Hunter text claiming he paid Biden’s bills is further evidence of family’s corruption, GOP says
Fox News justice correspondent David Spunt reports on developments in the Hunter Biden investigation after Republicans uncover a text message from Hunter Biden claiming he paid his father’s bills for years.
A brother and sister who previously served as aides to then-Vice President Biden and have longstanding ties to Hunter Biden could be key witnesses if they were called to testify in the ongoing congressional investigations into the first family's finances due to their intimate knowledge of the inner workings of Hunter's firm and the VP's office.
Anne Marie (Person) Muldoon and Francis "Fran" Person, who worked for Joe Biden for nearly a decade dating back to 2006, kept in frequent contact with Hunter Biden and Eric Schwerin, the then-president of Hunter’s now-dissolved investment firm Rosemont Seneca Partners, during their Obama-Biden administration roles using their government emails, Fox News Digital previously reported.
Both siblings also served in the White House for VP Biden at the same time for a short period in 2014 until Fran left.
Joe Biden, right, and Fran Person, a former adviser to the then-vice president. (Fran Person/YouTube screenshot)
Anne Marie served as a general assistant and was copied on hundreds of emails at Hunter's Rosemont Seneca from 2009 until she joined Biden’s staff as an assistant in May 2014 during the Obama administration. Her husband, Mike Muldoon, also worked at Rosemont Seneca from 2009 to 2011 before joining the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), according to emails from Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop.
The emails she was included on ranged from itineraries for foreign trips, including China, day-to-day schedules for Hunter and Schwerin, to coordinating invitations for events and meetings at the White House.
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Anne Marie visited the Obama White House at least five times before she left Rosemont Seneca in 2014 to join Vice President Biden's staff, according to White House visitor logs. During her time working for Biden, Anne Marie met with Schwerin at the White House at least four times between August 2015 and June 2016, a Fox News Digital review found.
Anne Marie also met in the West Wing with James Bulger in August 2016, visitor logs show, after Bulger and Hunter formed BHR Partners, which is controlled by the state-owned Bank of China and has connections to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Vice President Joe Biden waves as he walks out of Air Force Two with his granddaughter, Finnegan Biden, and son Hunter Biden upon their arrival in Beijing on Dec. 4, 2013. (NG HAN GUAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Meanwhile, her brother Fran served as a personal aide to Biden for eight years through Biden's latter Senate years, his 2008 campaign and his vice presidency, traveling to 49 of the 50 countries Biden traveled to between 2009 and 2014, including China and Serbia.
Fran left the White House in late July 2014 for an advisory role at his alma mater, the University of South Carolina.
"Fran has been like a son to Joe and me," then-second lady Jill Biden was quoted as saying in a 2014 Politico profile piece. "For eight years, we traveled the country, shared holidays together … Fran may be leaving the office, but he will always be a part of our family."
Biden reflected on Person's tenure working for him by saying, "In times of urgency, everyone from the Secret Service to my communications and policy teams, the first guy they go to is Fran." He added, "People know that he has my ear whenever he wants it."
Less than six months later in January 2015, Fran helped launch Harves Global Entertainment, an affiliate of the China-based Harves Century Group that has deep ties to the CCP.
Fran Person, a former adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, unsuccessfully ran for Congress in South Carolina's 5th Congressional District in 2016. (Fran Person/YouTube screenshot)
Hunter’s company held financial interests in multiple Harves affiliates, including a 5% stake with Harves Amusement Parks and ownership in Harves Sports and Entertainment, both of which fall under Harves Group, according to 2017 emails on Hunter’s abandoned laptop from Schwerin.
Fran repeated his previous claim to Fox News Digital in an email Thursday, saying that neither Hunter nor any of his associates ever owned equity in any Harves entity or affiliate, despite multiple emails from Schwerin to Hunter contradicting this claim. A recent Washington Post fact check also noted that Rosemont Seneca Advisors had "a 5 percent stake in Harves Amusement Parks and ownership in Harves Sports and Entertainment, both in China."
Hunter Biden's business partner, Eric Schwerin, sent him an email in March 2017 listing Hunter's LLC's ownership interests and project descriptions, which included multiple Harves affiliates. (Fox News)
The Harves Entertainment website was taken down, and Fran deleted his Linkedin shortly after previous reporting last year.
"Like many similar companies in the attractions industry affected during the global pandemic, Harves Global Entertainment’s operations shut down," Fran claimed. "President Biden has never been a part of any business that I’ve conducted in any way ever."
