A Mississippi Democrat candidate for governor took $10,000 from a Chinese national tied to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and first son Hunter Biden, according to campaign finance filings.

Mississippi Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley, who is running for governor as a Democrat, has tried to position himself as a moderate candidate.

However, even as he tries to portray himself as a moderate, Presley has taken money from prominent progressive Democrats as well as some questionable donors.

On June 26, 2023, Presley took $10,000 from Wanxiang America President Pin Ni, according to campaign finance filings.

Then-Vice President Joe Biden hosted a White House meeting with Ni and Wanxiang Resources Co. President Youhong Han on July 25, 2014, according to White House visitor logs first reported last year by the Daily Mail.

According to the CCP-run China Daily, Biden had ‘invited’ the Wanxiang executives to visit several cities in the U.S. at the time, including Washington, Detroit and Dover, Delaware.

The parent company, Wanxiang Group, posthumously awarded the company’s founder, Lu Guanqiu, the title of ‘National Outstanding Communist Party Member’ in a 2021 press release and praised Guanqiu in the release as regarding ‘the pursuit of communism as a lifelong ideal and practice.’

It also said he ‘insisted that the development of an enterprise is inseparable from the correct leadership of the party.’ The founder’s bio on the Wanxiang website says he was elected as the 13th and 14th Representatives of the Communist Part of China, and a delegate to the 9th, 10th, and 11th Chinese National People’s Congress. 

Pin has direct ties to the president’s son after emailing him less than a week after meeting with his father.

Less than a week after the Wanxiang executives met with Hunter’s father at the White House in July 2014, Pin Ni sent Hunter an email about his Fisker car, according to a review of emails from Hunter’s abandoned laptop that have been verified by Fox News Digital.

‘My name is Pin Ni and I am the president of Wanxiang America which bought Fisker assets a few months ago. Last Friday when we visited DC, I heard that your Fisker is out of order and could not get serviced. Sorry,’ Pin wrote. ‘Yesterday the bankruptcy judge had approved Old Fisker’s plan of liquidation in which we will be offering warrantee service to all Fisker owners, it would be our honor to get your Fisker fixed.’

Hunter then informed Pin that he ended up selling the car back to the dealer ‘at a big loss,’ to which Pin responded that he would ‘make sure your next Fisker will exceed the expectation,’ including a smiling emoticon.

Hunter’s car purchase has been a point of heavy scrutiny during federal prosecutors’ ongoing investigation into alleged tax fraud by the first son.

The filings also revealed that Presley on July 29 took $2,500 from Elizabeth Naftali — a Biden appointee who recently made headlines after it was revealed she was a buyer of Hunter Biden’s artwork — as well as $50,000 from California attorney Steve Phillips on June 23.

Phillips’ donation was the largest donation to Presley in June.

Naftali donated over $200,000 to Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign. In July 2022, Biden appointed his donor to the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad.

Ethics experts have decried Naftali’s art purchase as an apparent conflict of interest.

In an October 2022 opinion piece, Phillips claimed that America ‘is built on a racist social contract’ and called for Americans ‘to tear it up and start anew.’

Presley also received $25,000 from Quinn Delaney on June 30. Delaney founded the Akonadi Foundation and is a Democrat mega-donor who backed disgraced former San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin.

The Akonadi Foundation in California pushes far-left policies like ‘racial justice’ and invests in and supports ‘community power to redesign systems to be just and equitable for all,’ according to the organization’s ‘Mission and Vision’ page’s ‘Values’ section.

Additionally, Presley took $500 from failed Democrat gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams on June 27 and $15,000 from New York billionaire and Democrat mega-donor Philip Munger on June 30.

Presley’s campaign did not respond to Fox News Digital’s questions on the donations.

The donations revelations come as Presley faces the music for other campaign contributions that don’t appear to pass the smell test.

Presley came under scrutiny this week after it was revealed he received campaign donations from green energy entities he oversees.

One former Mississippi Public Service commissioner who spoke to Fox News Digital said it ‘blows my mind’ that Presley accepted such contributions. 

