New documents unveiled in an explosive Senate report Wednesday show former Secretary of State John Kerry lied to reporters when asked whether he was aware of former Vice President Joe Biden’s son serving in a lucrative board position for a Ukrainian energy company.
“I had no knowledge about any of that. None. No,” Kerry said in December last year at the height of President Donald Trump’s impeachment process, which shed light on the Biden family’s conflicts of interest in Ukraine.
In a gaggle with reporters after @JoeBiden's town hall in Nashua, NH, I asked @JohnKerry, who was Sec of State at the time, if he knew and was comfortable when Hunter Biden joined the board of Burisma:
"I had no knowledge about any of that. None. No." pic.twitter.com/j3lazGcbhb
— Amanda Golden (@amandawgolden) December 8, 2019
The new joint report out from the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee with the Senate Treasury Committee, however, shows otherwise.
According to congressional investigators, Kerry’s Chief of Staff David Wade briefed Kerry on press inquiries specifically related to Hunter Biden’s arrangement of recently joining the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. Records show Hunter Biden raked in upwards of $50,000 a month from serving on the board despite no prior experience in the industry. A Federalist analysis shows Hunter Biden was being compensated far higher than board members on the leadership of larger corporations in the same field.
Wade told the committee investigators that he relayed to Kerry that the secretary’s stepson, Christopher Heinz’s, business partners Hunter Biden and Devon Archer both joined the board of Burisma but that Heinz had refrained from getting involved with the company. Below is a transcript of Wade’s interview with the Senate probe, emphasis theirs:
Question: What was Secretary Kerry’s reaction to you informing him of these news inquiries about Mr. Heinz and the additional information regarding Mr. Archer’s [and] Mr. Hunter Biden’s connection and involvement with Burisma?
Wade: He knew nothing about it.
Question: So he learned about this information from you?
Wade: I believe so, yeah.
Separately, Senate officials noted, State Department officials forwarded articles to the secretary with headlines, “Biden’s son joins Ukrainian gas company’s board,” “Biden’s son joins Ukrainian gas producer board,” and “White House says no issue with Biden’s son, Ukrainian gas company.”
