Hunter Biden discussed leveraging his connection to his father in a bid to boost his pay from a Ukrainian natural gas company, according to an email he sent around the time he joined the firm’s corporate board.
In a lengthy memo to his then-business partner, Devon Archer, who already sat on the Burisma board, Biden repeatedly mentioned “my guy” while apparently referring to then-Vice President Joe Biden.
Under President Barack Obama, the elder Biden was the point person for US policy toward Ukraine, and he held a press conference there with Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk on April 22, 2014.
Hunter Biden’s email to Archer is dated a little more than a week earlier.
“The announcement of my guys [sic] upcoming travels should be characterized as part of our advice and thinking- but what he will say and do is out of our hands,” Hunter Biden wrote on April 13, 2014.
“In other words it could be a really good thing or it could end up creating too great an expectation. We need to temper expectations regarding that visit.”
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The email, labeled from Robert Biden — Hunter’s first name — is among a trove of messages, documents, photos and videos purportedly recovered from a MacBook Pro laptop that a Delaware computer shop owner told The Post was brought in for repair in April 2019 and never picked up.
In the email, Hunter Biden wrote to Archer, “We need to ask for long term agreement and across the board participation. This is a huge step for us that could easily become very complicated. And if we are not protected financially regardless of the outcome we could find ourselves frozen out of a lot of current and future opportunities.
“The contract should begin now- not after the upcoming visit of my guy.
“That should include a retainer in the range of 25k p/m w/ additional fees where appropriate for more in depth work to go to BSF for our protection. Complete separate from our respective deals re board participation.”
It’s unclear if Hunter Biden or Archer got any of the $25,000 a month mentioned.
Hunter Biden was reportedly paid as much as $50,000 a month by Burisma before his lawyer has said he “stepped off” the board in April 2019.
That move came amid increasing scrutiny about potential conflicts of interest involving his dad, who announced his candidacy for president that same month.
“BSF” appears to refer to the high-profile law firm Boies, Schiller, Flexner, which represented Al Gore during the US Supreme Court battle over the results of the presidential 2000 election, which was won by George W. Bush.
Hunter Biden, a graduate of Yale Law School, was “of counsel” to the firm when he was asked to join the Burisma board in April 2014, according to a statement posted by his lawyer, George Mesires, on the website Medium in October.
The email to Archer contained 22 bullet points and bore the subject line “Tmrw.”
In No. 22, Hunter Biden told Archer, “Buy a cell phone from a 7/11 or CVS tmrw and ill do the same.”
Following the bullet points, Hunter Biden wrote, “This could be the break we have been waiting for if they really are smart enough to understand our long term value. If they are looking to just use us until the storm passes then we risked far too much for far too little.
“Finally, we need to have a plan on how we develop a corporate entity or LLP that allows us to draw on funds generated here to free us from existing (under-producing current commitments) and to build our own investment and expansion strategy. Maintaining the status quo is not an option,” he added.
“We can preserve our interest in the areas where minimal involvement is appropriate but should not get greedy and try to keep all the balls in the air that exist today.”
Hunter Biden then used a series of initials — RCP, RSTP and BHRT — to apparently refer to the men’s other business interests that “all make sense and can co-exist and progress without our day to day oversight.”
“But Advisors and the BD need a transition plan,” he added.
The email wrapped up with Hunter Biden saying, “We should also find a highly credible and discreet firm to perform due diligence and deep information for us on an ongoing basis. The kind of people that can get us information that’s not available through a google search and some phone calls.”
“We can use our own funds to pay for it and I’m sure your buddies down in Little Creek have some trusted independent contacts that do that sort of work,” he added.
The reference to Little Creek is unclear, but there is a US Navy station located in Virginia Beach, Va., that’s called Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek-Fort Story.
In 2018, Archer was convicted in an unrelated Manhattan federal court case involving a scheme that defrauded the Oglala Sioux Indian tribe and multiple pension funds through the sale of $60 million worth of tribal bonds.
His conviction was later overturned by the presiding judge, who cited an “unwavering concern that Archer is innocent,” but reinstated this month by a Manhattan federal appeals court.
Archer faces a maximum of 25 years in prison at his scheduled sentencing in January.
Hunter Biden’s lawyer refused to comment on the specifics but instead attacked Rudy Giuliani.
“He has been pushing widely discredited conspiracy theories about the Biden family, openly relying on actors tied to Russian intelligence,” the lawyer, George R. Mesires, said of Giuliani.
The Joe Biden campaign did not return requests for comment.
Additional reporting by Ebony Bowden