President Joe Biden‘s son, Hunter, reportedly sought assistance from the U.S. government on behalf of a Ukrainian energy company while his father was the vice president, according to a report from The New York Times.
The report, published Tuesday evening, cited records recently released to the Times by the Biden administration and interviews with government officials regarding a letter that Hunter Biden wrote to the U.S. ambassador to Italy in 2016. The letter reportedly asked for assistance from the U.S. government for a potential energy project in Italy involving Burisma, the Ukrainian gas company where the president’s son served on the board of directors at the time.
President Biden has faced allegations from GOP lawmakers that he was involved in a bribery scheme with foreign governments while serving as vice president under former President Barack Obama. Republicans have centered on Hunter Biden’s work with Burisma as part of its monthslong impeachment inquiry into the president. There has been no evidence of Joe Biden accepting any sort of bribes while vice president.
The Times reported Tuesday that officials at the U.S. Embassy in Rome responded hesitantly to the request from Hunter Biden in 2016. An official with the U.S. Commerce Department based at the embassy wrote in a response to Hunter’s letter, “I want to be careful about promising too much.”
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“This is a Ukrainian company and, purely to protect ourselves, [the U.S. government] should not be actively advocating with the government of Italy without the company going through the D.O.C. [Department of Commerce] Advocacy Center,” read the department official’s letter, as cited by the Times. The DOC’s Advocacy Center supports American companies that seek business with foreign governments.
Hunter Biden’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, told the Times that the president’s son had “asked various people” for help in arranging an introduction between Burisma and Italian officials to pursue the gas project.
“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,” Lowell added.
Newsweek on Tuesday night reached out to the State Department press team for comment on the Times story. An email was also sent to Lowell’s office requesting comment.
Republican lawmakers who have led the impeachment inquiry into the president reacted to the Times report Tuesday evening. The GOP caucus of the House Judiciary wrote on X, formerly Twitter, in response to a post of the report, “Told ya.”
The X account for Republicans on the House Oversight Committee also reacted to the report, writing, “Less than a week after Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race, the State Department finally released records showing Hunter Biden sought U.S. government help to land a Burisma deal when his father was VP. Coincidence?”
The Times said that the documents regarding Hunter Biden’s letter in 2016 to U.S. embassy personnel in Italy were provided shortly after the president dropped out of the 2024 presidential race. Biden subsequently endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to take his place atop the Democratic ticket.
Supporters of the president, however, downplayed that the Times report reflected much on President Biden or his son.
“HUGE EARTH-SHATTERING BREAKING NEWS: In 2016 Obama administration officials properly took no action on a request from Hunter Biden to the U.S. embassy in Italy that his father knew absolutely nothing about,” wrote George Conway, a conservative lawyer who is prominently against former President Donald Trump.
“Now I’m *definitely* not voting for Hunter,” Conway continued on X. “And — just to be on the safe side—I’m definitely *also* not voting for Joe Biden even though there is no evidence or suggestion he did anything wrong. I’m just going to have to find another candid—… oh, wait!”
Hunter Biden was convicted of three gun-related felony charges for knowingly lying about his drug usage when purchasing a firearm in Delaware in October 2018. He will be sentenced on November 13 and could face up to 25 years in prison, although experts say it is unlikely he’ll be imprisoned, given that he is a first-time offender and that the charges are nonviolent.
The president’s son also faces federal tax charges, accused of failing to pay income taxes on millions of dollars in income from Burisma and other foreign businesses. He will stand trial in Los Angeles next month.
Federal prosecutors have told the judge presiding over the tax case that they plan to call a business associate of Hunter’s to testify on accusations that the president’s son asked the U.S. government to help contest bribery charges against a Romanian businessperson while Joe Biden was vice president.
The court filing from Special Counsel David Weiss’ team clarified that prosecutors do not plan to charge Hunter Biden in violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), which requires that individuals disclose when they lobby the U.S. government on behalf of foreign interests.