Biden begins Mexico trip as GOP prepares to probe 2016 trip with Hunter to meet Mexican billionaire

President Joe Biden arrived in Mexico City Sunday night, but his son Hunter’s business dealings followed him again, in what could be an early preview of two years of Republican investigations.

Biden is currently hunkered down in his hotel, after arriving Sunday night following his three-hour visit to the border in El Paso.

It isn’t his first trip here by a long stretch. He was here in 2016, where he apologized for ‘heated rhetoric’ during the presidential campaign by then-candidate Donald Trump. That was a trip where he was accompanied by son Hunter Biden and Hunter’s business partner Jeff Cooper, in one of an array of business deals House Republicans are vowing to probe.

That trip came two years after Biden entertained Hunter and a pair of Mexican billionaires, Carlos Slim and Miguel Alemán Velasco, according to photos on Hunter’s infamous laptop.   

Biden’s first event is at the National Palace, where he will take part in a welcome ceremony with President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and Dr. Beatriz Gutiérrez Müller of Mexico.

Biden was greeted by the president, who goes by AMLO, upon arrival and the two had a chance to talk during an hour-long ride in ‘the Beast,’ Biden’s presidential limo. 

The long ride was occasioned because Biden landed at the new Felipe Angeles International Airport, a favored project of the president.

 Later Biden has a bilateral meeting with the president, followed by a three-way meeting that includes Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who is arriving Monday.

They will be joined by spouses first lady Jill Biden, Dr. Beatriz Gutiérrez Müller, and Mrs. Sophie Grégoire Trudeau.

Slim, the richest man in Mexico, regularly appears near the top of Forbes‘ list of billionaires.   

Biden entertained his son’s business associates in the vice president’s office, including Mexican billionaires Carlos Slim and Miguel Alemán Velasco.

The then-vice president also flew Hunter and his partner Jeff Cooper on Air Force 2 to Mexico City in 2016 where Hunter arranged to meet Alemán’s son for meetings over a ‘flippin gigantic’ business deal.

The revelations, laid bare in photographs and emails on Hunter’s abandoned laptop, are the latest in a growing body of evidence calling into question the president’s claim that he never spoke about business with Hunter.

In the light of shocking documents uncovered by DailyMail.com from the laptop, the president now faces serious questions – not just whether he knew about Hunter’s controversial business dealings, but also whether he was involved in facilitating them himself while vice president.

The White House continues to fail to respond to any of our questions. 

Hunter and Biden family friend Jeff Cooper hatched a plan in 2013 to invest in multiple businesses in Mexico and Latin America, using their relationship with the Mexican billionaire Alemán family whose late patriarch, Miguel Alemán Valdes, served as president of Mexico.

Cooper, an attorney who worked with Hunter’s late brother Beau Biden on asbestos claims cases and donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Biden political campaigns, was particularly excited by the venture’s prospects, writing to Hunter in February 2013: ‘This is setting up to be flippin gigantic brother.’

The prospects for profit only grew when Hunter joined the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma the following year.

He and Cooper sought the help of Valdés’ grandson, airline CEO Miguel Alemán Magnani, to forge a relationship with the richest man in Latin America, Carlos Slim, in an attempt to cash in on the privatization of the giant state-owned oil company Pemex for Burisma and themselves.

While Hunter and Cooper were working on their business plans, they managed to get the billionaires Slim, Velasco and Magnani a private ‘meeting’ with then-vice president Joe Biden.

Hunter and Cooper attended. Photos on Hunter’s laptop dated November 19, 2015 show the six men smiling and hugging in the meeting in Joe Biden’s vice presidential residence at Number One Observatory Circle, Washington DC. Emails also show the billionaires met with Joe at the White House. It is unclear what, if anything, Joe Biden discussed with the Mexican billionaires at their meetings and phone call.

The White House has repeatedly failed to answer any of DailyMail.com’s questions related to the president and his son. 

It appears there may have been multiple White House meetings, as over a year earlier Hunter emailed White House photographer David Lienemann to ask for photographs of the Alemán family with his business partner and father.

‘Do you have pictures from the lunch I had in dad’s office (I think on 2/26) with Miguel Alleman Sr. And Jr. And Jeff Cooper? If so let me know and I can send someone to pick them up,’ Hunter wrote in 2014. 

In May that year Cooper even asked Hunter if he could get the pictures signed for the Mexican billionaires.

‘Any luck on getting those other pics from the WH [White House]-Alemán visit? Or getting a few signed for Miguel and his dad?’ the attorney wrote.

