Hunter Biden had a long history of connecting with State Department officials about Burisma work

While The New York Times on August 13 resurrected the issue of the first son’s lobbying activities, there are numerous official documents and emails showing that the Hunter Biden facilitated communication or directly contacted State Department officials to further his interests. Questions about his lobbying and compliance with the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) have been raised for more than four years.  

The most prominent examples come from his efforts to help the Ukrainian gas company Burisma shut down an investigation by Ukrainian authorities. Starting in 2015, Hunter Biden personally met with at least one State Department official and facilitated the company’s relationship with Democrat-connected consulting firm Blue Star Strategies which directly lobbied the State Department.

The New York Times reported that Hunter Biden contacted the U.S. Ambassador to Italy in 2016 in an attempt to secure the State Department’s assistance with a lucrative natural gas project in the region of Tuscany. Records released by the State Department show Biden wrote a letter to the ambassador, though the contents are redacted.

“No meeting occurred, no project materialized, no request for anything in the U.S. was ever sought and only an introduction in Italy was requested,” Hunter Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement.

However, this is not the only documented instance Biden tried to use his influence to seek favors for his clients or employers from the State Department.

Meeting with Amos Hochstein

In November 2015, as pressure against Burisma was building, Hunter Biden reached out to Amos Hochstein, then-Special Envoy and Coordinator for International Energy Affairs at the State Department, to set up a meeting for coffee on Nov. 4, 2015.

Hochstein served during the Obama Administration and is documented as a close advisor to then-Vice President Joe Biden. He currently serves in the Biden State Department as a Special Presidential Coordinator.

Shortly before Hunter Biden’s communication with him, Hochstein reportedly raised the issue of Hunter Biden’s work on Burisma’s board directly with Joe Biden, according to testimony with the Senate Committees on Homeland Security and Finance.

The communications between them continued after the meeting. “Amos Hochstein called,” Hunter Biden’s secretary emailed him shortly after. “Please call back today if possible,” she wrote.

Phone call with Antony Blinken

The meeting with Hochstein is not the only interaction Hunter Biden arranged with a State Department official. He also attempted to arrange a meeting with Antony Blinken and later connect the official with Blue Star Strategies. 

A Senate investigation by GOP Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson, found Biden emailed Blinken directly, then a Deputy Secretary at the State Department, to arrange a similar coffee meeting, the documents show. At the time, Blinken was deputy secretary of state from under President Barack Obama and Vice-President Biden.

“Have a few minutes next week to grab a cup of coffee?” Hunter Biden asked in May 2015. “I know you are impossibly busy, but would love to get your advice on a couple of things.”

Blinken answered in the affirmative and said he would have his office set up the appointment. He later told congressional investigators the meeting never took place.

The same investigation found that Biden also corresponded with Blinken’s wife, Evan Ryan, in an effort to connect Blinken with the Blue Star Strategies principals Karen Tramontano and Sally Painter. It is unclear whether that effort was successful, though Blinken said in a later July 2016 internal State Department email that he “may call” Tramontano.

Biden has not been charged with violating FARA, which can bring a fine of up to $10,000 or by imprisonment for up to five years.

Blue Star Strategies and the Biden "brand"

In Blue Star Strategy’s wide-ranging effort to influence the U.S. government on Burisma, the firm repeatedly invoked Hunter Biden’s name in its relentless campaign to gain meetings with senior State Department officials, Just the News previously reported.

State officials at the time where becoming frustrated with the firm’s attempts to gain access to U.S. Embassy officials in Kyiv, including the newly installed U.S. Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch.

"We had already offered our regrets to Blue Star. But they keep trying through every channel they can," State Department official Catherine Croft wrote July 29, 2016 in an email to George Kent, one of the department's top officials at the embassy. Kent would later confirm to Senate investigators that he believed Burisma and its founder were corrupt.

Meeting with Ambassador Yovanovitch and other officials

Records obtained by Just the News show Blue Star ultimately landed the meeting with Ambassador Yovanovitch on Dec. 8, 2016. A redacted memo with a description of the meeting was provided to Just the News made clear that Burisma was the subject.

"An Atlantic Council member and Washington veteran, Tramontano informally represents Mykola Zlochevsky, the Burisma CEO, who has long been the target of law enforcement proceedings in Ukraine,” the key unreacted sentence reads.

Other documents reviewed by Just the News show Painter or Tramontano had other meetings or calls with Yovanovitch, George Kent, Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt, USAID officials and Ambassador Daniel Fried in 2016.