Hunter Biden indictment keeps FARA charge on the table

Hunter Biden was charged with a slew of tax crimes this week, but in its indictment, the Department of Justice detailed overseas business ventures that sparked renewed concerns that the president’s son also violated foreign lobbying laws.

The DOJ said in the indictment that Biden worked as a “lawyer, lobbyist, consultant, and businessperson” and conducted work for foreign entities, including a Ukrainian energy company, a Chinese business conglomerate, and a Romanian oligarch.

HUNTER BIDEN INDICTED ON CRIMINAL TAX CHARGES IN CALIFORNIA

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) reacted to the indictment by indicating Biden should also be charged for failing to register his foreign business activity with the U.S. government, which is required under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

“Evidence revealed by both the Oversight Committee and IRS whistleblowers also indicate Hunter Biden likely committed additional crimes as he effectively lobbied for Chinese, Romanian, and Ukrainian nationals and entities,” Comer said in a statement Friday.

The evidence includes an email exchange Comer recently obtained showing a bank official describing Biden’s Chinese business venture as involving politically connected “lobby type activity.”

Stephanie Scarbrough/AP

Two IRS criminal investigators who worked on the DOJ’s case against Biden also revealed to Congress in the spring that they had been investigating Biden for possible FARA offenses before the pair were taken off the case.

Under FARA, U.S. citizens who work as “agents of a foreign principal” are required to disclose to the U.S. government lobbying and public relations work they are doing on behalf of foreign entities.

Violating FARA carries a maximum penalty of up to five years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines.

Further indication that Biden may have illegally skirted FARA is the revelation last year that a firm called Blue Star Strategies that the first son sought out to help Ukrainian energy company Burisma in 2015 was forced to retroactively register its lobbying work under FARA after coming under DOJ investigation. Biden was a Burisma board member when the company brought on Blue Star Strategies.

The conservative group America First Legal sued the DOJ this year, claiming the department was aware Biden was acting as an agent on behalf of foreign principals but did not enforce FARA. The group cited numerous other pieces of evidence, including emails Biden sent to U.S. government officials in his capacity as a Burisma board member.

Gene Hamilton, America First Legal vice president and general counsel, took a jab at Biden in a statement to the Washington Examiner after the indictment alleged in brutal detail that Biden spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to engage in debauchery instead of paying his taxes for the years 2016 to 2019.

“Based on the evidence DOJ filed in its indictment last night about his taxes, it appears the only way Hunter Biden will ever register is if someone convinces him that FARA is the name of a high-end prostitute who is ready to party at a moment’s notice,” Hamilton said.

He added that Biden’s “failure to register despite the mountains of evidence out there is unlawful and any other American would have been prosecuted already.”

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) noted the indictment “left off FARA charges.”

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America First Legal’s Stephen Miller, a former Trump senior adviser, accused the DOJ of leaving off FARA “to protect Joe Biden,” into whom Republicans are conducting an impeachment inquiry over his ties to his son’s business endeavors.

The DOJ said in a press release of the indictment that its investigation into Biden remains “ongoing,” which leaves open the possibility of more charges.