Hunter was on the board of the World Food Program USA, a nonprofit that generates support for the U.N. World Food Programme, and he had hoped that Ye would make a large aid donation. At dinner that night, they discussed the donation, and then the conversation turned to business opportunities. Hunter offered to use his contacts to help identify investment opportunities for Ye’s company, CEFC China Energy, in liquefied-natural-gas projects in the United States. After the dinner, Ye sent a 2.8-carat diamond to Hunter’s hotel room with a card thanking him for their meeting. "I was, like, Oh, my God," Hunter said. (In Kathleen’s court motion, the diamond is estimated to be worth eighty thousand dollars. Hunter said he believes the value is closer to ten thousand.)

When I asked him if he thought the diamond was intended as a bribe, he said no: "What would they be bribing me for? My dad wasn’t in office." Hunter said that he gave the diamond to his associates, and doesn’t know what they did with it. "I knew it wasn’t a good idea to take it. I just felt like it was weird," he said.