DOJ says Hunter Biden work with Romanian businessmen designed to skirt US law

Special counsel David Weiss accused Hunter Biden of working for a Romanian businessman in an arrangement designed to skirt U.S. laws on foreign lobbying and avoid any “political ramifications” for his father.

The allegation — one GOP lawmakers have long fixated on — comes as part of a broader battle by Biden to bar prosecutors in the case over his alleged failure to pay taxes from using evidence detailing his work for Gabriel Popoviciu.

That Biden had worked with Popoviciu has been publicly reported for years, but the details of the arrangement as described in the Justice Department’s filing on Wednesday provided new insight into the alleged arrangement — including an allegation that the deal was structured to avoid the filings required under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).

Biden has not been charged with violating FARA in the broader tax case, much to the chagrin of GOP lawmakers who have argued his work for numerous foreign entities amounted to lobbying. 

And prosecutors in the filing do not assert that Biden violated the foreign lobbying law. Rather, they argue the details of the deal show Biden’s “state of mind and intent during the relevant tax years charged in the indictment.”

The filing says Biden and an unnamed business associate arranged for Popoviciu to pay the business partner’s entity, who “would pass approximately 1/3 to the defendant as his compensation.” 

All this was done, Weiss said, because “Business Associate 1 and the defendant were concerned that lobbying work might cause political ramifications for the defendant’s father.” 

The goal for Popoviciu was “to attempt to influence U.S. government agencies to investigate the Romanian investigation” into him, paying Biden and his associate more than $3 million to do so.

The filing also includes another detail also aligned with Republican complaints about Biden’s work, attacking his deal with Chinese energy company CEFC and Ukrainian energy company Burisma.

“The evidence will show the defendant performed almost no work in exchange for the millions of dollars he received from these entities,” the filing states.

The DOJ filing, though, does not implicate President Biden in any of Hunter Biden’s activities.

But House Republicans, who have opened an impeachment inquiry into President Biden over his family’s foreign business dealings, responded to the filing by touting their longtime probes into alleged “influence peddling,” with a focus on Hunter Biden.

The House Judiciary Committee responded with a two-word post on the social platform X: “Told ya.”

“The Biden family’s influence peddling schemes in Romania were documented in @GOPoversight’s bank records memorandum in May 2023,” House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) posted on X in response to the filing.

“Bank records don’t lie. The mainstream media took their marching orders from the Biden White House & turned a blind eye to public corruption,” Comer said.

In a memorandum on Biden family bank records released last year, the House Oversight Republicans detailed funds transferred between Romanian sources and Biden family members and business associates, raising concern about the arrangement occurring as then-Vice President Biden advocated for anti-corruption policies in Romania. The committee said it was “investigating Hunter Biden and his business associates’ engagement with U.S. government officials on behalf of Popoviciu.”

The House Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways and Means committees interviewed Rob Walker, a Hunter Biden business associate who worked with Biden and Popoviciu, in January. 

Popoviciu, described in court records only as “G.P.” was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2017 after being convicted of real estate fraud, but that judgment was vacated by a Romanian court last year.

Hunter Biden has filed a series of motions seeking to block evidence he sees as unrelated to a case focused on his failure to pay taxes, arguing they have at best “marginal” value and risk biasing the jury.

“The defendant did receive compensation from a foreign principal to attempt to influence U.S. policy and public opinion, as alleged in the indictment, and this evidence is relevant,” Weiss wrote.

Biden has also sought to block Weiss from using evidence related to what the prosecutor has deemed his “extravagant lifestyle.”

The indictment filed late last year was notable in its heavy focus on details about Hunter Biden’s personal life, not shying away from details about his drug use or hiring of escorts, both of which President Biden has acknowledged in his memoir.

“Evidence showing the extent of the defendant’s self-indulgent daily spending on opulent, gratuitous expenditures would greatly help the jury understand his motive to commit the tax crimes charged in the indictment,” Weiss wrote.