Hunter Biden's emails reveal how a former aide to Sen. Bob Menendez asked Joe Biden's help in hosting a 2010 event

An email exchange on Hunter Biden’s laptop reveals how a former aide to Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) tried to get Joe Biden to host an event for a US-Spain business group in 2010, and how Hunter later got involved in lobbying for a Spanish rail company.

Danny O’Brien, who was Menendez’s chief of staff at the time, contacted Eric Schwerin, Hunter’s partner at Rosemont Seneca Partners, in April 2010 to ask him about the possibility of getting the vice president to host an event at his residence for the US-Spain Council, which Menendez chaired.

The council aimed to strengthen ties between the two countries and was planning to host Spanish bank CEOs and the foreign minister.

Schwerin forwarded the request to Hunter, who had expressed interest in Spain, according to then-US Ambassador to Spain Alan Solomont.

O’Brien also sent a formal letter to the vice president’s office, but it was declined. He then reached out to Hunter directly, hoping that he could persuade his father to attend the event. The two met at a Washington Nationals game in June 2010, a month before the event.

The emails also show that Hunter used his connections to promote CAF USA, the American subsidiary of the Spanish railway manufacturer CAF, which had a plant in New York and had won a contract with Amtrak in July 2010.

The first son emailed Hilary Rosen, a partner at the PR firm SKDKnickerbocker, in September 2010, suggesting that CAF USA needed to appeal to key senators and congressmen who could influence the White House and the Department of Transportation.

“They need Menendez (very involved in US- Spain business counsel) to take the lead (not Lautenberg- they hate each other) they need him to go to [Sen. Chuck] Schumer [D-NY] and raise an alarm that NY is in jeopardy of loosing [sic] hundreds of jobs and go to Steny and point out that MD faces the same fate in the loss of supplier jobs,” Hunter wrote.

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“You clearly have pulled them from the abyss, but the notion they haven’t hired a world-class lobbyist as they have a world-class PR firm is ridiculous,” he added.

“I want to send that message but only if it doesn’t interfere with the direction you are headed. I obviously can’t lobby, but if I could I would be in Schumer’s office begging and arguing for jobs in NY.”

The CAF manufacturing facility can be found in Elmira Heights, New York. In July 2010, the company secured a substantial contract worth approximately $300 million with Amtrak, as reported by a trade publication.

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