by Steven Richards and John Solomon
Newly-disclosed emails show a Chinese businessman who partnered with Hunter Biden’s Burnham firm was primarily motivated by access rather than financial considerations, bolstering the House Oversight Committee’s contention that the Biden name was the commodity being sold by the younger Biden.
In late February, impeachment witness Jason Galanis—one of Hunter Biden’s partners in the Burnham venture—told Congress the firm served as place to integrate the “Biden Family Office” with a “large-scale financial company.”
Galanis gave his testimony to Congress from inside federal prison where he is serving a sentence for a conviction related to a fraudulent tribal bonds scheme he carried out alongside Hunter Biden partner Devon Archer.
“The entire value-add of Hunter Biden to our business was his family name and his access to his father, Vice President Joe Biden,” he said in his opening statement to congressional investigators, Just the News previously reported.
Emails recently obtained by Just the News show Henry Zhao—owner of Harvest Fund Management, which would partner with Burnham and Hunter Biden—was interested in the partnership because of the “access” the firm could provide him, rather than primary financial concerns.
In a “Punch List” listing tasks to be completed which was circulated among the Burnham group, one employee highlighted Zhao’s motivations in unambiguous terms, summarizing statements Hunter Biden made at a firm meeting.
“[During] yesterday’s meeting Hunter underlined the value of being cautiously conservative in valuation as Henry believes in this first and foremost as an access vehicle with potential for future growth,” one employee said.
“And so it’s clear, this is from another person, you know, commenting on what Hunter was saying in this meeting, that they’re viewing this as…Joe Biden access. This is not…the financial…wherewithal of this Burnham company, you know, talented guys, to be sure, but it’s really the fact that it’s Joe Biden, who’s involved the Biden name, Biden family, that’s going to help develop business and and make money for these guys,” Mark Paoletta, the lawyer for Jason Galanis, told the “John Solomon Reports” podcast in an episode set to air Thursday.
In his testimony before the Oversight Committee, Galanis further made clear why Zhao was so eager to partner with Hunter Biden and his associates despite having the backing from some of the largest financial firms in China.
“Mr. Zhao was interested in this partnership because of the game-changing value add of the Biden family, including Joe Biden, who was to be a member of the Burnham-Harvest team post-vice presidency, providing political access in the United States and around the world,” Galanis said in his opening statement.
The prospect of Joe Biden joining the firm after the end of his vice presidency was attractive for the Chinese businessman. The team further planned to emphasize this expectation to Zhao, evidence of which is found in a draft email the team planned to have Hunter Biden send him.
“We are excited by the prospect of being able to work side-by-side with Harvest by way of a globally recognized platform. Please pass along my regards to Henry and let him know that what we discussed during our last lunch together in Beijing still holds true; Rosemont Seneca will be folded into the Burnham Harvest entity as soon as the deal closes thereby giving us all the solid well regarded global platform from which we can conduct our mutual business,” the draft email reads.
“Michael please also remind Henry of our conversation about a board seat for a certain relation of mine. Devon and I golfed with that relation earlier last week and we discussed this very idea again and as always he remains very very keen on the opportunity,” the email continues.
“FYI…example of lean in on Henry from Hunter…this is email drafted for him to send Henry,” Devon Archer wrote to Galanis when he forwarded the draft.
The paragraph mentioning Hunter’s “relation” was eventually edited out of the letter, but shows the Burnham team was under the impression that Hunter Biden wanted to use access to his father and family name to further sell the partnership to Zhao.
In his testimony to House investigators, Galanis said the objective of the Burnham group was “to build a diversified private equity platform, which would be anchored by a globally known Wall Street brand together with a globally known political name.” That name would be Biden.
In addition to his name—or perhaps because of it—Hunter Biden worked to secure “strategic relationships to the venture, including from Kazakhstan, Russia and China,” Galanis said.
Hunter Biden brought a miniature United Nations of investors or partners to the table. These included Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina, Kazakhstani oligarch Kenes Rakishev, and Chinese businessman Henry Zhao, according to Galanis. Emails from Hunter’s laptop show that he had even grander designs to include “billionaires” from other continents like Miguel Aleman Magnani, scion of the Mexican Alemán family, who has close connections to Hunter Biden.
These names are already very familiar to the impeachment inquiry investigators, who have assembled considerable evidence showing that Joe Biden met with nearly all his son’s foreign clients and traced payments or business agreements in close proximity to these meetings.
Biden repeatedly denied ever meeting with any of his son’s business partners, though these claims are challenged by his own son’s recollections. For example, Hunter Biden said that he and his father only had a “cup of coffee” with Chinese associate Jonathan Li, who ran a private equity fund, BHR Partners, in which Hunter was a board member.
Abbe Lowell, Hunter Biden’s lawyer, did not respond to a request for comment from Just the News.
In his testimony before the impeachment investigators, Hunter Biden accused Galanis and other witnesses of lying, highlighting the fact that Galanis is serving a prison sentence for fraud.
“You have built your entire partisan house of cards on lies told by the likes of Gal Luft, Tony Bobulinski, Alexander Smirnov, and Jason Galanis,” Hunter Biden told the committee. Neither Gal Luft nor Alexander Smirnov has testified before the inquiry.
“Rather than follow the facts as they’ve been laid out before you in bank records, financial statements, correspondence, and other witness testimony, you continue your frantic search to prove the lies you and those you rely upon keep peddling. Yes, they are lies,” Biden added.
On Wednesday, both Hunter Biden and Galanis were invited to testify alongside one another at a public hearing before the House Oversight Committee by its GOP Chairman, James Comer. Also invited were former business partners Tony Bobulinski and Devon Archer.
Chairman Comer said he hopes the public forum will allow his committee to parse the discrepancies between Hunter Biden’s testimony and that of the other business partners about how Joe Biden may have been involved in his son’s deals.
“During our deposition and interview phase of the investigation, Hunter Biden confirmed evidence about Joe Biden’s involvement, yet his testimony conflicts with other witnesses’ testimonies. Given the President son’s repeated calls for a public hearing, I fully expect Hunter Biden to appear for a scheduled Oversight Committee hearing on March 20, alongside Biden family business associates,” Comer said in a statement.
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Steven Richards joined Just the News in August 2023 after previously working as a Research Analyst for the Government Accountability Institute (GAI) in Tallahassee, Florida. He is a two-time graduate of Florida State University with a Masters in Political Science and a B.S. in International Affairs. John Solomon is an award-winning investigative journalist, author and digital media entrepreneur who serves as Chief Executive Officer and Editor in Chief of Just the News.
Photo “Hunter and Joe Biden” by Louise Palanker. CC BY-SA 2.0.
