Fox News reports that, back in 2012, when Joe Biden was the vice president, Ron Klain, the current White House chief of staff, asked Hunter Biden for some fundraising assistance. 

Fox based its report on emails that it reviewed. Presumably, the emails are from Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop.

“Keep this low low key”

Fox published the email that Klain, who at the time was the chairman of the Vice President’s Residence Foundation (VPRF), sent to Hunter Biden on September 21, 2012. It begins with Klain telling Hunter Biden that he has “to tackle a piece of unpleasant business.”

“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 9i.e, before 9/30/12 – next week) to remain eligible to be a ‘public charity,'” Klain wrote. “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 continued by telling Hunter Biden that “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.”

Klain concludes: “Is this ok? Let me know. If so, send your check (payable to the Vice President’s Residency Foundation) to . . .”

Hunter’s response

According to Fox’s report, Hunter Biden went straight to work. He started off by forwarding Klain’s email to Eric Schwerin, one of his business partners.

Schwerin responded by telling Hunter Biden that they could “discuss this and some other bills on Monday.” Schwerin also asked if the VPRF “would take a corporate check from Owasco,” referring to Hunter Biden’s law firm, Owasco PC.

It was three days later that Schwerin wrote Hunter Biden an email saying that he spoke to Klain and that Klain was working to figure out if the foundation could accept a check from Owasco.

Fox reports that it is “unclear” whether Klain ended up taking the check from Owasco. But, the foundation did bring in $20,500 in contributions for 2012.

What of it?

Hunter Biden is under federal investigation both for his taxes and for his business dealings. One of the most important questions is the relationship between his business dealings and his father’s position in the U.S. government. Both Hunter Biden and his father’s current administration maintain that there is no wrongdoing here.

It might be telling that Klain turned to Hunter Biden for something that had to be kept “low low key.” Was that Hunter Biden’s specialty? What else did he do that had to be kept “low low key”?