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Federal investigation into Hunter Biden heats up

2022-03-30T10:11:35.974Z


A Justice Department investigation into Hunter Biden's business activities has gathered steam in recent months.


The keys to understanding the Hunter Biden investigation (2020) 2:46

Washington (CNN)

A Justice Department investigation into Hunter Biden's business activities has gathered steam in recent months, with a surge of witnesses providing testimony to federal investigators and more expected to provide interviews in the coming weeks. , according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

The investigation, led by the US attorney in Wilmington, Delaware, began in 2018 and concerns multiple financial and business activities in foreign countries dating back to when Biden's father was vice president.

Investigators have examined whether Hunter Biden and any of his associates violated money laundering, tax and foreign lobbying laws, as well as firearms and other regulations, multiple sources said.

Hunter Biden walks toward the Marine One helicopter outside the White House on May 22, 2021 in Washington.

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To do so, law enforcement has collected information from lobbyists connected to Hunter Biden, from his business associates and from others who observed his financial commitments, including a woman with whom he fathered a child.

Hunter Biden has not been charged with any crime and has denied any wrongdoing.

His father, President Joe Biden, is not being investigated as part of his son's business investigation, according to informed sources.

But the ongoing investigation has raised lingering questions about the ethics and behavior of the president's son and has fueled right-wing political attacks.

In 2019, then-President Donald Trump pushed Ukraine to investigate the Bidens over Hunter's work for Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, eventually leading to Trump's first impeachment trial.

In 2020, Trump's personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, helped orchestrate news stories centered on a laptop that allegedly belonged to Hunter Biden and allegedly included his business documents and other potentially sensitive materials.

CNN previously reported that the FBI took possession of the laptop in late 2019, according to a computer repairman in Delaware who showed reporters a copy of a subpoena.

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Activity in the investigation has been on and off for years, with coronavirus disruptions and pauses around the 2020 election, and in some cases, investigators haven't followed up for months after initially contacting potential witnesses.

But in recent months, investigative activity in the Biden probe has intensified along with discussions among Justice Department officials about the strength of the case and whether more work is needed before seeking a decision on potential charges. according to people briefed on the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing investigation.

Those discussions involved investigators from the FBI and the IRS criminal investigation agency and prosecutors in Delaware and at Justice Department headquarters, a person briefed on the matter said.

Hunter Biden has publicly discussed his own struggles with substance abuse, and some Justice officials have debated whether his open discussions of his past drug use could weaken his case should they file one. .

Some officials have noted that Biden could argue that he was unaware of wrongdoing because he was high on drugs, the source said.

Others have countered that Biden's own public accounts of his recovery show that he was fully responsible for the actions now under scrutiny, according to the person briefed on the matter.

Investigators have repeatedly inquired about multiple facets of Hunter Biden's life, initially focusing on tax issues and money transfers related to business activities in China, according to multiple people familiar with the investigation.

They are also examining Biden's role while he was on the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma years ago, the sources said.

Biden has told his associates that he paid outstanding tax bills, and public records show that more than $450,000 in state levies in Washington were lifted in 2020, indicating those obligations were likely paid.

But those payments haven't solved his legal problems.

Investigators have examined the origin of the funds to pay the tax bills.

The Hunter Biden Gun Incident

Prosecutors have also looked into a 2018 incident in which a firearm owned by Hunter Biden ended up being thrown by his then-girlfriend into a dumpster in Wilmington, a person briefed on the matter said.

Biden described in media interviews last year that he was addicted to drugs, raising the possibility that he violated federal law when he purchased the firearm.

Federal law prohibits the purchase of firearms by anyone who uses or is addicted to illegal drugs.

It's unclear if the gun incident is still an active part of the investigation.

Biden has denied any wrongdoing in his business activities.

In late 2020, after being notified by the Delaware US Attorney of the investigation, Hunter Biden said in a statement issued by his father's presidential transition office: "I take this matter very seriously, but I trust that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs lawfully and properly, including with the benefit of professional tax advisors."

Hunter Biden's attorney, Christopher Clark, did not respond to multiple requests for comment in recent days.

The Delaware US Attorney's Office and the Justice Department declined to comment.

In recent months, Biden has tried to turn the page, publishing a memoir and premiering his work as an artist with shows in Los Angeles and New York.

But even apparent attempts to avoid controversy have backfired.

The White House acknowledged that it played a role in art sales, establishing a legal process to protect the identity of buyers of Hunter Biden pieces, with the stated purpose of ensuring that no one could ingratiate themselves with the president by buying his son's art. .

But critics pointed out that art sales and the anonymity of buyers have long raised concerns about money laundering.

Business in Ukraine

Biden's involvement in Ukraine has been a major source of his legal and political problems.

He served on Burisma's board and was paid up to $50,000 a month from 2014 to 2019, according to a Republican-led Senate report on Biden's business activities released in 2020. That overlaps in part with a stint during the which his father was vice president and was chosen by then President Barack Obama to manage the affairs of Ukraine.

