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Hunter Biden, China, classified documents: Mystery swirls around Penn Biden Center
The Penn Biden Center, where classified documents from Joe Biden's time as vice president were found, lies at the center of the latest controversy affecting the president.
Politics
The Penn Biden Center lies at the heart of the latest Biden controversy but in some ways remains shrouded by mystery.
The White House revealed earlier this week that classified documents were discovered at the Washington, D.C. office for President Biden's think tank, the Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement, in early November. On Wednesday, news broke that another trove of classified documents from Biden's time as vice president had been discovered at another location, leading to louder calls for Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel to investigate the president's handling of such documents.
The Biden Center has since found itself in the middle of a firestorm, leading to renewed questions on the likes of Chinese donations to the University of Pennsylvania, which houses the think tank. Hunter Biden is also shown to have discussed the center in emails before its launch.
Within weeks of leaving the vice presidency under former President Barack Obama in January 2017, Biden became the "Benjamin Franklin Presidential Practice Professor" at the University of Pennsylvania, an honorary position, and the "Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement" was launched in Washington, D.C. the next year.
However, discussions about the elder Biden's future involvement with Penn long predated the end of the Obama presidency, according to emails from Hunter Biden’s infamous abandoned laptop, which have been verified by Fox News Digital.
On April 25, 2016, Creative Artists Agency (CAA) agent Craig Gering emailed Hunter with "confidential notes from our meeting," in which Gering listed apparent plans that were discussed for the vice president upon leaving office.
One of those plans included "wealth creation," with no further explanation, and another included an apparent reference to the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C., with a possible job opportunity for Hunter.
"The Biden Institute of Foreign Relations at the University of Pennsylvania," Gering's email read. "Focus on foreign policy. In addition to the institute at U of Penn, the school has an existing office in DC that will be expanded to house a DC office for VP Biden (and Mike, Hunter and Steve?). Operates like The Clinton Global Initiative without the money raise."
Hunter then confirmed Gering's notes but emphasized that they needed to be "very confidential" because they were not set in stone.
"Yes," Hunter replied, "in theory that's the way I would like to see it shake out--- BUT please keep this very confidential between us because nothing has been set in stone and there's still a lot of sensitivity around all of this both internally and externally. He hasn't made any decisions and this could all be changed overnight."