FBI and US tax investigators investigate Joe Biden's son

Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, claims to have been targeted by tax investigators from the US federal government.

Hunter Biden announced on Wednesday through his father's team that his attorneys had been informed the day before by the state attorney's office in the state of Delaware for the first time that the federal authorities were investigating his person over "tax matters".

He took the matter seriously, but was confident that an objective investigation would show that he was not guilty of anything.

The background to this is Hunter Biden's questionable foreign business in Ukraine and China. Hunter Biden held a lucrative position on the supervisory board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma between 2014 and 2019. As Vice President Joe Biden was responsible for the Ukraine.

Joe Biden had rejected the attacks against himself and his family in the election campaign as a smear campaign. His team announced on Wednesday that the future president was proud of his son. Hunter Biden faced severe challenges, "including the vicious personal attacks of the past few months". He emerged stronger from it. Hunter Biden lived unsteadily in the past, but now he speaks openly about his addiction problem.

The broadcaster CNN reported that the investigation had already started in 2018. Federal authorities had suspended them in the months leading up to the election in order to comply with regulations that the vote must not be influenced.

Now the investigation would be resumed, in which the Federal Police FBI and the tax authority IRS are involved. Among other things, it is investigated whether Hunter Biden and his partners have violated tax and money laundering laws in their foreign business, especially in China. The investigation is not about future President Joe Biden.

Before the election, the "New York Post" had published emails which, in the opinion of the Trump camp, should prove that Hunter Biden wanted to make profit from his father's office as Vice President under Trump's predecessor Barack Obama. The Trump camp also evaluated the emails as evidence that Joe Biden, contrary to his testimony, knew about his son's foreign business. Joe Biden flatly denied the allegations. He never commented on the details of his son's business.

It was questionable how the mails became public. They are said to have been found on a laptop in a repair shop. The "New York Post" claims to have received a copy of the hard drive from Rudy Giuliani, Trump's longtime personal lawyer and confidante. The copy was made by the owner of the repair shop before the laptop was confiscated by the FBI in December 2019, the newspaper reported at the time.

Trump accused Joe Biden of trying to protect his son from the Ukrainian judiciary as Vice President. Trump wanted to get investigations in Ukraine. The conflict eventually sparked impeachment proceedings against the president, which ended in February with an acquittal in the Senate, where Trump's Republicans have a majority. Trump's defense attorneys argued at the time that Hunter Biden's role on Burisma's board of directors was a clear conflict of interest.

The Republicans in the Senate had submitted an 87-page report at the end of September, which included Hunter Biden's position on the Burisma board of directors. The report said that two Obama administration officials found Hunter Biden's activity problematic because of a potential conflict of interest. The vice-president's office and State Department officials ignored these concerns.