For years, some of us have written about the Biden family’s multimillion-dollar influence-peddling operation and the Justice Department’s refusal to charge Hunter Biden with being an unregistered foreign agent. Now, years later, the New York Times has found evidence suggesting that Hunter Biden was acting as a foreign agent as early as the Obama Administration, when his Dad was Vice President.
Last August, the New York Times ran a story about Hunter seeking help from the government for his client Burisma. Ken Vogel just ran a follow-up story with damaging new details:
Hunter Biden sought assistance from the U.S. government for a potentially lucrative energy project in Italy while his father was vice president, according to newly released records and interviews.
The records, which the Biden administration had withheld for years, indicate that Hunter Biden wrote at least one letter to the U.S. ambassador to Italy in 2016 seeking assistance for the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, where he was a board member…
The State Department did not release the actual text of the letter.
That is precisely what many of us have been writing about in asking why Hunter was not charged with being an unregistered foreign agent as was the case under cases from Paul Manafort to Bob Menendez.
The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) covers anyone acting as “agent of a foreign principal,” including but not limited to (1) attempting to influence federal officials or the public on domestic or foreign policy or the political or public interests in favor of a foreign country; (2) collecting or disbursing money and or other things of value within the United States; or (3) representing the interests of the foreign principal before U.S. Government officials or agencies.
It is sweeping. So is the definition of what a “foreign principal” encompasses, including “a foreign government, a foreign political party, any person outside the United States (except U.S. citizens who are domiciled within the United States), and any entity organized under the laws of a foreign country or having its principal place of business in a foreign country.”
As I previously wrote, special counsel Robert Mueller seemed to charge by the gross under the act. He hit a line of Trump associates with such allegations from Manafort to Michael Flynn to George Papadopoulos to Rick Gates. The Justice Department used FARA to conduct searches on the homes and files of former Trump counsel Rudy Giuliani, Republican counsel Victoria Toensing and others.
However, the Justice Department and Special Counsel David Weiss seemed to tie themselves into knots to avoid tripping the wire on FARA even as it discussed Hunter’s work for foreign clients.
The government also resisted FOIA requests from the Times and other media. Vogel wrote:
The request was initially filed under the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, in June 2021. After nearly eight months, the State Department had not released any records, and The Times sued. About 18 months later, the department moved to close the case after releasing thousands of pages of records — none of which shed light on Hunter Biden’s outreach to the U.S. government.
The Times challenged the thoroughness of the search, noting that the department had failed to produce responsive records contained in a cache of files connected to a laptop that Mr. Biden had abandoned at a Delaware repair shop. The department resumed the search and periodic productions, but had produced few documents related to Mr. Biden until the week after his father ended his re-election campaign and endorsed Vice President Harris for the Democratic nomination.
Now we have a copy of a key letter from Hunter that gives us an insight into the evidence buried for years:
The State Department last week released a letter that Hunter Biden wrote while his father was serving as vice president in which he sought assistance from the U.S. government for the Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
In the previously unpublished June 2016 letter on Burisma letterhead to the U.S. ambassador to Italy, Mr. Biden requested “support and guidance” in arranging a meeting with an Italian official to resolve regulatory hurdles to geothermal energy projects Burisma was pursuing in the Tuscany region…
The letter requested help arranging a meeting between Burisma officials and Enrico Rossi, the president of the Tuscany regional government at the time, “to introduce geothermal projects led by Burisma Group, to highlight their social and economic benefits for local communities and develop a common action plan that would lead to further development of the Tuscany Region.”
How could any Justice Department official, let alone a Special Counsel, read that letter and not see the glaring disconnect between the handling of the case involving Joe Biden’s son and others like Manafort?
The letter references a trip on which Hunter, as was his pattern, used official travel with his father to make these business connections. The letter mentions meeting a key ambassador on Air Force Two as he seeks assistance for his client.
The ambassador then sent a follow-up letter saying he knew the president of Tuscany and identified a Commerce Department official working at the US embassy to “see where our interests may overlap.”
It was another example of alleged influence peddling through his father and work for a foreign client in lobbying the government.
During this period, the Justice Department seemed to be on a hair-trigger for FARA charges. Yet, when it came to Hunter Biden, the entire department seemed composed of legal Sgt. Schultzs.
Many in the media attacked those of us who have been writing about this corruption stretching back to the Obama Administration. Many simply insisted that there was no evidence while taking no steps to find out. While the media was unrelenting in investigating Trump allegations of Russian collusion and business improprieties, it took a largely passive stance in pursuing this story.
Even the New York Times, which can be credited with pursuing this FOIA information, did comparably little with the ample evidence of corruption by the Bidens in securing millions through influence peddling.