State law prohibits a public service commissioner from ‘knowingly accept[ing] any gift, pass, money, campaign contribution or any emolument or other pecuniary benefit whatsoever, either directly or indirectly, from any person interested as owner, agent or representative, or from any person acting in any respect for such owner, agent or representative of any common or contract carrier by motor vehicle, telephone company, gas or electric utility company, or any other public utility that shall come under the jurisdiction or supervision of the Public Service Commission.’ 

The Democrat governor candidate appears to have accepted campaign contributions from several green energy companies that he regulates as a public service commissioner.

The Mississippi Public Service Commission has a broad definition of ‘utility’ in the commission’s rules, meaning ‘any person subject to the regulatory jurisdiction of the Commission.’

According to campaign finance records reviewed by Fox News Digital, several board members and key operators of Tennessee-based solar power company Silicon Ranch donated thousands of dollars to Presley in 2018 and 2021.

While Silicon Ranch is a Tennessee company, the Mississippi Public Service Commission found in 2017 that it had jurisdiction over the company when it was building a solar farm in Lauderdale County, Mississippi, though the commission noted that it wasn’t technically a public utility.

Fox News Digital also obtained screenshots of an internal poll conducted by the Democrat polling firm Impact Research – of which Presley is a client – that tested the waters for negative messaging against Presley.

‘While serving on the Public Service Commission, Brandon Presley has received more than $50,000 in campaign contributions from groups he regulates,’ the question reads. ‘He’s also taken over $35,000 from trial lawyer Dickie Scruggs who spent six years in prison for trying to bribe multiple judges.’

‘Please indicate whether this statement raises very serious concerns, serious concerns, minor concerns, or no real concerns for you about Brandon Presley,’ it continues before listing the poll options.

Presley’s communications director Michael Breyer told Fox News Digital, ‘This is a lie and a desperate attempt from Tate Reeves to distract from the fact that he is the most corrupt governor in Mississippi history.’

‘On Tate Reeves’ watch, $77 million was stolen and diverted from working families to Tate Reeves’ celebrity athlete friends and personal trainer,’ Breyer claimed.

‘Brandon is the only candidate in this race with a plan to declare war on corruption on day one, while Tate Reeves’ campaign continues to be funded by central figures in the largest public corruption scandal in state history,’ he continued.

The Mississippi Free Press found that there was no evidence Reeves had a role in the misspending of state welfare funds.

Fox News Digital’s Jessica Chasmar and Cameron Cawthorne contributed reporting.

The Biden administration is requesting Congress spend six times more on supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia than on the border and fentanyl crisis plaguing the nation, according to a new emergency spending request submitted Thursday.

In the request sent to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, Biden specifically called for $24 billion in aide to Ukraine, split between $13 billion for defense related spending, and $11 billion in economic and humanitarian assistance.

But Biden only requested $4 billion in spending on the border and immigration, as well as combating fentanyl flowing into the United States from foreign origins. The total combined amount of the request reached roughly $40 billion.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House and the Department of Homeland Security for comment.

The additional spending request comes after Congress approved $48 billion in funding for Ukraine in December, prior to Republicans taking control of the House of Representatives.

Approval of the funding is expected to be an uphill battle in the House, where McCarthy has promised he would not bring a supplemental Ukraine funding bill to the floor. Many conservatives have been vocally opposed to giving Ukraine more money without more accountability.

Last month, 70 House Republicans voted for an amendment in the annual defense bill that would cut off all funding to Ukraine. It ultimately failed.

The request also comes as mass illegal crossings have continued to surge on Texas’ border with Mexico, with all sectors either at overcapacity or about to hit the maximum number of immigrants they can hold.

A U.S. Customs and Border Protection source told Fox News on Thursday that there are currently 19,400 migrants in Border Patrol custody, nationwide.

Fox News Elizabeth Elkind, Bill Melugin and Greg Wehner contributed to this report.

Hunter Biden’s longtime business partner who is likely to know more about the Biden family’s business dealings than Devon Archer was instrumental in the first son expanding his enterprise in China.

Following Devon Archer’s bombshell congressional interview last week alleging President Biden’s involvement with his son’s business dealings, a new light is being cast on Eric Schwerin, who was a founding partner and managing director of Hunter’s now-dissolved firm Rosemont Seneca Partners.

Schwerin was at Rosemont Seneca when he was appointed by then-President Obama to the Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, an independent U.S. government agency, in early 2015.