The same month, Hunter excitedly sent his business partner and fellow Burisma board member Devon Archer a Forbes article titled ‘How Oil Reforms Could Trigger Mexico’s Biggest Economic Boom In A Century’.

By the end of the year, their efforts were ramping up. Cooper wrote to Hunter and Archer in December 2014: ‘I met with Miguel [Magnani] last night. He has set up mtgs with the Secty of Energy and the CEO of Pemex for Jan 12. Is there any chance that anyone from Burisma could attend?’

Then in January 2015, Hunter laid out Burisma’s plans in detail in an email to Cooper, Archer and Magnani.

He proposed the Ukrainian firm pay about $350,000 to access an oil ‘data room’ run by the Mexican Department of Energy, and laid out the structure of the proposed oil venture.

‘The first partnership will be the Alemán entity. This will consist of whomever Miguel determines is necessary to his family’s team,’ Hunter wrote. ‘I believe the current idea is that the Aleman Group will include a U.S. entity that is currently controlled by Jeff and Hunter.

‘I (in full disclosure) will most likely be granted equity (commensurate with Devon) from the Burisma side. I am also currently 50% of the equity of the U.S. Entity that conceivably would partner with the Alemán group.’

Cooper and Hunter were working business angles beyond oil. In one email from February 2015 Cooper describes a plan to pitch a payroll systems company they invested in, ePlata, to Pemex, Slim’s massive Mexican telecoms company Televisia, Walmart, Uber, and even the Mexican government.

‘Don’t forget Burisma and the non-Mexi folks too,’ Cooper added in his email to Hunter.

‘This shiznit is global, cabron.’

Joe Biden’s brother Jim also tried to cash in on the potential for bumper profits from Mexico’s huge privatization plans, but was apparently late to the party.

In May 2015, he emailed Hunter breathlessly that he had a ‘very real deal’ involving Slim and a US oil pipeline.

‘Have a very real deal with Pemex ( Carlos slim) need financing literally for a few days to a week,’ he wrote.

‘Have the seller (refinery /slims) and buyer major being delivered from pipeline in ( h/ USA) Nothing is simple but this comes very close. As always the devil is in the detail!

‘Any interest on the long skirts part? Need to know if there is any interest asap. Love you, u Jim.’

Hunter and his associates had already been planning to snare Slim as a business partner for years.

In a 2010 email a staffer at Hunter’s consultancy firm Rosemont Seneca suggested the then-richest man in the world as a potential client for a new ‘Global Risk’ advisory firm they were planning.

‘I think once we get past the test/beta phase of say 4-5 $250k projects, we target getting 5-8 clients who will pay us $1m-5m annually,’ the staffer, Neil Callahan, wrote in October 2010.

‘I don’t think any of those clients will be your typical Hedge Fund – it’s going to be Private Investors (i.e., Carlos Slim), SWFs, Select Corporations (i.e., Chevron, AON) and maybe a mega Hedge Fund.’

In 2012 a friend of Hunter working for lobbying firm Blue Star Strategies, reportedly now under a Justice Department investigation for its dealings with Burisma, suggested Slim as a potential buyer of a gambling company Hunter was partnered with.

‘Below is an article from today’s press about Slim getting into the business in Mexico. It sounds like a potential good exit strategy for your investment,’ Blue Star staffer Gabriel Zinny wrote to Cooper in April 2012.

The article’s headline was: ‘Tycoon Slim taps online gaming market in Mexico’.

By February 2015 Hunter was plotting with Cooper to pitch their latest venture, payroll processing company ePlata, to Slim and his son, Carlos Slim Jr.

‘Just wondering who is the best first major partner outside Interjet. Obviously Slims provide that if we could actually sell them on the idea and not have them just take it and create their own,’ Hunter wrote to his business partner.

His dealings with the Mexican billionaire became more involved that year. In March, Hunter wrote to Magnani to arrange a meeting with Slim and his son.

‘What dates for Carlos and Carlos were you thinking?’ he wrote. When Magnani gave him some options, the then-vice president’s son replied: ‘I’ll get you some dates later today. How are you? Wish i was back in Acapulco. Showed my Dad pictures and he wants to visit.’

‘He is welcome when ever he wants!!!!!!!!!’ a jubilant Magnani responded.

Hunter arranged a video conference with Slim in October – and it appears Joe Biden may have been involved in a second meeting or call.

‘The meeting will be on Friday in Mexico City if you can do a video conference in,’ Hunter’s Rosemont Seneca partner Eric Schwerin, wrote on October 5 2015.

