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President Joe Biden wrote a college recommendation letter for the son of Hunter Biden’s Chinese business partner in 2017, it has been claimed.
The president’s letter for the son of Jonathan Li, CEO of Chinese investment firm BHR, was sent directly to the president of Brown university through FedEx, according to a chain of emails that have resurfaced.
Biden has consistently denied having conversations with his son Hunter about his business ventures, with White House press secretary Jen Psaki as recently as Tuesday denying the pair held any such discussions.
The string of emails were sent between Li and Hunter Biden’s business associates involved in his own firm Rosemont Seneca, and specifically its joint venture with Chinese firms BHR and Bohai Capital. While Hunter himself did not send an email in the chain, he was copied in to the messages.
The emails originated from a laptop said to belong to Hunter Biden that has become the focus of intense debate around the president, his son and the media’s coverage of the laptop’s contents.
In an email dated January 3, 2017 sent to Hunter Biden and business associates Devon Archer and Jim Bulger – Jonathan Li tells the recipients he has attached the CV of his son – Christopher Li.
President Joe Biden wrote a college recommendation letter for the son of Hunter Biden ‘s Chinese business partner in 2017. Emails show Hunter’s business partner Jonathan Li in a back and forth about
Li’s son was applying to Brown University, Cornell and New York University. It’s unclear which school he ended up attending
Li shared his gratitude with Hunter for helping his son with the applications to the colleges
President Joe Biden (right) wrote a college recommendation letter for the son of Hunter Biden’s (left) Chinese business partner in 2017, it has been claimed
‘Gentlmen[sic], please find the attached resume of my son, Chris Li. He is applying the following colleges for this year,’ the email says, listing Brown University, Cornell University and New York University and asking for advice for his applications.
Bulger replies to the email, copying in Hunter and Archer, telling Li that they had received the uprated CV. ‘Lets [sic] see how we can be helpful here to Chris,’ Bulger writes.
The following month, on February 18, president of Rosemont Seneca at the time Eric Schwerin sent a follow-up email to Li, saying he had been asked to pass on a recommendation letter that has been written by Hunter’s father.
‘Jonathan, Hunter asked me to send you a copy of the recommendation letter that he asked his father to write on behalf of Christopher for Brown University,’ Schwerin wrote.
Schwerin adds that a copy of the original letter is being ‘FedExed to Dr. Paxson directly at Brown,’ saying it should be delivered by Tuesday (which would have been February 21, 2017).
Dr. Christina Paxson has been Brown University’s president since 2012.
The president’s letter for the son of Jonathan Li, CEO of Chinese investment firm BHR, was sent directly to the president of Brown university through FedEx
Jonathan Li replied the following day (February 19, 2017) thanking Schwerin and Hunter profusely for organising the letter.
‘Hi Eric, Just see[sic] the email,’ he wrote. ‘It is just great! Thank you very much! And Hunter, thank you very much too. All the best to you all,’ he added, a screengrab of the email sent on February 19 showed.
The recommendation letter being discussed in the email, that was purportedly sent by Joe Biden to Dr. Paxson, has not been seen
It was not immediately clear whether Christopher Li was accepted into Brown University – or either of the other two colleges listed by his father – following the purported letter, and if so whether he went to the college.
The White House declined its request to respond to the claims, saying it does not comment on the laptop, while Brown University declined to comment on issues regarding student admissions.
President Biden has denied having knowledge of his son’s business dealings.
As recently as last year, Hunter held a 10 percent stake in BCR – something the White House has acknowledged. Speaking to the New York Times in November, Hunter’s attorney said he had since divested from the company.
Dr Christina Paxson Christina Paxson, President of Brown University. Biden’s letter of recommendation was sent directly to Dr Paxson, the emails suggest
Pictured: Hunter Biden’s associates Devon Archer (left) and Eric Schwerin (right), who were both included in the email chain. Schwerin told Li that the recommendation letter from ‘Hunter’s father’ had been sent to Brown University’s president Dr. Christina Paxson, according to screenshots of the emails from the broadcaster
In March 2021, DailyMail.com hired experts to validate material on the abandoned laptop’s hard drive. The laptop was one of three handed to a Delaware repair shop, and was found to have thousands of emails on.
Last week, the Washington Post confirmed the authenticity of the laptop which showed his foreign business dealings – nine months after first receiving a copy and a full year after DailyMail.com authenticated it.
The Post had cyber forensics experts validate material on the abandoned laptop hard drive, using similar methods that experts hired by DailyMail.com used.
After months of publishing articles suggesting the laptop could be Russian disinformation, the analysis published by the Post marked a U-turn.
Its admission also followed the New York Times, which quietly noted 1,200 words into a story published last month that it had also validated material from the laptop.
The laptop has been at the center of controversy surrounding the Biden family, with files found on Biden’s personal computer including emails showing dodgy business dealings between the President’s son and foreign officials.
Files revealed Biden has had business dealings with the state-controlled Chinese energy company CEFC and even made keys for his family – including Joe and Jill Biden – to use at his office.
But The Post spent months ignoring stories arising from the laptop and prominently reporting claims that it was ‘Russian disinformation’.
The New York Post had published excerpts of emails and photos from the laptop ahead of the 2020 election, but without authentication they were widely dismissed as fake or ‘Russian disinformation’. Pictured: Photos recovered from the computer
The Macbook Pro fell into the hands of news organizations in October 2020 after the president’s son left the device at a repair shop in Wilmington, Delaware in April 2019 and never returned for it
Republican Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson promised last Wednesday to keep investigating the Biden’s family’s foreign entanglements and accused media organization of suppressing damaging stories about the President’s son.