‘Eric asked for one of these the day after the election in 2008,’ Hunter revealed about Schwerin’s appointment in an email on March 13, 2015. Schwerin was reappointed to the commission in January 2017.

Schwerin, who visited the White House and vice presidential residence at least 36 times during the Obama-Biden administration, was deeply connected with the Biden family and ‘managed almost every aspect of our financial life,’ according to Hunter’s ex-wife, Kathleen Buhle, who was married to the president’s son from 1993 to 2017.

Hunter acknowledged that Schwerin was a ‘close confidant and counsel’ to his father in a February 2014 email and frequently talked about their finances in emails.

‘If Devon Archer was the sort of business guy, the deal guy in how you structure this, Eric Schwerin was the money guy,’ Peter Schweizer, the president of Government Accountability Institute and an expert on Hunter’s business dealings, told ‘Sunday Morning Futures’ host Maria Bartiromo on Sunday.

As recently as March 2017, Rosemont Seneca Advisors, where Schwerin served as president, held a stake in a company run by a Chinese executive with ties to officials at some of the highest levels of the Communist Party of China (CCP), FOX Business previously reported.

Schwerin sent Hunter an email in March 2017 breaking down the ownership interests of Rosemont Seneca Advisors, which included a 5% stake in Harves Amusement Parks and ownership in Harves Sports and Entertainment.

Fox News Digital has extensively reported on the CCP ties of the parent company, Harves Century Group, and its affiliates, which have backing from the state-owned China Development Bank.

Bo Zhang, the founder and CEO of Harves Investment Group, among other U.S. based Harves affiliates, was being ‘groomed to take over his family’s dynasty’ in China, according to an email that top former Biden aide Francis ‘Fran’ Person wrote to Hunter in 2015.

Multiple emails reviewed by FOX Business showed that Schwerin and Hunter met with Person and Zhang in Washington, D.C., on multiple occasions and emailed back and forth, coordinating potential Harves-related business deals.

One of the emails was from Schwerin to Zhang, Biden, Person, an assistant and Tara Greco, a former director of communications for the union that represents NBA players. The April 2016 email, which was directed at Zhang, said Greco had learned that the Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) had a deal with the NBA to ‘build NBA branded stadiums around China’ but said it appeared the project was ‘stalled’ after only two stadiums were built, prompting Schwerin to say, ‘If Liaoning can get one of these stadiums that would be a big help in your efforts to get more NBA related content in Liaoning.’

After listing off several questions he had for Zhang, Schwerin concluded the email by saying they could discuss when they met the following week.

In November 2020, a joint press release announced that Harves was partnering with NBA China, a company that was formed in 2008 to conduct the NBA’s business throughout China and develop NBA-themed entertainment centers. Zhang was quoted in the press release as saying, the centers ‘furthers our mission to provide best-in-class global entertainment experiences to local populations.’ In May this year, the eastern city of Suzhou is expected to open its first experience center. Zhang said, ‘We hope to grow it into a landmark project in the sports industry.’

‘As part of the partnership, Harves, plans to open six NBA-themed entertainment centers across China, with the first opening by 2022,’ the press release said. ‘These entertainment centers will bring together fans and families to experience the excitement of the NBA through a variety of new activities and offerings, including cutting-edge, interactive digital games, NBA-themed dining and more.’

In 2015, Schwerin introduced Hunter to CEFC China Energy, a Chinese energy company based in Shanghai.

On Oct. 6, 2015, Schwerin sent an email to Hunter and Archer saying he met with a CEFC representative and was working on setting up a meeting.

‘Talked to Scott Oh today. He represents the Chinese conglomerate, CEFC China Energy,’ Schwerin wrote. ‘It is a $35 Billion company and among the 10 largest private companies in China. They are looking to move some of their assets to the U.S. and are looking for an asset manager to invest with.’

‘They are coming to D.C. the last week of October and would like to meet. I am giving them some dates that would work,’ he said. 

At the time, the CCP-connected Ye Jianming was the CEFC’s chairman. Fox News Digital previously reported that in 2012 Hunter extended ‘best wishes from the entire Biden family’ to Jianming and urged him to ‘quickly’ send a $10 million wire to ‘properly fund and operate’ their joint venture, which was never completed.

