On Monday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki refused to answer lingering questions about whether or not Joe Biden’s son Hunter has sold his stake in a suspicious Chinese private equity firm, as reported by the New York Post.
It was reported back in April that Hunter’s company, Skaneateles LLC owned a 10 percent share of BHR Partners, a Chinese company which is controlled by the government-run Bank of China. In Monday’s press briefing, Newsmax White House Correspondent Emerald Robinson asked if Hunter’s company had finally sold that stake, to which Psaki said that she would “point you to his representatives on that. He doesn’t work in the administration.”
But Robinson reminded Psaki that Joe Biden “said during the campaign that none of his family will have any business relationship with anyone that relates to a foreign corporation or a foreign country.” She then presented a follow-up question, asking if it would be “assuring to the American people, as we head into this, if they just let the American people know if Hunter has divulged himself of that,” to which Psaki interrupted her and once again suggested that she “talk to his representatives.”
When Robinson attempted to simply ask another question, Psaki falsely accused her of yelling and moved on to another reporter’s question.
Hunter’s ties to BHR date back to 2013, shortly after the Chinese company was first created. In that same year, Hunter’s previous company, Rosemont Seneca Partners, originally owned a 30 percent stake in BHR along with the Thornton Group, which was run by James Bulger, son of Massachusetts State Senator Billy Bulger and nephew of infamous crime boss James “Whitey” Bulger. Hunter was an unpaid member of the board for several years, only taking a personal equity stake in the company in 2017, shortly after his father’s tenure as Vice President came to an end.
During his father’s time as Vice President, Hunter traveled to China aboard Air Force Two in 2013, where he eventually arranged a meeting between his father and Johnathan Li, the future CEO of BHR Partners.
Hunter’s long history of shady international business deals has repeatedly brought scrutiny to his family’s abuse of power for political and financial profit, although the elder Biden has repeatedly insisted that there has been no wrongdoing. The most infamous example is Hunter’s tenure on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings, which eventually came under investigation by the country’s Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin; when then-Vice President Biden found out that his son’s company was being investigated, he threatened to withhold $1 billion in American aid to Ukraine unless Shokin was fired, which he ultimately was.