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A Justice Department investigation into Hunter Biden's business activities has gained steam in recent months, with a flurry of witnesses providing testimony to federal investigators and more expected to provide interviews in the coming weeks, co-ordinate to multiple sources familiar with the thing.

The probe, led by the US Attorney in Wilmington, Delaware, began as early as 2018 and concerns multiple financial and business activities in foreign countries dating to when Biden's father was vice president. Investigators have examined whether Hunter Biden and some of his associates violated coin laundering, revenue enhancement and strange lobbying laws, besides every bit firearm and other regulations, multiple sources said.

To practise so, police force enforcement has gathered information from lobbyists connected to Hunter Biden, from his business concern partners, and from others who've observed his fiscal engagements, including a woman with whom he had a child.

Keep scrolling for a gallery of images of Hunter Biden through the years

Hunter Biden has not been charged with whatsoever crimes and has denied any wrongdoing. His father, President Joe Biden is not existence investigated as office of the probe of his son's concern activities, according to sources who accept been briefed.

Only the ongoing investigation has persistently raised questions about the ethics and behavior of the President's son and fueled right-wing political attacks. In 2019, then-President Donald Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate the Bidens over Hunter's piece of work for Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company, eventually leading to Trump's first impeachment.

In 2020, Trump'south personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, helped orchestrate news stories centered on a laptop purported to vest to Hunter Biden and said to include his business documents and other potentially salacious materials. CNN previously reported that the FBI took possession of the laptop in late 2019, co-ordinate to a computer repairman in Delaware who showed reporters a re-create of a subpoena.

Activity in the investigation has ebbed and flowed for years -- with coronavirus disruptions and pausing around the 2020 election -- and in some instances, investigators have not followed up for months afterward making initial outreach to possible witnesses.

But in recent months, investigative activeness in the Biden probe has intensified along with discussions among Justice Department officials about the forcefulness of the case, and whether more work is needed before seeking a decision on possible charges, according to people briefed on the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to hash out the ongoing investigation.

Those discussions accept involved investigators from the FBI and IRS Criminal Investigation agency and prosecutors in Delaware and at Justice Department headquarters, 1 person briefed on the affair said. Hunter Biden has publicly discussed his own substance abuse struggles, and some Justice officials accept debated whether his open discussions of his by drug employ could potentially weaken their example should they bring one.

Some officials have noted that Biden could argue he wasn't enlightened of wrongdoing because he was on drugs, the source said. Others have countered that Biden's own public accounts of his recovery prove he was fully responsible for actions now under scrutiny, according to the person briefed on the matter.

Investigators have at various times inquired near multiple facets of Hunter Biden's life -- initially focusing on tax bug and money transfers related to business concern activities in China, according to multiple people familiar with the probe. They're also examining Biden's office while on the board of the Ukrainian energy visitor Burisma years agone, the sources said.

Biden has told assembly he paid outstanding tax bills, and public records prove more than $450,000 in state liens in Washington, DC, were lifted in 2020, indicating those liabilities were probable paid off.

Only those payments haven't resolved his legal issues. Investigators accept examined the source of funds to pay the tax bills.

Federal investigation of Hunter Biden heats up — Hunter Biden walks to Marine One on the Ellipse outside the White House May 22, 2021, in Washington, DC.

The gun incident

Prosecutors too take examined a 2018 incident in which a firearm owned past Hunter Biden ended up tossed past his then-girlfriend into a dumpster in Wilmington, a person briefed on the affair said. Biden described in media interviews last yr that he was addicted to drugs, which raised the possibility he broke federal law when he bought the firearm.

Federal law prohibits firearms purchases by anyone who uses or is addicted to illegal drugs. It's unclear whether the gun incident remains an active part of the investigation.

Biden has denied wrongdoing in his business organization activities. In late 2020 after being notified by the Delaware US chaser about the investigation, Hunter Biden said in a statement issued by his father'southward presidential transition part: "I accept this matter very seriously but I am confident that a professional person and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately, including with the benefit of professional tax advisors."

Hunter Biden's attorney, Christopher Clark, did not respond to multiple requests for comment in contempo days.

The Delaware Usa Chaser'due south Part and the Justice Department declined to comment.

In recent months, Biden has tried to turn a page, publishing a memoir and debuting his work as an artist with shows in Los Angeles and New York. But even credible attempts to avoid controversy have backfired. The White House acknowledged information technology played a function in the arts sales, setting up a legal process to shield the identity of buyers of Hunter Biden pieces, for the stated purpose of ensuring that no ane could curry favor with the President by buying his son'due south fine art. But critics noted that art sales and anonymity of buyers have long raised concerns about money laundering.

Ukraine business dealings

Biden's interest in Ukraine has been a major source of his legal and political issues. He served on the lath of Burisma, paid as much as $l,000 a month, from 2014 to 2019, co-ordinate to a Republican-led Senate report on Biden'due south business activities released in 2020. That partly overlaps with a period during which his male parent was vice president and tapped by then-President Barack Obama to handle Ukraine issues. The overlap raised concerns near a conflict of interest among some Obama assistants officials at the time.

