PROBES ‘BARRED’ FROM THE PUBLIC
AG kept a lid on 2 federal Hunter inquiries
Attorney General William Barr knew about two contemporaneous federal investigations into Hunter Biden for months — and worked to keep them from the public ahead of the election, a new report says.
The nation’s top law-enforcement official avoided providing information about the probes to Republicans in Congress without explanation, a person familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal.
One of the investigations was made public this week, when the 50-year-old son of President-elect Joe Biden disclosed on Wednesday that he was being probed for possible tax fraud.
Hunter Biden is also implicated in a broader international financial investigation by federal prosecutors in Manhattan, two people familiar with the case told the Journal.
That probe has been going on for at least a year, but Hunter Biden was never a specific target for criminal prosecution, according to the Journal.
During his first public appearance since the tax probe was revealed, Joe Biden on Friday brushed off a reporter’s questions, declaring only that he was proud of his son, without saying wheth er he was innocent.
“Did Hunter Biden commit a crime? Have you spoken to your son, Mr. President-elect?” a reporter shouted at the end of a news conference in Wilmington, Del. Biden, who was walking away and didn’t turn around, said only, “I’m proud of my son.”
Barr is said to have been aware of the federal scrutiny — which dates back to 2018 — into Hunter Biden sisince before the spring. But how and when he first learned ofo the probes wasn’t clear.
Investigators worked to make sure news of the probes didn’t become public bbefore the presi-dential election, per Justice De-partment guidelines that pro-hibit activity that could influ-ence a political race.
President Trump and his Re-publican allies hhave repeatedly urged the attorney general to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the Bidens. “Republicans are pissed” at Barr, a senior Capitol Hill aide told The Post on Friday after news of the pair of probes broke.
On Thursday night, Trump railed against the timing.
“Why didn’t the Fake News Media, the FBI and the DOJ report the Biden matter BEFORE the Election,” the president tweeted.
Trump campaign spokesman Hogan Gidley also blasted mainstream media as a “punchline” for failing to pick up The Post’s exclusive coverage of Hunter Biden’s overseas business dealings, which revealed a trove of e-mails that showed him selling access to his father.
“Covering this whole thing up and not allowing the American people to know it and to try and pretend as though the reason this doesn’t come forward is because it would affect the election — not bringing it forward affected the election, as well,” Gidley said of Barr Friday on Fox News.