Joe Biden is being further exposed to scrutiny for his involvement in Hunter Biden’s business dealings, as a resurfaced photograph taken on Air Force 2 on December 6, 2015 shows the former vice president alongside an adviser closely connected to his troubled son and Ukrainian gas company Burisma.
The photo was taken shortly before Joe Biden arrived in Ukraine at a meeting with the president and threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. aid if they did not fire their top prosecutor Viktor Shokin.
Amos Hochstein, now a special presidential coordinator for President Biden, is pictured in the photo below. He allegedly had interactions with Hunter and his contacts at Ukraine’s Burisma Holdings when Biden’s son was a board member.
A photograph by White House photographer David Lienemann depicts Biden receiving an update from Hochstein on Air Force Two.
The photo shows that Joe Biden was discussing issues with a Hunter Biden ally who was being kept abreast of Burisma’s issues days before he issued an ultimatum to former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to fire the top prosecutor or risk losing the billion dollars in U.S. aid.
Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik (R-NY) provided reaction to the photo to Fox News Digital.
“This damning picture of then Vice President Joe Biden on Air Force Two en route to Ukraine talking with Amos Hochstein is just further evidence that Biden and senior officials in the Biden Administration not only knew of Hunter Biden’s corrupt foreign business dealings, but also that Joe Biden was intimately involved while Vice President,” Stefanik said.
“At the time of this photo, Hochstein was in communication with Hunter Biden and Burisma where Hunter served on the board,” she continued. “We also know that this photo was taken on Air Force Two ahead of Joe Biden’s now infamous meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, where Biden threatened to have aid withheld if a Ukrainian prosecutor investigating Burisma was not fired.”
“All evidence points directly to Joe Biden being deeply compromised. House Republicans will leave no stone unturned in our investigations into Biden’s involvement in his family’s influence peddling scheme,” Stefanik added.
A Senate Republican report from December 2020 on Hunter’s business activities indicates that in October 2015, Hochstein expressed concerns that Hunter’s role on the Burisma board might jeopardize U.S. policy in Ukraine.
In the 2020 report, Hochstein testified that he discussed Burisma with Biden in the White House’s West Wing in October 2015. Visitor records show he made three visits to the White House that month, with two taking place in the West Wing and one on its second floor.
When Hochstein testified before Congress, he declined on advice of counsel to testify about the substance of his conversations with Vice President Biden.