Prosecutors claim Hunter Biden once agreed to lobby US on behalf of Romanian businessman
By Marshall Cohen, CNN
(CNN) — Federal prosecutors alleged in a new court filing Wednesday that Hunter Biden agreed to lobby US officials on behalf of a Romanian businessman facing criminal investigations back home.
The new accusation came from special counsel David Weiss, who is prosecuting Hunter Biden for alleged tax evasion. The case, scheduled for trial in September, touches on many of Hunter Biden’s controversial foreign business dealings, sometimes while his father was in office.
However, prosecutors haven’t charged Hunter Biden with any foreign lobbying crimes, though they investigated him for years on that front. They signaled in the new filing that they want to introduce new testimony about the alleged lobbying agreement as evidence in the tax case.
Weiss’ team said Hunter Biden “agreed to attempt to influence U.S. public policy” by lobbying US agencies and officials to look for improprieties with the Romanian government’s investigation of a wealthy Romanian businessman identified in the filing by the initials G.P.
Weiss further claimed Hunter Biden “did reach out to government officials” in the US, including at the State Department, though prosecutors did not elaborate on the details of those communications.
Prosecutors say one of Hunter Biden’s business partners is prepared to testify at trial that they “were concerned that lobbying work might cause political ramifications” for Joe Biden, so they “concealed the true nature of the work” and claimed it was real estate management instead of lobbying.
But in the new filings, prosecutors also made clear that the witness “has not said that the defendant engaged in improper political influence.”
House Republicans previously scrutinized, as part of their inquiries into the Biden family’s finances, payments made to Hunter Biden from a Romanian business associate.
Prosecutors, however, have never publicly backed up Republicans’ most explosive unproven claims that Hunter Biden engaged in corrupt foreign business deals with his father, or that Joe Biden abused his government powers to enrich his family.
Prosecutors also said Wednesday their side “does not intend to reference allegations that the defendant violated FARA or improperly coordinated with the Obama Administration,” referring to the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires people who lobby on behalf of foreign clients to register beforehand with the US government.
“We do not intend to introduce evidence/argue that (Hunter Biden) was trying to funnel money to Joe Biden,” prosecutors wrote.
Hunter Biden has never been charged with violating foreign lobbying laws. His team denies that he ever did any undisclosed lobbying for foreign clients. A spokesperson for Hunter didn’t comment on the new filings, and his attorneys didn’t immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.
Hunter Biden has pleaded not guilty to the tax charges. He has argued that Weiss, a Republican and Trump appointee, is prosecuting him due to political bias against his family.
The trial is scheduled to begin on September 5 in Los Angeles. His sentencing in a separate criminal case, in which he was convicted of three gun felonies, is slated for November.
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