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Americans were led to believe Hunter Biden did not profit from Amtrak at all after his father became Vice President in 2009.
But the truth is he did.
It’s hyperbolic for some corner of the internet to claim Hunter Biden made $1.76 million off of Amtrak. AP was completely right to fact-check that. However in their effort to debunk the narrative AP missed the mark. From July 2006 to February 2009 the outlet claims “Amtrak paid Biden a total of $32,850, which represents per diem fees paid for attending 43 board meetings.”
I’m here to tell you the AP was wrong. The mainstream narrative that Hunter Biden’s relationship with Amtrak ended solely there is wrong. Hunter’s paycheck from Amtrak related business is in the six figure range, not five. To prove it I have a digital paper trail of emails from the infamous hard drive from hell. The leak of Hunter Biden’s files that kicked off the public scrutiny of his business dealings in the first place.
Here’s a taste of what I’ll go over.
Joe Biden laid out what the American people should expect from him, in a recent CNN interview with Jake Tapper. “My son, my family will not be involved in any business, any enterprise, that is in conflict with or appears to be in conflict with or appears to be in conflict whether it is an appropriate distance from the presidency and government.”
What leaked emails reveal is that while not profiting off in an arrangement between Amtrak and himself directly, Hunter Biden used that relationship to guarantee success for Amtrak’s business partners. The manufacturing company CAF USA and architecture firm HNTB.
INTRODUCTION
What first attracted me to the Biden / Amtrak angle was a February 2011 email from Rosemont Seneca’s Eric Schwerin to Hunter: “I want to punch her in the face” he wrote, referring to Michelle Malkin. Schwerin was offended at her labeling of Hunter as a lobbyist that was currently on Amtrak’s board.
It is safe to say that the “current lobbyist” label is inaccurate (taking care of that back in 2008). However at the time in February 2009 the official reporting of Hunter Biden’s Amtrak position didn’t make his full resignation clear. It wasn’t until the AP fact-check in October 2019 that a “31-month tenure” makes it more clearly known.
This Politico article from February 2007 shows that there was a brief overlap where Hunter Biden was both a lobbyist as well as a member of the Amtrak board. It paints him as a passionate guy when it came to the railroad business. What’s of note here is that we learn Amtrak is a “qausi-government entity” and it can’t lobby Congress directly because of that.
Such a relationship is at the center of our discussion. Hunter Biden is painted as the closest compromise to the lobbying problem. This is summed up best by David R. Johnson, assistant director of the National Association of Railroad Passengers: “they have an effective advocate in Hunter Biden.”
It’s through Michelle Malkin’s 2011 article that I found the lead that’d seal the story I’m writing here now.
On September 13th 2010 Senator Chuck Grassley and Rep. Darrell Issa released a report titled “The Removal of the Inspector General for The National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak).” It’s worth mentioning that Amtrak is owned by the government. The company’s Board of Directors are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate. It’s taxpayer funded. The October 2008 “Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008” ensured Amtrak would get $2.6 billion a year through 2013.
This timeframe is what’s relevant to our interest regarding Hunter Biden’s dealings. Grassley’s report centers around the removal of Fred Weiderhold. He served as Amtrak’s first Inspector General and held that role since January 1989. Fred’s job was to audit Amtrak for any mismanagement or potential wrongdoings that might occur. Amtrak’s leadership didn’t like that. It’s because of Weiderhold that Amtrak was found to have “engaged in excessive use of outside counsel and that inadequate controls on costs led to over $102 million in expenditures over 3 years.”
Malkin and other critics highlighted the Eleanor Acheson connection. On the relationship level Eleanor was in tight with both Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden. But in terms of the company, she’s Amtrak’s vice president and general counsel that oversaw the Law Department.
Beginning in April 2007, the Amtrak Law Department began placing red tape obstacles regarding the sharing/access to Amtrak information. It got in the way of the Inspector General’s work. Roughly two years later is when the Board began plans to remove Weiderhold. They wrote a letter to Congress (as procedure). But instead of just sending this 30-day notice, the Amtrak Board used it as a threat to force Fred Weiderhold to “voluntarily” retire. It all came to a head on June 18th 2009 when he ultimately faced off against the board. Weiderhold signed a formal separation agreement.
