Then-Vice President Joe Biden apparently used a pseudonym to exchange more than 50 emails with one of Hunter Biden’s business associates, newly released emails show.
Joe Biden sent 54 private emails to Hunter Biden’s close business associate and accountant, Eric Schwerin, by using the “Robin Ware” alias, according to an email search released Tuesday by the House Ways and Means Committee. The email data was provided to the committee by IRS whistleblower Joseph Ziegler, who testified Tuesday behind closed doors alongside IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley. (RELATED: DOJ Prosecutors Grill Hunter Biden For Attempting To Subpoena Donald Trump)
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Joe Biden Emails Schwerin by James Lynch on Scribd
Many of Joe Biden’s email conversations with Schwerin happened around spring 2014, when Hunter Biden joined the board of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings, the documents show. (RELATED: Top Democrat Attacks IRS Whistleblower Gary Shapley By Omitting Key Details From Witness Testimony)
Before Joe Biden went to Ukraine in June 2014, he emailed Schwerin five times, and afterwards the pair emailed 27 times, according to the Ways and Means Committee. The sitting vice president traveled to Ukraine again in November 2014, when he was the Obama administration’s point man on Ukraine issues. (RELATED: ‘Coordinated Ca’mpaign’: Jim Jordan And James Comer Deliver Scathing Fact Check To Hunter Biden’s Attorney)
Biden’s June 2014 Ukraine trip is a case in point.
He & Schwerin exchanged 5 emails in 3 days in the lead up to a Ukraine trip.
After the Vice President returned, he and Schwerin emailed 27 times in the run up to the VP’s return trip to Ukraine that November. pic.twitter.com/BQxDFLuLvR
— Rep. Jason Smith (@RepJasonSmith) December 6, 2023
Joe Biden and Schwerin communicated 327 times in total, with Hunter Biden copied on 38 emails from White House accounts to a then-VP Biden email alias, Ways and Means said. He used a different alias in May 2016 to keep Hunter Biden in the loop when he planned to meet with Ukraine’s then-president, Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop archive shows.
In August, the House Oversight Committee requested records from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) related to the aliases Joe Biden appeared to use for government purposes. The next month, NARA permitted the Oversight Committee to view a small portion of the emails where Joe Biden used his aliases.
NARA said in August it possesses over 5,000 emails potentially related to Joe Biden’s pseudonyms. The National Archives discovered 82,000 potentially responsive records related to the aliases, the agency said in an October status report. (RELATED: National Archives Identifies Key Documents Related To Joe Biden’s Apparent Email Aliases)
WASHINGTON, DC – DECEMBER 05: Internal Revenue Service Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley (2nd L) and IRS Criminal Investigator Joseph Ziegler (R), who both worked on the federal investigation into Hunter Biden, arrive for a hearing before the House Ways and Means Committee in the Longworth House Office Building on December 5, 2023 in Washington, DC. The Ways and Means Committee is hearing testimony from Internal Revenue whistleblowers Service Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley and IRS Criminal Investigator Joseph Ziegler, who both claim they were blocked from pursuing leads that would lead to more serious charges during their five-year investigation into Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
The Ways and Means Committee released 56 new pages of documents Tuesday including the email search. Back in September, the committee released more than 700 pages of documents to support Shapley and Ziegler’s initial testimony accusing the Department of Justice (DOJ) of giving Hunter Biden special treatment during its ongoing investigation.
Witness testimony from DOJ, FBI and IRS officials has confirmed key aspects of the IRS whistleblower testimony, House Republicans laid out in a report released Tuesday morning.
Burisma paid Hunter Biden more than $80,000 per month to be a board member of the company despite his lack of experience with Ukraine or the energy sector, bank records show. (RELATED: Burisma Lobbyists Celebrated ‘Victory Lap’ With Hunter Biden’s Business Associate After Founder Was Let Off, Emails Show)
The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed Schwerin in November to have him appear for a closed-door deposition to discuss Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings. He visited the White House on at least 27 occasions during the Obama administration, according to archived visitor logs first reported by Fox News.
Archived emails show Schwerin coordinated with then-VP Biden’s office to handle media strategy ahead of a trip Joe Biden took to Ukraine in December 2015. The Oversight Committee wrote a letter to NARA in September demanding access to those communications and other correspondence between Joe Biden’s vice presidential office and his son’s business associates.
Schwerin handled the finances for Hunter Biden and his family before the pair had a falling out, the New York Post reported based on a memoir written by Kathleen Buhle, Hunter’s ex-wife, with whom he has three children.
Hunter Biden once described Schwerin as a “close confidant” in a February 2014 email exchange from his abandoned laptop archive.
“Suspiciously, email traffic between Joe Biden and Schwerin would routinely increase before and after the Vice President’s various trips to Ukraine. In the days before Joe Biden’s June 2014 trip, he and Schwerin exchanged five emails. After that trip and before the Vice President’s November trip back to Ukraine, he and Schwerin emailed an astonishing 27 times,” Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith said in a statement.
“Hundreds of messages from alias emails raise questions of whether Joe Biden was trying to hide the existence and content of these messages. If investigators had not been stonewalled, the IRS investigation into Hunter Biden’s tax fraud and business dealings would have naturally laid bare Joe Biden’s direct involvement.”