knows he’s in trouble and this is just another way to try and detract attention,” Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, said on Fox News Channel’s “Sunday Morning Futures.”

On the same show, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway said Hunter Biden “should have done this quite a while ago.”

“This is a part of how Donald Trump won in the first place saying that we’re going to get rid of these sweetheart deals, we’re going to make sure that we clean up the axis of power in a place like Washington, D.C., where someone like Hunter Biden get a $50,000 a month retainer for Ukrainian energy company when everybody knows that he doesn’t have that skill set.”

Mesires noted repeatedly that there is no evidence of wrongdoing against Hunter Biden, despite intensifying attacks from Trump ahead of the 2020 election.

“Despite extensive scrutiny, at no time has any law enforcement agency, either domestic or foreign, alleged that Hunter engaged in wrongdoing at any point during his five-year term,” Mesires said in his Sunday post of Biden’s experience in Ukraine.

The attorney wrote that Hunter Biden worked as an unpaid board member for BHR Equity Investment Fund Management Company “based on his interest in seeking ways to bring Chinese capital to international markets.”

“To date, Hunter has not received any compensation for being on BHR’s board of directors,” Mesires said. “He has not received any return on his investment; there have been no distributions to BHR shareholders since Hunter obtained his equity interest.”
https://www.apnews.com/8a0f4a471d19476383e665fc091d2847

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October 11, 2019
Biden Campaign Objects To New York Times Publishing An Opinion About The Hunter Biden Controversy

I recently wrote about the effort of the Biden campaign to get networks to bar Trump allies from the air who wanted to talk about the controversy surrounding Hunter Biden’s business dealings in the Ukraine. Now, Kate Bedingfield, the deputy manager of Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, has denounced the New York Times for publishing an opinion editorial by author Peter Schweizer on the matter. The hubris of the Biden campaign to demand that the media silence its critics would be laughable if it were not for the failure of many outlets to cover the story. I have previously written that, while I do not see the evidence that Biden sought to fire the Ukrainian prosecutor to protect his son, the Hunter Biden dealings seem a flagrant example of profiteering on his father’s work as the lead official on Ukraine as vice president.

Bedingfield wrote to Dean Baquet to chastize the paper for “giving top billing” to “Clinton Cash” author Peter Schweizer in an op-ed titled, “What Hunter Biden Did Was Legal – That’s the Problem.” The Biden campaign expects media to fall into line and just dismiss the story as a “conspiracy theory.” The problem is that it is not.

As I have previously discussed, Hunter was asked to be a director of a Ukrainian natural gas company, Burisma Holdings, owned by a government minister and close associate of bloodsoaked former president and Russian stooge Viktor Yanukovych. Biden later forced the government to fire the Ukrainian chief prosecutor fired after he threatened to investigate Burisma Holdings. Biden bragged that he held up more than $1 billion in loan guarantees and gave the Ukrainians just hours to fire the prosecutor.

There are two concerns with Hunter Biden. One is the concern of whether Joe Biden knew that his actions may benefit his son. I am willing to believe that Biden was not aware of the potential investigation of his son’s company in the Ukraine. Yet, there is the other question of whether the Biden family cashed in on Biden’s positions in these convenient and ample contracts. Children and spouses of politicians are often given positions and contracts to influence them. These payments are more difficult to track and to address under anti-corruption laws. Now, there is the incredible suggestion that Hunter Biden has never (even to this day) discussed his business dealings with his father. Never.

Hunter has directly contradicted his father and said that he did discuss the Ukraine deal with him.

What has long been difficult for many of us to square is how China and the Ukraine searched the world over for the best possible person to handle almost $2 billion and they just happened to come up with the son of the Vice President of the United States, a world leader who happened to be coming to their countries with massive trade and aid plans. Hunter Biden was that much of an intellectual and finance genius from Asia to Europe and beyond?