The main crux of the Amtrak report is that questions are left unanswered when it comes to why Fred Weiderhold was removed. He was forced to retire and made to sign an NDA to guarantee his silence. What strikes me the most is the report’s line that the Amtrak “Board took this action even though Weiderhold had been effective at exposing waste, fraud, and abuse at the highest levels within Amtrak.”
Time to meet the key players.
- Tom Carper: Chairman of the Amtrak Board of Directors. He’s the guy that officially gave the ultimatum to Weiderhold. The Joint Committee staff that interviewed Carper about excessive spending found that Tom claimed “no knowledge” of these money expenditures.
- Joseph Boardman: President and CEO of Amtrak from 2008 to 2016. Boardman was observed to be angry about the Weiderhold ordeal and was actively involved in Fred’s removal, even though he officially couldn’t remove him himself (that was Tom Carper’s job).
Tom Carper served on Amtrak’s board from March 2008 to March 2013. He had a blip period where his term expired. In August 2013 he was re-nominated back by President Obama for another five-year tenure.
“Joe B” here means Amtrak’s Joseph Boardman. What matters is that this first email showed Hunter Biden knew both Tom Carper and Joseph Boardman of Amtrak.
Hunter Biden still hung out with the Amtrak board after stepping down. But it’s important we zero in on two figures mentioned in Grassley’s report. Hunter knew Amtrak’s Joseph Boardman and Tom Carper for years. The relationship was a mutual triangle amongst the three of them. On more than one occasion Tom Carper arranged dinner dates for their group.
If that was all there was to it, we wouldn’t have much of a story here. Who cares if Hunter Biden put his thumb on the scale in September 2014 to make sure Garden City, Kansas was chosen for grant funding? A modest favor for Amtrak’s Joe Boardman that wouldn’t amount to much on it’s own.
But there’s much more.
CAF USA
This is the story of CAF USA. In 2010, Amtrak awarded them a production line contract. They built 130 cars: 25 sleepers, 25 dining cars, 55 baggage cars and 25 bedroom cars. The overall value of the five-year bid was $298.1 million. Amtrak was going to finance the first year with their own revenues but left the door open for “congressional appropriations” to get them over the other four.
How does Hunter Biden enter the picture? By teaming up with a company called TransAtlantic, and their guy Lorenzo Roccia.
2/19/2010. “No worries amigo you guys are my guests…I have a tender ready to pick you up. You guys come you are going to love it here,” Lorenzo Roccia told Hunter Biden. He and the Rosemont gang went to Spain on a mix of business and pleasure.
5/26/2010, 9:31 AM. (Abel Homet also works for Transatlantic.) Lorenzo writes to Hunter Biden, Eric Schwerin, and Devon Archer of Rosemont Seneca: “Spoke to Andres CEO of CAF this morning they would like to hire us. Once we send him our offer he said he can decide the same day.”
5/26/2010, 8:00 PM. Eric Schwerin debated with Devon Archer and Hunter Biden on going with CAF or Talgo in their arrangement with Lorenzo. He assumed Lorenzo’s leaning towards CAF was the prospect of a 50/50 split, and planned their next moves on that basis.
5/27/2010. Follow-up with CAF CEO. Lorenzo Roccia tells the Rosemont Seneca people (Hunter, Eric Schwerin, and Devon Archer) that CAF “have the capacity to manufacture 100% of the trains in the US.”
This is an important detail that comes into play later as Buy America is a big factor during this time.
5/29/2010. I’m not a legal expert but even I can observe this next email shows Hunter Biden and friends using their insider knowledge to wedge CAF’s business prospects with Amtrak. Rosemont Seneca’s people were skeptical about making a quick turnaround in term’s of formalizing any bid.
