Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai) - Live
‘Foul play’, fumes Biden as son faces tax probe, criticism
WASHINGTON: US Presidentelect Joe Biden said on Thursday he believed efforts to use his son as a political cudgel amounted to “foul play” amid a federal investigation into Hunter Biden’s tax matters and Republican calls for a special counsel investigation into his foreign dealings.
“We have great confidence in our son,” Biden said in an interview with CBS. “I’m not concerned about any accusations that have been made against him, it’s used to get me. I think it’s kind of foul play. But look, it is what it is.”
CBS originally reported that Biden had called the federal investigation itself “foul play”. But the Biden campaign denied that characterisation and released a fuller transcript of the exchange, saying the presidentelect was describing broader efforts to politically exploit his son’s business dealings.
“There has indisputably been ‘foul play’ of that exact kind,” Biden spokesman Andrew Bates tweeted, referring to people who use Hunter as a “cudgel” against his father. “Trump got himself impeached engaging in it.”
The comments were some of Biden’s most extensive since the disclosure earlier this month of the investigation into his son’s tax dealings.
The probes include one led by the Delaware US attorney’s office into whether Hunter violated tax laws, and another by the US attorney for the western district of Pennsylvania concerns his activities in Ukraine and potential money laundering, according to a person familiar with the matter who discussed the sensitive inquiry on condition of anonymity.