Hunter Biden agrees to no-holds-barred TV interview

Hunter Biden will break his silence and appear on ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ Tuesday in an interview where ‘no questions were off limits,’ the network announced Monday morning. 

Biden, the youngest son of former Vice President Joe Biden, spoke with ABC’s Amy Robach over the weekend at his home in Los Angeles, according to ABC. 

No details from the interview have been released but it is expected to cover a number of topics, including Hunter’s work in the Ukraine and China that has become a controversy in the presidential campaign. 

‘I spent the entire Saturday with Hunter Biden, the son of 2020 presidential candidate and former Vice President Joe Biden,’ Robach said Monday morning on ‘GMA.’ 

‘We spoke there at his home in Los Angeles for an exclusive interview and no questions were off-limits. We talked as you might imagine in depth about his business dealings in Ukraine, China and his reaction to president trump’s rally and tweets,’ she said. 

It’s Hunter Biden’s first time speaking in public since impeachment proceedings began against Donald Trump for soliciting Ukraine’s help in investigating the Bidens for work Hunter did for a Ukrainian gas company.

Hunter Biden will appear on ABC’s ‘Good Morning America’ Tuesday

Interview expected to cover a number of topics, including Hunter's work in the Ukraine and China that has become a campaign controversy

Interview expected to cover a number of topics, including Hunter’s work in the Ukraine and China that has become a campaign controversy

The younger Biden son has been in the president’s cross hairs as the impeachment investigation bares down and the campaign season heats up.

‘Where’s Hunter? He has totally disappeared! Now looks like he has raided and scammed even more countries! Media is AWOL,’ Trump tweeted on Sunday. 

It was Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky – where he asked Zelensky to investigate work Hunter did with a Ukrainian gas company and what role Joe Biden played in getting a Ukrainian prosecutor fired – that led to the impeachment inquiry being launched.

The president has targeted Hunter Biden as part of his defensive strategy.  

At a rally in Minneapolis on Thursday, Trump asked ‘Where’s Hunter?’ as he accused the Biden’s of profiting off Hunter’s work in China and he mocked the intelligence and business capabilities of Hunter Biden. 

‘Joe’s son Hunter got thrown out of the Navy and became a genius on Wall Street in two days. Whatever happened to Hunter, where the h*** is he? Where is Hunter? Fellows, I have an idea for a new t-shirt? I love the cops, but let’s do another t-shirt. Where is Hunter? Where is he?,’ Trump said. 

Hunter Biden has stayed out of the spotlight but the former vice president has said his son will join him on the campaign trail, although he did not give a date. 

Hunter has not been seen in public in months but spoke to the New Yorker magazine at length in July about his work in the Ukraine and China, his struggle with addiction, and his new marriage. 

Trump has mocked Hunter’s lack of visibility both in his campaign rallies and on Twitter. His campaign is selling ‘Where’s Hunter?’ t-shirts for $25 each.

The president has slammed Hunter for his work in the Ukraine and also has pushed the unproven theory Hunter Biden made $1.5 billion in a deal with China.

He claims the Bidens made millions off ‘crooked’ deals with the Ukraine and China. 

‘The Biden family got rich, and that’s all substantiated. While America got robbed, that is what happened,’ Trump said at his Minneapolis rally. 

‘Hunter, you are a loser, what you have $1.5 billion?,’ Trump mocked at his rally last week.

The $1.5 billion appears to refer to the amount BHR, a Chinese equity firm where Hunter sat on the board, was trying to raise. The company was trying to raise the money – not for Hunter Biden’s personal use although he owned a 10 per cent stake in the company. Trump has asked China to investigate the matter. 

Hunter Biden announced he will resign at the end of the month from the board of BHR (Shanghai) Equity Investment Fund Management Company, which is backed by several Chinese state-owned companies, in a statement released Sunday.  

Hunter has denied playing a role in forming the Chinese company or having equity in it while his father was in office and insists the board position was unpaid.  

