The White House has insisted that President Joe Biden never spoke to his son Hunter about his foreign business deals — as emails show he wrote a recommendation letter for the son of his Chinese business partner.
Asked by journalists on Tuesday if Biden still maintained he had never spoken to his son about controversial business interests in Ukraine and China, presidential press secretary Jen Psaki answered: "Yes".
Psaki also rejected talk of appointing a special counsel to probe the younger Biden's financial affairs and tax payments.
She insisted that the Department of Justice, led Biden's pick of Attorney General Merrick Garland, would be impartial in its probe.
"The President has never had a conversation with the Department of Justice about any investigations into any member of his family," Psaki said. "He said that during the campaign, and he will continue to abide by that."
"So I point you to the Department of Justice for any additional steps they would take they would make those decisions independently," she added.
On Sunday White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain insisted "the president is confident that his son didn’t break the law" — after a federal investigation into Hunter's finances came to light, and even the pro-Democrat Washington Post reported on his deals with a Chinese energy firm.
"Well, that's something the President has said and certainly we would echo," Psaki said, in a typically vague response to a question about Klain's comments.
As vice-president under Barack Obama, Joe Biden pressured the Ukrainian government to sack its prosecutor general Viktor Shokin after he launched a probed into gas firm Burisma, which had hired Hunter Biden as a board member following the US-backed 2014 Maidan Square coup d'etat.
Manchurian College Candidate
Five-year-old emails obtained by Fox News, from Hunter Biden's now-infamous discarded laptop, detail how Joe Biden helped the son of one of Hunter's business partners apply for US universities by writing a recommendation letter on his behalf when Hunter Biden's investment firm Rosemont Seneca was involved in a joint venture with China's Bohai Capital and BHR.
Hunter held a 10percent stake in BHR until last year. BHR CEO Jonathan Li emailed Hunter and his business partners Devon Archer and Jim Bolger on January 3 2017.
"Gentlmen[sic], please find the attached resume of my son, Chris Li. He is applying the following colleges for this year," Li wrote, with Brown University, Cornell University, listing New York University below. Bulger replied saying the three had "received the updated version of the CV," and asking Biden and Archer "Lets [sic] see how we can be helpful here to Chris."
On February 18, Rosemont Seneca president Eric Schwerin emailed Li to tell him Joe Biden, who had been vice-president until just four weeks earlier, had written a reference letter for his son Chris.
"Jonathan, Hunter asked me to send you a copy of the recommendation letter that he asked his father to write on behalf of Christopher for Brown University," Schwerin wrote. "The original is being FedExed to Dr. Paxson directly at Brown. It should be there by Tuesday at the latest (given Monday is a holiday here in the U.S.). Let us know if you have any questions. Best, Eric."
Dr Christina Paxson is the president of Brown University.
"Hi Eric, Just see the email. It is just great! Thank you very much!" Li replied. "And Hunter, thank you very much too. All the best to you all."
Brown University did not reveal whether Chris Li had been accepted to study there, citing its "commitment to the confidentiality of student records."
Rosemont Seneca is named in documents captured by the Russian armed forces during their 'demilitarisation and de-Nazification' operation in Ukraine.
The documents detail how Biden's firm funnelled $500,000 into a network biolabs in the east European country set up by the US, which experimented on dangerous infectious diseases, including coronavirus in bats.