What remains is a corruption scandal involving not only what the Bidens did but also what the Justice Department did not do over this extended period. It appears to heed the advice not of whistleblowers but politicians like former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) that “everybody needs to back off” the influence-peddling story.
Of course, Joe Biden ultimately broke his repeated promise not to pardon his son. What was most notable, however, was that he not only pardoned him for any crimes from human trafficking to tax evasion, but did so for a period running from Jan. 1, 2014 to Dec. 1, 2024.
This letter explains why such a sweeping, extended pardon was needed. Yet, in the end, the greatest indictment from this scandal was of the Justice Department itself.
This column also ran on Fox.com
JT, What a joke. Distraction much. But I knew this was coming. How many more Hunter articles will you bring up? Keep it up JT, The current WH is a model of moral superiority.
The Sec Def spilled top secret intel with a reporter by mistake. The Prez is making tariff policy based on…I guess that is the problem his formula is BS. Hey, at least the penguins and polar bears are going to pay up.
What a joke.
Given our history allowing international corporations free reign to take advantage of our weak tariff position, opening the negotiation process with anything but action would be ineffective. Furthermore, why would you open negotiations with a weak starting position?
You are ridiculous. What federal agency do you work for and why hasn’t your job been cut yet?
“. . . opening the negotiation process with anything but action . . .”
That “action” (Trump’s tariffs) is government price controls. Price controls cause three things (all destructive): reduced quantity, reduced quality, higher prices. It is *American* companies and consumers who suffer that destruction.
Price controls and tariffs are a statist economic policy. Economic statism has always, and will always, destroy wealth. A 10% drop in the stock market is not a “blip.” It’s a bloodbath. And it’s not just a “readjustment.” That massive destruction of wealth is caused by Trump’s statist tariffs.
Trump has a number of pro-capitalist, pro-growth economic policies: Deregulation (especially of the energy industry), lowering taxes, and a general spirit of business success is good.
Those tariffs, though, are one of the greats economic policy blunders of the last 100 years.
AFTER GOING UP OVER 100% the stock market going down 10% is a BLOODBATH?? SAM?? Ha ha ha
“Price controls cause three things (all destructive): reduced quantity,…”
Price controls and tariffs are different. Do not equate the two to make a point. Try straight talk and offer your evidence.
When government compels a company to charge, say, 25% more — that is a price control.
That you do not see that is either economic ignorance or a desire to evade the tariff catastrophe.
You are equating two dissimilar things: tariffs and internal price control. Tariff price controls already exist because other nations have imposed costs on the US. What you are saying is that only other countries can use unfair trading practices against the US but not the US against those nations. What an American you are.
“That you do not see that is either economic ignorance or a desire to evade the tariff catastrophe..”
When you walk on such soft ground, you shouldn’t accuse anyone of ignorance. Your posts are so often weak or erroneous that you should reconsider commenting. I have corrected you numerous times, and you ran away instead of being responsive.
Tariffs can be done in many different ways for different reasons. I would be against specific tariffs, but I understand tariffs are used for foreign policy concerns and economic issues. I don’t have the luxury of your ignorance that everything is black and white. I have to wait and see how things play out, but so far, for the most part, I agree with Trump’s actions.
“You are equating two dissimilar things: tariffs and internal price control.”
You do not understand tariffs. They are an “internal price control.” Who do you think pays for (Trump’s) tariffs? Here’s a hint: American companies and consumers.
“. . . you should reconsider commenting.” “. . . you ran away instead of being responsive.”
Since you wish to get nasty: I don’t respond to you because your comments to me are mostly scattered, unfocused, ignorant, and uninteresting.
Sam, you seem too attached to binary thinking, but reality isn’t so black and white. Tariffs can both protect essential industries and influence foreign policy. You focus on tariffs in its revenue enhancement capability but revenue is relevant today as it was in the past. Like everything else, tariffs must be applied with care.
You speak as if tariffs are a new idea, but the first major legislation passed by the Washington administration was the Tariff of 1789. It served to generate government revenue and protect American industry.
You advocate for free trade, but do you fully understand what that entails? What would you have proposed in place of the Tariff of 1789?
Price controls? Seriously? Try reading the 5th Amendment. Private property is not public. Congress has zero dominion over private property, to include prices, wages, rent, hiring, firing, directing, paying, “non-discrimination,” “fair housing,” and municipal so-called “Building & Safety” codes, the whole enchilada. Nowhere does the Constitution impose a “dictatorship of the proletariat (i.e., hired help).” When you write, please include a citation of the Constitution for a legal basis or a prohibition.
