- Emails from Hunter's laptop reveal Joe Biden agreed to pay his son's legal fees for his deal with a Chinese government-controlled company
- Joe was able to pay the bills after earning millions of dollars through his and his wife's companies after he left office as vice president
- But an analysis by DailyMail.com of the president's financial records shows $5.2million is unexplained
- The 'missing millions' and emails on Hunter's abandoned laptop suggest Joe would have a 10% share in Hunter's blockbuster deal with the Chinese
- The revelation ties the president even closer to Hunter's overseas business dealings, despite the White House's denials
Joe Biden agreed to pay son Hunter's legal fees for his deal with a Chinese government-controlled company, emails reveal.
The revelation ties the president even closer to Hunter's overseas business dealings – and makes his previous claims that he never discussed them with his son, even less plausible.
Joe was able to pay the bills after earning millions of dollars through his and his wife's companies after he left office as vice president.
Some of the wave of cash came from their book deals and speaking engagements.
But the president's financial filings reveal that he declared almost $7million more income on his tax returns than he did on his government transparency reports, an analysis by DailyMail.com of the president's financial records shows.
Some of that difference can be accounted for with salaries earned by First Lady Jill Biden and other sums not required on his reports – but still leaves $5.2million earned by Joe's company and not listed on his transparency reports.
The 'missing millions' – combined with emails on Hunter's abandoned laptop suggesting Joe would have a 10% share in Hunter's blockbuster deal with the Chinese – raise a troubling question: did Joe Biden receive money from the foreign venture?
Emails reveal Joe Biden agreed to pay Hunter's legal fees for a deal with a Chinese government-controlled company
In January 2019, Hunter's assistant Katie Dodge wrote an email to book-keeper Linda Shapero and Biden aide Richard Ruffner, saying Joe had agreed to pay his hundreds of thousands of dollars of bills
One of the last items on a spreadsheet of Hunter's bills was $28,000 in legal fees for the 'restructuring' of Hunter's joint venture with the Chinese government-controlled Bank of China. The spreadsheet listed the bill as 'Faegre Baker Daniels: BHR Restructuring' costing $28,382 and due 'ASAP'.
In January 2019, Hunter's assistant Katie Dodge wrote an email to book-keeper Linda Shapero and Biden aide Richard Ruffner, saying Joe had agreed to pay his hundreds of thousands of dollars of bills.
The math behind Joe's missing $5.2million
The president's financial filings show that he declared almost $7million more income on his tax returns than he did on his government transparency reports, raising the question: where did the extra cash come from?
Joe Biden's Office of Government Ethics (OGE) filings:
- 2017 - May 2019 filing:Jill and Joe Biden income of $8,699,787
- Income attributable to Joe Biden’s company CelticCapri Corp: $7,451,727
May 2019 – 2020 filing:
- Income of $907,160
- CelticCapri Corp income: $613,737
Total: $9,606,947, including $8,065,464 from CelticCapri
Joe Biden’s federal tax returns:
- 2017 Income of $11,031,309CelticCapri Corp income: $9,636,690
- 2018 Income of $4,580,437CelticCapri Corp income: $3,030,667
- 2019 Income of $985,233CelticCapri Corp income: $578,178
- Total: $16,596,979, including $13,245,535 from CelticCapri
- Tax return versus OGE difference: $6,990,032
Unaccounted-for difference from CelticCapri: $5,180,071
'I spoke with Hunter today regarding his bills. It is my understanding that Hunt's dad will cover these bills in the short-term as Hunter transitions in his career,' Dodge said.
The assistant attached a spreadsheet of bills with the email, totaling $737,130.61.
One of the last items was $28,000 in legal fees for the 'restructuring' of Hunter's joint venture with the government-controlled Bank of China.
The spreadsheet listed the bill as 'Faegre Baker Daniels: BHR Restructuring' costing $28,382 and due 'ASAP'.
BHR ('Bohai Harvest RST') is a private equity firm and one of Hunter's two major Chinese business ventures. The joint venture was co-owned by the state-controlled Bank of China.
Hunter's personal attorney, George Mesires, is a partner at Faegre Baker Daniels, now called Faegre Drinker.
A separate October 2018 invoice from the law firm shows Hunter spent a total $68,933.41 on the 'restructuring' beginning in September 2016.
The same year Joe took on these bills from Hunter, he promised that 'No one in my family will have an office in the White House, will sit in on meetings as if they are a cabinet member, will, in fact, have any business relationship with anyone that relates to a foreign corporation or a foreign country.'
Yet not only did Hunter hold on to his 10% share of BHR through 2021, confirmed by White House press secretary Jen Psaki last February, the emails also indicate Joe knew about it, and even agreed to pay Hunter's legal fees for the...