Hunter Biden has not been charged with any crime and has denied any wrongdoing. His father, President Joe Biden, is not being investigated into his son’s business, according to informed sources. In 2020, Trump’s personal proxy, Rudy Giuliani, helped orchestrate a news story centered on a Hunter Biden-owned laptop and said it contained his business documents and other potentially malicious material. CNN previously reported that the FBI seized the laptop in late 2019, according to a computer repairman in Delaware, who showed reporters a copy of the summons.
Research activity has waned and flowed for years – with a coronavirus shutdown and a halt around the 2020 election – and in some cases, researchers did not follow up for months after the initial approach to potential witnesses. In recent months, however, investigations into Biden’s investigation have intensified, with discussions between Justice Department officials about the force of the case and whether more work is needed before a possible indictment can be sought, according to sources. on the subject they spoke. on condition of anonymity to discuss ongoing research. Investigators from the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation Agency and prosecutors in Delaware and at the Department of Justice headquarters were involved in the discussions, said a person who was briefed on the matter. Hunter Biden has spoken publicly about his own fight against drug use, and some Justice officials have debated whether his open discussions about previous drug use could weaken their case if they testify. Some officials have noted that Biden could claim that he was unaware of the illegal activities because he was taking drugs, the source said. Others argued that Biden’s public statements about his recovery showed that he was fully responsible for the actions that are now under control, according to the person who was briefed on the matter. Researchers have at various times wondered about many aspects of Hunter Biden’s life – initially focusing on tax issues and money transfers related to doing business in China, according to many people familiar with the research. They are also considering Biden’s role while on the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma years ago, sources said. Biden told his associates that he had paid outstanding tax bills, and public records show that more than $ 450,000 in government real estate encumbrances in Washington, DC, were scrapped in 2020, indicating that those liabilities were likely to be paid off. But these payments did not resolve his legal issues. The researchers looked at the source of the funds to pay the tax bills.

The incident with the gun

Prosecutors also looked into a 2018 incident in which a firearm belonging to Hunter Biden ended up being thrown by his then-girlfriend into a trash can in Wilmington, said a person who was briefed on the matter. Biden described in a media interview last year that he was addicted to drugs, raising the possibility that he violated federal law when he bought the firearm. Federal law prohibits the purchase of firearms by anyone who uses or is addicted to illicit drugs. It is unclear whether the gun incident remains an active part of the investigation. Biden has denied having committed any wrongdoing in the course of his business. In late 2020, after being notified by the Delaware Attorney General of the investigation, Hunter Biden said in a statement issued by his father’s’s presidential office: “I take this very seriously, but I am confident that a professional and objective reviewing these issues will prove that I handled my cases legally and properly, including with the advantage of professional tax advisors “. Hunter Biden’s lawyer, Christopher Clark, has not responded to many requests for comment in recent days. The U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Delaware Department of Justice declined to comment. In recent months, Biden has sought to turn the page by publishing memoirs and making his acting debut in Los Angeles and New York. But even the obvious attempts to avoid confrontation failed. The White House has acknowledged that it played a role in selling art by setting up a legal process to protect the identity of Hunter Biden’s buyers, with the stated aim of ensuring that no one could win the President’s favor by buying his son’s artwork. of. However, critics have noted that art sales and buyer anonymity have long raised concerns about money laundering.

Business transactions in Ukraine

Biden’s involvement in Ukraine has been an important source of legal and political issues. He served on Burisma’s board, paying up to $ 50,000 a month from 2014 to 2019, according to a Republican-led Senate report on Biden’s business in 2020. This partly coincides with a period during which his father was vice president and was used by then-President Barack Obama to handle Ukraine’s affairs. The overlap raised concerns about a conflict of interest between some Obama administration officials at the time. Joe Biden said his son’s work in Ukraine had no bearing on his decisions at the time, and State Department critics of Hunter Biden’s ties to Ukraine say they were never adversely affected, according to transcripts. Senate. Federal prosecutors in Washington and Delaware have focused, at least in part, on whether a lobbying firm affiliated with Burisma, Blue Star Strategies, has approached U.S. government officials in a bid to appease its reputation. , after State Department officials criticized the oligarch who founded it. The company’s founders have testified in Congress in the past that they were simply interested in understanding the US government’s views on the foreign company. The Department of Justice requires lobbyists and public relations firms working on behalf of foreign entities to disclose their links, and in recent years national security investigators have expanded the Department’s initiatives to prosecute groups and individuals who do not disclose their international relationships. . Blue Star did not respond to a request for comment. Last year, a large jury in Delaware issued summonses, and prosecutors gathered information on Blue Star strategies, as well as Hunter Biden, said four people who were briefed on the matter. The investigations included how closely the lobbyists worked with Hunter Biden, how active he was in Blue Star’s work on Burisma’s reputation in the United States, and what their efforts for Burisma entailed, the sources said. Blue Star officials had previously revealed in a Senate inquiry that Hunter Biden was included in emails about their work on Burisma, but said he was not particularly involved in the project. Late last year, witnesses gave interviews to the federal criminal investigation. Prosecutors have continued to seek information from some witnesses this year, including Blue Star Strategies. Also last year, researchers sought information from Hunter Biden’s former business contacts. His longtime collaborator and board member of Burisma, Devon Archer, appeared before Delaware’s grand jury last July, according to a person familiar with the matter. Archer was asked about the structure of Burisma’s payments to an entity founded by Biden and other partners that appeared to be related to Biden’s taxes, the source said. He was also asked about lobbying efforts for Blue Star Strategies, the source said. Archer was sentenced last month to more than a year in prison for his role in a plot to deceive a Native American. 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 been cooperating fully with the Delaware Attorney’s investigation since he realized this.” Archer is in the process of appealing his sentence. Also among the witnesses who met with the investigators is a woman from Arkansas who had a child with Biden and who had sued him for child support, said people who were informed about the matter. Her lawyer told CNBC she testified in February at the Delaware Grand Court as part of an investigation and handed over Hunter Biden’s financial records. Clint Lancaster, the lawyer, did not respond to CNN requests for comment. Lancaster is no stranger to politics: He was listed as a lawyer working on a Republican-led review of the 2020 election results, a failed attempt to find fraud in the election won by President Joe Biden.

A political live cable

The whirlwind of party politics has hung over research for years. The prospect of the Ministry of Justice continuing to investigate the incumbent President’s son has heightened sensitivity. President Joe Biden has said he will not interfere in the independence of the Justice Department. Early in his presidency, Biden decided to retain U.S. Attorney David Weiss, appointed by former President Donald Trump, to continue overseeing the Delaware investigation. As law enforcement in Biden’s home remained relatively quiet, Hunter Biden’s political slander continued. Trump had sought to integrate Hunter Biden’s investigation into the 2020 campaign, publicly urging Attorney General William Barr to announce an investigation into both Hunter and Joe Biden. Barr responded by publicly announcing that Joe Biden was not under investigation. Giuliani helped orchestrate news stories that sought to link then-candidate Joe Biden to allegations of corruption in Ukraine. He later helped promote stories in documents he said came from a Hunter Biden laptop. CNN reported last year that the FBI seized the laptop in 2019 and investigators believed it …