An “Italian front” opens in the Hunter Biden business affair. According to what the New York Times reveals, President Biden’s son asked the State Department for help in 2016, and in particular the American embassy in Rome, for a deal that the Ukrainian gas company Burisma wanted to do in Italy.
The son of the then vice president, who sat on the board of directors of Burisma, sent a letter to the American ambassador in RomeThe contact, a businessman involved in the deal explained to the Times, came at a time when the Ukrainian company was having trouble getting approval for a geothermal project in Tuscany.
According to the reconstruction of the New York newspaper – which cites documents obtained, after a long legal battle, from the State Department in response to a request for publication of the documents presented in 2021 – in Via Veneto they reacted with embarrassment to Hunter Biden’s letter, with an official from the Office of Commerce who replied: “I want to be careful not to promise too much”.
This is a Ukrainian company and solely to protect ourselves,” he added, referring to the U.S. government, “we should not actively advocate for it with the Italian government without going through the Commerce Department’s Advocacy Center.” Whether the embassy tried to help Burisma is unclear, the Times continued, adding, however, that according to its sources, the project in Tuscany did not come to fruition.
Biden’s lawyer confirmed
Asked by the Times, Hunter Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, confirmed that his client then “asked several people,” including John R. Phillips, then ambassador to Italy, if they could help introduce Burisma to the president of the Tuscany region.
“No meeting took place, no project ever materialized, no request for anything in the U.S., only an introduction was sought in Italy,” the lawyer added, calling his client’s request “an appropriate request” and “normal practice.” The White House was also contacted by the Times, and a spokesperson said that President Biden – who is witnessing these new embarrassing revelations about his son three weeks after giving up his re-election bid for the White House – was not aware when he was vice president of the contact initiated by his son on behalf of Burisma with the American embassy.
Accusations, investigations opened but no convictions
Hunter Biden served on Burisma’s board for nearly five years, earning more than $2 million during that time. His role in the Ukrainian company has been at the center of corruption allegations for years by Republicans who have sought to link the president to his son’s business dealings.
The allegations were at the center of the investigation by special counsel David Weiss, appointed immediately after the inauguration of the Biden administration to continue the investigation that had been launched during the Trump administration, which however has not yet charged Hunter Biden in these matters, who instead was charged by Weiss, and convicted last June, for having purchased a gun without declaring that he was a drug addict.
The congressional investigation also hit a dead end after the FBI indicted the main witness who revealed an alleged bribe involving Burisma, the then vice president and his son for perjury.
#Hunter #Biden #Italian #front #asked #embassy #Rome