BREAKING: Hunter Biden ‘Coached’ VP-Biden’s Staff on How to Approach Ukraine Job

According to a new report, Hunter Biden coached then-Vice President Joe Biden’s staff about how to approach questions relating to his corrupt position at Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company.

On Friday, a complaint was sent to the Justice Department alleging that Hunter Biden, who is now 53 years old, violated federal law by not registering as a foreign agent. The complaint is based on exchanges between Hunter and Kendra Barkoff on May 13, 2014, which were previously unreported.

“In advising the Office of the Vice President how to respond to press inquiries about his appointment, Hunter Biden ‘represent[ed] the interests of [a] foreign principal before any agency or official of the Government of the United States,’” said America First Legal Foundation general counsel Gene Hamilton to the assistant attorney general for national security, Matthew Olsen.

On May 12, 2014, Burisma announced Hunter Biden had joined their board of directors. The next day, Barkoff sent Hunter an email: “Thanks for talking to me. [L]et me know who I should refer folks to.”

“What exactly are they asking?” Hunter replied. “For the time being I’d just refer them to my office. FYI I joined the board of Burisma Holdings Ltd. (Burisma.com) an independent/private natural gas producer in Ukraine along with the former president of Poland. I think the press release is on their website.”

Barkoff sent Hunter an email from foreign correspondent at BuzzFeed News Max Seddon.

“Russian state media is loving this press release, supposedly from a Cypriot-held Ukrainian natural gas company, claiming that the Vice President’s son has joined its board of directors,” Seddon said, while referring to then-National Security Council spokesperson Laura Lucas Magnuson, who sent it to Barkoff.

“The news seems rather odd on its face and, if true, would present a fairly glaring conflict of interest given the VP’s role on Ukraine policy – particularly since the company is controlled by Nikolai Zlochevsky, who was energy minister and deputy NSC chief under [former pro-Moscow Ukrainian President Viktor] Yanukovych,” the reporter went on. “Is this true? What exactly is going on here?”

“Interesting,” Hunter replied. “Burisma is completely independent of the Ukrainian government with an independent board of directors. [Zlochevsky] served as Minister of Ecology and resigned in 2010. I joined the board as legal adviser and Burisma also engaged the law firm I am of counsel to Boies Schiller Flexner on matters pertaining to corporate governance, transparency, and expansion. Alana Apter former head of Morgan Stanley Europe is chairman of the board.”

Barkoff told Hunter to let them know who to refer media inquiries to.

“Eric he’s cc’d here,” Hunter said, referring to business partners, Eric Schwerin — who then replied in: “Kendra, I am around the next few days if you need me.”

“If anything beyond referring questions to my office is required from you or counsel you can contact Heather King at Boise Schiller,” Hunter said Barkoff.

“Hunter Biden is a private citizen and a lawyer,” the statement from VP-Biden’s office said after it got Hunter’s stamp of approval. “The Vice President does not endorse any particular company and has no involvement with this company. For any additional questions, I refer you to Hunter’s office.”

The New York Post reports:

The AFL complaint also noted that Hunter wrote Barkoff on June 26 to tell her: “I am really sorry but I have to cancel call today” — suggesting, according to the organization, that he “had ongoing discussions about the matter with the Office of Vice President that continued for nearly a month and a half.”

The America First Legal Foundation, founded by Stephen Miller, a former senior adviser to President Donald Trump, claimed the discussions with Barkoff showed “Hunter Biden is Burisma’s agent and subject to FARA registration because he was an officer of Burisma and represented Burisma’s interests to the Office of the Vice President in addition to advising on a public relations matter.”

Attorneys for Hunter Biden and spokespeople for the Justice Department did not immediately respond to The Post’s requests for comment.

FARA refers to the Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, which requires individuals or companies lobbying on behalf of foreign governments, organizations or nationals to register with the Justice Department and state their activities, compensation, and relationship to the overseas concern.

Burisma hired Hunter Biden to serve as a board member in 2014 when his vice president father was leading the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy and paid him up to $1 million per year, despite no relevant energy industry experience.

The statute was notably used in 2018 to indict former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort, who later pleaded guilty to failing to register as an agent of Yanukovych’s government.