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WILMINGTON, UNITED STATES (AFP) – 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.
“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.”
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, the 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.
During his reelection campaign, Trump repeatedly made accusations that the Bidens were a “corrupt” family and a “criminal enterprise.”
Since 2019, he 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 at 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.”
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