Hunter Biden saga: Washington Post cites emails from laptop on business ties with uncle James Biden

The Washington Post is continuing to rely on Hunter Biden's infamous laptop it previously dismissed during the 2020 presidential election, this time shedding light on his business dealings with his uncle and President Biden's brother, James Biden. 

In a profile about the First Family relative, the Post began its report by citing a 2017 text exchange James Biden had with his nephew which came "from a copy of a hard drive that Hunter Biden purportedly dropped off at a repair shop and never retrieved," noting the emails used in its reporting "were authenticated by two forensic analysts."

"James and Hunter Biden were in the midst of a lucrative deal with Chinese executives at the time, while Joe Biden was out of public service for the first time in nearly a half-century, having left the vice presidency a few months earlier," the Post wrote on Tuesday. "Hunter Biden turned to his uncle, at least as much as to his famous father, for emotional support. Hunter also relied upon James Biden, who goes by Jim and is known as Jimmy within the family, on matters of dollars and cents. Within days of that exchange, Hunter received another email from his uncle urging him to take advantage of a financial opportunity related to Joe Biden."

In an email to Hunter, James told him "You need to call me now… Just got off the phone with your father... We have the two biggest days of our business life in front of us!!!!!! We must be smart, or everything goes up in smoke! Please call me. You MUST remain calm. Timing could not be worse. Calm and measured!!!! Paybacks can come later."

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The Post referred to James Biden as "the protector in the Biden family, the one who made sure the machinery ran while his brother soared."

"Yet from the start of Joe Biden’s political career, James, who is seven years younger, has also walked up to ethical lines his brother has avoided, leaving a complicated trail of business dealings and angry lawsuits," the Post wrote.

In an interview with the Post, James Biden denied the notion that he's the family's "fixer" and "any reference that has a negative connotation, is offensive."

"The notion I am some underworld figure, and I am a fixer or the cleaner, or I’m this or that — I’m a very concerned family member who tries to protect my family in every way I can, in what is a very ethical way," he told the Post. 

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The Post noted that numerous business deals involving both he and Hunter Biden "turned sour" and that former business partners alleged the brother "would bring in business using the Biden name and connections, then failed to deliver — allegations he denies."

"James Biden was enthusiastically outlining ways for the two of them to leverage political connections in pursuit of infrastructure projects," the paper reported. "They knew officials in California, James reminded Hunter, including Gov. Jerry Brown, so they could go after rail projects in the state. There were massive projects shaping up in Minnesota, he added, where they could tap the Democratic delegation for help. In New York, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo would meet with them whenever they were ready."

The profile cited an anecdote of how James Biden, who raised money for Joe Biden's 1972 Senate campaign, accepted a $5,000 check from a labor union his brother rejected after telling the union president he couldn't commit to promises if elected. 

"The way that it was portrayed or suggested that I did something inappropriate or shady or that I crossed the line, or that I was the one that took the check, and he refused?' Total, absolute bulls---," James Biden defended himself. "This notion I did something that he wouldn’t do? Give me a break."

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After his brother was elected as Delaware's senator, James Biden opened a nightclub in Wilmington using loans from banks Joe Biden was in touch but reporting at the time allege he "did not directly influence the loans."

"Years later, in 2000, James took out a $353,000 loan from Leonard Barrack, a prominent Biden donor, according to registry of deeds documents. Barrack simultaneously hired James’s wife, Sara, and paid nearly $250,000 for the couple to travel internationally to work generating business for his firm," the Post wrote. "But the relationship fell apart and resulted in competing lawsuits between Barrack and the Bidens over Sara Biden’s contract and compensation. Barrack’s firm claimed that, in hiring Sara Biden, James Biden had promised to help land clients in part ‘through his family name and his resemblance to his brother, United States Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware,’ but they generated business for themselves rather than the firm… The parties settled in 2004."

The Post then pointed to James and Hunter Biden's investment in the Paradigm Global Advisors hedge fund which also soured as they and their business partner sued each other for fraud in lawsuits that were later settled. 

"In another case, after teaming up with Americore Health, a Florida-based health-care company, James Biden was accused of stealing blueprints for a rural health-care business and failing to generate the international investments he’d promised," the Post wrote. "In June 2019, two medical service firms who were involved in that arrangement — Azzam Medical Services and Diverse Medical Management — sued James Biden and his business partners. Among other things, they alleged James had cited his family connections and promised that Joe Biden would promote the firms’ health-care model in his 2020 campaign. They also alleged that James touted Joe Biden’s connections to the labor movement and the Department of Veterans Affairs, promising the plaintiffs he’d help them win federal contracts and expand their model nationwide. James Biden’s attorneys disputed many of the allegations in the lawsuit, which was settled in 2020."

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The report went on to cite the Biden duo's multimillion-dollar 2017 deal with a Chinese energy company which gave Hunter Biden a $100,000 monthly stipend while his uncle received $65,000 "according to records on the copy of Hunter Biden’s hard drive, as well as bank documents obtained by Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa)." 

"James and Hunter Biden have declined to respond to questions about this arrangement," the paper noted. 

The Washington Post first revealed in March that it had authenticated Hunter Biden's laptop. But in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election, the paper largely kept its readers in the dark as to the seriousness of the Hunter Biden scandal.

The Post first addressed the Biden controversy on Oct. 14, 2020, the day the New York Post broke its story, using a variation of the "Republicans pounce" trope to frame the story, running the headline, "Three weeks before Election Day, Trump allies go after Hunter — and Joe — Biden."

Right out of the gate, the report expressed heavy skepticism towards the legitimacy of Hunter Biden's emails and sowed doubt in the GOP sources who first obtained the laptop.

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"President Trump’s personal attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani and his former top adviser Stephen K. Bannon, who have attracted the scrutiny of U.S. authorities for their political dealings in recent months, helped make public private materials purported to belong to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s son in an attempt to swing support to the struggling incumbent," the Post wrote. "The Washington Post was unable to verify the authenticity of the alleged emails and other correspondence that the New York Post published Wednesday and said had come from the younger Biden’s computer and hard drive."

The report attempted to tie the New York Post's reporting to Russia by highlighting Giuliani's past interactions with Ukrainian lawmaker Andriy Derkach, who the U.S Treasury had sanctioned for being an "active Russian agent interfering in the 2020 campaign, which Derkach has denied."

It went on to claim the story "did not markedly advance what is already known about Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings, other than to suggest that at one point he gave Vadym Pozharskyi, a Ukrainian business colleague, ‘an opportunity’ to meet his father. The Biden campaign said the vice president’s schedule indicated no such meeting."

Other media outlets including The New York Times, NBC News and Politico all similarly verified the laptop in recent months after dismissing it in 2020.