“Try reading the 5th Amendment.”
Price controls and tariffs are different. Try reading a history book and seeing when America didn’t have tariffs. The first significant law Washington passed was the Tariff of 1789. That was followed by an increase in tariffs in 1790. There was never a time America didn’t have a tariff.
Did someone send you this smelly pile of trash to post all over the internet? Sorry, but the majority of sane adults with the minimum functioning brainstem are not buying the prog/left BS any longer. Post all the anti Trump fake material that you want but it is just a waste of time except for those still in the throws of deep TDS.
So your argument is to forgive wrongdoing by pointing out someone else’s wrongdoing?
Just man up and own the fact that the Biden’s and the DOJ were dirty.
Did I say anything about not going after corruption? Honestly, the assumptions people make when you post something negative about the current administration is quite amazing. Do you all have cognitive impairment like your orange god?
By all means, prosecute Hunter, as well as 90% of every other Congressman/Senator. And please, don’t forget to prosecute trump and his family. The grifter in chief is selling you out every single day.
But hey, Hunter. Sure got your attention. Meanwhile the current administration is filled with yes men morons. that are using illegal channels of communication. Hey, nothing to see here, Look Hunter has porn on his laptop.
Suckers the lot of you.
I see you continue to forget it was the Biden admin who authorized the use of Signal for communications.
If anyone is a sucker, it is you.
Upstate: STOP REPEATING MAGA MEDIA LIES. From “Snopes”:
“Claims that former U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration initially authorized the use of Signal by government officials spread in late March 2025 after The Atlantic reported national security officials in President Donald Trump’s administration accidentally added the magazine’s editor-in-chief to a Signal group chat about military strikes in Yemen.
While the Biden administration may have allowed some use of Signal — based on public guidance from the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency — it explicitly did not allow use of Signal to communicate “non-public” Department of Defense information, which would have included the conversations Trump administration officials had in their group chat. “
BIGGEST SUCKER OF ALL- BABYTRUMP!
do you have access to definitive proof of any corruption by the Trump administrations? And by proof I will ignore reposting of prog/left propaganda, the “research’ done by prog/left apparatchiks or the issuing of fake info by the likes of jeffries or crockett – new spokespersons for the deranged left.
Did I miss your comments about the 13 dead in Afghanistan, the car full of kids bombed to wag the dog, the missing Sec Def for weeks, the open border, the rise of the Houthis, the payments to Iran, the rise of Hamas and Hezbollah and the war in Europe?
Weird loser.
and let’s add in the creepy hairs sniffing, just to top off the entire package.
The most cynical lie on the modern American scene: “No one is above the Law.”
watch 50 sec on…where top DEMOCRAT ADMITS they impeached TRUMP to PROTECT BIDEN and
https://x.com/listen_2learn/status/1844158069074203010
So with this information is he going to prison/jail? Are others involved in the cover up going to jail and lose their pensions, assets, jobs? Nope, just another case of talking something to death with no action that is truly of significance to deter others from trying. Those involved in this crime will just continue some other illegal action. Who ever said crime does not pay was incorrect, it pays very well!!
AND THE REASON that nothing ever gets done rests on the shoulders of the constituents who keep re-electing the same corrupt old grifters in both parties. We The People have ultimate control yet we choose to opt for more free stuff from these corrupt, colluding politicians and their fetid bureaucracy instead of electing honorable people who want to drain the swamp. If We The People, take no action we should STFU and learn to love the corruption because we deserve it.
Sandsgrandmother-Well most of these miscreants would have to be tried in D.C. and getting a democrats convicted there is virtually impossible. Or you show crimes are committed in a different venue and you might have a chance.
May I propose nominating the NYT for another Pulitzer price for their amazing investigative journalism!
so WHO from the DOJ are we jailing? Also the JUDGES that helped cover that up and the Russian Hoax!
JAIL THEM ALL!
NY Times is kind of like a history people of Democrat crimes
They notice….just 5-10 years after it happens
I remember reading in 2013 that Ashley, Hunter…both at least in the 40’s traveling with VP Biden in China and KNEW instantly that they were their to collect MONEY!
anyone go to prison for covering up…51 intel agents? Anyone go to prison for the Russian hoax…there are 100’s of them that SHOULD!
so Ukraine got $250 Billion for a couple million in bribes…ya I know!
yet nothing EVER happens to criminal Democrats
there are 10000’s of them…helping illegals, selling government, stealing, jailing and destroying republicans, bribery, etc
When do we start jailing them and the CRIMINAL JUDGES protecting them!
NY TIMES is the Voice of the DEMS and RADICAL LEFT and the I hate Trump crowd.
