Crisis comms expert who helped Hunter Biden with subpoena visited WH over 30 times when Biden was VP

FIRST ON FOX: A current President Biden appointee and crisis communications expert with close ties to Hunter Biden visited the White House more than 30 times when Biden was vice president, including two visits with Biden aides one month after Hunter said "yes" to hiring him to help rebrand his Chinese investment firm.

Robert Hoopes, a former Biden aide in the '80s and '90s who would later be tapped as the 2012 campaign manager for then-Vice President Biden during the summer of 2012 at the Democratic Convention, was appointed by the president in June 2021 to serve on his Commission on White House Fellowship. The fellowship is responsible for recommending candidates to the president for a program that allows young Americans to work in the White House for one year.

Hoopes visited the White House at least 32 times when Biden was vice president and has visited the White House at least 7 times during the Biden administration, White House visitor logs show. Four of those Obama White House visits happened in 2016 after Hunter and Eric Schwerin, Hunter's longtime business partner at their now-defunct investment firm Rosemont Seneca Partners, discussed hiring Hoopes to be tasked with rebranding "Harvest," which appears to refer to Bohai Harvest RST (BHR) Equity Investment Fund Management Company.

Hunter founded BHR with two other Americans and Chinese partners in 2013 and served as a founding board member until October 2019.

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"Everyone is on board with the rebranding to Harvest," Schwerin wrote to Hunter in an email on April 28, 2016. "Need to hire someone to help with project. I suggested Hoopes. What do you think? Should I reach out to him?" 

"Yes," Hunter responded.

On March 23, 2016, Hunter sent an email to Schwerin and attorney Christopher Boies, saying he had received a subpoena from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) seeking information related to an investigation into Devon Archer, a co-founder of BHR and Rosemont Seneca Partners.

Less than three weeks later, Hoopes, the founder and president of VOX Global, emailed Hunter, his lawyer George Mesires, and Schwerin about a Wall Street Journal report on the federal investigation into Archer, who was later sentenced to federal prison for his role in a scheme to defraud a Native American tribe.

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Hoopes expressed relief in the email that they had previously sent a "note" to the Journal "clarifying that we aren't connected to Devon in this," and that Hunter and Rosemont Seneca Partners weren’t named in the "headline or the lead paragraphs."

"All of the other coverage/stories, AP, Reuters, Bloomberg have led with ‘porn King’ Jason while the WSJ is the only outlet to add Devon to the lead," Hoopes wrote. "They were late to the story and this is how they will try and differentiate their coverage. (The wires may try and pick up on this line). All the quotes in this piece are from lawyers defending clients named in the complaints and we aren't part of the list which is also good. We aren't named and thus not commenting."

It is unclear what other roles Hoopes may have played with rebranding and shaping coverage following the reports on Archer. A jury convicted Archer of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and securities following a 2018 trial, and he would later be sentenced to federal prison for a year and a day in February 2022 for his role in a scheme to defraud a Native American tribe. Archer and his co-defendants were alleged by prosecutors as having purchased more than $60 million in bonds from the Oglala Sioux, which was then used to "build a financial services mega-company" instead of holding the bonds for annuity.

Roughly two weeks after the email about the Wall Street Journal article, Hoopes twice met with Biden's then-Chief of Staff Steve Ricchetti, who currently serves as Biden's White House counselor, at the Old Executive Office Building on May 26, 2016, and on May 27, 2016. He later met with then-Biden associate counsel Kaitlyn Demers, who went on to serve in the Biden White House, on June 28, 2016, and with then-Biden adviser Greg Schultz, who served as Biden's 2020 campaign manager, on Dec. 2, 2016. 

The White House and Hoopes did not respond to Fox News Digital's requests for comment regarding the White House visits.

Hoopes' name also appeared on emails involving Burisma. In March 2015, Vadim Pozharskyi, who was an adviser for Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings, emailed Hunter and Archer two attachments of which "one of them is meant to be an interview with Devon on alternative energy issues and new directions that Burisma is taking" and the other "is supposed to be a column in a newspper that could be written by Hunter and it concerns basically the same topic."

