Hunter Biden was a signatory to a 2016 letter from Burisma demanding Ukraine’s top prosecutor back off from making “allegations of criminal activity” in his investigation into the Ukrainian energy company, documents made public by the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday revealed.
The letter was addressed to then-General Prosecutor of Ukraine Yuriy Lutsenko, who succeeded Viktor Shokin, the chief prosecutor ousted due to pressure from former Vice President Joe Biden.
“As members of the Board of Directors, we respectfully request that allegations of criminal activity made by you and/or officials in your office cease and that any investigation be conducted consistent with the standards of fairness and the rule of law,” Burisma leadership wrote. “Moreover, it is imperative that allegations of criminal activity made to the media about Burisma and/or Nikolay Zlochevskyi come to an end.”
The letter dated July 9, 2016, was sent just more than three months after Shokin’s removal. In January 2018, Joe Biden bragged about pressuring the Ukrainian government to fire Lutsenko’s predecessor, who had been investigating Burisma. While Hunter Biden raked in excessive compensation serving on the company’s board of directors, then-Vice President Joe Biden was the Obama administration’s point man on Ukraine.
The letter surfaced in a trove of documents related to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) investigation of Hunter Biden that was released by the House Ways and Means Committee Wednesday.
This summer, veteran IRS agents Joseph Ziegler and Gary Shapley publicly blew the whistle on widespread interference in their tax investigation of Hunter Biden from the Department of Justice (DOJ). What originated as a probe into a foreign pornography ring in 2018 quickly expanded to a sprawling investigation regarding Hunter Biden’s finances. Whistleblowers testified that officials at the Justice Department stonewalled the operation and left tax agents in the dark about a document alleging a criminal bribery scheme between the Bidens and Burisma’s founder.
In June, the Delaware U.S. attorney’s office struck a sweetheart plea deal with Hunter Biden that limited his offenses to two misdemeanor tax crimes plus a felony firearm charge that would be forgiven after 24 months of sobriety. Shapley complained to lawmakers that the most serious charges were left off the table while federal prosecutors waited out the statute of limitations.
The deal was derailed in July when the judge presiding over the agreement began to ask questions that revealed Hunter Biden’s attorneys had understood the deal to include full immunity from any future charges.
Despite these serious issues with Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss’s handling of the Hunter Biden investigation, Attorney General Merrick Garland elevated him to special counsel status in August.
[RELATED: Hunter Biden Special Counsel Appointment Is A Blatant Act Of Corruption]
Earlier this month, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy launched an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden over the family’s overseas influence-peddling operations. The first hearing will be held Thursday morning and will feature George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley, former DOJ Assistant Attorney General Eileen O’Connor, and Bruce Dubinsky, a forensic accountant.
On Tuesday, the House Oversight Committee revealed Hunter Biden received wire transfers from Chinese business partners that listed his father’s Delaware address in Wilmington.
Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist and the author of Social Justice Redux, a conservative newsletter on culture, health, and wellness. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at Tristan@thefederalist.com. Sign up for Tristan's email newsletter here.