Attorney General William Barr has known at least since this spring about a special set of investigations involving Hunter Biden’s business and financial dealings, a person familiar with the matter said, and worked to avoid his public disclosure during the hot election campaign.
Republicans and President Trump pressured Mr. Barr for months to push Mr. Biden forward, especially as his father B Biden gained momentum in his final successful bid for president. Mr. Barr is blocking Republican pressure in Congress for investigative information, the man said, without giving details of his actions.
An investigation was released this week after federal investigators served a subpoena on Hunter Biden. According to people familiar with the matter, U.S. The subpoena sought detailed financial information regarding the criminal tax investigation by the attorney’s office.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan were also looking into Hunter Biden’s business and financial dealings, as part of a comprehensive criminal investigation, described by two people familiar with the case as an international financial investigation that has been going on for at least a year. People said Hunter Biden was caught in that investigation but was never a specific target for criminal proceedings. They declined to give details about the substance of the investigation.
People familiar with the matter said the federal probe is for 2018.
According to people familiar with the matter, neither the Delaware nor Manhattan investigation applies to President-elect Mr. Biden.
Hunter Biden said in a public statement Wednesday that his lawyer advised him about the investigation into his “tax matters” and said he had acted lawfully and appropriately. His lawyer, George Messers, declined to comment Thursday.
The Biden transition team declined to comment if Biden learned of the investigation. The team said in a statement on Wednesday that President-elect Biden was “proud of his son, who has faced difficult challenges, including the vicious personal attacks of recent months, just to be stronger.”
As the investigation progressed in Delaware and Manhattan, investigators tried to keep the cases out of the public eye by taking a few clear steps in the weeks leading up to the November election, recognizing the impact on their work, an acquaintance said.
Mr Barr had knowledge of the investigation linked to Hunter Biden before the spring before, the man said, although it was not clear when or how he learned in the inquiry.
The Justice Department’s guidelines advise investigators to take action against participating in elections so that results are not affected.
Mr. Trump spoke of involving Mr. Bair when he called in July 2019 to urge the President of Ukraine to announce an investigation into Joe Biden and his son. Mr Trump said he would direct his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and Mr Barr to contact the Ukrainian president. The Justice Department said Mr. Trump never asked Mr. Barr to contact Ukrainians. The request eventually led to impeachment by Mr. Trump’s House.
The election began the week after Republicans appealed for an investigation into Hunter Biden. After Hunter Biden’s financial affairs and foreign business interests were presented in a Republican Senate investigation in September, several Republican lawmakers called for a Justice Department investigation. Rip. Jim Jordan (R, Ohio), for example, wrote a letter to Christopher Ware, a ranking member of the House Judiciary Panel and director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Asking what action the FBI has taken To investigate the information in the “explosive report”.
An FBI spokesman said the bureau responded to the letter and declined to comment further.
On Oct. 19, Mr. Trump’s Republican allies in Congress urged Mr. Bair to appoint a special adviser to investigate Hunter Biden and his father, and demanded that Mr. Barr respond within five days.
A day later, when asked on Fox News whether he had endorsed the taping of the special prosecutor, Mr. Trump said: “We’ve got the attorney general to work. He has to act, and he has to act fast. It’s got to appoint someone. This is big corruption and this should be known before the election. ”
A person familiar with the matter said the tax investigation on Hunter Biden was part of reports of suspicious activity filed by the bank that handled related foreign transactions.
Mr. Biden, a lawyer, has a variety of sources of income from the US and abroad. In addition to legal work in recent years, he has been a U.S. citizen. Has been a partner in several investment companies.
His earnings from working outside the U.S. included a board meeting at Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings for about five years until April 2019, where he was paid about 50,000 50,000 a month for the work.
Mr. Biden was received by China CEFC Energy Co. He also worked as a consultant for the company, as it deals in Europe and the Middle East, and in 2017 he was a stakeholder in a venture with a Chinese company that sought to set foot in the US. The joint venture never came to the fore, a Senate Republican report said in September, an entity affiliated with CEFC accused Mr. Biden’s law firm of paying millions of dollars for legal and advisory work.
Around what CEFC was trying to enter the U.S., Manhattan U.S. His focus was on a corruption case brought by the attorney’s office fee, which resulted in a former Hong Kong official being convicted in 2018 of allegedly bribing African officials for security. Professional benefits for CEFC. The company, which has now been effectively disbanded, was not charged in a U.S. corruption case.
Mr Biden is also a 10% shareholder in Shanghai’s private equity firm and previously sat on its board, although the board’s position was not paid and he is among investors who have not withdrawn their investment, say people with knowledge of the situation. His investment was 4 420,000 for a 10% pay-per-view, with stakes in several companies, mostly in China.
In this article Aruna Vishwanath, James T. There were contributions from Areddy and Andrew Duhren.
Write to Sadie Gurman at [email protected] and Rebecca Davis O’Brien at [email protected]
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