The overlap raised concerns about a conflict of interest among some officials in the Obama administration at the time.

Joe Biden has said his son's work in Ukraine did not influence his decisions at the time, and State Department critics of Hunter Biden's ties to Ukraine say they were never unduly influenced, according to Senate testimony transcripts. .

Federal prosecutors in Washington and Delaware have focused, at least in part, on whether a lobbying company working with Burisma called Blue Star Strategies approached US government officials in an attempt to burnish the reputation of the Ukrainian company after State Department officials criticized the oligarch who founded it.

The company's founders previously testified before Congress that they were simply interested in understanding the US government's views on the foreign company.

The Justice Department requires lobbyists and public relations firms working on behalf of foreign entities to disclose their ties, and in recent years, national security investigators have expanded Department efforts to prosecute groups and individuals who fail to disclose his international connections publicly.

Blue Star did not respond to a request for comment.

In the past year, a grand jury in Delaware has issued subpoenas and prosecutors have collected information on Blue Star Strategies as well as Hunter Biden, four people briefed on the matter said.

Inquiries included how closely lobbyists were working with Hunter Biden, how active he was in Blue Star's work on Burisma's reputation in the US and what his efforts for Burisma entailed, the sources said.

Blue Star employees previously revealed in the Senate investigation that Hunter Biden was included in emails about his Burisma-related work, but said he was not particularly involved in the project.

Late last year, witnesses provided interviews in the federal criminal investigation.

And prosecutors continued to seek information from some witnesses this year, including about Blue Star Strategies.

Also last year, investigators searched for information on former business contacts for Hunter Biden.

His longtime partner and Burisma board member Devon Archer appeared before a Delaware grand jury last July, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Archer was asked about the structure of payments Burisma made to an entity founded by Biden and other associates, which appeared to be related to Biden's taxes, the source says.

He was also asked about lobbying efforts involving Blue Star Strategies, the source said.

Archer was sentenced last month to more than a year in prison for his role in a scheme to defraud a Native American tribe.

There has been no contact with investigators since July, the source said.

Archer's attorney, Matthew L. Schwartz of Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, said, "Mr. Archer has fully cooperated with the Delaware US Attorney's Office investigation from the moment he learned of it."

Archer is in the process of appealing his sentence.

Also among the witnesses set to meet with investigators is an Arkansas woman who had a child with Biden and had sued him for child support, people briefed on the matter said.

Her attorney told CNBC that she testified in February before a grand jury in Delaware as part of the investigation and turned over Hunter Biden's financial records that she had.

Clint Lancaster, the attorney, did not respond to CNN requests for comment.

Lancaster is not new to the political world: He was listed as a lawyer working on a Republican-commissioned review of the 2020 election results, a failed attempt to find election fraud won by President Joe Biden.

A political power line

The maelstrom of partisan politics has hung over the investigation for years.

The prospect of the Justice Department continuing to investigate the incumbent president's son has added to the sensitivity.

President Joe Biden has said he will not interfere with the independence of the Justice Department.

Early in his presidency, Biden decided to retain US Attorney David Weiss, appointed by former President Donald Trump, to continue overseeing the Delaware investigation.

As law enforcement work in Biden's home state has remained relatively quiet, political smears of Hunter Biden persisted.

Trump had tried to make the Hunter Biden investigation part of the 2020 campaign, publicly urging Attorney General William Barr to announce an investigation of both Hunter and Joe Biden.

Barr responded by publicly announcing that Joe Biden was not under investigation.

Giuliani helped orchestrate news stories seeking to link then-candidate Joe Biden to allegations of corruption in Ukraine.

He later helped push stories into documents that he said came from a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden.

CNN reported last year that the FBI took possession of the laptop in 2019 and investigators believed it belonged to Hunter Biden.

Hunter Biden, last year making the publicity rounds for his memoir, dodged questions about the laptop.

"There could be a laptop that was stolen from me," he said in an interview with CBS.

"It could be that I was hacked. It could be Russian intelligence. It could be that it was stolen from me."

Giuliani also tried to provide law enforcement with a trove of documents that he said came from sources in Ukraine and purported to show wrongdoing on the part of Hunter Biden and his father.

Giuliani and Trump's role added unusual hurdles for Justice Department officials overseeing the investigation, current and former law enforcement officials say.

Barr, worried about Giuliani's credibility and trying to avoid tainting what he considered a legitimate investigation of Hunter Biden, ordered the documents turned over to prosecutors in Pittsburgh, according to people briefed on the matter.

There, Barr instructed, prosecutors would work with US intelligence agencies to try to determine its authenticity and then turn over any relevant material to prosecutors in Delaware and elsewhere.

It's unclear if any of the materials Giuliani provided or the laptop are still part of the investigation.

CNN's Kara Scannell and Paula Reid contributed to this report.

Hunter Biden

Source: cnnespanol

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