Hunter Biden Confirms U.S. Attorney's Office Is Investigating His 'Tax Affairs'
Hunter Biden released a statement on Wednesday confirming there is an active investigation into his "tax affairs."
The son of President-elect Joe Biden said his lawyers received word Tuesday from the U.S. attorney's office in Delaware alerting them of the probe.
"I learned yesterday for the first time that the U.S. Attorney's Office in Delaware advised my legal counsel, also yesterday, that they are investigating my tax affairs," Hunter Biden's statement said. "I take this matter very seriously but I am confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately, including with the benefit of professional tax advisors."
The president-elect's transition team also released a statement in response to the news of the investigation.
"President-elect Biden is deeply proud of his son, who has fought through difficult challenges, including the vicious personal attacks of recent months, only to emerge stronger," the statement said.
The president-elect's son was a source of controversy throughout the fall election campaign after Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump's personal attorney, made allegations about Hunter Biden's overseas business dealings. The allegations spread when the New York Post published a report that cited information from Giuliani and Steve Bannon, another Trump ally and former White House chief strategist.
The Post report—the authenticity of which remains in question—brought new allegations of corruption involving the Bidens during Joe Biden's time as vice president. The allegations were based on a trove of emails that allegedly came from a laptop owned by Hunter Biden. The emails implied that the elder Biden may have met with one of Hunter Biden's business associates in Washington, D.C., while serving as vice president. They also appeared to show potential benefits for the former vice president as a result of his son's business dealings.
Following the exposé, the Biden campaign issued a blanket denial of the allegations. The Bidens did not respond to Newsweek's earlier request for clarification on some of the specific allegations within the report, including the authenticity of the emails or the ownership of the laptop from which they were allegedly retrieved.
About a month before the Post published its exposé, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Senate Committee on Finance issued a report that concluded there was no evidence of wrongdoing by the former vice president in connection to his son's business dealings.
Despite the Biden team's denial of the Post report's allegations, Trump and his supporters routinely cited them in the weeks leading up to the November 3 election. Although media attention shifted in recent weeks to the legal challenges resulting from the election and the surges in coronavirus cases throughout the U.S., news of the probe into Hunter Biden's taxes comes as the president-elect is focused on building his administration, with just six weeks remaining until his inauguration.
The U.S. attorney's office in Delaware declined Newsweek's request for comment.
This article has been updated with additional information and background.