NY Times is the HATE AMERICA Paper!
WHAT?
DEMS ARE CORRUPT?
I’m shocked…
Brace yourself – the sun rises in the east.
The horror!
What are they going to tell us next?? That the earth isn’t flat…
MSM (Mostly Stupid Morons) have not and will not EVER regain a reputation for anything other than the slime that they are… Just saying
No one with 2 functioning brain cells ever believed that hunter was innocent – or the entire Biden crime family and many government officials either. This is not news; it’s confirmation of facts about our suspicions.
Our national problem, now, is ridding our nation of all those co-consirators who so willingly covered up these facts. I would, especially, like to see an investigation of McCaskil as to why she pushed so hard for the burying of this investigation – seems a little suspicious.
Claire McCaskill and her husband are as sleazy as they come. Nursing homes
Yet this old baggage keeps getting re-elected – that is the real source of the problem, her ignorant constituents. Solve the problem of so many uninformed or misinformed voters and you go a long way in draining this swamp. I also firmly believe that if you don’t have a dog in the hunt – so to speak – you really shouldn’t be allowed to vote on matters that include government funds. Only property-owning taxpayers should have a say in how their money is spent. Anyone accepting any form of government subsidy (whether welfare of some sort of grant/gift/position) should be ineligible to vote for reasons of conflict of interest.
We voted her out of her senatorial office in Missouri. Now she is a media personality. I talked to her once about Obama are before the bill was passed by the DemocRats, and she told me that she didn’t need to hear my opinion. As I hung up the phone, I knew that she supported the selling out of America to their favorite special interest groups. I continued to tell my patients that it was a terrible bill. But……
glad to see that sane adults finally overcame the nut job democrats. There is hope for the universe.
What should happen but won’t is to have an Extensive Water Gate- like investigation, round up everyone that had anything to do with the Hunter Biden cover up and give all of them jail time, devastating fines, and loss of all of their previously earned? credentials … Remember, incompetence is no excuse under the law.
That would give pause when one would want to potentially be complicit likethis again in the future.
But because there is no justice anymore…Biden‘s Department of injustice will again remerge in the future, not unlike a tenacious, fungal rash.🤔
I will agree but, I do hope that sufficient numbers of sane citizens will continue to elect conservatives until a sufficient dosage of Fluconasole will eradicate the prog/socialist fungus currently infecting this nation.
Tail Gunner Joe was right.
Even Amphotericin B would not even eradicate the fungus that is/was Biden,Harris, and all of their blind Neo Marxist sheep…
I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that every prog/left dem suffers from toenail fungus.
Mescca1994-Yeah thats true but on the other hand the side effects of the drug might kill ‘em
So, in other words, it brings about the right outcome either way? 😉
Mescca1994-One can hope!
Also known as Amphoterrible B in the Healthcare arena. The bottles were received on the floor wrapped in foil before they would be piggybacked on your IV.
Successful995f636aa5-Thats true and sometimes you got shaking chills during administration and renal injury. The tinfoil was to keep sunlight from degrading the medication. Not like the tinfoil Dems use to prevent thought
Curiously, these revelation have come exactly at the time when it has been discovered that wide spread money laundering through NGOs was suggested and now proved. So, the Biden family, led by Joe and executed by his apprentice Hunter, was merely engaging is a well known, well understood form a fraud.
Sadly we already knew this was the case when the Laptop story broke. The Federal Government (FBI who was in possession of the Laptop) spent years committing perjury in sworn testimony about this widespread criminal enterprise. Now we know the significance of the Pardon for Hunter Biden by the ex-President. Still the MSM has completely ignored the evidence. If not for you writing this article, I would not have known the NYT even acknowledged Hunter Biden did anything other than be the smartest Son Joe knows!!!!!!!
Aside from pardons … Let me guess, The statutes of limitations has run out on Hunter’s treasonous debauchery – so now they can publish.
Of course hunter was working during his dads whole time in government.
Wow! A reporter found this out on their own? I’m amazed that they actually got off their ass and found something out on their own.
This needs to be shown on all the major networks as an example of true journalism, and not Journalistic Malpractice that we see all the time.
Amazed, you are? Don’t oversell it silly person. Why would the “major networks” get involved on your say so? MSM dies what it benefits it financially or the democrats. Nothing more.
” I’m amazed that they actually got off their ass and found something out on their own.”
Surely you can’t truly believe that to be the case? If it was something that could be proven one way or another, I would bet you good money that this information was fed to Vogel and/or the TImes many years ago, and those stellar examples of investigative reporting and honesty sat on it until the risk of being exposed for that deceit arguably exceeded the benefits from continuing it.