Hunter Biden hired by Romanian oligarch to ‘influence US government,’ special counsel claims

The federal prosecutor overseeing an investigation into Hunter Biden claims a Romanian oligarch attempted to use his business connections with President Joe Biden’s son to wield influence over the Biden administration. 

Special counsel David Weiss’s office argued Gabriel Popoviciu hired Hunter Biden because he wanted “to attempt to influence U.S. government agencies,” according to court filings released Wednesday. 

In 2015, Popoviciu, a Romanian real estate tycoon, hired Hunter Biden as he faced a loss of his business assets over a Romanian criminal corruption case, per prosecutors. Bank records show Hunter Biden and his business associates received at least $3 million from Popoviciu over the next two years.

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said the “Biden family’s influence peddling schemes” in Romania were laid out by them in May of last year.

“Bank records don’t lie. The mainstream media took their marching orders from the Biden White House & turned a blind eye to public corruption,” he wrote on X.

Weiss contended that Popoviciu sought the younger Biden’s services in order to catch the eye of U.S. government agencies. The Romanian allegedly hoped the U.S. government would “investigate the Romanian criminal investigation into Gabriel Popoviciu and thereby cause an end to the investigation of Gabriel Popoviciu in Romania,” according to the court documents.

House Republicans launched an impeachment inquiry into the president in 2023, alleging that Hunter Biden had wielded his father’s influence to make foreign business deals. 

Hunter Biden was convicted in June of lying on a federal form about his drug use to purchase a revolver, submitting a false statement into a federal record, and unlawfully possessing the firearm in June. 

The president’s son also faces a federal tax trial in California this September. Prosecutors have charged him with three felonies and six misdemeanors related to $1.4 million in owed taxes. The new accusations against the Romanian oligarch came in a court filing in the first son’s tax case.