Hunter Biden, 39, announced he will resign from the board of BHR (Shanghai) Equity Investment Fund Management Company at the end of the month following President Donald Trump's accusations of corruption with the state-backed firm in 2013. Hunter pictured with father Joe Biden in 2016

Hunter Biden, 39, announced he will resign from the board of BHR (Shanghai) Equity Investment Fund Management Company at the end of the month following President Donald Trump’s accusations of corruption with the state-backed firm in 2013. Hunter pictured with father Joe Biden in 2016

Trump claims that Hunter has 'disappeared' since controversy over his foreign business dealings have come to the forefront

Trump claims that Hunter has ‘disappeared’ since controversy over his foreign business dealings have come to the forefront

A black t-shirt with a white 'where's Hunter' logo is for sale for $25 on the Trump / Pence campaign website

 A black t-shirt with a white ‘where’s Hunter’ logo is for sale for $25 on the Trump / Pence campaign website

The lawyer and lobbyist vowed to avoid any conflict of interest and claims he will forego all foreign work if his father is elected president in 2020, stressing that he never discussed any of his business activities with his father. 

‘Hunter always understood that his father would be guided, entirely and unequivocally, by established U.S. policy, regardless of its effects on Hunter’s professional interest,’ a statement released by Hunter’s lawyer George Mesires said.

‘He never anticipated the barrage of false charges against both him and his father by the President of the United States.’

The Trump campaign has repeatedly claimed that Hunter Biden made millions of dollars from China while Joe Biden was vice president. 

BHR Equity Investment Fund Management Company was set up in 2013 to invest Chinese capital outside of China. 

Hunter acknowledged in the past meeting with Jonathan Li, a Chinese banker who is a partner in that fund, during the 2013 trip, but insisted it was a social visit and that no business was discussed. 

Trump has accused Hunter of corruption in China saying he procured $1.5billion from China for a private equity fund after he flew to Beijing on Air Force Two with his father in December 2013

Trump has accused Hunter of corruption in China saying he procured $1.5billion from China for a private equity fund after he flew to Beijing on Air Force Two with his father in December 2013 

Trump’s claim that Hunter made $1.5 billion in China appears to be based on a fundraising target BHR announced in 2014. 

Hunter’s lawyer says that BHR never raised a discreet pool of money and raised money deal by deal and the firm now manages about $2.1 billion in investments.

He adds that Biden bought 10 percent of the management company for $420,000 only after his father’s term ended in 2017. His lawyer claims Biden hasn’t made money from the venture to date. 

It’s not clear if retains his equity stake or if he’ll sell that stake if his father wins office.  

Trump’s administration has also alleged that Biden used his position as the U.S. administration’s point person on Ukraine to help quash an investigation in 2016 into Burisma – one of Ukraine’s largest private gas companies where Hunter sat on the board.

Hunter Biden stepped down from the board of Burisma earlier this year.   

Joe Biden, Hunter Biden and his daughter Finnegan Biden pictured walking out of Air Force Two in Beijing, China on December 4, 2013. Trump accused Hunter Biden of walking away with millions of dollars following his work with BHR, which he was first linked to following this visit

Joe Biden, Hunter Biden and his daughter Finnegan Biden pictured walking out of Air Force Two in Beijing, China on December 4, 2013. Trump accused Hunter Biden of walking away with millions of dollars following his work with BHR, which he was first linked to following this visit

The explosive accusations against Biden came in a whistleblower complaint in September that accused the White House of trying to cover up a call with Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy. In that phone call, on July 25, Trump advised Zelenskyy to look into Joe Biden and Hunter Biden’s deals in Ukraine. 

Hunter then came under scrutiny for his work with Burisma, which he joined in April 2014 and served a five-year term before resigning earlier this year. 

Trump and his lawyer Rudy Giuliani claim that Vice President Biden threatened to withhold billions of dollars in loan guarantees in 2016 unless Ukraine fired the country’s top prosecutor Viktor Shokin – who was leading a probe into Burisma. 

Despite Trump’s claims that Biden misused his power in order to protect his son and Burisma Holdings – but there is no evidence to corroborate those claims.  

Biden has denied any wrongdoing in Ukraine. 

US and Ukrainian officials also said that the investigation into the company was dormant at that time and Shokin was actually fired for the opposite reason, cut for failing to fight corruption. 

‘Despite extensive scrutiny, at no time has any law enforcement agency, either domestic or foreign, alleged that Hunter engaged in wrongdoing at any point during his five-year term,’ Hunter’s statement said.  

Earlier this month Trump also called on China to investigate Biden, but the country’s foreign ministry said they would not. 

‘Under a Biden Administration, Hunter will readily comply with any and all guidelines or standards a President Biden may issue to address purported conflicts of interest, or the appearance of such conflicts, including any restrictions related to overseas business interests. He will continue to keep his father personally uninvolved in his business affairs,’ Hunter’s statement added. 

 

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