Analysis

Sex, Drugs, Guns, And Money: The Full Timeline Of Hunter Biden’s Scandals

   DailyWire.com

As the Daily Wire reported earlier today, “Another scandal involving President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, broke on Thursday morning when a new report outlined allegations that the Secret Service intervened in a firearm-related incident a few years ago.”

Hunter Biden, the second son of President Joe Biden, is no stranger to scandal and controversy, often appearing to rely on his network of powerful family members and political associates to avoid scrutiny which might befall others.

Here is a timeline of the many scandals and controversies surrounding Hunter Biden.

2008 — Sweetheart business deals

During the 2008 presidential race between Barack Obama and John McCain, both the New York Times and the American Spectator reported that Hunter Biden “received consulting fees from the financial services company MBNA from 2001 to 2005 — while his father, then a senator, was pushing successfully for legislation that would make it harder for consumers to file for bankruptcy protection.”

The New York Times added that “a company official once said Hunter Biden was receiving at least a $100,000 per year retainer.”

In addition to ongoing accusations of politically-motivated payments being made to Hunter, there has been further criticism of deeper connections between the Biden family and MBNA. In a column titled “The Senator From MBNA,” Byron York wrote that then-MBNA vice chairman John Cochran paid “top dollar” for Joe Biden’s home in February 1996, just prior to his Senate reelection bid, and that “MBNA gave Cochran a lot of money – $330,000– to help with ‘expenses’ related to the move.”

“The price, they said, was twice the home’s value, suggesting that MBNA had bought off Biden as well as his house,” York added.

During that period, Hunter Biden also served on the board of Amtrak. Democratic Sen. Tom Carper supported this decision, stating that “Hunter Biden has spent a lot of time on Amtrak trains.”

2013 — Business dealings in China

Among several business dealings regarding China, the primary focus has been Hunter Biden’s role as one of nine directors at BHR, “a private-equity company controlled by Chinese government-backed stakeholders.”

“In December of 2013, one month after Rosemont Seneca’s joint venture with Bohai Capital to form BHR, Hunter Biden reportedly flew aboard Air Force Two with then-Vice President Biden to China,” Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley and Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Ron Johnson wrote. “While in China, he helped arrange for Jonathan Li, CEO of Bohai Capital, to ‘shake hands’ with Vice President Biden.”

“Afterward,” they added, “Hunter Biden met with Li for reportedly a ‘social meeting.’ After the China trip, BHR’s business license was approved.

After the November election, it was reported that a federal investigation of Hunter Biden’s business dealings in China is ongoing.

2014 — Discharged from Navy Reserves for drug use

In 2014, the Wall Street Journal reported that Hunter Biden was discharged from the Navy Reserve after failing a cocaine test. 

“Hunter Biden, a lawyer by training who is now a managing partner at an investment company, had been commissioned as an ensign in the Navy Reserve, a part-time position. But after failing a drug test last year, his brief military career ended,” the Wall Street Journal report stated.

“Mr. Biden, 44 years old, decided to pursue military service relatively late, beginning the direct-commission process to become a public-affairs officer in the Navy Reserve in 2012. Because of his age—43 when he was to be commissioned—he needed a waiver to join the Navy. He received a second Navy waiver because of a drug-related incident when he was a young man, according to people familiar with the matter,” the report continued.

In a statement, Hunter Biden said it was “the honor of my life to serve in the U.S. Navy, and I deeply regret and am embarrassed that my actions led to my administrative discharge. I respect the Navy’s decision. With the love and support of my family, I’m moving forward.”

2014 — Business dealings in Ukraine

In April 2014, Hunter Biden alongside his friend Devon Archer joined the board of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian natural gas company, despite not speaking Ukrainian and having “no relevant natural gas experience.”

As Fox News reported, “Joe Biden has acknowledged on camera that in spring 2016, when he was vice president and spearheading the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy, he successfully pressured Ukraine to fire top prosecutor Viktor Shokin. At the time, Shokin was investigating the notoriously corrupt Burisma Holdings — where Hunter’s role was especially lucrative. The vice president threatened to withhold $1 billion in critical U.S. aid if Shokin was not fired.”

When a career official at the State Department raised concerns about Hunter Biden’s potential conflict of interest, he claimed that he was “told that it wasn’t appropriate to discuss the matter because of the health struggles of Biden’s eldest son, Beau.”

After discussing those concerns with Biden’s staff, the State Department employee testified, “The message that I recall hearing back was that the Vice President’s son Beau was dying of cancer and that there was no further bandwidth to deal with family-related issues at that time.”

Joe Biden has said he never discussed his son’s overseas business dealings,” Fox News added, despite uncovering a photograph of Joe Biden and Hunter Biden golfing with Devon Archer, who also served on the board of Burisma. In 2019, Hunter Biden told the New Yorker that he spoke with Joe Biden “just once” regarding his work in Ukraine.

2014 — Money from Russian billionaire

Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson also reported that an investment firm Hunter Biden co-founded had received $3.5 million from a Russian billionaire.

“On Feb. 14, 2014, Baturina wired $3.5 million to a Rosemont Seneca Thornton LLC (Rosemont Seneca Thornton) bank account for a Consultancy Agreement DD12.02.2014. Rosemont Seneca Thornton is an investment firm co-founded by Hunter Biden that was incorporated on May 28, 2013 in Wilmington, Del,” they wrote.