He did not respond to Fox News Digital's questions about whether he was still involved with the Harves brand or whether the House Oversight Committee has been in contact with him about the investigation.
After publication Friday, Fran sent an email saying, "the projects mentioned by Eric Schwerin in that email never passed the early deal stage and were never executed. Harves Amusement Parks entity never even existed."
Fran has been pressed to provide more details about the Schwerin email in multiple inquiries and is coming forward for the first time to make the claim that these equity stakes "never passed the early deal stage."
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"It is our duty on the oversight committee to fully investigate the president’s son’s ties to the Chinese Communist Party," Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina previously said in a statement to Fox News Digital. "At this point, it is a matter of national security. I believe that it is in the best interest of the American people to call anyone tied to Hunter Biden and Bo Zhang to the stand and demand answers about the coordination between CCP officials and the Biden family."
Bo Zhang, the Chinese executive who founded the Harves Group and whose father-in-law is the current Communist Party secretary of Hainan province, accompanied Fran in attending a White House holiday reception in December 2015.
Bo Zhang, pictured, met with Hunter Biden and Eric Schwerin several times while his business partner, Fran Person, was running for Congress in 2016. (Harves Investment Group/ YouTube Screenshot)
Fox News Digital reported in April that Person also visited the Obama-Biden White House at least seven times between 2015 and 2016 after he left the White House to work for Harves.
Person previously told Fox News Digital the White House visits were "personal in nature" and that he was "visiting with old colleagues and friends."
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During his time at Harves, Fran launched a failed bid for Congress in South Carolina's 5th Congressional District in 2016. While he was campaigning, Hunter and Schwerin were recruiting their business associates behind the scenes to donate thousands of dollars to Fran’s campaign, according to emails previously reported by Fox News Digital.
As a former top aide to then-Vice President Biden, Fran received an endorsement from Biden and enjoyed his presence at multiple fundraisers. During a September 2016 event in Fort Hill, South Carolina, Biden said Person has the "heart of a lion" and a "moral compass that has a true north."
Hunter and Schwerin were also simultaneously working behind the scenes to secure business deals for his company in China, Fox News previously reported.
Hunter Biden introduced his "good friend and business colleague" Bo Zhang in May 2016 to a Chinese business associate of his and mentioned a potential "partnership" between Harvest and Harves. (Fox News)
Fran’s campaign received $2,700 each from Schwerin and Hunter, including $1,000 from then-second lady Jill Biden. Zhang and his mother, Jinglan Shao, the chairwoman of the China-based Harves Century Group, both maxed out to Fran's campaign with two $2,700 donations each.
President Biden embraces son Hunter and family members after taking the oath of office during his swearing-in ceremony at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC., on Jan. 20, 2021. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
The earliest email that Fox News Digital has reviewed involving Hunter and the Harves Group dates back to July 2015, when Person, then the president of the Harves Group, invited him to meet Zhang and his family in China. Neither Person or Zhang have been implicated in any professional or criminal misconduct.
"Bo Zhang and his family would host us," Person wrote in the email. "They are a great family with great respect and relationships in China. Bo graduated from American Univ and is in his late 20's, and his parents own Harves Century Group of Shenyang - which is a top tier private chinese real estate development firm."
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Hunter Biden, left, and Eric Schwerin. (Fox News)
Person's email went on to say that Zhang is "being groomed to take over his family’s dynasty" and that the trip wasn’t about selling Biden on anything, but more about "grow[ing] that relationship," adding that "there will be plenty of big things that come down the road that we can work on."
"His mom is actually the Chairman of the company, which is unique in China," Person wrote. "They are very private, and wouldn't tell anyone about you coming. Bo's father-in-law is actually the Governor of Hainan (Chinese Hawaii), which he doesn't advertise at all."
In July 2015, Fran Person invited Hunter Biden to China for a week to meet Bo Zhang and his family, noting that Bo Zhang was being "groomed to take over his family's dynasty" in China. (Fox News)
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Zhang's father-in-law, Liu Cigui, was later elected as the Communist Party secretary of the Hainan province in 2017 and is considered a "loyalist" of Chinese President Xi Jinping.
It does not appear that Hunter could make the China trip that Person had pitched him on in 2015. However, multiple emails reviewed by Fox News Digital showed that Person and Zhang had met with Hunter and Schwerin after that email and discussed Harves-related business opportunities on numerous occasions In Washington, D.C.
The White House and Anne Marie did not respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
This story has been updated to include Person's comment.
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