Vice President Joe Biden ’s son Hunter was discharged from the Navy Reserve this year after testing positive for cocaine.
In a shocking report by the Wall Street Journal details emerged on how Hunter was public affairs officer in the Navy reserve. It goes on to say that when he arrived at a new post in Norfolk, he was administered a drugs test, which he failed.
Commander Ryan Perry told the Journal that Hunter’s discharge information was not releasable under the privacy act.
Hunter Biden, a lawyer by training who is now a managing partner at an investment company, had been commissioned as an ensign in the Navy Reserve, a part-time position. But after failing a drug test last year, his brief military career ended.
Mr. Biden, 44 years old, decided to pursue military service relatively late, beginning the direct-commission process to become a public-affairs officer in the Navy Reserve in 2012. Because of his age—43 when he was to be commissioned—he needed a waiver to join the Navy. He received a second Navy waiver because of a drug-related incident when he was a young man, according to people familiar with the matter. Military officials say such drug waivers are uncommon for ordinary citizens.
Mr. Biden was commissioned as an ensign on May 7, 2013, and assigned to Navy Public Affairs Support Element East in Norfolk, Va., a reserve unit, according to the Navy. In June 2013, after reporting to his unit in Norfolk, he was given a drug test, which turned up positive for cocaine, according to people familiar with the situation. Mr. Biden was discharged in February, the Navy said.
Mr. Biden said in a statement that it was “the honor of my life to serve in the U.S. Navy, and I deeply regret and am embarrassed that my actions led to my administrative discharge. I respect the Navy’s decision. With the love and support of my family, I’m moving forward.”
The vice president’s office declined to comment. The Navy said Mr. Biden met all of the criteria for a direct commission, but declined to provide any details of why he was discharged. “Like other junior officers, the details of Ens. Biden’s discharge are not releasable due to the Privacy Act,” Cmdr. Ryan Perry, a Navy spokesman, said.
Navy personnel who are discharged from the military because of a failed drug test don’t receive honorable discharges. Most are given an “other than honorable” or “general” discharge. It isn’t clear which discharge Mr. Biden received, and the Navy doesn’t release the discharge status of low-ranking officers or junior enlisted personnel.
After Hunter Biden joined the Navy, his stepmother said he was following in the footsteps of two of his grandfathers, who also served in the Navy.
“This year, I’m looking forward to standing with our son, Hunter, when he is commissioned as an ensign in the United States Navy,” she said in 2012.
The Washington Post reported May 2014 that Hunter had been installed as the head of legal at Ukraine’s largest private gas company.
Hunter Biden has embarked on several different professional ventures, including his recent appointment with a Ukrainian firm, that have drawn scrutiny. In May, he joined the board of the Ukrainian gas producer, Burisma Holdings Ltd., which is controlled by a former security and energy official for Ukraine’s ousted former president. The announcement that Mr. Biden would be responsible for Burisma’s legal unit raised concerns about potential conflicts of interest, because his father, the vice president, was engaged in diplomatic efforts involving Ukraine.
“This is totally based on merit,” said Burisma’s chairman, Alan Apter.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Biden worked as a lobbyist. He quit the business and resigned his partnership at a Washington firm after his father was named to join the presidential ticket in 2008.
Now, Mr. Biden is a managing partner at Rosemont Seneca Partners, an investment company. He also serves as chairman of World Food Program USA, which calls itself “a humanitarian agency fighting hunger in the world today,” and he is an adjunct assistant professor at Georgetown University.
Biden is an American citizen, as is the other new board member of Burisma, Devon Archer.
Archer works with Hunter Biden at Rosemont Seneca partners, which is half owned by Rosemont Capital, a private equity firm founded by Archer and Christopher Heinz. Heinz is the stepson of John Kerry, the American Secretary of State, closely involved in the Ukrainian putsch.
Joe Biden pledged to help Ukraine become more energy independent in the wake of its “troubles” with Russia.
The most disturbing explanation is that the company is attempting to curry favor with the U.S. government by enlisting the services of the close family friend and campaign bundler of the Secretary of the State and the son of the vice president.
The appointment of the ex-President of Poland, Aleksander Kwasniewski, who is also on Burisma’s board, as of January, makes the company look increasingly shaky.
There is a most unfortunate precedent for such a failure, which you can read about here, at some length. To sum it up: in 2006 or so, two Bidens, James Biden (future VP’s brother) and our R. Hunter Biden (future VP’s son), wildly overpaid a drug-addicted very senior Moonie for a hedge fund marketing operation that was hugely exaggerating its size and success, and turned out to be distributing ponzis, including the giant Allen Stanford ponzi, second only to Madoff, and other eyecatching frauds, such as Ponta Negra, via a sales network that included brokers with visibly very terrible FINRA records.
At the time, the vice president’s office called Hunter Biden “a private citizen” and said Joe Biden didn’t endorse any particular company. Hunter Biden didn’t return calls seeking comment on the matter.
Earlier he had said the following: “As a new member of the Board, I believe that my assistance in consulting the Company on matters of transparency, corporate governance and responsibility, international expansion and other priorities will contribute to the economy and benefit the people of Ukraine.”
Hunter is Joe Biden’s youngest son. He was involved in the car crash that claimed the life of his mother, Joe’s first wife, Neilia, in 1972.