Hunter Biden described one of his Chinese business associates as the “chief of intelligence” of China’s communist government, new communications released by House Republicans show.
As part of their investigation into President Joe Biden and his family’s foreign influence peddling scheme, the House Ways and Means Committee released a bevy of communication records on Wednesday documenting how Hunter sold the Biden “brand” to overseas business associates to increase the family’s fortunes. Included in the released records is a WhatsApp text exchange between Hunter and Hallie Biden — who was the widow of Joe’s other son, Beau, and dated Hunter after Beau’s passing — that offers further insight into Hunter’s business dealings with Chinese businessmen connected to the People’s Republic of China.
In his Dec. 14, 2018, message to Hallie, Hunter laments how he’d “chosen to alienate all [his] friends and family and employees and you and the kids and my kids etc.” and finds himself “dealing with rebuilding an income that can support an enormous alimony and my kids costs and myself.”
But Hunter doesn’t stop there. In the same message, he goes on to list various issues plaguing him at that moment in time, including “the arrest and conviction of my client the chief of intelligence of the people’s republic of China by the US government.”
While unnamed in the WhatsApp message, the figure referenced by Hunter appears to be Patrick Ho, a Chinese businessman and Hunter’s client who was convicted by the Department of Justice for bribing the presidents of several African countries nine days prior to Hunter’s Dec. 14, 2018, message. According to the New York Post, Ho is considered to be a “top lieutenant” of Ye Jianming, a Chinese businessman with ties to China’s military and the head of CEFC China Energy, a Chinese conglomerate that purportedly “provided $6 million to the Biden family.”
Some of these payments were allegedly siphoned to Joe’s brother, James Biden.
In early 2017, Hunter reportedly worked for Ye “as a counselor and adviser” and was later hired by CEFC in September 2017 to serve as Ho’s defense attorney “despite his little experience in criminal defense.” Following his arrest two months later in November 2017, Ho called James Biden, who has said he believes the call was actually meant for Hunter.
Bank records obtained by Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley’s office indicate that Hunter — who previously referred to Ho as “the f-cking spy chief of China” — was paid $1 million for representing the Chinese businessman. According to Yahoo News!, however, “it is not clear what work, if any, [Hunter] did for Ho,” with court records of Ho’s case “show[ing] no indication that Biden or his law firm at the time … participated in Ho’s legal defense.”
Ho was ultimately sentenced to three years in prison in March 2019, according to the DOJ.
In his Dec. 14, 2018, text to Hallie, Hunter also appeared to reference Ye, lamenting how he’s had to deal “with the aftermath of the abduction and likely assassination (that’s what NYT’s suspects) of my business partner,” who he refers to as “the richest man in the world.” An audio recording found on Hunter’s laptop indicates the president’s son repeating these same descriptors when discussing Ye, who according to Reuters, “disappeared from public view” in March 2018.
Biden also fretted that he was dealing with “my suspected involvement in brokering a deal with Vladimir Putin directly for the largest sale of oil gas assets inside Russia to China, a tax bill that Eric left hanging over my business and … Dads running for president.”
