Democrat candidate Joe Biden claimed the federal investigations into his son, Hunter Biden, are “kind of foul play.”
Hunter Biden revealed earlier this month that federal authorities are probing his tax returns and past business deals with China and the Ukrainian oil company Burisma for possible fraud and money laundering.
Joe Biden, however, insisted that he has “great confidence in Hunter” and that he is not worried about the accusations against him.
“It’s used to get to me, I think it’s kind of a foul play, but look it is what it is and he’s a grown man,” Joe Biden told late-night host Stephen Colbert. “He is the smartest man I know in pure, intellectual capacity, and as long as he’s good, we’re good.”
When asked whether he would work with Republicans calling for a special counsel to investigate Hunter Biden, Joe Biden said: “If it benefits the country, then yes. I really mean it.”
“Because look, there’s so much at stake and the American people, I think they can smell the phoniness, smell what’s true and not true,” Joe Biden continued.
Federal authorities launched a tax investigation into Hunter Biden in 2018, a year before the elder Biden announced his candidacy for president.
Though Hunter Biden has maintained his innocence, several emails obtained from his abandoned laptop suggest otherwise.
In one email, a former business partner of Hunter Biden’s warned him that he had withheld $400,000 in income from Burisma from his 2014 tax returns.
“In 2014, you joined the Burisma board and we still need to amend your 2014 returns to reflect the unreported Burisma income,” Eric Scherwin, then-president of Rosemont Seneca, told Hunter Biden. “That is approximately $400,000 extra so your income in 2014 was closer to $1,247,328.”
Hunter Biden said in a statement that he is cooperating with the investigation.
“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,” he said.
