WASHINGTON (AP) — Hunter Biden asked the US ambassador to Italy for help with an energy project that a Ukrainian gas company was pursuing while his father was vice president, according to the New York Times.
Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, wrote a letter to the ambassador in 2016 asking for support for Burisma, which was working on a geothermal project in Italy, the newspaper reported, citing recently released documents and interviews.
Hunter Biden was on the board of Burisma at the time, which had difficulty obtaining regulatory approval for the project, a businessman involved in the project told the newspaper.
The revelation is likely Criticism from Republicans of Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings, which have been at the heart of the GOP investigation into the president’s family. The report comes weeks before Hunter Biden should be brought to court for alleged tax evasion by the federal government because he failed to pay taxes on money he received from Burisma and other foreign companies.
Prosecutors said in court documents last week that they plan to present evidence at trial about Hunter Biden’s other business dealings, including an agreement with a Romanian businessman who tried to “influence the policies of the US government” during Joe Biden’s term as Vice President.
Hunter Biden’s lawyer said his client’s contacting of the ambassador on behalf of Burisma was a “proper request” and that he had asked “various people” to help establish a connection between Burisma and the president of the Italian region of Tuscany.
“No meeting took place, no project was realized, no request was ever made for anything in the US and only an introduction to Italy was requested,” said lawyer Abbe Lowell.
The documents show that embassy officials were concerned about Hunter Biden’s request, the newspaper said. One official wrote: “I want to be cautious and not promise too much.”
A White House spokesman told The Times that the president was unaware during his tenure as vice president that his son had contacted the embassy on behalf of Burisma.
“He’s not doing business with his son,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said of the president on Wednesday. “He’s certainly not aware of it, and that’s something Hunter Biden needs to talk about. He’s a private citizen, it’s something he needs to focus on.”
When asked if Biden was satisfied with his son’s behavior, Jean-Pierre told reporters: “I can’t say anything about that. This is an ongoing process.”
John R. Phillips, then-US ambassador to Italy, said he had received many letters and could not remember Hunter Biden contacting him.
“I would certainly take note” if the younger Biden had contacted him, Phillips told the newspaper. “Out of courtesy, I would probably make sure he got some kind of response, but not necessarily from me. And I wouldn’t even want to encourage it, because I wouldn’t get us involved in something like that.”
Burisma’s project never came to fruition and it is unclear whether the embassy ever agreed to help the company.
The trial of Hunter Biden, which is scheduled to begin in Los Angeles in September, accuses him of attempting to avoid paying at least $1.4 million in taxes over a four-year period – at a time when the president’s son said he was struggling with drug addiction.
Hunter Biden’s lawyers have indicated that they will argue at trial that drug use impaired his decision-making and judgment to such an extent that he was “incapable of developing the requisite intent to commit the crimes he is charged with.”
He was found guilty in three cases in another case, he is accused of lying on a mandatory gun purchase form in 2018 by saying he was not using or addicted to illegal drugs. He could face up to 25 years in prison at sentencing on Nov. 13 in Wilmington, Delaware, but as a first-time offender, he will likely get much less time or avoid prison altogether.
