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Hunter Biden has been accused of accepting payments from a Romanian oligarch in the hope that he might be able to “influence US government agencies” on his client’s behalf during his father Joe Biden’s presidency.
The allegation was made on Wednesday in a Los Angeles federal court filing by prosecutors in special counsel David Weiss’s office as part of the federal tax case the younger Biden is currently facing. It relates to business dealings with the wealthy businessman Gabriel Popoviciu which began in late 2015, according to ABC News.
“The government will introduce the evidence... that [Hunter Biden] and Business Associate 1 received compensation from a foreign principal who was attempting to influence US policy and public opinion and cause the United States to investigate the Romanian investigation of [Popoviciu] in Romania,” prosecutors wrote in their latest submission.
They allege that Hunter Biden and his unnamed associate “were concerned that lobbying work might cause political ramifications for the defendant’s father,” who was Barack Obama’s vice president at the time.
The deal in question was therefore structured in a way that “concealed the true nature of the work he was performing,” the filing argues.
Hunter Biden’s tie to Popoviciu was briefly alluded to in his original indictment last December but this week’s filing is the first time a lobbying role has been alleged against the president’s son.
The defendant faces three felony tax charges and additional misdemeanors for allegedly failing to pay $1.4m in income taxes between 2016 to 2020 while maintaining, in Weiss’s words, “an extravagant lifestyle” involving spending on “drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing.”
The taxes owed and associated penalties were previously paid in full by a third party, which ABC has identified as the defendant’s attorney Kevin Morris.
Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges against him. He is due to go on trial in California from September 5 and, if convicted, faces a maximum of 17 years in prison.
In June, he was convicted of three federal firearms-related felonies in an unrelated case. He has yet to be sentenced and is appealing that verdict.
MAGA Republicans on Capitol Hill have spent years alleging influence-peddling on behalf of the “Biden Crime Family” without producing any decisive evidence to substantiate their cable news-friendly claims.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer launched a drawn-out impeachment inquiry into the president last year that has so far proved fruitless and has led nowhere. Throughout this he has been brutally taunted and mocked by Maryland Democrat Jamie Raskin, amongst others, in person and on television, for failing to make his case against the First Family.
