Paul Sonne, Michael Kranish and Matt Viser – Wash. Post
September 28, 2019 at 8:08 p.m. EDT
When then-Vice President Joe Biden’s son joined the board of an obscure Ukrainian gas company half a decade ago, it was a stunning coup for its owner, a former Ukrainian minister working to remake the company’s image as he faced a money-laundering investigation.
For Hunter Biden, the job came with risks: Ukraine was in the throes of political upheaval, and there was building scrutiny of former government officials profiting in the lucrative gas industry. His father was the face of the Obama administration’s effort to get Ukraine to crack down on corruption.
The region was so unsettled that one of Hunter Biden’s investment firm partners at the time — former secretary of state John F. Kerry’s stepson — believed that joining the board of Burisma Holdings was a bad idea and ended his business relationship with Biden and another partner, his spokesman told The Washington Post.
Now, more than five years later, with Joe Biden running for president, Hunter Biden’s decision to get involved with the Ukrainian firm is the backdrop of an extraordinary whistleblower complaint against President Trump that is reshaping the 2020 political landscape.
Staring down impeachment, Trump sees himself as a victim of historic proportions
Revelations that Trump, along with his personal attorney, Rudolph W. Giuliani, pressed the Ukrainians to pursue investigations into Burisma and examine the role of the Bidens have triggered an impeachment inquiry in the House, with allegations that Trump withheld U.S. support for Ukraine to ensure Kiev investigated his potential rival in the presidential election.
No evidence of criminal wrongdoing by the Bidens has surfaced. Giuliani’s primary allegation — that Joe Biden pushed for the firing of Ukraine’s top prosecutor to quash a probe into the former minister and Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky — is not substantiated and has been widely disputed by former U.S. officials and Ukrainian anti-corruption activists.
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Still, Hunter Biden’s decision to associate himself with the company has raised an uncomfortable question the Biden campaign is struggling to explain: Why didn’t the vice president take steps to head off a perceived conflict of interest between his efforts to crack down on corruption in Ukraine and his son’s work for a gas tycoon investigated for abusing his position as a government official?
“Why didn’t Joe Biden tell Hunter, ‘Come off it. What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ ” said Oliver Bullough, a British journalist on the advisory board of the Anti-Corruption Action Center, or AntAC, a nonprofit in Ukraine.
For some Ukrainians, Hunter Biden’s association with Burisma undermined his father’s calls to end corruption in Ukraine. It also raised concerns that prosecutors would avoid pursuing alleged wrongdoing by Zlochevsky out of fear that the former minister had high-level connections in the United States — the critical backer of the Ukrainian government at the time.
Inside the vice president’s office, there was discussion about whether Hunter’s position on the board would be perceived as a conflict of interest, according to several former aides who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private conversations.
One former adviser was concerned enough to mention it to the vice president, according to an adviser, but the conversation was brief, and other aides said they didn’t want — or see a need — to raise the issue.
Former U.S. officials who worked with Biden maintain that his son’s activities in no way influenced his actions regarding Ukraine as vice president.
“Is there an appearance issue?” a former adviser said. “Of course there’s an appearance issue. But did it actually create wrongdoing? No.”
At the time, the White House said that Hunter Biden was a private citizen and that the vice president didn’t endorse any company in Ukraine. While vice president, Joe Biden did not comment publicly on his son’s role at Burisma.
What specific duties Hunter Biden carried out for Burisma are not fully known. A lawyer for Hunter Biden, George R. Mesires, declined to say how much his client earned, or whether the vice president’s son knew the company’s owner was in the crosshairs of authorities when he joined.