“He’d like to give the guy a little bit of a nugget more as to why they are having problems with Amtrak and said we should discuss on our Tuesday 11am call at which point maybe we will have a little more info from Amtrak. He thinks if we can get a little more info (really anything) that will be well received and position us well to get a long term contract with them focused on HSR, light rail and Amtrak.“
6/3/2010. The seemingly long-shot odds didn’t stop Hunter Biden and Eric Schwerin from sealing the deal between CAF and Amtrak anyway. “The keys to winning the bid are producing the trains faster (as far as deliver is concerned), cheaper and safer.”
6/6/2010. 1:24 PM. The CAF/Amtrak deal went through. We know this as Eric Schwerin told both the Rosemont people and TransAtlantic’s team: “I think we should ask for $75,000 upfront (which is 30%). Then begin billing them on a monthly basis sixty days later for the remaining $175,000 (so for the remaining 10 months it would be $17,500 a month). Objections?”
How did CAF win over Alstrom? According to the press announcement: “Both Alstom and CAF offered 100% domestic manufacturing, including carshells. CAF’s bid was approximately $90 million lower than Alstom’s.” The same talking points Hunter Biden and Rosemont Seneca fed Lorenzo Roccia, are the exact same reasons Amtrak’s Joseph Boardman justified awarding CAF the contract over Alstrom.
A little under an hour later, Eric Schwerin told Hunter Biden privately: “For CAF we are guaranteed $180,000 (or $15,000 a month) for a year.”
By 11:39 PM that night, it looked like a done deal. Schwerin emailed Hunter to try and nail down a good time to schedule a conference call between the CAF CEO and the younger Biden.
7/12/2010. This email establishes that CAF, TransAtlantic, and Hunter Biden’s company all knew of each other and mingled. “We have a 4pm meeting at the CAF DC offices tomorrow with Abel and Lorenzo (address to be given to us tomorrow morning) – meet and greet – nothing more than that I am told. Then we’ll meet them for dinner at 7pm at West End Bistro at the Ritz.”
7/15/2010. Eric Schwerin writes to Hunter: “The Spanish Minister of Transport was going to send a letter to Amtrak on behalf of CAF. Couple of questions about it. There should be no problem with this I think.”
“There should be no problem with this I think.” But there would be a problem on the horizon for CAF.
September 7th 2010. The Federal Transit Administration releases a letter summing up their investigation into the Houston METRO and CAF. $205 million of Federal money was at play in a project that involved CAF producing two pilot Light Right Vehicles over in Spain. Spain not being America. They were supposed to be guides for the production of 103 LRVs for three federally funded projects.
The concern from the FTA was that this separate contract for LRVs violated Buy America requirements. The investigation’s conclusion found several violations. Many directly pertaining to the Buy America certification and circumventing that.
Beyond that there were several other violations regarding competition:
- “METRO negotiated with one offeror, CAF, to the exclusion of all others;”
- “METRO misled manufacturers competing against CAF by stating that it was “still in the evaluation state” and would inform them “when the evaluation was completed” even though it had instructed its Facility Provider to enter into a contract with CAF;”
- “METRO allowed CAF to continue revising its price while refusing to allow other offerors the opportunity to present their best and final prices;”
- “METRO did not follow the procurement processes outlined in FTA guidance and in METRO’s own Procurement Manual;”
- “METRO withheld evaluation criteria and information regarding the weight of evaluation criteria from the offerors; and”
- “METRO did not perform a valid best value analysis before selecting CAF.”
Hunter Biden had his hands full now. He had to find a way to wiggle CAF out of this controversy unscathed.
9/9/2010. HILARY ROSEN of the consulting firm SKDKnickerbocker enters the picture. A former communications consultant for the Obama White House. Rosen and SKDKnickerbocker were considered controversial during their time given how often they visited the White House. So much so that some claimed they were acting as unofficial lobbyists.
SKDK was brought in to help CAF manage their crisis in Houston.
