An aide to Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) aiming to have then-Vice President Joe Biden host an event in 2010 first reached out to a business partner of Hunter Biden with the request, emails on the first son’s abandoned laptop show.
Danny O’Brien, who served as Menendez’s chief of staff from 2008 to 2015, called Eric Schwerin, Hunter’s associate at Rosemont Seneca Partners, around April 2010 to discuss the annual meeting of the US-Spain Council — which works to build ties between Washington and Madrid.
“Danny wants to explore with you possibility of getting VP to host event at NAVOBs for group,” Schwerin said in an April 7, 2010, email to Hunter Biden, referring to the vice president’s residence at the Naval Observatory.
At the time, Menendez was serving as the honorary chair of the council, which was planning to host “CEOs of the major banks” in Spain as well as the country’s foreign minister, according to Schwerin.
“I think Solomont mentioned your interest in Spain and that is why Danny is calling us,” he also told Hunter, mentioning then-US Ambassador to Spain Alan Solomont.
O’Brien then confirmed in an April 28 email that a formal letter extending the invitation had been sent to the vice president’s office. That request was declined, prompting O’Brien to petition Hunter again for his dad’s attendance.
An aide to Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) looking to have then-Vice President Biden host a US-Spain event in 2010 first reached out to a business partner of Hunter Biden with the request, emails on the first son’s abandoned laptop show. CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images“Please see the revised request I just sent in to the Vice President’s office. Any chance you could forward it to Hunter?” O’Brien wrote in a May 6, 2010, email to Schwerin. “Ambassador Solomont was in yesterday and will be broaching the matter with the Vice President when they meet in Madrid later this week.”
Schwerin forwarded the exchange to Hunter, relaying that he already knew the vice president “indicated wanting to stay down and play golf” that weekend rather than attend the event before “he leaves for the National Parks.”
Danny O’Brien, who served as chief of staff for Menendez from 2008 to 2015, called Eric Schwerin, Hunter’s associate at Rosemont Seneca Partners, around April 2010 to discuss the annual meeting of the US-Spain Council. AP
Menendez was serving as chair of the group, which was planning to host “CEOs of the major banks” in Spain as well as the country’s foreign minister, according to Schwerin. CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty ImagesO’Brien, who previously worked for Joe Biden in the Senate and as an adviser on his 2008 campaign, anticipated the excuse, telling Schwerin: “he’s probably going to want to stay down and play golf, right?”
Eventually, O’Brien petitioned the second son directly about the invitation — and the two attended a Washington Nationals baseball game in June 2010, the month before the event was set to be held, other emails show.
Who's involved in the indictment of Sen. Bob Menendez
The New Jersey Democrat is facing charges of taking gold bars and bribes and stashing hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash around his house in return for using his “power and influence” — including his position as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — to benefit the Egyptian government and two local businessmen.
Sen. Robert Menendez and Nadine Menendez
The New Jersey Democrat was indicted Friday for allegedly accepting a Mercedes-Benz C-Class sedan, 13 gold bars and $566,000 in cash, which FBI agents found “stuffed in envelopes” after a June 2022 search of his home.
Senator Menendez’s wife, Nadine, was indicted alongside her husband for taking bribes. The Menendezes also received mortgage payments, a recliner, exercise machines and other items in exchange for shielding co-defendants Wael Hana, Jose Uribe and Fred Daibes.
Bob Menendez also allegedly attempted to intervene in a criminal case against Daibes by recommending President Biden pick current New Jersey US Attorney Philip Sellinger, who the senator believed would apply a light touch to the case.
If convicted on all charges, the Democratic senator faces up to 45 years in prison.
Fred Daibes
Menendez and his wife allegedly had a longstanding relationship with New Jersey real estate developer Fred Daibes, who court papers say bribed the couple with gold bars and cash for a series of favors, including the senator’s help disrupting a federal prosecution into Daibes.
Daibes received probation after pleading guilty last year to entering false loan information.
Jose Uribe
In April 2019, Menendez’s wife met a former insurance agent from Union City, NJ, Jose Uribe, “for five minutes.” Nadine Menendez ducked into the parking lot of a restaurant where Uribe, 56, handed her $15,000 in cash, court papers allege.
She then used the cash to make a down payment on a Mercedes-Benz C-class convertible – while Uribe asked the senator to tamper with the state attorney general’s prosecution of one of his colleagues for insurance fraud, according to the court docs.
Wael Hana
Menendez allegedly updated unnamed Egyptian officials in real-time about US military aid to the country through Edgewater, NJ, businessman Wael Hana. The businessman sent Menendez’s proposal for foreign military sale to Egypt of tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition for firearms and tanks to an Egyptian official for approval.
In early 2021, Hana allegedly used funds from his halal business to send two exercise machines and an air purifier, among other items, to the Menendez home.
In exchange for these gifts and other alleged bribes, Menendez improperly pressured a US Department of Agriculture official to protect Hana’s “exclusive monopoly,” granted in 2019, on signing off on US food exported to Egypt as compliant with halal standards, despite Hana having no prior experience with halal certification, the feds said.
The conversation appears to have kicked off an effort to promote the American subsidiary of the Spanish railway manufacturer CAF.
The conversation appears to have kicked off an effort to promote the American subsidiary of the Spanish railway manufacturer CAF. REUTERS“Eric (my partner) was going to send you an email tonight. I told him I thought we (my group) should make the case that CAF USA needs to step up its appeal to key members who could in turn appeal to WH/ DOT,” Hunter wrote in a Sept. 14, 2010, email to Hilary Rosen, a partner at the PR firm SKDKnickerbocker.
“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,” he added, referring to former New Jersey Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg and Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.).
“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,” Hunter also told Rosen.
“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.”
CAF’s manufacturing plant is located in Elmira Heights, NY. In July 2010, the firm won a bid for a nearly $300 million contract with Amtrak, according to a trade publication.
