Judicial Watch Obtains Secret Service Records Showing Hunter Biden Took 411 Flights, Visited 29 Countries
JUNE 26, 2020 | JUDICIAL WATCH
(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today it received 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 while receiving a Secret Service protective detail. During the time period of the records provided, Hunter Biden, 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.
Judicial Watch’s 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 Secret Service 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 request the senators sent to Secret Service Director James Murray on February 5, 2020.
In its cover letter to Grassley and Johnson, which was included in the records produced to Judicial Watch, 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 raise additional questions.” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
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 obtained by Judicial Watch from the Secret Service 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.”
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. Judicial Watch is 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.
Poster Comment:
Hunter Biden is quite the globe trotter.