9/10/2010. “Just spent over 2 hours with CAF their lawyers and their PR team (for my 15 min drop by) and unilaterally developed their crisis strategy. Glad we are getting paid less than half of anyone else in the room. That success fee better come through.” Hunter Biden wrote.
“May not be exactly the way Lorenzo pitched it to us but we will get what we are owed,” responded Eric Schwerin.
“How am I supposed to respond? If success fee doesn’t come through I’m more than happy to pack it up,” said a flustered Devon Archer.
Hunter Biden unloaded his feelings:
“No response necessary. I’m just amazed by my own timidity. I recommended they hire this PR firm and they are charging them 150K for 60 days and an additional 40K p/m for the next 4 mos- minimum. And I literally just gave them the entire strategy and drafted their letter to DOT and Press release. I am a bitter man.”
9/14/2010, 1:01 PM. Hilary Rosen of SKDKnickerbocker leads the charge for arranging a big meeting between the Department of Transportation and CAF USA.
9/14/2010, 3:32 PM. Eric Schwerin provides more details of the meeting and strategy: “Further to Hunter’s earlier email, the meeting between CAF and Rogoff is scheduled for Friday at 3:30pm at DOT. They are working on their message to Rogoff between now and then and hope to be able to persuade him to delay implementation of the ruling while they can do additional fact finding or cancel just the two cars not the entire 103. I explained to Tomar [CAF USA employee] that it will be hard for [FTA Administrator] Rogoff to backtrack publicly after he issued such a strong letter, but they are happy that they are getting the opportunity to make their case.”
9/14/2010, 5:34 PM. Hilary Rosen said “We have the admin interested. But so [far] no one with the power/intention of a threat to [overrule] Rogoff.” This in itself confirms there’s something to the controversy surrounding the closeness between Hilary Rosen, SKDKnickerbocker, and the Obama White House.
“I obviously can’t lobby, but if I could I would be in Schumer’s office begging and arguing for jobs in NY,” responded Hunter Biden. In the rest of his email he was firing on four of his brain cylinders to try and mitigate CAF’s crisis.
9/17/2010, 3:24 PM. Eric Schwerin clues Hunter Biden and Devon Archer in on how their payment situation is coming along, in terms of Rosemont’s deal with TransAtlantic and CAF. “Apparently Transatlantic’s Madrid office got a call from CAF HQ today to discuss payment of our invoice (mechanics of where to wire money/send check). We’ll see. I think this is only in regards to the initial $75K and the monthly retainer but two steps forward one step back.”
9/17/2010, 6:56 PM. Eric updates Rosemont Seneca with the good news the meeting seemingly went well between CAF USA and the FTA.
It didn’t go as well as they thought. According to this public response from the FTA’s side, CAF USA delivered a formal “Request for Reconsideration” letter at the meeting. The FTA rejected it on the grounds that CAF USA didn’t provide any new facts or points of law for consideration.
9/24/2010. “I’m concerned this Houston situation was thrown on our plate last minute and we need to make sure we manage their expectations very clearly as to what we can and CANNOT do,” Lorenzo Roccia wrote to Hunter Biden and the Rosemont Seneca team. The situation was beginning to die down in the sense that everyone had enough time to adapt and re-adjust relations in light of the unexpected speedbump.
The METRO/CAF controversy ended up with CAF settling and having to pay back $14 million. The Amtrak deal was still good to go, however.
11/30/2010. Eric Schwerin updates Hunter Biden and Devon Archer again about getting paid for the CAF job. “I asked Lorenzo about the success fee for CAF today and he said Abel and Pio were taking lead on that and we should talk to Abel about it when we see him this week.”
Even a layman can see “success fee” as being Hunter Biden getting the job done for their client. That being in this case getting a hook-up with Amtrak. Which was easy for Hunter to do given that he was previously on their board alongside Tom Carper and Joseph Boardman.
The connection between Hunter and Boardman comes in handy.
12/20/2010. “Not appropriate for Joe” Eric Schwerin said to describe some of the things on Hunter’s agenda. He was to soon meet with Amtrak’s Joe Boardman and there were pertinent things to talk about.
