Left: Dr. Chi Ping Patrick Ho, former Hong Kong home secretary. Ho was arrested in 2017 on charges he paid bribes on behalf of a Chinese energy conglomerate. Center-right: In Beijing On December 4, 2013, Vice President Joe Biden on Air Force Two with his granddaughter and his son, Hunter. (Credit: Politico Illustration/AP/ Getty Images)
“New Secret Service records show Hunter Biden’s significant overseas travels during the first part of the Obama-Biden administration.
Judicial Watch investigators uncovered records from the U.S. Secret Service showing that, for the first five and a half years of the Obama administration, Hunter Biden traveled extensively with a Secret Service protective detail. During the time period of the records, the son of then-Vice President Joe Biden took 411 separate domestic and international flights, including to 29 different foreign countries. He visited China five times.
Our February 7, 2020, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request sought:
Records reflecting the dates and locations of travel, international and domestic, for Hunter Biden while he received a U.S. Secret Service protective detail; please note whether his travel was on Air Force One or Two, or other government aircraft, as applicable and whether additional family members were present for each trip; time frame is 2001 to present.
The Secret Service did not indicate, as was requested, whether Biden’s travel was on Air Force One, Air Force Two or other government aircraft, or whether additional family members were present.
The records show that countries and territories visited by Hunter Biden, between June 2009 and May 2014, included:
- Ethiopia and India on June 14-22, 2009
- Argentina on September 14-17, 2009
- France and Spain on November 9-13, 2009
- Canada on February 12-15, 2010
- Dominican Republic on February 18-22, 2010
- Puerto Rico on March 20-27, 2010
- China on April 6-9, 2010
- Belgium, Spain, and the United Kingdom on May 5-8, 2010
- UK, Egypt, Kenya, South Africa, Ascension Island, U.S. Virgin Islands on June 6-13, 2010
- Denmark and South Africa on August 9-24, 2010
- Hong Kong, Taiwan and China on April 16-22, 2011
- Mexico on May 15-17, 2011
- Colombia, France, United Arab Emirates and France again on November 1-11, 2011
- UK and Russia on February 15-18, 2012
- Germany, France and UK on February 1-5, 2013
- UK and Ireland on March 20-22, 2013
- China on June 13-15, 2013
- Switzerland and Italy on July 26-August 7, 2013
- Japan, China, South Korea and the Philippines on December 2-9, 2013
- China and Qatar on May 7-14, 2014
The records were also provided but were not made public, to Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Ron Johnson in a response to a request the senators sent to Secret Service Director James Murray on February 2020.
In its cover letter to Grassley and Johnson, which was included in the records we received, the Secret Service said that the senators’ request was time and labor-intensive, and they could only provide a limited amount of information by the senators’ imposed turnaround time of February 19.
Given the Burisma-Ukraine-China influence-peddling scandals, Hunter Biden’s extensive international travel during the Obama-Biden presidency, including at least 5 trips to China, will certainly raise additional questions.
According to reports, Vice President Joe Biden and Hunter Biden flew on Air Force Two for the official trip to Beijing in December 2013. The records we obtained show Hunter Biden arrived in Tokyo on December 2, 2013, and departed for Beijing two days later. While it is typical for the families of the president and vice president to travel with them, questions have been raised about whether Hunter Biden used the government trip to further his business interests.
NBC reporter Josh Lederman, who was one of four reporters on the December 2013 trip, noted in an October 2, 2019, report that, “What wasn’t known then was that as he accompanied his father to China, Hunter Biden was forming a Chinese private equity fund that associates said at the time was planning to raise big money, including from China.”
His travel is only one of our inquiries.
During the last year and a half of the Obama administration, Hunter Biden served on the board of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings while his father was heading up Ukraine policy. We are seeking records through six lawsuits and dozens of FOIA requests related to Hunter Biden’s dealings with the Ukrainian Burisma Holdings and the Chinese BHR Partners.” (Read more: Judicial Watch, 6/26/2020) (Archive)