Biden’s Secretary of state pick Antony Blinken met with Hunter in 2015

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• On Tuesday, Fox News reported that Hunter Biden, after making it to the Burisma gas company board in 2015, met with his father’s pick for secretary of state Antony Blinken.
• The report obtained email exchanges from Hunter and Blinken, where the incoming presidential son invited the former deputy secretary of state for a sit-down meeting.
• Republican senators Chuck Grassley (Iowa) and Ron Johnson (Wis.) said that Hunter’s job in Burisma was a “conflict of interest” since Joe Biden was accountable for the nation’s foreign policy in Ukraine.

Fox News reported on Tuesday that in 2015, President-elect Joe Biden’s son Hunter met with his father’s pick as secretary of state Antony Blinken, after becoming a board member of a Ukrainian gas company. 

Hunter reportedly emailed Blinken, who was then the country’s deputy secretary of state, asking for an in-person meeting, per Fox News.

“Have a few minutes next week to grab a cup of coffee? I know you are impossibly busy, but would like to get your advice on a couple of things,” Hunter reportedly emailed on May 22, 2015.

Fox News said that Blinken responded with a yes, as the message thread continued to set the date and place.

The meeting was set on May 27, 2015, at 3:30 pm, per Blinken’s associate email to Hunter, the report said.

The Washington Post, however, reported last year that the meeting did not proceed since Hunter’s older brother, Beau, was succumbing to brain cancer, who passed away on May 30, 2015.

In July 2015, Blinken and Hunter had a get-together and “spoke about Beau and the Biden family.” A source familiar with the meeting told the Post that the two did not discuss the topic on Burisma.

According to Fox News, the emails between the two men were obtained last year through the Freedom of Information Act, as requested from the State Department by GOP senators Chuck Grassley (Iowa) and Ron Johnson (Wis.).

In an 87-page report issued last September, the two Republican senators claimed that when Hunter joined the Burisma company board in May 2015, President Barack Obama’s administration dismissed the “glaring warning signs.”

The report argued that Hunter’s stint, where he made a monthly income of $50,000, had “created an immediate potential conflict of interest” since his father took part in the US’ policy with Ukraine.

On Tuesday, the President-elect officially said that he would nominate Blinken as secretary of state. Biden said that Blinken will “rebuild morale and trust in the State Department, or where his career in government began,” adding that his appointee is “ready on Day One” and “starts off with the kind of relationships around the world that many of his predecessors have had to build over the years.” 

Both Hunter’s attorney and Joe’s transition team have yet to respond to a comment request.

Source: New York Post