A White House assistant responsible for the vice president’s diary, Kathy Chung, then emailed Hunter two days later with a list of dates from October 21 to November 6. Hunter replied: ‘Can we confirm 10/30 for Slim.’

‘Yes,’ Chung responded.

It is unclear what Slim’s ultimate involvement was in any dealings with Hunter, Burisma or Joe Biden, or what was discussed at the meetings.

In February 2016, Hunter wrote an email to Magnani revealing that in the midst of their Mexican oil deal, his father was flying him and his business partner on Air Force 2 to Mexico City, where he and Cooper would be sitting in on a meeting with the country’s president.

Joe Biden flew to Mexico on February 25 to 26, 2016 for trade talks with then-president Enrique Pena Nieto.

‘We are arriving late tonight on Air Force 2 to MX City. We will be there for Thursday – I’m attending meeting w/ President N w/ Dad. Jeff is with me on lane [sic] and we will be with us all day,’ Hunter wrote to Magnani on February 24, 2016.

The then-US vice president took Hunter and his business partner, who were setting up ‘gigantic’ business deals in Mexico, on the official trip despite recent concerns over Hunter’s potential conflicts of interest in his commercial dealings.

Two months earlier, the New York Times published a prominent story about Joe Biden visiting Ukraine to push for a corruption crackdown while Hunter had been revealed as a board member of Ukrainian gas firm Burisma, and its owner, Mykola Zlochevsky, was under investigation for alleged corruption.

By February 2016, Hunter’s Burisma colleagues had become disgruntled with Magnani, believing he had failed to deliver on greasing the wheels of their Mexican oil deal.

Hunter was reproachful to the Alemán heir in his email ahead of their Mexico city trip – and shockingly frank describing his disappointment that Magnani had failed to follow through on what Hunter understood to be a quid pro quo of favors, involving access to the vice president and stays in Magnani’s villa.

‘Would love to see but you never respond. I am really upset by it. You respond when it’s something you need. You are the most generous person I know but WTF,’ Hunter continued.

‘We have so many great things to do together and I want you at the plane when the [sic] the VP lands with your Mom and Dad and you completely ignore me.

‘I’ve looked at what your family has done and want to follow in that tradition and you always say you will help but I haven’t heard from you since I got you a mtg for Carlos and your Dad.

‘We have been talking about business deals and partnerships for 7 years. And I really appreciate you letting me stay at your resort villa…but I have brought every single person you have ever asked me to bring to the F’ing WHite House and the Vice President’s house and the inauguration and then you go completely silent – I don’t hear from you for months.

‘I don’t know what it is that I did but I’d like to know why I’ve delivered on every single thing you’ve ever asked – and you make me feel like I’ve done something to offend you.’

One of Magnani’s earlier asks to Hunter was to transfer the Mexican’s stake in their real estate firm Rosemont Realty to Magnani’s uncle.

On November 20 2014 Cooper wrote to Archer and Hunter: ‘Miguel again reiterated that he would take a discounted buyout on his Rosemont investment as long as it could happen quickly. He will then turn that money directly over to ePlata.’

The lawyer added: ‘He wants us to try to bring a Burisma exec with us on our trip… He says the Pemex CEO was extremely excited about their potential involvement and has ‘a perfect project’ for them.’

The same day as Hunter’s terse February 2016 email to Magnani, his partner in his consultancy firm, Eric Schwerin, wrote to a staffer at Rosemont Realty asking him to make the transfer to the Mexican heir’s uncle.

‘Miguel would like to transfer the ownership of his interest to his Uncle. I don’t believe any money is changing hands – he just wants to assign them to his Uncle going forward,’ Schwerin wrote.

At the time, Magnani had financial problems brewing that would culminate in a bankruptcy of his airline Interjet in 2019. By last year the firm had racked up $549.3 million in debt, according to a report by Mexican publication La Jornada.

Family photos on Hunter’s laptop dated March 2017 show him, his lover and brother’s widow Hallie Biden, and her two children Natalie and Hunter, on a yacht and at a palatial villa in San José del Cabo, Mexico. It is unclear if the location was Magnani’s holiday home.

DailyMail.com obtained a copy of Hunter’s laptop hard drive from former Steve Bannon podcast co-host Jack Maxey.

John Paul Mac Isaac, the owner of the computer store where Hunter abandoned his laptop, gave a copy of its hard drive to Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani in September last year.

Giuliani reportedly leaked documents and photos from the drive to the New York Post, and also gave a whole copy of the drive to Trump’s former advisor Bannon and his podcast co-host Maxey.