During at least one meeting with Amos Hochstein, a top adviser to then-Vice President Joe Biden on international energy affairs, a Washington-based consulting firm hired by Burisma Holdings invoked the name of Biden’s son Hunter, who was on the board of the Ukrainian gas company at the time. A former Obama State Department official confirmed to the Washington Examiner that Hochstein took the initial meeting with Blue Star Strategies without the firm invoking Biden’s name to Hochstein, as they did with Catherine Novelli, President Barack Obama’s undersecretary for economic growth, energy and the environment.
Representing Blue Star Strategies in the meeting with Hochstein were CEO Karen Tramontano and COO Sally Painter. The first meeting with Hochstein was in November or December of 2015. Tramontano met with Novelli on March 1 of the following year.
Hochstein, who accompanied Biden in nearly every meeting he had with then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, was a vocal proponent of Ukraine cracking down on Burisma Holdings. The source familiar with the meeting believes that Blue Star Strategies intended to convince Hochstein (but did not) that Burisma was on the level and did not warrant further investigation.
In a lengthy feature piece about the vice president’s son from July 2019, the New Yorker reported that Hochstein “raised the matter” of Hunter Biden’s role on the Burisma board to Joe Biden. However, Hochstein has publicly maintained that he never heard the elder Biden bring up Burisma or his son in meetings with Poroshenko.
Hochstein was also reportedly in a notable May 7, 2019, meeting during which current Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky strategized how to circumvent Rudy Giuliani’s attempts to drag the Ukrainian government into the 2020 American presidential election.
Hunter Biden’s role on the besieged board has come under fire after President Trump’s envoys were revealed to have investigated the matter. Biden’s son had no background in the gas industry at the time he was hired for a whopping $50,000 per month by the board. Both Joe and Hunter Biden deny any wrongdoing.
