by Steven Richards
According to the appendices listing the documents recovered in the Justice Department investigation into Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents, the president retained talking points and a telephone call transcript with the Ukrainian prime minister from a key period in Hunter Biden’s Burisma Holdings employment.
One appendix also lists a classified briefing on U.S. Energy Assistance to Ukraine, from September 2014, shortly after Hunter Biden had joined the board of the Ukrainian energy company.
These are the latest revelations from Special Counsel Robert Hurr’s report on his investigation into potentially mishandling of classified documents by President Biden. Though Hurr ultimately declined to bring charges, the report has revealed new anecdotes about Biden’s mental acuity and showed that he willfully retained and shared classified documents.
In a folder entitled “VP Personal” DOJ investigators found two documents relating to a December 11, 2015 call between then-Vice President Biden and then Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
“A Telephone Call Sheet setting forth the purpose of and talking points for a call with Ukrainian Prime Minister Yatsenyuk,” the summary of the first document reads.
“There is a handwritten note addressed to Mr. Biden’s executive assistant: ‘Get copy of this conversation from Sit Rm for my Records please’ that is signed ‘Joe.’,” the summary continues.
The second document is the full transcript documenting this call with the prime minister.
In another location, the investigators found a memo entitled “U.S. Energy Assistance to Ukraine,” dated to September 2014, just months after Hunter Biden formally joined the board of Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian energy company.
December 2015 was an important period for both Vice President Biden and his son Hunter regarding Ukraine.
Last year, Just the News uncovered new documents that showed that in late 2015, Joe Biden changed official U.S. policy by linking a $1 billion loan guarantee to the Ukrainian government with a requirement to fire Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, who was investigating Burisma at the time.
In October, a Ukraine task force made up of State, Treasury and Justice Department officials concluded that Ukraine had made “sufficient progress” on its anticorruption and economic reforms to justify the loan guarantee.
Internal memos for then-Vice President Biden’s upcoming trip to Ukraine dated Nov. 22, 2015 urged the vice president to offer the $1 billion loan guarantee during his trip, citing Kyiv’s progress. Yet, by the time Biden arrived in Kyiv on Dec. 8, 2015, he had decided to link the loan guarantee to Shokin’s ouster.
The Washington Post confirmed Just the News’ reporting, finding that the Vice President “called an audible” aboard Air Force Two on the way to the country, citing interviews with former Obama Administration officials.
At the time Joe Biden traveled to Kyiv, Hunter Biden and Burisma were scrambling to deal with the fallout of media inquiries into Hunter’s role on the board of the company. Mykola Zlochevsky, Burisma’s founder, was also under scrutiny by Ukrainian and foreign authorities for alleged corruption under the previous regime. Hunter worked to helped Burisma retain Blue Star Strategies – a Democrat connected government relations firm – to improve Burisma’s public image in Ukraine and with U.S. officials at the embassy in Kyiv. A representative from Burisma described their goal: “to close down for [sic] any cases/pursuits” against Burisma’s founder.
Devon Archer—a former business parter of Hunter Biden’s and fellow Burisma board member— testified to Congress that in the first week of December 2015, Burisma officials requested that Hunter Biden “call D.C.” during a board meeting in Dubai because of the pressure that was being exerted on the company by Ukrainian authorities. This reported call came just days before his father arrived in Kyiv.
Last year, Oversight Chairman James Comer told Just the News that his committee wanted to know if any of the classified documents Joe Biden retained were related to the countries where his son was conducting business.
“We need to know exactly what type of information the President had mishandled. We need to know were any of these documents related to any of the people or countries that Joe Biden’s family received substantial payments from,” Comer told the “Just the News, No Noise” TV show in October.
After the release of the classified documents report on Biden, which recommended no charges against the President, Comer vowed to continue the investigation through his committee.
“[I]mportant questions remain about the extent of Joe Biden retaining sensitive materials related to specific countries involving his family’s influence peddling schemes that brought in millions for the Bidens,” Comer said in a statement posted to X.
“While the Justice Department has closed its investigation, the Oversight Committee’s investigation continues. We will continue to provide the transparency and accountability owed to the American people,” he added.
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Steven Richards joined Just the News in August 2023 after previously working as a Research Analyst for the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) in Tallahassee, Florida. He is a two-time graduate of Florida State University with a Masters in Political Science and a B.S. in International Affairs.
Photo “Joe and Hunter Biden” by Ben Stanfield CC2.0.
