First Son Hunter Biden asked the State Department for assistance with a potentially lucrative energy product in Italy, on behalf of the Ukrainian company Burisma, while his father was vice president, according to new records obtained by Just The News and the New York Times.
The records indicated that Hunter Biden reached out at least once on behalf of the Ukrainian company to the U.S. ambassador to Italy in 2016. But U.S. officials seemed wary of Hunter Biden’s request on behalf of a foreign entity.
“I want to be careful about promising too much,” a Commerce Department official based in the U.S. Embassy in Rome wrote to Biden.
“This is a Ukrainian company and, purely to protect ourselves, U.S.G. should not be actively advocating with the government of Italy without the company going through the D.O.C. Advocacy Center.”
The acronyms referred to the U.S. government and Commerce program that supports American companies seeking business with foreign governments, according to the New York Times.
Abbe Lowell, a lawyer for Biden, told the outlet that the first son had reached out to “various people” in Italy about whether they could arrange an introduction between Burisma and the president of the Tuscany region of Italy, but that no meeting ever took place.
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