Joe Biden has said his son's piece of work in Ukraine had no influence on his decisions at the time, and State Section critics of Hunter Biden's Ukraine ties say they were never influenced improperly, according to transcripts of Senate testimony.

Federal prosecutors from Justice headquarters in Washington and in Delaware have focused at to the lowest degree in part on whether a lobbying house working with Burisma called Blueish Star Strategies approached US government officials in an try to brighten the Ukrainian house'due south reputation after State Department officials criticized the oligarch who founded it.

The firm's founders take testified to Congress previously that they were merely interested in understanding the Us government's views of the strange visitor.

The Justice Department requires lobbyists and public relations firms working on behalf of foreign entities to disclose their ties, and in contempo years national security investigators expanded the Department'due south initiatives to prosecute groups and people who don't publicly disembalm their international connections.

Blue Star did not respond to a request for comment.

In the past year, a grand jury in Delaware has issued subpoenas and prosecutors accept gathered information virtually Blueish Star Strategies, as well every bit about Hunter Biden, four people briefed on the matter said. The inquiries included how closely the lobbyists were working with Hunter Biden, how active he was in Blue Star's work on Burisma's reputation in the The states, and what their efforts for Burisma entailed, the sources said.

The Blue Star employees previously disclosed in the Senate inquiry that Hunter Biden was included on emails about their work related to Burisma, only said he wasn't particularly involved in the project.

Belatedly last twelvemonth, witnesses provided interviews in the federal criminal probe. And prosecutors have continued to seek information from some witnesses this year, including about Blue Star Strategies.

Also last year, investigators pursued information from former business contacts of Hunter Biden. His long-time associate and Burisma co-board member Devon Archer went before the Delaware 1000 jury concluding July, according to a person familiar with the matter. Archer was asked about the construction of payments Burisma made to an entity founded past Biden and other partners, which appeared to be related Biden's taxes, the source says. He was also asked most lobbying efforts involving Blue Star Strategies, the source said.

Archer was sentenced last month to more than a year in prison for his role in a scheme to defraud a native American tribe. At that place hasn't been any contact with investigators since July, the source said.

Archer's attorney, Matthew L. Schwartz of Boies Schiller Flexner LLP, said, "Mr. Archer has cooperated completely with the Delaware U.S. Attorney'southward Part investigation from the moment he became aware of information technology."

Archer is in the process of appealing his sentence.

Also amidst the witnesses to come across with investigators is an Arkansas woman who had a child with Biden and who had sued him for child support, people briefed on the matter said. Her chaser told CNBC that she testified in February to the grand jury in Delaware as role of the investigation and turned over Hunter Biden's financial records she had.

Clint Lancaster, the attorney, didn't respond to CNN requests for comment. Lancaster is not new to the political world: He was listed equally an chaser working on a Republican-deputed review of the 2020 election results, a failed effort to find fraud in the election that President Joe Biden won.

A political live wire

The swirl of partisan politics has hung over the investigation for years. The prospect of the Justice Department continuing to investigate the sitting President'due south son has added to the sensitivity.

President Joe Biden has said he won't interfere in the independence of the Justice Department. Early in his presidency, Biden decided to keep in office The states Chaser David Weiss, an appointee of old President Donald Trump, to go along to oversee the investigation in Delaware.

Equally the constabulary enforcement work in Biden's habitation country has stayed relatively placidity, the political smears of Hunter Biden persisted.

Trump had sought to brand the Hunter Biden probe a part of the 2020 campaign, publicly urging Attorney General William Barr to announce an investigation of both Hunter and Joe Biden. Barr responded past publicly announcing that Joe Biden wasn't under investigation.

Giuliani helped orchestrate news stories seeking to tie then-candidate Joe Biden to allegations of corruption in Ukraine. He later helped button stories on documents he said came from a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden.

CNN last year reported that the FBI took possession of the laptop in 2019 and investigators believed information technology belonged to Hunter Biden.

Hunter Biden, last year making the publicity rounds for his memoir, dodged questions well-nigh the laptop.

"In that location could be a laptop out there that was stolen from me," he said in a CBS interview. "Information technology could be that I was hacked. Information technology could exist that information technology was the -- that it was Russian intelligence. It could be that it was stolen from me."

Giuliani also sought to provide police enforcement a trove of documents he said came from sources in Ukraine and that purported to show wrongdoing by Hunter Biden and his male parent.

The function of Giuliani and Trump added unusual hurdles for Justice Section officials overseeing the probe, electric current and one-time law enforcement officials say.

Barr, concerned about Giuliani's brownie and trying to keep what he viewed as a legitimate investigation of Hunter Biden from being tainted, directed that the documents be handed over to prosecutors in Pittsburgh, co-ordinate to people briefed on the matter. There, Barr instructed, prosecutors would work with The states intelligence agencies to try to determine their authenticity and so turn over any relevant materials to prosecutors in Delaware and elsewhere.

It's unclear whether any of the materials provided by Giuliani or the laptop remain part of the investigation.

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