WASHINGTON (AP) — Hunter Biden asked the U.S. ambassador to Italy for help regarding an energy project 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 seeking assistance for Burisma, which had been working on a geothermal project in Italy, the newspaper reported, citing newly released records and interviews.
At the time, Hunter Biden sat on the board of Burisma, which was having trouble getting regulatory approval for the project, a businessman involved in the project told the newspaper.
The revelation is likely to fuel Republican criticism of Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings, which have been the center of GOP investigations into the president’s family. The report comes weeks before Hunter Biden is set to stand trial on federal charges alleging he failed to pay taxes on money he received from Burisma and other foreign businesses.
Prosecutors indicated last week in court papers they want to introduce evidence at trial about Hunter Biden’s other business dealings, including an arrangement with a Romanian businessman who was trying to “influence U.S. government policy” during Joe Biden’s term as vice president.
Hunter Biden’s lawyer said his client’s outreach to the ambassador on behalf of Burisma was a “proper request” and that he had asked “various people” to help arrange an introduction between Burisma and the president of Italy’s Tuscany region.
“No meeting occurred, no project materialized, no request for anything in the U.S. was ever sought and only an introduction in Italy was requested,” attorney Abbe Lowell said.
The records suggest that embassy officials were uneasy about Hunter Biden’s request, according to the newspaper. One official wrote: “I want to be careful about promising too much.”
A White House spokesperson told The Times that the president was not aware when he was vice president that his son had reached out to the embassy on Burisma’s behalf.
“He’s not in business with his son,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday of the president. “He’s certainly not aware of this and this is something that Hunter Biden has to speak to. He’s a private citizen, it is something for him to focus on.”
Pressed on whether Biden was satisfied with how his son conducted himself, Jean-Pierre told reporters: “I can’t speak to this. This is something that is an ongoing process.”
John R. Phillips, the U.S. ambassador to Italy at the time, said he received a lot of letters and did not remember Hunter Biden reaching out to him.
“I certainly would pay attention to it” if the younger Biden had contacted him, Phillips told the newspaper. “Out of courtesy, I’d probably make sure he got a response of some sort, 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 materialized, and it’s not clear whether the embassy ever agreed to help the company.
Hunter Biden’s trial set to begin in Los Angeles in September alleges a four-year scheme to avoid paying at least $1.4 million in taxes during a time in which the president’s son has acknowledged struggling with a drug addiction.
Hunter Biden’s lawyers have indicated they will argue at trial that drug use affected his decision-making and judgment to the point that he was “unable to form the requisite intent to commit the crimes he has been charged with.”
He was convicted of three felony charges in a separate case alleging he lied on a mandatory gun-purchase form in 2018 by saying he was not illegally using or addicted to drugs. He could face up to 25 years in prison at sentencing set for Nov. 13 in Wilmington, Delaware, but as a first-time offender, he is likely to get far less time or avoid prison entirely.