"We can have it published in a leading English speaking newspaper here in Kiev, Ukraine, which is called ‘Kyiv Post’ http://www.kyivpost.com/ or alternatively we could consider having them published in the US media," he continued.

Hunter forwarded the email to Hoopes a month later and said, "See the attached below. Obviously a very rough draft on their part, but we could actually make it pretty good and place it in some interesting outlets. As I said I'm sure that I can get them to pay for any professional advice your guys may have." 

Hoopes said he had his "oped writer reviewing it" and asked about timing. A few days later Hoopes provided a quote from the head of their writing group, which said, "It's pretty coherent now, but it does have a number of tangents. Instead of I reworked it as much as possible. It does need a conclusion. Some comments within, in addition to tracked edits." 

"It is our collective recommendation that you pursue the Kiev placement for the piece. We pretty much never see geothermal pass anyone's lips in the U.S., even when renewables are the subject," Hoopes continued. "Nor do we see it garner any real domestic media ink. The debate domestically is decidedly not geothermal, even in the face of the Clean Power Plan. It's wind and solar and efficiency, and to a lesser extent hydro and biomass." 

Hunter would then forward it to Archer and Sebastian Momtazi, who was an associate at Rosemont Seneca Partners who worked in the New York City office with Archer. "Seb- can you take a look and make some edits and help me craft a conclusion. I'd like to get this back to Vadim asap," Hunter wrote.

Other emails in 2011 and 2012 show Hoopes telling Hunter that he had discussions with then-Vice President Biden.

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On Nov. 22, 2011, Hoopes sent an email to Hunter saying he had a "good meeting" with his father earlier that morning.

"He has such a thoughtful and clear vision for how this position needs to work and integrate with the team while at the same time understand and look out for his priorities," Hoopes wrote. "Thanks for your counsel and insight into the position. It is such a terrific fit I hope we can make it come together."

It’s unclear what position or "team" Hoopes was referencing.

On Dec. 13, 2012, Hoopes emailed Hunter that he visited with Biden and then-second lady Jill Biden the previous night at Biden's residence in D.C. and said, "Your Dad said you were traveling – sorry to miss you."

Another email from early in the Obama administration between Schwerin and Hunter reveals that Hoopes wanted to help them with their business, according to Schwerin.

"In addition to me talk with Markell last night I ended up doing more work than I thought. Talked to Hoopes for awhile and he was asking about our business and I gave the lay of the land and we talked about the political intelligence/risk/research piece and he was intrigued," Schwerin said in a June 13, 2010 email. "Really didn't even mention IPS except to say we planned to have an offering in a few months that would expand our capabilities."

"He said he could definitely help us find clients on the corporate side for this. He knows this is an area where companies are paying through the roof even more than lobbying," he continued. "I told him we'd get together for lunch sometime this summer and discuss further. He's a really nice guy that I know truly just wants to be helpful. His business is booming by the way......"

"Send me some reading material- I am stuck in car in traffic on 95 with ss," Hunter responded.

Hoopes attended at least four holiday receptions at Biden's vice presidential residence and met with top Biden aides at the Old Executive Office Building dozens of times, including Ricchetti, Schultz, and Alan Hoffman, who served as Biden's deputy chief of staff.

In addition to the White House visits, Hoopes reached out to Hunter and his assistants dozens of times about meeting up for lunch and coffee, a Fox News Digital review found. It is unclear whether these meetings were business-related or social visits. At least one meeting between Hunter and Hoopes was at the Rosemont Seneca Partners office in December 2012, days after he attended the holiday reception at Biden's residence, according to an email from Biden's assistant. Most of the other visits occurred in the Georgetown area at coffee shops and restaurants.

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Hoopes isn't the only member of his family involved in the Biden administration. Hoopes' son joined the administration as a confidential assistant at the Department of Education in August 2021 and recently joined the Department of Labor earlier this year as a special assistant, according to his Linkedin page. He was also previously a data associate on the 2020 Biden campaign and a White House intern during the Obama administration. Both of Hoopes' daughters also helped out with the Biden campaign.

The White House, Hunter's attorney, and Hoopes did not respond to Fox News Digital's requests for comment.