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Has one less problem: Hunter Biden
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Jose Luis Magana/dpa
What happened?
The FBI has arrested a former informant because he is said to have fabricated corruption allegations against President's son Hunter Biden and his father. The 43-year-old was taken into custody at Las Vegas airport, according to the US Department of Justice.
What were the allegations against Hunter Biden?
Hunter Biden is said to have used his father's position as a former deputy to President Barack Obama for shady business dealings. The longtime ex-FBI informant claimed in 2020 that Joe and Hunter Biden each received five million dollars (4.65 million euros) in bribes to protect the Ukrainian gas company Burisma from prosecution.
What does the US justice system say now?
The indictment now states that the information is a fabrication. It is stated that the allegations are incoherent. The ex-informant told the FBI in June 2020 that he had a meeting with Burisma executives “in 2015 and/or 2016 during the Obama/Biden administration.” They confided in him that they protected their company “from any problems” with the judiciary with the help of Hunter Biden and his father and paid each of them five million dollars for this.
But it has now emerged that the informant at the time only came into contact with Burisma in 2017, when Donald Trump had already moved into the Oval Office. The man also waited to make his allegations until Joe Biden emerged as Trump's challenger in the 2020 presidential election.
How does Hunter Biden react?
For his lawyer Abbe Lowell, this indictment is proof that the allegations against his client are fictitious: "For months we have warned that the Republicans have based their conspiracies about Hunter and his family not on facts, but on lies were told by people with political intentions. We were right, and their balloon is now deflated.”
And the other side?
The president's son's allegedly illegal business was intended to put pressure on Senior in particular. They are central to the impeachment process that Republicans in the House of Representatives are seeking. They accuse the Democratic president of abusing his public office for the financial benefit of his family. However, they have not yet provided clear evidence of serious misconduct.
The current developments are therefore another setback. And yet the spokesmen do not want to admit defeat so easily. Republican Representative James Comer, one of the leading voices in the proposed case, downplayed the importance of the informant, who had played a central role at the beginning of the investigation.
"To be clear, the impeachment inquiry does not rely on the FBI's FD-1023," Comer said in a statement, according to the AP, referring to the form that documents the whistleblower's allegations. Rather, the investigation is based on “extensive evidence, including bank documents and witness statements,” including interviews this week. He said the accountability committee would continue to "pursue the facts" and decide whether to impeach Biden.
Hunter again and again?
In fact, the Republicans have long been particularly focused on the second-born of the US President, especially former President Donald Trump. Because of his drug past, because of possible tax offenses, but above all because of his lucrative position on the supervisory board of the Ukrainian energy supplier Burisma, which he held between 2014 and 2019, while his father was Barack Obama's vice president until 2016 and was responsible for US policy towards Ukraine was.
Trump had repeatedly accused the Bidens of illegal business in connection with Ukraine in order to increase his chances of re-election in 2020. He always failed to provide evidence for his accusations. The House of Representatives even initiated impeachment proceedings against Trump in 2019 because he tried to persuade Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to reveal allegedly compromising information about Hunter Biden. The Republicans' current impeachment efforts are also seen as revenge for the two impeachment proceedings against Trump.
What's next?
The arrested former FBI informant is scheduled to appear before a judge on February 20th. He faces up to 25 years in prison.
Hunter Biden, on the other hand, is not out of the firing line yet, and not just because the Republicans and Trump will probably continue to pounce on him in order to indirectly damage Joe Biden's credibility in the presidential election campaign.
Hunter Biden also faces additional charges separate from the current investigation. In Delaware he is under investigation for firearms possession, and in Los Angeles he has to answer for possible tax offenses.
sak/dpa/AP