12/21/2010. Eric Schwerin gives us a draft memo explaining what Hunter Biden and Joe Boardman of Amtrak talked about. There’s two versions of it. Hunter wanted to stress the political obstacles aspect of it and his revisions reflect that.
“Earlier this week Hunter had lunch with Joe Boardman on a broad range of issues relevant to CAF. Joe was less focused on the longer term high speed rail projects in Florida and California and more honed in on short term issues facing Amtrak. Among the issues he touched on were CAF’s current contract with Amtrak, Amtrak’s role in developing the Northeast Corridor and plans to identify short and long term solutions for replacing the Acela rolling stock. Joe expressed confidence in the positive working relationship between Amtrak and CAF. An important point that was reiterated in the meeting was that the high speed rail projects are all longer term proposals that involve players and politics beyond [Amtrak’s] control. However, within Amtrak control is the [continued?] expansion of long distance superliner service for example that will result in real potential procurements in the short term.”
12/27/2010. This was from a more personal exchange between Eric Schwerin and Hunter Biden. Not only is the “CAF/TransAtlantic payment (told Pio we need the $10,500 wired by Tuesday)” immediately relevant, but you can also observe how many different money flows Hunter Biden had going on in his life at a given time.
1/5/2011. Lorenzo Roccia writes to Rosemont Seneca and TransAtlantic people about coordinating strategies regarding CAF: “My understanding was that on today’s call with CAF we were going to discuss the strategy of focusing more on Amtrak in general terms and we’d tell them that a more detailed memo on this would follow in the next few days.”
2/28/2011. Eric Schwerin asks Hunter: “We are doing a call with CAF tomorrow during your Board meeting. Anything to report to CAF from your lunch with Joe McHugh or your meeting today so we can sound smart?”
Joe McHugh being a longtime Amtrak executive. This demonstrates how Hunter Biden’s relationship with Amtrak was a pivotal selling point for Rosemont Seneca’s business with CAF. It all works because Hunter Biden is Hunter Biden and the company could not function without the political clout attached to that name.
4/26/2011. An email from Rosemont’s Michael Muldoon that outlines CAF’s various points of business interest. “Amtrak – happy with current status” being one thing. “Joe Boardman trip to Spain desirable” being another.
Good time to remind everyone that Amtrak is funded by taxpayer dollars.
4/27/2011. Michael Muldoon writes a draft email (under Hunter’s name) and sends it along to both the younger Biden and Eric Schwerin for their approval. It was a “WHERE’S OUR MONEY” email to TransAtlantic. Rosemont Seneca demanded to know when they were getting paid.
“Jesus- I was happy to hear from Lorenzo when the two of you spoke recently that we would be receiving payment for the 10% of the incentive fee on April 20th. Unfortunately, that payment did not arrive. We did receive a monthly retainer payment on the 20th, but you are still a few months behind on the retainer payment and we have yet to receive any portion of the incentive fee. I understand you received your first payment from Amtrak back in February. Could you please let us know the exact date we can expect the first installment of our incentive fee and the monthly retainers that are past due? Thanks, Hunter”
This serves to bring us around to the main point of discussing CAF. Hunter Biden and TransAtlantic worked with them to get a bid with Amtrak and personally benefit off of public money. The point and purpose of Hunter Biden’s Rosemont Seneca operation being the company is able to circumvent political landmines. They act as managers where their task is string-pulling. That’s what happened here with CAF.
Hunter Biden’s relationship to Amtrak’s leadership is the cherry-on-top.
4/30/2012. This email is another example of Amtrak’s Joe Boardman and Hunter directly interacting. While a direct financial line from Amtrak to Biden is not at play, that’s what the business relations boiled down to. The money path is a shell game. It illustrates how Hunter’s gimmick for his work focused on his savvy political navigation that worked around loopholes.
As you can see, alongside CAF’s mention in the talking points email, another name comes up. HNTB. The HNTB Corporation is another vector of interest worth exploring.
