Emails from Hunter Biden's abandoned laptop show Tony Blinken (center) and his wife Evan Ryan (right) were both embroiled in an alleged improper attempt to influence government officials
Secretary of State Tony Blinken and his wife, Joe Biden's cabinet secretary Evan Ryan, were both embroiled in an alleged attempt to influence US government officials on behalf of Ukrainian gas firm Burisma, emails show.
Blinken told Senate investigators under oath in 2020 that he had 'no knowledge of
Hunter Biden's service on the board' of Burisma, and didn't know about Blue Star Strategies, a
Democrat consultancy hired by the firm in 2015 to improve its image in Washington DC.
But State Department emails show he spoke with Blue Star's CEO Karen Tramontano at a political event around July 2016 while he was Deputy Secretary of State, and agreed to have a coffee with her to discuss 'some troubling events we are seeing in Ukraine'.
And July 14, 2016 emails from Hunter's laptop show the First Son checked in with Blinken's wife to try to make sure he took a call from Tramontano and her chief operating officer Sally Painter - as well as meeting with Blinken himself at his State Department office in July 2015.
There is no evidence that Blinken or Ryan tried to change US policy on Burisma's behalf.
But Senator Ron Johnson is now accusing the Secretary of State of having 'lied bald-faced to Congress' about his links to the murky influence campaign in 2020 sworn testimony.
Blinken has come under new scrutiny this month over his relationship with the Bidens, after the House Judiciary Committee received testimony that he helped orchestrate a letter by intelligence chiefs claiming Hunter's laptop was a Russian disinformation campaign just weeks before the 2020 election.
The government and laptop emails obtained by DailyMail.com suggest Blinken, who was Joe's senior campaign advisor, his Vice Presidential National Security Advisor in the Obama administration and now Secretary of State, may have been more aware of Hunter's dealings than he has let on.
© BloombergState Department emails show Blinken spoke with Blue Star's CEO Karen Tramontano at a political event around July 2016 while he was Deputy Secretary of State, and agreed to have a coffee with her to discuss 'some troubling events we are seeing in Ukraine'
Blinken was grilled by Senate homeland security committee investigators in December 2020, as part of a probe into Hunter's business dealings run by Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson.
Hunter joined the board of the allegedly corrupt Ukrainian company Burisma in April 2014, while the US authorities were working with British law enforcement on a financial investigation into its owner, Mykola Zlochevsky.
When Hunter's appointment became public soon after, it caused a firestorm of controversy - including among State Department officials, who complained in emails that 'the presence of Hunter Biden on the Burisma board was very awkward for all U.S. officials pushing an anti-corruption agenda in Ukraine.'
However, the furor apparently passed by Blinken, who told investigators in sworn testimony that he was not 'aware of any association that Hunter Biden had with Burisma' while Deputy Secretary of State from 2015 to 2017, had no emails or texts with the First Son, and never discussed Hunter's financial or business arrangements with him.
Data on Hunter's laptop shows 26 emails involving Blinken's personal address and three with his Vice Presidential office address, between 2010 and 2018.
A further 47 emails include his wife Evan's VP office email and 22 have her personal email address.
A contact book entry for Blinken on Hunter's laptop includes three numbers labeled 'mobile', 'car' and 'other', as well as his office and personal email addresses.
Speaking to Fox New on Sunday, Senator Ron Johnson, who has been investigating the Biden's business dealings for four years, accused Blinken of having 'lied boldface to Congress about never emailing Hunter Biden.'
'Antony Blinken finally did come in and sit down for a voluntary transcribed interview in December of 2020 because he wanted to be Secretary of State,' Johnson told Maria Bartiromo.
'And now, because of more information that's come out, we know that he lied boldface to Congress about never emailing Hunter Biden. My guess is he told a bunch of other lies that hopefully we'll be able to bring him and his wife back in. Tell them to preserve their records.'
On May 22, 2015, Hunter wrote to Blinken asking if he had 'a few minutes next week to grab a cup of coffee? I know you are impossibly busy, but would like to get your advice on a couple of things.'