Hunter and possibly Schwerin met with Jianming and Oh on Dec. 7, 2015. Days later, Hunter and Schwerin held a call with the CEFC and World Food Program USA founder Rick Leach, presumably about a donation that Hunter and Schwerin helped facilitate from CEFC to the WFP USA, where Hunter Biden served as the board’s chairman, according to emails.

During that same year, Schwerin was on several emails related to a movie venture opportunity for Hunter, business associate Jimmy Bulger and George Hsieh, a pro-China lawmaker in Taiwan who would leave government to open up a movie production company. Schwerin was involved in multiple conversations with Bulger and Hsieh and would then go back to Hunter to relay their conversations.

In September 2015, Schwerin emailed Hunter letting him know he held a phone call with Bulger and Hsieh and that Hsieh proposed Biden and Bulger become movie producers for his company for a total of $1 million over the course of three years. Schwerin said Hsieh was also pushing for Biden and Bulger to meet with potential investors in China, which wouldn’t occur until September 2016.

Other emails show that Bulger was in conversations with Hsieh, and he wanted Hunter to meet Alibaba Group co-founder Jack Ma and other Alibaba executives after a few people went to Hsieh requesting help doing a biopic film on the life of Jack Ma.

Alibaba, a Chinese firm that reportedly helped create surveillance technology used against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, is one of China’s largest technology firms that actively works to advance the interests of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

The technologies that Alibaba helped produce have also been used for government surveillance and to ‘reeducate’ Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, according to a congressional report in June 2020.

In September 2016, Schwerin sent an itinerary to Hunter Biden for an upcoming China trip looking for investors for their movie venture. The list of Chinese business leaders they were scheduled to visit had multiple CCP ties.

In 2014, Schwerin discussed with Hunter a business proposal by CITIC, a Chinese state-owned company.

‘They’d like an introduction to Universal (Comcast) as they’d like to open a Universal Studios China theme park outside of Beijing,’ Schwerin said of CITIC, adding that the company would ‘like to pay us for our help.’

It’s not clear what came of the proposal, but according to internet archives on the Wayback Machine from 2011, CITIC was listed in the ‘Alliances/Clients’ section of the website for Thornton Group, James Bulger’s firm that later partnered with Rosemont Seneca to form Rosemont Seneca Thornton.

In 2013, Hunter’s and Bulger’s firms secured their partnership with Li’s firm Bohai Capital in order to launch Bohai Harvest RST (BHR), which is controlled by the state-owned Bank of China Limited.

In December 2013, then-Vice President Biden traveled to Beijing due to a scheduled meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping. 

Hunter expressed interest in joining his father on the trip and ended up going, where he admitted to the New Yorker that he introduced his father to Li.

According to the report, Hunter arranged for a brief handshake in the lobby of the hotel where the U.S. delegation was staying and then Hunter met up with Li privately.

However, Archer revealed to the House Oversight and Accountability Committee in a closed-door interview last week that Biden, as vice president, also had coffee with Li during his Beijing trip.

Schwerin organized a lunch with Hunter, Li and the Buccini brothers on Feb. 9, 2017, according to emails.

Days later, Schwerin sent Li a college letter of recommendation that Biden had written for his son, Christopher.

‘Hunter asked me to send you a copy of the recommendation letter that he asked his father to write on behalf of Christopher for Brown University,’ Schwerin wrote Li on Feb. 20, 2017. ‘The original is being FedExed to Dr. Paxson directly at Brown. It should be there by Tuesday at the latest (given Monday is a holiday here in the U.S.).’

‘It is just great!’ Li replied. ‘Thank you very much! And Hunter, thank you very much too.’

About the same time, Schwerin was also trying to arrange a meeting between Li and Nick Rohatyn, a Biden donor and then-client of Rosemont Seneca.

‘It was good to see you the other day at the White House,’ Hunter wrote Rohatyn in an email drafted by Schwerin. ‘I wanted to see if you or someone on your team wanted to meet with Jonathan Li, the CEO of BHR Partners, a Chinese cross border private equity fund that Rosemont Seneca helped found and of which we are a shareholder.’

‘Happy to connect with Jonathan Li when he is here,’ Rohatyn responded. ‘Copying my assistant Caroline to coordinate.

