President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, says he is not working on a plea deal with federal investigators looking into whether he accurately reported earnings from his overseas business dealings, particularly dealings Hunter Biden had in China.
The New York Post — which initially broke the story of Biden’s troubles after receiving emails from what is believed to be Hunter Biden’s laptop — reported Monday that the younger Biden told CBS News that he has not spoken to federal prosecutors about inking a plea deal in the ongoing tax investigation.
“Biden, 51, made the revelation to ‘CBS This Morning,’ replying, ‘Oh, no,’ after being asked if a plea was being made relating to the investigation,” the Post reported. “The president’s son went on to say that he was confident his team was cooperating fully with the probe, which is being overseen by the Justice Department and handled through the US Attorney’s Office in Delaware.”
“I am absolutely certain that what we’re doing is being completely cooperative with whoever is asking from any authority whatsoever,” Hunter Biden told CBS.
Hunter Biden revealed that he was the subject of an FBI probe back in December, after his father won the presidential election, though news broke of Biden’s business dealings, which could prove a conflict of interest for the elder Biden, over the summer of 2020. In a statement, Hunter Biden announced that he was working with the Department of Justice to resolve the issue, which centered around his dealings in China.
“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 said at the time. “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 Biden transition team, at the time, said little about the incident, releasing a statement that said, simply, that ‘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 issue came up again during Attorney General Merrick Garland’s confirmation hearings after Senate Republicans raised the question of whether Garland would force the DOJ to drop their probe. Garland was non-committal, knowing little of the FBI’s internal workings on the matter at the time.
Hunter Biden gave a wide-ranging interview to CBS on Monday morning, also suggesting that the laptop that ultimately produced a series of emails leaked to the Post could be his, though he also referenced a Russian “disinformation” campaign.
President Joe Biden is not currently under scrutiny in the probe, though Republicans suggested on Monday that they would be seeking information about Biden’s own taxes, though they say they will be looking specifically to see whether the elder Biden took advantage of tax cuts that he is now threatening to strip from the tax code in order to pay for his proposed multi-trillion-dollar infrastructure plan.