Hunter Biden's social calendar
© USDS
© USDSState Department emails obtained by the Homeland Security Committee show that on June 27, 2016 Sally Painter wrote to Blinken's assistant from her Blue Star email address about a meeting he agreed to when he bumped into them at an event three days earlier
On May 22, 2015, Hunter wrote to Blinken
Hunter wrote to Evan Ryan's AOL email address on July 14, 2016.
Blinken replied 'absolutely', and copied his secretary to 'find a good time'. Hunter forwarded the exchange to his business partner and fellow Burisma board member, Devon Archer.
The meeting was postponed due to the death of Hunter's brother Beau eight days later from brain cancer.
Hunter and Blinken eventually met for lunch at his State Department office on July 22, 2015, but Blinken told Senate investigators they only discussed 'the loss the family had suffered and how they were coping'.
In November that year Burisma hired Blue Star Strategies to improve the firm's image in DC.
Blue Star CEO Karen Tramontano played down her relationship with Hunter in her own 2020 testimony to the Senate committee, and claimed at first that she didn't know Hunter was on its board.
In June 2021 DailyMail.com revealed emails from Hunter's laptop showing in fact he was the point man for Burisma's hiring of Blue Star, and that as far back as March 2014 Tramontano had discussed registering her investment banking license with Hunter's firm Rosemont Seneca.Tramontano and her COO Sally Painter set about arranging meetings and calls with top government officials, trying to convince them to take a softer approach towards Burisma owner Zlochevsky and refrain from calling his gas firm 'corrupt'.
Blinken told investigators that although he knew Tramontano and Painter, he was unaware of their firm, Blue Star.
Hunter and Blinken eventually met for lunch at his State Department office on July 22, 2015, but Blinken told Senate investigators they only discussed 'the loss the family had suffered and how they were coping'
State Department emails obtained by the Homeland Security Committee show that on June 27, 2016 Painter wrote to Blinken's assistant from her Blue Star email address about a meeting he agreed to when he bumped into them at an event three days earlier.
'Per my conversation with Tony at the Truman event, Karen Tramontano and I would like to have a brief coffee with Tony at his earliest convenience regarding some troubling events we are seeing in Ukraine. (He said yes),' Painter said in the email.
'Karen was President Clinton's Deputy Chief of Staff and we are just back from Kiev.'
A call appears to have been scheduled for the following month, but when it fell through Hunter got involved - contacting Blinken's wife and then-assistant secretary of state for educational and cultural affairs Evan Ryan to chase up the contact.
'Time for a very quick call?' Hunter wrote to her AOL email address on July 14, 2016. 'He said neither Karen or Sally called this afternoon,' she responded.
'I don't know what happened. Talked to S and K and they said they called at 5:30 and left message w/ his Asst. Sorry,' Hunter wrote. She replied: 'He didn't get the msg. He said if we can get him their numbers he can call them late afternoon DC time tmrw - let me know if that works.'
The next day Blinken wrote to his aide, 'Please send me her [Tramontano's] number. I may call.'
It is unclear if the call took place. Blinken told investigators 'I don't recall having a coffee with them.'
Blue Star's work for Burisma sparked a Justice Department investigation in 2021 into whether they broke the Foreign Agents Registration Act by failing to register their alleged Burisma influence campaign with the DoJ.
Tramontano's lawyer said the probe ended when the firm submitted a filing to the government admitting its lobbying activities for the Ukrainian gas firm - more than six years after the fact.
Blue Star's filing, submitted in May 2022, finally declared its $60,000 of work for Zlochevsky in 2015 and 2016 including 'to help schedule meetings with U.S. Government officials so counsel for Mr. Zlochevsky could present an explanation of certain adverse proceedings in the U.K. and Ukraine involving Mr. Zlochevsky.'
The filing listed a 2016 'email and meeting' with Obama's energy envoy Amos Hochstein, and also with Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment Catherine Novelli.
It did not declare any meetings, emails or calls with Blinken.
Comment: A raft of reports at the time of the 2016 election, although, as mentioned, Blinken's involvement was not apparent at the time. Ms. Tramantano had many connections: