Byron York of the Washington Examiner looks beyond a social media hubbub.
The social media angle of the Hunter Biden email story has nearly taken over public discussion of the piece published in the New York Post, headlined “Smoking-gun email reveals how Hunter Biden introduced Ukrainian businessman to VP dad.” Yes, it’s true that Twitter and Facebook censorship of the story is outrageous. The social media giants have taken a giant step toward earning new regulations from Washington. But the social media story isn’t the big story.
The big story is: Did Hunter Biden introduce that Ukrainian businessman to his vice president father? That would be important for two reasons. One, we already know that the corrupt Ukrainian energy company, Burisma, put the younger Biden on its board to win influence with the Obama administration, whose point man on Ukraine policy was Hunter Biden’s father Joe, then vice president of the United States. The New York Post story suggests that Burisma actually got something for the $50,000 (or more) it was paying Hunter Biden.
The New York Post story might also shed light on Joe Biden’s flat denial of knowledge about Hunter Biden’s Burisma connection. “I have never spoken to my son about his overseas business dealings,” Joe Biden said in September 2019. As for Hunter Biden, the New Yorker reported in July 2019 that “As Hunter recalled, his father discussed Burisma with him just once: ‘Dad said, ‘I hope you know what you are doing,’ and I said, ‘I do.'”
Now, the New York Post has published an email, reported to be from a Burisma executive to Hunter Biden. The New York Post says it was sent on April 17, 2015, when Joe Biden was vice president and Hunter Biden was on Burisma’s board. “Dear Hunter,” the executive, Vadym Pozharskyi, wrote, “Thank you for inviting me to DC and giving an opportunity to meet your father and spent [sic] some time together. It’s realty [sic] an honor and pleasure.”