HNTB
HNTB is an architecture firm. They worked with Amtrak on the Baltimore and Potomac tunnel project. The company ended up rebuilding an older tunnel and constructing a new high-speed passageway along with that.
A massive undertaking. One where Hunter Biden got a slice of the financial pie.
3/8/2010. Todd Schultz of HNTB reaches out to Eric Schwerin and Hunter Biden over at Rosemont Seneca to see if they had any questions about an upcoming Baltimore tunnel project.
6/9/2010. “We are pursuing the preliminary design/EIS contract for the reconstruction of the Baltimore Tunnel. Amtrak is the client,” Bob Cook of the HNTB Corporation writes to Hunter Biden and Eric Schwerin. “25 to 35 million dollar contract. We are well positioned and have an outstanding team. Any help you can provide to bring it home would be appreciated.”
9/25/2010. Hunter Biden tells Eric Schwerin their client HNTB was worried that Amtrak appointed a guy who had a background at the SNCF railway company. The concern being: “Sounds like more evidence Amtrak might want to partner with SNCF on the operations side.”
9/28/2010. CAF planned to have dinner with HNTB’s Todd Schultz and Peter Gertler. (Remember their company was dealing with a controversy of their own, so it made sense for CAF to want to clear the air with another company in their field.)
1/4/2011. This email is an example of where Rosemont Seneca’s usefulness fits best. HNTB wanted Hunter to arrange a meeting with DelDOT Secretary Carolann Wicks. The foremost intent being HNTB wanted to assert the company’s dominance in their particular field. But also they wanted to know why DelDOT rejected HNTB on a recent bid project.
1/26/2011. An email exchange between Michael Muldoon to Hunter Biden and Eric Schwerin that reminds us that Hunter served as a liaison between: HNTB, CAF, and Amtrak’s Joe Boardman. Despite the public being led to believe the younger Biden cut ties with Amtrak entirely in February 2009. Here Hunter was in January 2011 trying to juggle the needs of multiple clients and coordinating business with Amtrak’s leadership.
4/1/2011. Michael Muldoon tells Hunter Biden he should try and set up a meeting between their client HNTB and DC Mayor Fenty. Hunter was planning to meet Fenty anyway, why not make the most of it? The purpose for introducing Fenty to HNTB “would be for HNTB to get a better lay of the land in DC and determine who best to target as they look to expand their footprint in the District.”
4/6/2011. “sent from my personal account,” writes Amtrak’s Thomas Carper. He wanted Hunter Biden to introduce him to HNTB’s people.
4/11/2011. Michael Muldoon ghost writes a letter on behalf of Hunter Biden. The letter is addressed to former DC Mayor Fenty. The intent of it is making an introduction between the Mayor and Rosemont Seneca’s client, HNTB.
“Mr. Mayor, Per our recent conversation, I wanted to introduce you to a client of ours, HNTB. Kimberly Hudgins, cc’ed here, is a member of HNTB’s government affairs team and is based out of Washington. I’ll leave it to the two of you to coordinate schedules, but I know Kimberly is free for lunch on Monday, April 18th if that works with your schedule. Thanks in advance for your time and look forward to seeing you soon. Best, Hunter”
4/18/2011. Eric Schwerin tells Hunter that Amtrak’s Tom Carper was planning a meeting with HNTB. It wasn’t confirmed yet but as a matter of scheduling it would’ve been best to move it to June. In that case, Hunter could show up. But Schwerin wanted to ask Bob Cook of HNTB whether or not Hunter Biden should be there at all.
4/27/2011. Tom Carper follows up directly about the potential June meeting between Amtrak and HNTB and gave a contact at Amtrak to make arrangements.
4/29/2011. Michael Muldoon updates Hunter Biden and Eric Schwerin that the Baltimore Tunnel project was expanding to also include “bridges north of Baltimore.”
5/9/2011. Another MONEY talk. Eric Schwerin emails Hunter Biden about renewing their contract with HNTB.
“It turns out we started working for HNTB two years ago this month so it is the perfect milestone to discuss a raise. In fact, we really don’t have a contract as the original was for one year and require re-signing if we wanted to continue. I am going to ask for $25K a month but assume we’d only get $20K at best. Is $25K too greedy?“
5/13/2011. Michael Muldoon writes to Peter Gertler, Eric Schwerin, and Todd Schultz of HNTB. The topic of discussion was Hunter Biden did what he did best, and greased the political wheels with Amtrak Executive Joe McHugh. Joe was willing to meet with HNTB’s people to discuss a proposed Northeast High Speed Rail Association.
The results of that meeting are discussed in the next email.
6/7/2011. Peter Gertler met with Joe McHugh and they were optimistic about a NEHSR Coalition. A potential grab for power was on the table for Hunter Biden as they wanted him to be the Executive Director of it.
6/20/2011. Michael Muldoon tells Hunter Biden that he learned from HNTB’s people that the Baltimore Tunnel “RFP” (request for proposal) was being delayed. They also wanted some immediate guidance on how to confirm the situation.
4/30/2012. This email was mentioned already at the tail end of the CAF segment. But as a reminder, Hunter Biden discussed HNTB as well with Amtrak’s Joe Boardman. Specifically written is the question: “How much the Cuomo Administration wants to see rail on the bridge?” in relation to HNTB’s involvement.
7/1/2015. John Parola of HNTB reaches out to Hunter Biden and Eric Schwerin of Rosemont (and Todd Schultz of HNTB alongside other HNTB people) regarding “LEGISLATIVE DISCUSSIONS AROUND SIGNIFICANT AMTRAK FUNDING.” The body of the message says: “Todd, Hunter, can you provide an assessment of the likelihood of the proposal making it across the finish line and the timing if it does.”
This is as inside political baseball as it gets. John Parola wanted an inside scoop into developments in Washington DC that only the likes of Hunter Biden could provide.
7/13/2015. We see HNTB’s response with their desire to help Amtrak: “In response to our meeting with amtrak hntb wishes to mobilize resources and strategically pursue a plan to support amtrak as we discussed with them last week. Mary Rago will set up a call for tomorrow. Eric if there is a better time for you and hunter let us know. Todd, mike and I will make it work,” wrote John Parola.
The follow-up reply seals Hunter Biden’s ongoing relationship between HNTB, Amtrak, and himself: “I contacted joe Mchugh direct and we are talking tomorrow afternoon. We are following up on our offer to help amtrak. We had wanted to talk to you and Hunter first as part of our strategy. Enjoy your vacation we are all set and when you return we should talk.”
(As an unrelated epilogue, in March 2019 HTNB got in trouble with the Department of Justice over improper billing of an Amtrak contact. Nothing in the emails points to Hunter Biden being involved with this one, unlike the CAF USA issue.)
If/When “Amtrak Joe” takes office next month, let this article serve as a warning.
We can unpack this Hunter Biden story on solely the financial level. Keep in mind that the general public was led to believe that after February 2009 he had nothing to do with Amtrak in any way, shape, or form. Above I have laid out two different ways this is not the case, via Rosemont Seneca’s business relationships with CAF USA and HNTB, Inc.
It’s through that we can see that Hunter Biden made a six-figure sum from leveraging his existing relationship with Amtrak. If not more. The door is open for authorities to audit Amtrak and investigate the full extent of taxpayer dollars that Hunter pilfered through his work.
Joseph Boardman and Tom Carper of Amtrak are Hunter Biden’s accomplices. These two were at the center of the limelight in Senator Grassley’s and Rep. Issa’s investigation back in September 2010. We were left with questions unanswered as to the ousting of former IG Fred Weiderhold. All we know is Amtrak kicked him out despite Fred being one of the best at exposing financial waste and mismanagement.
We can’t say for sure that Boardman and Carper got rid of Weiderhold to protect Hunter Biden. But anyone can see from the evidence laid out here that they let the Vice President’s son get away with making a profit at America’s expense.