PRESIDENT-ELECT’S SON FACES FEDERAL PROBE
Investigation of Hunter Biden’s tax affairs began in 2018
WASHINGTON
Federal prosecutors have been investigating Hunter Biden, President-elect Joe Biden’s son, to determine if he failed to report income from China-related business deals, according to people familiar with the matter and a statement from Hunter Biden released Wednesday.
The investigation into the president-elect’s son began in 2018, though little could be learned immediately about what, if any, wrongdoing it had found. The investigation was confirmed Wednesday by Hunter Biden in a statement saying he had just been advised of it.
According to a person familiar with the matter, FBI agents had been seeking to talk to Hunter Biden as part of the case on Tuesday — though an interview has not yet been scheduled or taken place — as well as serving subpoenas on Hunter Biden and his associates.
“I learned yesterday for the first time that the U.S. attorney’s office in Delaware advised my legal counsel, also yesterday, that they are investigating my tax affairs,” Hunter Biden said in a statement. “I take this matter very seriously but I am confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately, including with the benefit of professional tax
advisors.”
Hunter Biden’s attorney, George Mesires, did not respond to requests for additional information about the case.
“President-elect Biden is deeply proud of his son, who has fought through difficult challenges, including the vicious personal attacks of recent months, only to emerge stronger,” the Biden transition team wrote in a statement.
Though the investigation has been ongoing for some time, it is unclear how far along prosecutors consider themselves toward building a criminal case, or closing the matter. Interviewing the subject of an investigation typically occurs when prosecutors have amassed a good deal of evidence — though prosecutors seeking to serve subpoenas as recently as this week suggests there is more investigative work to be done.
A person familiar with the case said that the investigation continued during the election year, but agents took care not to take overt inves
tigative steps as voting neared that would have made it more widely known. Those precautions, the person said, became unnecessary once the election was over.
If the investigation is continuing when Joe Biden takes office, it will mark a major test for him and his attorney general. Democrats have criticized the Justice Department for losing its historic independence from the White House during the Trump administration, as Attorney General William Barr has intervened in cases to the benefit of Donald Trump’s friends, and Joe Biden’s incoming chief of staff has said the president-elect will not tell the Justice Department who to investigate or who not to investigate.
Biden has not yet chosen a nominee to lead the Justice Department, and whoever he chooses will likely be pressed to make public assurances about how they will oversee an investigation of the president’s son.
Hunter Biden’s foreign business ventures have long dogged his father’s political life, as Republicans have alleged they presented conf licts of interest for the elder Biden.
Reacting to the news on the Delaware federal investigation into Hunter Biden, Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., quickly called for a specialcounsel investigation of Hunter Biden.
“This is why AG Barr needs to appoint a Special Counsel to investigate Hunter Biden,” he tweeted. “It would be wildly inappropriate if his dad’s AG was involved in this matter.”
If Barr does not appoint a special counsel, Biden’s attorney general could face pressure to do so, to help ensure the probe’s independence.
Any special counsel would still answer to the attorney general. Another possibility would be for the current Delaware U.S. Attorney to remain in that job to continue the Biden investigation. In 2001, the Bush administration kept Manhattan U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White in that post to continue an investigation of pardons issued by outgoing President Bill Clinton.
A person familiar with the Hunter Biden investigation said it “is not connected to the attacks the Trump campaign and their allies made against Hunter during the campaign.”
A federal investigation of Hunter Biden was first hinted at in October, when it became public that federal authorities had issued a subpoena for a computer and hard drive belonging to him.