Hunter, Biden’s son, says he’s under investigation for tax matters



[ad_1]

Hunter Biden and Joe Biden.

Hunter Biden and Joe Biden.

Gallo Images / Getty Images

  • The son of US President-elect Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, said he was under federal investigation regarding his taxes.
  • The revelation about the investigation did not include details, but promises to rekindle Republican anger over the Biden family.
  • It also presents a number of thorny issues during the president-elect’s transition to the White House in just over a month.

Hunter Biden, the son of President-elect Joe Biden and a frequent target of Republican attacks, said Wednesday that he was under federal investigation regarding his taxes.

The revelation about the investigation did not include details, but promises to rekindle Republican anger at the Biden family, including Hunter Biden’s business and the elderly Biden’s anti-corruption push in Ukraine when he was vice president of the United States.

It also raises a number of thorny issues during the president-elect’s transition to the White House in just over a month, including the possibility that his son will continue to be investigated by the US Department of Justice.

“I learned for the first time yesterday that the US Attorney’s Office in Delaware informed my legal adviser, also yesterday, that they are investigating my tax matters,” Hunter Biden said in a statement issued by his father’s presidential transition team.

“I take this matter very seriously, but I am confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will show that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately, including with the benefit of professional tax advisers.”

Hunter Biden, 50, is an attorney who founded consulting and investment firms, worked in private equity, and served on the board of several organizations, including the national rail corporation Amtrak.

Biden’s second son, Hunter, was born in Wilmington, Delaware, where his father lives and the presidential transition operation is based. His brother Beau Biden, a former Delaware attorney general, died of cancer in 2015.

Trump attacks Biden

The transition team said in the statement that included Hunter’s comments that “President-elect Biden is deeply proud of his son, who has overcome difficult challenges, including vicious personal attacks of the past few months, only to emerge stronger.”

The investigation was revealed just five days before the Electoral College is expected to formally select Joe Biden as the next president, following the Nov.3 election in which he defeated President Donald Trump.

The New York Times, citing anonymous sources familiar with the investigation, said the investigation was opened in late 2018 and has included investigations into “possible criminal violations” of tax laws.

During his reelection campaign, Trump repeatedly made accusations that the Bidens were a “corrupt” family and a “criminal enterprise.”

From 2014 to 2019, while his father was vice president, Hunter Biden, a lawyer and lobbyist, served on the board of directors of Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company.

Trump has accused Joe Biden, when he was a deputy to President Barack Obama, of seeking the removal of Ukraine’s top prosecutor to protect Burisma, and his son, from a corruption investigation.

Joe Biden has publicly acknowledged that he did indeed push for the prosecutor to be removed, but the European Union and the IMF had also requested his removal, not because of a Burisma investigation, but because he was deemed not aggressive enough in the prosecution. prosecution of corruption.

Since 2019, Trump and his Republican allies have targeted Hunter for his dealings with Ukraine and China, and there were unconfirmed reports that a Hunter Biden laptop was left in a Delaware repair shop and contained incriminating data. No evidence of wrongdoing emerged.

The New York Post reported in October that the Federal Bureau of Investigation seized the laptop in December 2019.

Some Republican lawmakers this week asked current Attorney General Bill Barr to launch an independent investigation into Hunter Biden, who has acknowledged he struggles with addiction, before Joe Biden takes office on January 20.

“This is why AG Barr needs to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Hunter Biden,” Congressman Ken Buck posted on Twitter following the revelation of the tax investigation.

“It would be grossly inappropriate if his father’s attorney general were involved in this matter.”

Do you want to know more about this topic? Sign up to receive one of 33 News24 newsletters to receive the information you want in your inbox. Special newsletters are available to subscribers.

[ad_2]