Who is Eric Schwerin? What to know about Hunter Biden’s business partner
Eric Schwerin became one of Hunter Biden’s closest friends, business associates, and an emotional “pillar” to the president’s troubled second son over a 20-year relationship that transformed the enigmatic moneyman into a D.C. power player.
The 52-year-old fixer — who made at least 27 visits to the White House and other official venues during the Obama/Biden presidency — is likely to be a focus of a looming Republican House probe into Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings.
While Schwerin has not personally been accused of any wrongdoing, his deep personal and financial ties to both Joe and Hunter Biden continue to cast doubt on past claims from President Biden that he had no involvement in his son’s business dealings.
Hunter Biden and Schwerin likely first met when they worked in President Bill Clinton’s Commerce Department.
Schwerin arrived at the agency in 1994 with a sterling resume, having earned a B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania and an M.A. from the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University. Before graduating he spent a year in Czechoslovakia as an English teacher.
Schwerin rose through the ranks quickly, becoming an International Trade Specialist in 1997, before claiming the title of senior policy advisor to the Secretary for International Trade in 1999.
“I worked with him in the Department of Commerce and I always found him to be a good and decent guy. A nice pleasant guy,” one former colleague told The Post of Schwerin.
Hunter Biden was the same age as Schwerin and fresh out of Yale Law School, where he had won admission after President Clinton personally lobbied Dean Guido Calabresi to admit him. After bouncing around some cushy banking gigs in Delaware, he landed at Commerce as a “policy director specializing in the burgeoning Internet economy,” according to the New Yorker.
The pair hit it off. When George W. Bush became president, Hunter Biden left government and started a lobbying shop with William Oldaker, a D.C. lawyer who worked on his father’s aborted 1988 presidential campaign. In 2002 Schwerin joined them and became a partner in the company, lobbying disclosure forms show.
In 2008 Sen. Barack Obama sought more than $3.4 million in congressional earmarks for Hunter’s clients, the Washington Post reported at the time.
Schwerin stayed with the lobbying firm until 2008. That same year Joe Biden was elected vice president of the United States and both Hunter Biden and Schwerin were ready for their next moves.
Conveniently, in 2004, Schwerin had purchased a three-bedroom townhouse in the upscale Glover Park neighborhood of DC. The area, known for ambassador’s residences and stately homes, is a 20-minute walk from the Naval Observatory, where the vice president’s residence is located.
Schwerin visited the residence at least 13 times during Joe Biden’s vice presidency, mostly for official parties and receptions.
On June 25, 2009, Hunter Biden founded his investment firm Rosemont Seneca Partners with Chris Heinz, the ketchup fortune heir and stepson of John Kerry and Devon Archer, a one-time Abercrombie & Fitch model. Schwerin was enlisted to be its president. The fund aggressively pursued deals in Russia, Romania, Ukraine, China and elsewhere.
During the eight years of Joe Biden’s vice presidency, Schwerin gradually became a de facto financial planner for the wider Biden family.
Emails from Hunter Biden’s abandoned hard drive show Schwerin moving money on behalf of father and son and helping Hunter Biden handle family expenses. Schwerin received Joe Biden’s “Delaware tax refund check” while he was vice president and the two talked by phone about the Joe Biden’s mortgage.
“He did financial stuff for the family but that’s really all I know,” Margaret Campbell, a former special assistant to Jill Biden, previously told The Post.
After Hunter Biden’s aunt Valerie Biden Owens finished a four-month stint at the United Nations in September 2016, Schwerin sent a memo to Hunter Biden outlining a plan for Aunt Val to handle consulting projects at the Biden Foundation and University of Delaware, with each gig paying $12,500 per month, according to Miranda Devine’s book “Laptop from Hell.”
The Bidens returned the favor, using their influence in the White House to help Schwerin land a plum presidential appointment to the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad in 2015.
By the end of Biden’s term as vice president, Schwerin had become a DC power player. His birthday was noted in Politico Playbook and he served as chairman of 826DC, a trendy non-profit dedicated to helping students develop “creative and expository writing skills.”
https://nypost.com/2022/04/30/who-is-eric-schwerin-what-to-know-about-hunter-bidens-business-partner/