The Justice Department is ratcheting up its investigation into the business practices of President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, sources tell CNN, saying that there's been an uptick in witnesses providing testimony to federal investigators.
"The probe, led by the US Attorney in Wilmington, Delaware, began as early as 2018 and concerns multiple financial and business activities in foreign countries dating to when Biden's father was vice president," CNN reports. "Investigators have examined whether Hunter Biden and some of his associates violated money laundering, tax and foreign lobbying laws, as well as firearm and other regulations, multiple sources said."
According to CNN, "a flurry of witnesses" have provided testimony to investigators and even more testimony is expected to come in the following weeks.
Hunter has not yet been charged, and his father is not being targeted in the investigation. But as CNN points out, more and more questions are being raised about his ethics and the legality of his business dealings. Among the issues being looked at by prosecutors is a 2018 incident in which a firearm owned by Hunter ended up tossed by his then-girlfriend into a dumpster in Wilmington, Delaware, and whether or not he broke the law when he acquired the gun. Federal law prohibits firearms purchases by anyone who uses or is addicted to illegal drugs -- which Hunter himself has admitted to in media interviews.
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Prosecutors are also interested in Hunter's business dealings in Ukraine. He served on the board of Burisma, paid as much as $50,000 a month, from 2014 to 2019 -- which overlaps a period when his father was vice president, according to reports. Joe Biden has claimed his son's work in Ukraine had no influence on his decisions as vice president.
"Federal prosecutors from Justice headquarters in Washington and in Delaware have focused at least in part on whether a lobbying firm working with Burisma called Blue Star Strategies approached US government officials in an attempt to burnish the Ukrainian firm's reputation after State Department officials criticized the oligarch who founded it," CNN reports. "The firm's founders have testified to Congress previously that they were merely interested in understanding the US government's views of the foreign company."
Read the full report over at CNN.
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