Now that the election is over, the investigation is entering a new phase. Federal prosecutors in Delaware, working with the IRS Criminal Investigation Agency and the FBI, are taking clear steps to issue subpoenas and obtain interviews, the knowledgeable person said.
The investigation activity has been largely inactive in recent months due to the Department of Justice’s guidelines banning clear action that could affect the election, the person said.
CNN contacted Biden’s attorney and campaigner this week to comment on the investigation. On Wednesday, they released a statement acknowledging the investigation.
“I first learned yesterday that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware also advised my legal adviser yesterday that they were investigating my tax matters. I am taking this matter very seriously but I am confident that a professional and objective review of these matters “I will demonstrate that I handled my businesses legally and properly, including the benefits of professional tax advisors,” Hunter Biden said in a statement.
Investigators are investigating a number of financial issues, including whether Hunter Biden and his associates violated tax and money laundering laws in foreign countries, primarily in Chinese transactions, two people said in the investigation.
That deal involved some people who the FBI believes, while working with a Chinese business, provoke conflicting concerns, a common issue, according to another source.
The investigation began in early 2018, predicting William Barr’s arrival as U.S. attorney general, the two men said. The existence of the investigation will present an immediate examination of Biden’s promise to uphold the independence of the Department of Justice.
The Sinclair Broadcast Group reported in October that the FBI had launched a criminal investigation into Hunter Biden. CNN has learned new details about the scope of the probe, including that it focuses on China.
A mysterious laptop
Investigative indications have surfaced that President Donald Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, helped orchestrate news stories centered on laptops associated with Hunter Biden and include his business documents and other personal material.
According to a computer repairman in Delaware, the laptop was seized by the FBI in late 2019, who showed reporters a copy of the subpoena. People briefly stated that the subpoena was real, but prosecutors in the FBI and Delaware declined to confirm the existence of the investigation.
Given the potential chain of custody requirements for evidence, it is unclear whether the laptop’s contents are relevant to ongoing federal verification and whether investigators will be able to use them.
CNN has previously reported that at least some of the information that came from Giulu’s laptop looks similar to the information shared by others in Ukraine last year, according to a witness who was contacted by the FBI for information. Gioliani’s efforts to litter Bidens in Ukraine last year were at the center of Trump’s impeachment. Hunter Biden’s current investigation follows those efforts.
The involvement of Trump lawyers in the news published on the elected Biden laptop sparked a flurry of activity in an attempt by Republican lawmakers and the Trump campaign to expand allegations of corruption before the election. The FBI interviewed a former Hunter Biden business associate who made public claims about possible wrongdoing. The FBI said in a statement at the time that “when contacted as a matter of course, the FBI reviews public information to consider any violations of applicable federal law.”
The political implications of the investigation in recent months are already an issue for the bar under Trump’s public pressure to make Harter Biden’s business activities an election issue. To date, the investigation has not included any allegations of malpractice by the President-elect, the matter has been reported to two main sources. Although Trump has publicly campaigned for Burns to announce an investigation into the corruption of both Bidens, Bair has said publicly that Big Biden is not under public scrutiny.
Focused on China
Investigators appear to have focused on Hunter Biden’s business activities linked to China. Some of his business dealings in China are publicly known through interviews and documents released by Senate Republicans in September about the Finance Committee and the Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs.
According to documents released by Republicans, after her father resigned in 2017, Hunter Biden moved to the U.S. CEFC worked on securing a deal with China Energy to invest in energy projects.
In at least one case investigators have investigated, Heuter Biden received a 2017 gift of a 2.8-carat diamond from CIFC founder and former chairman Ye Jianming after a Miami business meeting, a source said. In 2019, Byden provided an account to New Yorker Magazine for receiving diamonds. He told the New Yorker that he felt uncomfortable getting the diamond and gave it to other colleagues, and they don’t know what they did with it. “I know it’s not a good idea to take it. I just thought it was weird,” he said in a New Yorker interview.
Hunter Biden told The New Yorker that the CEFC deal was done and that he did not consider it a dubious character. Amid Chinese media reports of allegations of corruption against him, Chinese authorities later detained Yeni.
In a magazine interview, Hunter Biden went public with an atmosphere of his personal struggles, including substance abuse and the breakdown of his marriage. During the divorce proceedings, his ex-wife’s lawyers cited the diamond found in Biden and suggested it was worth $ 80,000. Biden told The New Yorker that it costs about 10,000 10,000.
Receiving such a gift may have potential tax effects on Biden and does not describe how the New Yorker dealt with the issue afterwards in his account. Sources told CNN that investigators are investigating whether Biden reports his income properly from time to time for tax purposes. While the diamond was initially part of the investigation, it is unclear whether the gift remained at the center of the investigators.
Hunter Biden later briefly acted as a lawyer to represent Patrick Ho, who ran an organization backed by CEFC, which was accused of paying millions of dollars in bribes to officials in Chad and Uganda to benefit CEFC energy projects in those countries. Ho was sentenced to three years in federal prison. He has since been released and is back in Hong Kong, his attorney said.
According to the New Yorker, Hunter Biden was involved in a previous Chinese business venture that worried Obama White House and Biden employees. In 2013, Hunter Biden visited the U.S. And involved Chinese partners who created investment funds called BHR Partners for deals outside of China. Hunter Biden was an unpaid member of the BHR board and took an equity stake after his father left office, The New Yorker reported.
A challenge for the new president
In an interview with CNN’s Jack Tapper last week, President-elect Biden promised to maintain an independent judiciary free of political influence.
“I’m not going to tell them what to do and what not to do. I’m not going to tell them to run A, B, or C,” Biden said.
“It’s not a role – it’s not my justice department. It’s the people’s justice department.
“The person or persons I choose to run that department will be people who will have the independent ability to decide who is being prosecuted and who is not,” Biden said.
When it comes to foreign policy with Beijing, Hunter Biden’s activities in China are almost certain to capture the existence of a congressional Republican investigation to advance the argument that his father’s interests are a sign of conflict.
Biden’s attorney general nominee is also likely to face an issue during the Senate confirmation hearing.
Trump faced a similar, but tedious, problem when he took office in 2017, when his then-attorney general, Jeff Sessions, quickly admitted to overseeing a federal investigation into the Trump campaign and possible links to Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The sessions were part of the presidential election campaign and he held a meeting with the then-Russian ambassador, which became part of the FBI investigation.
Biden’s potential attorney general candidates are not known for such traps.
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