Hunter Biden is a magnet for scandal.
There is seemingly a new allegation every day.
And Hunter Biden is sweating this new criminal investigation.
Federal prosecutors recently indicted New Jersey Democrat Senator Bob Menendez, his wife and three businessmen on charges Menendez took bribes in exchange for official favors.
Emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop show Spanish rail company Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles (CAF) hiring Hunter Biden’s firm, Rosemont Seneca Partners, to lobby Amtrak and the Department of Transportation for government contracts.
This brought Rosemont Seneca and Hunter Biden’s business associates into Senator Menendez’s orbit.
Hunter Biden business associate Eric Schwerin wrote a July 27, 2010 email discussing Rosemont Seneca’s “success fee” for helping CAF’s American subsidiary secure a $298 million contract from Amtrak to build 130 rail cars.
“We may very well be because we don’t have anything in writing, but my point has been that we be firm, have Hunter call the CEO and congratulate him, say we are looking forward to working with CAF as they implement the Amtrak contract and then follow it up with a letter to memorialize the success fee arrangement,” Schwerin wrote.
“IF and only if they push back let’s not let CAF make us think we didn’t do enough work to deserve the fee, as it is a minor percentage compared to what we would normally get for working on a project like this,” Schwerin continued.
Schwerin reached out to Robert Menendez’s chief of staff Danny O’Brien in early August about the CAF deal.
“Talked to Danny re: CAF and he is looking into it,” Schwerin emailed. “He was very interested in finding out more mainly because of Menendez’s chairing the U.S.-Spain Council. Also, mentioned they are doing an event in NY on Sept. 24th (when we will be up there for CGI anyway) with the Spanish President if you want to attend. I’ll hold the date.”
CAF would want Rosemont Seneca’s help for good reason.
Joe Biden was vice president at the time and strongly identified with Amtrak due to the fact that as a senator he commuted home from D.C. to Delaware via train every night.
In September 2010 Rosemont secured a meeting with Department of Transportation Official Peter Rogoff after the Federal Transit Administration found the Harris County, Texas, metro system violated federal procurement laws in its deal with CAF.
Hunter Biden suggested getting Menendez and other Democrat senators from the Northeast such as New York’s Kirsten Gillibrand and New Jersey’s Frank Lautenberg to help resolve the matter.
“They need Menendez (very involved in US- Spain business counsel) to take the lead (not Lautenberg- they hate each other) they need him to go to Schumer and raise an alarm that NY is in jeopardy of loosing [sic] hundreds of jobs and go to Steny and point out that MD faces the same fate in the loss of supplier jobs,” Biden wrote. “And they need that to happen yesterday. So far I don’t think anyone has even reached out to Gillibrand.”
Schwerin responded by devising a lobbying plan for CAF to implement.
“First, it is vitally important that you spend time identifying a Congressional champion (if not more than one) that would be willing to weigh in directly on your behalf to DOT and/or the White House,” Schwerin wrote to Biden. “This will involve CAF going up to the Hill and meeting directly with members or hiring a lobbyist who can do so. At the very least, you should be in contact with Senators Schumer, Gillibrand and Menendez.”
In October 2011 CAF and the Harris County Metro System agreed to a revised contract to make the violations go away.
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