Chicago City Wire

Illinois' ties to Hunter Biden are being recalled now that Twitter has released its files behind the decision to hold a story containing accusations against Biden.

Included in Biden’s emails were those regarding former Attorney General Lisa Madigan, daughter to longtime Illinois political boss Michal Madigan who is facing multiple charges of public corruption involving at least two large corporations, ComEd and AT&T. 

The emails came as Valerie Biden Owens - President Biden's sister - alerted Biden’s operation that Lisa Madigan had dropped her media consultant and that Owens' company was hoping to be considered for the job in 2010. 

“Hunt - do you have any swat here - that would not be a chit if you weighed in- bc a chit is too expensive," Owen's email reads.   Eric - I know you would charge me a % !” 

The then-vice president’s sister forwarded an email from her partner Joe Slade White at Joe Slade White and Company Inc. White served as a strategist for Joe Biden for over two decades before his death in 2021. 

“Mary (Morrissey) seemed at least superficially positive and open to find out more about us,” Owens said in an email to Hunter and Rosemont Seneca Partners CEO Eric D. Schwerin. Schwerin sent a joking response. “I would charge you the same percentage I charge every member of the Biden family!' Schwerin said in an email. “Have you reached out to any of our Chicago friends already? Doyle, e.g.? Just thinking that we would reach out to similar names but happy to do so if you want me too?” “Hunter, what do you think?” 

The local ties arise amid the release of the "Twitter Files" by journalist Matt Taibbi. Jill Alper, who was named in the email thread, is a political consultant who founded Alper Strategies. She has been active in Democrat politics since 1991. Alper served as national coordinated campaign director for the Democratic National Committee prior to becoming a consultant.

In the "Twitter Files" – a 41-tweet thread allegedly exposing political influence in Twitter’s censorship process – Taibbi describes how the emails were suppressed  allegedly for the purpose of deflecting bad press from Joe Biden prior to the 2020 election. Taibbi alleges the Biden campaign was directly involved in having the  material removed from the platform. The story was removed and access to the New York Post’s Twitter account was suspended amid warnings from the FBI – allegedly under the influence of former Twitter lawyer Jim Baker, who formerly worked for the FBI – that the information came from Russian operatives. 

“Although several sources recalled hearing about a 'general' warning from federal law enforcement that summer about possible foreign hacks, there’s no evidence - that I've seen - of any government involvement in the laptop story. In fact, that might have been the problem…” Taibbi said in the Twitter Files.

Former Vice President Mike Pence called the revelation “deeply offensive.” Pence told the New York Post he thinks “it may well be because Elon Musk, who I came to know very well during the four years of the Trump administration, I think it’s because he is preparing to release information, finally, about the suppression of the Hunter Biden story, which … was a disgrace.”  He also noted that “The fact that a laptop was discovered in the weeks before the election, that emails were revealed and that social media platforms, including Twitter, actually suppressed access to a New York Post story is deeply offensive to me.”

Writing in his SubStack, Matt Bivens said he is looking forward to learning more about how Twitter has been used as a force for control. “‘Manipulated by whom? And to what end?’ Those are important remaining questions, and here too, so far, the Twitter Files come up short. In particular, I want to hear more about the involvement of three-letter security agencies like FBI and CIA in shaping our social media, and by extension our world views,” Bivens wrote. 

 “The idea here is to come clean on everything that has happened in the past in order to build public trust for the future,” Musk said regarding the release of the files, news.com.au reported.