‘It’s clear the corporate media was complicit in helping Joe Biden get elected by suppressing what they knew would be damaging stories. They covered up for him in 2020 and continue to cover up for him now,’ Johnson said in a statement to DailyMail.com.
‘But facts are stubborn things. As the Bidens, the Democrats, and the media are learning, it is difficult to keep them hidden forever.’
‘The Washington Post story should be viewed as what Nixon’s advisers once termed, a ‘modified limited hangout,” Johnson continued.
The term means when one concedes a little, but stonewalls on the rest.
‘Senator Grassley and I will continue to investigate the Biden family’s foreign financial entanglements and provide the American people with the truth to the best of our abilities,’ Johnson added.
The New York Post broke the story of the laptop’s contents of the first of three ‘misplaced’ laptops belonging to Biden in October 2020, which came into computer repairman John Paul Mac Isaac’s possession after an ‘inebriated’ Biden brought it in for repairs to his Delaware shop in April 2019 and never picked it back up.
Republican Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson promised on Wednesday to keep investigating the Biden’s family’s foreign entanglements and accused media organization of suppressing damaging stories about the President’s son. Pictured: Grassley on the senate floor on Wednesday revealing receipts that claim financial dealings between Hunter Biden and a firm tied to the Chinese government
Files found in Biden’s personal computer included emails showing shady business dealings by the current US president’s son with foreign officials, and texts that showed him repeatedly using the ‘N-word’ and accidentally overpaying a prostitute $25,000 from an account linked to his dad.
It also uncovered a 2015 effort by Biden to set up a meeting between Vadym Pozharskyi, an adviser at a Ukrainian energy firm, and his father, then-vice President Joe Biden, and other instances of the scion looking to cash in on his family connections.
In its March 30 piece, the Washington Post claimed it tried to get hold of a copy of the laptop’s hard drive in October 2020 but failed, and didn’t get its hands on the laptop drive until June 2021, when Jack Maxey gave them a copy.
Maxey, a former co-host of ex-Donald Trump advisor Steve Bannon’s podcast the War Room, also gave DailyMail.com a copy in February last year – and has been doggedly trying to get the US’s two most prestigious papers to investigate its contents ever since.
The Post accidentally deleted their first copy and had to get Maxey to fly out to their Washington DC office with a new one in October last year, he said.
‘I’m not going to disclose the details of our conversations, but I gave them a copy of it in June. I personally delivered it to their offices and met with senior editors,’ Maxey told DailyMail.com.
‘I had to go a second time in October because they broke the first copy.
‘They haven’t done anything [until now]. They’re not just late to the party, they didn’t even show up.’
Photos provided by Maxey show him at the newspaper’s offices, and a copy of the laptop hard drive lying on the Post’s boardroom table.
But the Post dismissed the hard drive as ‘Russian disinformation’ and an ‘explainer’ piece published in October 2020 played down major revelations including that Joe Biden met with Hunter’s business partners, but has since been updated to reflect the paper’s new position – admitting that at least some of the material on the laptop is real.
Photos provided by Maxey show him at the newspaper’s offices last October, and a copy of the laptop hard drive lying on the Post’s boardroom table
Jack Maxey, a political activist and former Steve Bannon podcast co-host, who gave DailyMail.com the laptop, said he also provided the Washington Post with a copy last summer
A story based on the laptop’s contents published by the newspaper on March 30 focuses on the millions of dollars Hunter and his uncle, Joe Biden’s brother Jim, received from their partnership with a Chinese government-linked oil behemoth CEFC.
The story, which has been previously reported by DailyMail.com and others, includes documents showing Hunter was paid a $1million retainer in 2017 to represent his business partner Patrick Ho, who was being prosecuted by the US government.
Other documents show CEFC wired the Biden family a total $5million.
One startling email among those now validated by the Post indicates the president could have been involved in Hunter’s business dealings with the Chinese.
In September 2017 Hunter was planning to open a new office for his multi-million-dollar joint venture with CEFC at the House of Sweden, a Georgetown building home to the Swedish embassy.
He wrote to a building manager: ‘please have keys made available for new office mates: Joe Biden, Jill Biden, Jim Biden, Gongwen Dong (Chairman Ye CEFC emissary).
‘I would like the office sign ton [sic] reflect the following: The Biden Foundation, Hudson West (CEFC US).’
‘We are very excited and honored to welcome your new colleagues!’ the manager replied.
Biden Foundation board member Jeffrey Peck told the Post: ‘There was never any thought — like zero thought or consideration — given to that building.’
The House of Sweden said they made the keys but Hunter never picked them up.
The Post’s admission, hot on the heels of that of the New York Times, coincides with an apparent growing momentum in Hunter’s federal prosecution over reported tax fraud, money laundering and illegal foreign lobbying allegations.
The New York Times reported that material from the laptop is part of the FBI’s evidence in the case.
Hunter abandoned his laptop at a Delaware computer store in 2019. John Paul Mac Isaac, the store owner, gave a copy of its hard drive to Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani in September 2020, after handing over the original to the FBI the previous 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 Bannon and his podcast co-host Maxey.
The New York Post published excerpts of emails and photos from the laptop ahead of the 2020 election, but without authentication they were widely dismissed as fake or ‘Russian disinformation’.
In spring last year DailyMail.com hired Brad Maryman, an expert who founded the FBI’s cyber forensics unit, and his firm Maryman & Associates to analyze the laptop.
Their report showed the laptop was real. From then on, DailyMail.com began to reveal its sordid and potentially incriminating contents over the following year.
Using the same forensic tools as federal and state law enforcement in criminal investigations, Maryman & Associates found a total of 103,000 text messages, 154,000 emails and more than 2,000 photos on the hard drive.