White House chief of staff Ron Klain asked Hunter Biden in September 2012 for help raising $20,000 for the Vice President’s Residence Foundation, according to a report Tuesday.
In an email to Hunter Biden, Klain said he needed to “tackle a piece of unpleasant business” and told him to “keep this low low key” to prevent “bad PR,” reported Fox News.
Klain at the time was chairman of the nonprofit Vice President’s Residence Foundation, which preserves and furnishes the vice president’s official residence.
“The tax lawyers for the VP Residence Foundation have concluded that since the Cheney folks last raised money in 2007 and not 2008, we actually have to have some incoming funds before the end of this fiscal year (i.e., before 9/30/12 – next week) to remain eligible to be a ‘public charity,'” Klain’s email said.
“It’s not much — we need to raise a total of $20,000 — so I’m hitting up a few very close friends on a very confidential basis to write checks of $2,000 each,” Klain added.
“We need to keep this low low key, because raising money for the Residence now is bad PR — but it has to be done, so I’m trying to just collect the 10 checks of $2,000, get it done in a week, and then, we can do an event for the Residence Foundation after the election,” he continued.
According to the report, Hunter Biden forwarded Klain’s email to Eric Schwerin, a longtime business partner who helped manage his finances. Schwerin responded by saying they could “discuss this and some other bills on Monday,” and asked whether Hunter thought “they would take a corporate check from Owasco,” possibly referring to Hunter’s law firm, Owasco PC.
Shortly after, Schwerin emailed Hunter Biden to say he had talked to Klain, who was checking to see if the foundation would accept a check from Owasco.
Although it is unclear whether Hunter ended up using Owasco to donate to the foundation, a 990 tax form from fiscal year 2012 shows that the foundation received $20,500 in contributions.
Hunter Biden is currently under investigation for allegations of tax fraud and facing scrutiny for his business dealings in Ukraine and China. Klain recently told ABC News that President Biden is “confident that his son didn’t break the law”.