Hunter arranged 2017 meeting with Joe Biden and Chinese oil exec after discussing $10 million deal: Ways and Means Committee

The House Ways and Means Committee has released new messages from Hunter Biden revealing that Hunter used a Sandy Hook memorial service to set up a meeting with Joe Biden and Chinese business partners. The messages come from a trove of communications released from an investigation into Hunter.
 
Messages released from the committee between Hunter Biden and a Chinese oil executive now show that Joe Biden and his son met with CEFC China Energy official Liu Yadong in New York in 2017.  

"Can you meet this evening early," Hunter messaged Yadong on Dec. 12, 2017, with WeChat. "My father will be in New York also and he wants me to attend the Sandyhook [sic] memorial service with him and I would like him to meet you along with my uncle [Jim Biden] and then you and I can talk let me know if that works."  

"No problem. Pls let me know where and when to meet. Thanks," Yadong replied. The messages to set up the meeting came after the Biden family had negotiated for months a deal with the Chinese government-linked company, CEFC China Energy, for $10 million a year.   

Earlier in July 2017, Hunter wrote a Whatsapp message to another CEFC official,  Runlong Zhao, demanding that the company fulfill the commitment that was made. "I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled," Hunter wrote at the time in a text message.   

Several weeks later, the president's son wrote to another CEFC official, Gongwen "Kevin" Dong, and told the employee he wanted "[$]10 M per annum budget" as well as that the "Bidens are the best I know at doing exactly what the [CEFC] Chairman wants from this partnership," per the Daily Mail. 

Along with the December 2017 messages, the Daily Mail reported that the GOP House Ways and Means Committee obtained a photo of a business card from Yadong. The card gives his address as located at the United Nations Plaza in New York City.  

Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith said last week, referring to the July 2017 message, "Hunter Biden lied about the recipient of a WhatsApp message sent with the apparent intention to threaten a business associate and demand payment."   

In a deposition surrounding the topic of the July 2017 messages, Hunter previously said that he did not know about the messages and claimed that he was "high or drunk" when it happened. 

The Ways and Means Committee said that during his deposition, Hunter Biden claimed to have "sent the text to the wrong Zhao," referring to the "sitting here with my father" message. Hunter Biden said that "the Zhao that this is sent to is not the Zhao that was connected to the CEFC," but the committee stated that the messages revealed Hunter Biden "communicated with only one 'Zhao,' - Raymond Zhao - in that exchange," and that he continued to communicate with Zhao for months regarding CEFC-related matters.