A former chair to President Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign has been found to have accepted donations from Hunter Biden and sought advice on Ukraine, according to emails obtained by Fox News.
Democratic Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE), one of Biden’s national co-chairs along with Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), was receiving donations from the embattled first son as far back as 2016 during her first campaign for Congress. Emails between Blunt Rochester and Hunter Biden show the congresswoman thanking him for “generous contributions” totaling $3,000. Fox previously reported that Hunter Biden served as an outside advisor to Sen. Coons during his 2010 campaign, making Rep. Blunt Rochester the second Biden campaign co-chair to seek his advice on international affairs.
“I can’t thank you enough. You know that it’s not easy running for any office. It means a lot to have you on my team,” Rep. Blunt Rochester wrote to Hunter Biden in February of 2016.
Less than an hour later, Hunter Biden replied with promises of a second fundraiser to which Blunt Rochester asked if he could brief her “on the Ukraine.”
The correspondence started just one day after Hunter Biden thanked the president of Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings for gifts he received for his birthday. The first son was a member of the company’s board between 2013 and 2019.
The House Oversight Committee, led by Rep. James Comer (R-KY), is exploring whether Hunter Biden committed any crimes during his time as a lobbyist on behalf of Burisma and other foreign companies. Key to the investigation is whether President Biden, then Vice President, was aware or even sanctioned any illegal activity. Newly released emails show Hunter Biden was regularly emailing the Obama White House about his lobbying work, giving his father clear access to his business dealings. As Vice President, Joe Biden took a leading role in pressuring Ukraine to fire state actors he believed to be corrupt, though the president has maintained his actions in the country were not related to his son’s lobbying efforts.
On Thursday Rep. Comer unveiled that the FBI spoke with an informant as far back as 2016 who claimed President Biden accepted a bribe as part of Hunter Biden’s work in Ukraine. The tip came at the same time that Rep. Blunt Rochester was accepting Hunter Biden’s advice on Ukraine.