None of this is to state conclusively that Hunter Biden engaged in an effort of influence peddling or self-dealing. However, it is clearly worthy of scrutiny by the media. The most disturbing aspect of this story is that the Biden campaign expects media to ignore such a legitimate story to protect it from bad press, including opinion editorials. That would be presumptuous except for the fact that some networks have done precisely what the Biden campaign is asking for in this letter.

What does this say about the view of the free press by the Biden campaign? It is the Biden version of the “fake news” mantra and it is no more acceptable when coming from the left rather than the right.
https://jonathanturley.org/2019/10/1...omment-page-1/

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Biden claim that he and son 'never' spoke about Ukraine comes after son admitted they did 'once'
by Carlin Becker
September 21, 2019 07:04 PM

2020 Democratic front-runner Joe Biden's claim that he "never" spoke with his son Hunter about his business dealings in Ukraine appears to conflict with comments his son provided to the New Yorker in July.

On Saturday, the former vice president vehemently denied any wrongdoing amid scrutiny of his son's ties to an energy company owned by a Ukrainian oligarch. During his time in the Obama administration, the elder Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees if Ukraine did not fire its top prosecutor, who was investigating the oligarch who owned the energy company for which his son was a board member.

Biden told Fox News reporter Peter Doocy in Iowa Saturday that he "never" spoke to his son about any overseas business dealings. Speaking with the New Yorker in July, however, the presidential candidate's son admitted that he and his father did speak about his business in Ukraine "just once."

"Dad said, ‘I hope you know what you are doing,’ and I said, ‘I do'" the younger Biden said at the time.

Doocy rehashed the conflict during a later appearance on Fox News Saturday.

"[Biden’s answer] is not consistent entirely with the interview that Hunter Biden gave in July to the New Yorker, where they say Hunter recalled his father discussed the Ukraine oil company at the heart of the issue with him ‘just once,'” he said. “So the former vice president says they never talked; his son told the New Yorker a couple of months before this really blew up they did talk once."

According to reports, President Trump repeatedly urged the Ukrainian president to investigate Biden's son during a July phone call. Their call is reportedly the subject of an intelligence community whistleblower complaint that acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire has so far refused to hand over to Congress.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/n...-they-did-once

[archives]

Is Ivanka giving up her licenses for her products in China? Is Trump evicting the Saudis from renting an entire floor in Trump Tower? Has construction of the new Trump buildings in India and the Philippines been canceled?

A Trumpkin implying corruption from other people is again like a Bernie Madoff loyalist calling someone else a thief

[Gonzomin]

Why is he doing that? Trump and his criminal family have changed the rules forever. You can keep your businesses that are helped by the power of the presidency. You can ignore emoluments and anything else the founders put in place if you want to. You can put your children into powerful positions that they are clueless about. You do not have to show your taxes. Why should Biden go back to a lawful presidency? Trump changed it.

[canceled.2021.3]

Why would he step down if he did nothing wrong? Guilty conscience?

[archives]

Why would he step down if he did nothing wrong? Guilty conscience?

Didn't need it

[anatta]

Is Ivanka giving up her licenses for her products in China? Is Trump evicting the Saudis from renting an entire floor in Trump Tower? Has construction of the new Trump buildings in India and the Philippines been canceled?

A Trumpkin implying corruption from other people is again like a Bernie Madoff loyalist calling someone else a thief

lol. why not impeach on emoluments? That is not "corruption" or even quid pro quo.

what did Hunter have that made him so valuable ? access!

[PostmodernProphet]

Why is he doing that?

guilt.....

[PostmodernProphet]

Why should Biden go back to a lawful presidency?

so you admit Biden would not have a lawful presidency.......

[PostmodernProphet]

Is Ivanka giving up her licenses for her products in China?

did she get $1.5B from China too?.......which Chinese company is she a board member of?......

[canceled.2021.2]

Didn't need it

If he didn’t need it why did he take it in the first place?

[Stretch]

Bye bye Plugs.