Among the lucrative business deals Hunter Biden pursued in China while his father was vice president was one he said would benefit not only him but his family, according to emails obtained from a laptop seized by the FBI.
The existence of the emails, which were made known to the FBI by a Delaware computer repair shop owner, was reported Wednesday by the New York Post. The Post’s initial report featured an email that contradicts Joe Biden’s claim that he never discussed his son’s business deals in Ukraine and China while serving as the pointman for U.S. policy in those nations under President Obama.
Facebook immediately restricted distribution of the Post’s initial story on Wednesday, insisting it needed time to fact-check it, and Twitter followed by blocking any links to it.
On Thursday, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, announced the Senate Judiciary Committee will subpeona Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to testify about the censorship, which Republicans senators describe as interference in an election.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., wrote Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday demanding an explanation for the social media giant’s actions and to disclose whether or not the Biden campaign requested the censorship.
The owner of a computer repair shop in Wilmington, Delaware said the emails were recovered from a MacBook Pro laptop that was dropped off in April 2019 and never retrieved. The FBI seized the computer in December, the Post reported, and a copy of its contents was shared with the paper this week by former Mayor Rudy ÂGiuliani.
In a follow-up Thursday, the Post highlighted a series of emails about Hunter Biden’s business deals in China, where he struck an agreement with a state-own Chinese equity firm valued at more than $1.5 billion when he traveled to Beijing on Air Force Two in 2013 with his father.
An email sent by Hunter Biden as part of an Aug. 2, 2017, chain involved a separate deal he made with CEFC China Energy Chairman Ye Jianming, who has since vanished. The agreement was for half-ownership of a holding company that would provide Hunter Biden with more than $10 million a year.
The pay, according to an email, would be “for introductions alone.”
The Post noted that Ye had ties to the Chinese military and intelligence service, and hasn’t been seen since he was taken into custody by Chinese authorities in early 2018. CEFC went bankrupt earlier this year.
Biden said that while the consulting fees were important, “this proposal by the chairman was so much more interesting to me and my family is that we would also be partners inn [sic] the equity and profits of the JV’s [joint venture’s] investments.”
The Post also obtained an “Attorney Engagement Letter” executed in September 2017 in which one of Ye’s top lieutenants agreed to pay Hunter Biden a $1 million retainer for “Counsel to matters related to US law and advice pertaining to the hiring and legal analysis of any US Law Firm or Lawyer.”
A lawyer for Hunter Biden, George Mesires, told the Post there was no need to comment and that Giuliani “has been pushing widely discredited conspiracy theories about the Biden family, openly relying on actors tied to Russian intelligence.”
The repair shop owner, John Paul Mac Isaac, told Fox News on Wednesday he “can’t be 100% sure” it was Hunter Biden who dropped off the computer for repair. He said he contacted the FBI out of concern.
Fox News said Isaac’s claim that the laptop belonged to Hunter Biden has not been substantiated. Isaac told the New York Post he determined it was Hunter Biden because the laptop had a sticker from the Beau Biden Foundation, which is named after his late older brother.