From May 2015 to February 2016, Schwerin was also part of talks between Harves and SeaWorld on potentially launching a theme park in Shanghai, and he helped arrange meetings between Harves and SeaWorld in China and Orlando, according to emails, though the deal was never realized.

Fox News Digital reported in September that Schwerin and Hunter were also instrumental in helping a Rosemont Seneca client and Democrat donor secure an event at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., after networking with one of the top officials at the embassy during a January 2011 luncheon hosted by then-Vice President Biden.

Schwerin did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

FIRST ON FOX: Presidential candidate Tim Scott is the latest GOP hopeful to vow support for the party’s eventual nominee by signing the ‘Beat Biden’ pledge, a document the Republican National Committee (RNC) is requiring candidates to sign in order to participate in party-sanctioned debates.

The senator from South Carolina joined the likes of his state’s former governor Nikki Haley, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis by committing to the pledge. 

Their signatures allow them to officially qualify for the first Republican presidential primary debate slated to be held later this month in Milwaukee.

‘I look forward to sharing my positive, optimistic message on the GOP Debate stage in Milwaukee. Republicans are ready for conservative leadership with a backbone, one that will crush the cartels, stand up to China, and protect the America we all love,’ Scott said in a statement to Fox News Digital.

His signed pledge, dated Wednesday, Aug. 9, reads as follows:

‘I, Tim Scott, affirm that I agree to appear in only Primary and General Election debates that have been sanctioned by the Republican National Committee, pursuant to Rule 10(a)(11) of The Rules of the Republican Party. I acknowledge and accept that if I fail to sign this pledge or if I participate in any debate that has not been sanctioned by the Republican National Committee, I will not be eligible to participate in any further Republican National Committee sanctioned debates.

‘Additionally, I affirm that if I do not win the 2024 Republican nomination for President of the United States, I will honor the will of the primary voters and support the nominee in order to save our country and beat Joe Biden.

‘I further pledge that I will not seek to run as an independent or write-in candidate nor will I seek or accept the nomination for president of any other party.’

During a Wednesday appearance on ‘Fox & Friends,’ Scott told Brian Kilmeade he would ‘absolutely’ support whoever becomes the Republican nominee for president if it isn’t himself.

‘I will be the nominee and I certainly will support myself, but no matter who the nominee is, I’ve already committed to supporting our nominee without any question. But I’m gonna continue to work hard to prove that America can do for anyone what she’s done for me,’ he stated. 

Republican candidates wanting to participate in RNC-sanctioned debates ahead of the 2024 presidential election must sign the ‘Beat Biden’ pledge, as required by RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. The new rule flies in the face of an earlier comment made by former President Donald Trump suggesting that he may not support the eventual GOP nominee.

The pledge makes candidates commit to appearing only in debates sanctioned by the RNC. If they do not sign the pledge, or if they choose to participate in an unapproved debate, they will not be allowed to participate in RNC-sanctioned debates going forward.

In addition to the pledge, candidates wanting to qualify for the debate must also reach 1% in three national polls, or 1% in two national polls and two state-specific polls from the early voting states of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. The polls must also be recognized by the RNC and must be conducted on or after July 1.

Additionally, to reach the debate stage, candidates must have 40,000 unique donors to their campaign committee (or exploratory committee), with ‘at least 200 unique donors per state or territory in 20+ states and/or territories,’ according to the RNC criteria.

It’s unclear if Trump, who stated Thursday he will not be signing the ‘Beat Biden’ pledge, will end up attending the upcoming debate despite being the GOP frontrunner and meeting the RNC’s fundraising requirements.

When asked about the former president potentially joining the qualifying candidates on stage in Milwaukee, Scott said he hopes to see him there, but his debate strategy isn’t dependent on Trump’s participation.

‘He’s a strong debater without any question. It will be entertaining without any question, but the American people deserve to see every single one of us that qualifies for the debate stage on that stage talking about our vision for America and how our presidency would change the tide away from this terrible, disastrous presidency of President Biden,’ Scott explained.

The first presidential debate of the 2024 election cycle will air on Fox News at 9 p.m. ET on Aug. 23. Rumble is the online live-streaming partner and Young America’s Foundation is also a partner in the first debate.

Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.

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