Jeff Zients, the incoming White House chief of staff, had multiple meetings in 2016 with Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son.
Hunter Biden is currently facing a number of criminal and congressional investigations into his business dealings. According to a Fox News Digital report on the emails found on Hunter Biden’s laptop, Zients and Hunter Biden had met twice in February 2016 and a few more times in May 2016. At the time President Biden was serving as vice president to then-President Barack Obama. The emails also disclose that President Biden has also been present in the two first meetings between the two men at the U.S. Naval Observatory,
Based on the emails, the first meeting took place on Feb. 12, 2016, when Zients, Hunter Biden, and then-Vice President Biden met with David Rubenstein, founder of the Carlyle Group. Rubenstein is a billionaire known for his association with multiple organizations including the World Economic Forum, Council on Foreign Relations, and Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. President Biden had previously spent his vacation on Rubenstein’s estate in Nantucket and even spent Thanksgiving with the billionaire in 2021.
Two weeks later the second meeting took place between the three men and current White House senior counselor Steve Ricchetti and David Bradley, a Washington, D.C.-based political consultant and chairman of media group Atlantic Media.
On May 24, 2016, the three men also met with Eric Lander, the former director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Richard Klausner, the former head of the National Cancer Institute.
