New emails show that Joe Biden’s White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain contacted Hunter Biden in September of 2012 for help in raising $20,000 for the Vice President’s Residence Foundation, urging him to “keep this low low key” to avoid “bad PR.”
People may lie, but emails will always reveal the truth!
Klain had left his chief of staff position in then-Vice President Biden’s office a year prior to the emails, but served as the foundation’s chairman at the time. He told Hunter he needed to “tackle a piece of unpleasant business” and needed Hunter’s help.
The Vice President’s Residence Foundation is a nonprofit entity used to assist in preserving and furnishing the official residence of the vice president in Washington D.C.
“The tax lawyers for the VP Residence Foundation have concluded that since the Cheney folks last raised money in 2007 and not 2008, we actually have to have some incoming funds before the end of this fiscal year (i.e., before 9/30/12 - next week) to remain eligible to be a ‘public charity,’” Klain wrote in an email to Hunter.
“It’s not much - we need to raise a total of $20,000 - so I’m hitting up a few very close friends on a very confidential basis to write checks of $2,000 each,” he continued. “We need to keep this low low key, because raising money for the Residence now is bad PR - but it has to be done, so I’m trying to just collect the 10 checks of $2,000 to get it done in a week, and then, we can do an event for the Residence Foundation after the election.”
Hunter then forwarded the email to his longtime business partner, Eric Schwerin, who helped manage a majority of Hunter's finances. Schwerin responded by telling him that they could "discuss this and some other bills on Monday" and asked whether Hunter thought "they would take a corporate check from Owasco," which appeared to be referring to Hunter's law firm, Owasco PC.
As reported by Fox News, it remains unclear whether Hunter ended up using Owasco to donate to the foundation or if he assisted Klain in soliciting donations from other individuals. However, a 990 tax form from fiscal year 2012 shows that the foundation received $20,500 in contributions that year.
