Hunter Biden investigations hang over Biden re-election bid
President Biden formally announced Tuesday that he will run for re-election in 2024 — but federal and congressional investigations into the overseas business ventures of first son Hunter Biden cast a dark shadow over a potential second term.
Hunter, 53, has been under investigation by the Justice Department since at least 2018, while the House Oversight Committee recently launched a probe into how his foreign business interests benefited the president’s extended family.
Joe Biden, 80, announced his re-election campaign two days after House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) claimed his investigation had flagged “six specific decisions” the president made since 2009 that are “very concerning.”
Comer did not specify to which decisions he was referring, but said his panel believes they could “potentially lead back to payments that were made to these LLCs that were then laundered down to the Biden family member.”
The lawmaker also told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo that at least 12 members of the first family will be revealed to have benefited from Hunter’s activities.
“There’s not going to be anybody left for a Christmas picture if the DOJ did their job and went in there and indicted everyone that has any type of fingerprints involved in this influence-peddling scheme,” Comer said.
The Oversight Committee chairman has already revealed that three Biden family members — Hunter, first brother James Biden, and Hunter’s sister-in-law-turned-former lover Hallie Biden — got money from a venture involving Beijing-backed CEFC China Energy in 2017 and 2018.
In an email obtained by The Post from Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop, the deal guaranteed 10% of the venture’s equity to be held by the first son for “the big guy,” whom former business associates of Hunter have identified as Joe Biden.
President Biden has repeatedly denied knowledge of his son’s overseas business affairs.
The president was also accused of helping his son’s foreign business interests earlier this month by former White House stenographer Mike McCormick, who claimed a 2014 trip to Ukraine — which took place days after Hunter joined the board of the Ukrainian natural gas company Burisima — implicates Joe Biden in a foreign influence-peddling “kickback scheme.”
In December of that year, amid broader Obama administration support for Ukraine, Congress approved $50 million to support the country’s energy sector, including the natural gas industry.
Meanwhile, the years-long Justice Department probe stems from the younger Biden apparently lying about his drug use on a federal gun purchase form and allegedly committing tax fraud by failing to report income he earned overseas.
An IRS whistleblower told Congress last week that the Biden administration is providing “preferential treatment” to the first son in that investigation — and went on to suggest Attorney General Merrick Garland had perjured himself before Congress.
The US Attorney’s Office in Delaware reportedly has been reviewing four possible charges to file against the younger Biden: two misdemeanor counts of failing to file taxes, a felony count of evading taxes relating to a business expense, and the gun form charge.
It’s also unclear whether authorities are still considering charges against Hunter Biden for money laundering and failing to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Hunter also faces problems in his personal life. On Monday, he was ordered to appear in an Arkansas court as part of an ongoing child support case involving the out-of-wedlock daughter he fathered with former stripper Lunden Roberts.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden himself is the focus of a special counsel investigation over the handling of classified documents found at his Wilmington, Del., home and the Penn Biden Center in Washington, DC.
