OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
Presidential son Hunter Biden, who was under investigation by federal prosecutors for potential tax fraud, has reportedly paid what he owes, but he remains the focus of other probes, according to The New York Times.
The paper reported that Biden told a colleague that his tax bill, which exceeded $1 million, has been taken care of, but that he needed to take out a loan in order to pay it.
Nevertheless, he is still under investigation for other potential tax law violations “as well as foreign lobbying and money laundering rules,” the paper noted, adding:
Mr. Biden’s failure to pay all his taxes has been a focus of the ongoing Justice Department investigation. While wiping out his liability does not preclude criminal charges against him, the payment could make it harder for prosecutors to win a conviction or a long sentence for tax-related offenses, according to tax law experts, since juries and judges tend to be more sympathetic to defendants who have paid their bills.
But Mr. Biden’s taxes are just one element of the broader investigation stemming from work he did around the world. Hunter Biden is a Yale-educated lawyer; his professional life has intersected with his father’s public service, including working as a registered lobbyist for domestic interests and, while his father was vice president, pursuing deals and clients in Asia and Europe.
As recently as last month, the federal grand jury heard testimony in Wilmington, Del., from two witnesses, one of whom was a former employee of Hunter Biden whose lawyer was later subpoenaed for financial records that reflected money Mr. Biden received from a Ukrainian energy company.
The current investigation actually began as a simple tax inquiry during the Obama administration, the Times noted. However, it grew in 2018 following the discovery of evidence indicating potential criminal violations of tax laws as well as money laundering and rules governing foreign lobbying, people familiar with the investigation said.
However, prosecutors are facing several hurdles regarding the bringing of criminal charges, the sources told the Times. They include difficulty in proving that Biden intended to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which requires lobbyists to inform the Justice Department of said activities or of providing public relations assistance on behalf of foreign clients.
Biden hasn’t been charged with any crimes, however, and the Times reported that the Justice Department has not indicated whether any are forthcoming.
“For President Biden, the long-running case is both politically and personally fraught. Hunter Biden’s work for Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian energy company, became a flashpoint in his father’s race in 2020 against President Donald J. Trump and helped set off the events that led to Mr. Trump’s first impeachment,” the Times report continued.
Revelations about Hunter Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine and elsewhere were first reported by Times rival the New York Post just a few weeks before the 2020 election.
The original New York Post 10/14/20 Hunter Biden laptop story. Suppressed by Twitter and Facebook; ignored, attacked, or downplayed in some media outlets in days before presidential election. https://t.co/9fz2hUqPJL
— Byron York (@ByronYork) March 17, 2022
Citing materials found on the hard drive, a copy of which was given to The Post by Rudy Giuliani, then-President Trump’s personal attorney, the paper noted:
Hunter Biden introduced his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, to a top executive at a Ukrainian energy firm less than a year before the elder Biden pressured government officials in Ukraine into firing a prosecutor who was investigating the company.
The never-before-revealed meeting is mentioned in a message of appreciation that Vadym Pozharskyi, an adviser to the board of Burisma, allegedly sent Hunter Biden on April 17, 2015, about a year after Hunter joined the Burisma board at a reported salary of up to $50,000 a month.
The Post’s reporting was summarily censored and suppressed on social media. Twitter froze The Post’s account for weeks, effectively preventing the story from spreading.
At the time, other mainstream outlets claimed the materials reported by The Post were linked to a Russian disinformation campaign aimed at helping Trump.
