In a Wednesday court filing, special counsel David Weiss’ office accused Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, of taking cash from a Romanian oligarch who aimed to influence U.S. policy.
The court filing in a California tax case against the president’s son alleges that Biden’s work on behalf of Romanian Gabriel Popoviciu in 2015, while Joe Biden was vice president, was an attempt by Popoviciu to sway government policy, for which Biden and associates were paid more than $3 million.
“The government will introduce the evidence ... that [Hunter Biden] and Business Associate 1 received compensation from a foreign principal who was attempting to influence U.S. policy and public opinion and cause the United States to investigate the Romanian investigation of [Popoviciu] in Romania," prosecutors wrote in Wednesday's filing, per ABC News.
Prosecutors also alleged that Biden and associates concealed the nature of the business relationship and that Biden engaged in a lobbying capacity on behalf of Popoviciu’s interests, to avoid “political ramifications for the defendant's father.”
The special counsel's office, which was tasked by President Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland with taking over a probe into Hunter Biden, has launched several separate investigations into the president’s son.
Biden, who filed a motion to remove the special counsel after Judge Aileen Cannon’s ruling deeming Trump special prosecutor Jack Smith’s appointment unconstitutional, was found guilty in a Delaware court in June on a variety of gun charges.
A trial for the California case is set for early September, while President Biden has committed to denying his son a pardon if found guilty.