“Separately, between May 6, 2015 and Dec. 8, 2015, Baturina sent 11 wires in the amount of $391,968.21 to a bank account belonging to BAK USA LLC (BAK USA). Nine of the 11 transactions, totaling $241,797.14 were sent from Baturina’s accounts to a Rosemont Seneca Thornton bank account, which then transferred to the money to BAK USA. The 11 transactions all listed ‘Loan Agreement’ in the payment details section. BAK USA was a startup technology company headquartered in Buffalo, N.Y., that produced tablet computers in cooperation with unnamed Chinese business partners,” they added.

2016 — Romanian real estate

NBC News reported in 2019 that “an American lawyer traveled to Romania to meet with a businessman accused of orchestrating a corrupt land deal.”

“The businessman was Gabriel ‘Puiu’ Popoviciu, a wealthy Romanian real estate tycoon. The lawyer brought in to advise him was Hunter Biden, the son of then-Vice President Joe Biden, according to two people familiar with the matter. Hunter Biden’s work for Popoviciu in 2016 went unreported at the time, but Joe Biden’s involvement in Romania was very much public. The vice president was among the leading voices pushing the government to crack down on corruption,” the report continued.

“There’s no evidence that Hunter or his father acted improperly or violated any laws. But the arrangement, government ethics experts say, raises concerns that Hunter Biden was used as a prop in Popoviciu’s effort to dodge criminal prosecution. ‘We don’t know what [Hunter Biden] was paid or what he was paid for but it does raise questions of whether this Romanian individual facing criminal charges was actually paying for a connection to the American vice president,’ said Kathleen Clark, a Washington University law professor who specializes in government ethics,” NBC News added.

2017 — Divorce with Kathleen Buhle

Hunter Biden married his first wife, Kathleen Buhle, in 1993. They divorced in 2017 after 22 years of marriage — with the pair having three daughters — with Buhle accusing Hunter Biden of “blowing family funds on drugs and prostitutes.”

2017 — Hunter Biden dated his brother’s widow

In 2019, it was reported that Hunter Biden had split up with Hallie Biden, the widow of Hunter’s late brother Beau who died of brain cancer in May 2015. The relationship reportedly lasted two years, with the apparent support of Joe Biden.

Hunter and Hallie became an item slightly less than two years [after Beau Biden’s death], apparently with the Biden parents’ approval, and while Hunter was separated from his wife,” reported Vanity Fair. 

“We are all lucky that Hunter and Hallie found each other as they were putting their lives together again after such sadness,” Biden told Page Six in 2017. “They have mine and Jill’s full and complete support and we are happy for them.”

The relationship between Hunter Biden and Hallie Biden began shortly after his divorce with Kathleen Buhle. “The two began dating while he was recovering from a crack binge, which he explained in a New Yorker interview last July took place while grieving his brother’s death,” the New York Post reported.

2019 — DNA test proves Hunter Biden fathered a child with a stripper…while dating his brother’s widow

CNN reported in November 2019 that “A DNA test has ‘established with scientific certainty’ that Hunter Biden, the son of former Vice President Joe Biden, is the father of an Arkansas woman’s baby, according to a motion filed Wednesday by the woman.”

“Hunter Biden had denied in a previous court filing that he had fathered the child, but agreed in October to a paternity test,” the report continued.

“Lunden Alexis Roberts, 28, had filed a lawsuit in May seeking child support and health care for the child, who was born in August 2018,” the report added.  

Page Six reported that Lunden Roberts “was a stripper at a Washington, DC, club he frequented around the time he was dating his brother’s widow.”

2020 — Child support scandal

In January 2020, “Hunter Biden agreed to pay monthly child support retroactive to November 2018, temporarily ending a standoff that began after the judge in his Arkansas paternity case ordered him to appear in person for a hearing to explain why he shouldn’t be held in contempt.” In March 2020, “Biden apparently failed to meet a court deadline to turn over additional financial documents.”

2021 — Hunter Biden’s firearm scandal

“Another scandal involving President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, broke on Thursday morning when a new report outlined allegations that the Secret Service intervened in a firearm-related incident a few years ago,” the Daily Wire reported.

“The new allegations facing Hunter Biden stem from an October 2018 incident between Hunter Biden and Hallie Biden,” in which “Hallie Biden allegedly took Hunter Biden’s gun and threw it in a trash can behind a grocery store, which prompted an investigation from law enforcement officials who were concerned because the trash can was close to a high school. Hallie Biden later returned to retrieve the firearm only to discover it was missing.”

“Secret Service agents approached the owner of the store where Hunter bought the gun and asked to take the paperwork involving the sale, according to two people, one of whom has firsthand knowledge of the episode and the other was briefed by a Secret Service agent after the fact,” Politico reported. “The gun store owner refused to supply the paperwork, suspecting that the Secret Service officers wanted to hide Hunter’s ownership of the missing gun in case it were to be involved in a crime, the two people said. The owner, Ron Palmieri, later turned over the papers to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, which oversees federal gun laws.”

Ian Haworth is an Editor and Writer for The Daily Wire. Follow him on Twitter at @ighaworth.

The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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