Hunter Biden to step down from board of Chinese company
Hunter Biden is stepping down from the board of a company in China, his lawyer said Sunday.
Attorney George Mesires made the announcement in a statement that described Biden’s dealings with Burisma, a business in Ukraine, and BHR (Shanghai) Equity Investment Fund Management Co., a business in China.
“Hunter intends to resign from the BHR board of directors on or by October 31, 2019,” Mesires said. He noted that Biden had already left the board of Burisma.
The son of former Vice President Joe Biden has been the focus of accusations of corruption by President Donald Trump and many of his allies. “Just like President Trump, I am greatly concerned by that arrangement. It is either illegal or it should be illegal, what they did,” Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”
The Biden campaign disputes the accusations, no charges have been filed against the Bidens, and no wrongdoing has been proved.
“Hunter undertook these business activities independently. He did not believe it appropriate to discuss them with his father, nor did he,“ Mesires said.
“Hunter always understood that his father would be guided, entirely and unequivocally, by established U.S. policy, irrespective of its effects on Hunter’s professional interests. This was the standard observed throughout Hunter’s professional career. When Hunter engaged in his business pursuits, he believed that he was acting appropriately and in good faith. He never anticipated the barrage of false charges against both him and his father by the president of the United States.“
For his part, Trump mocked Hunter Biden on Twitter.
“Where’s Hunter? He has totally disappeared! Now looks like he has raided and scammed even more countries! Media is AWOL,“ he wrote Sunday morning.
Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg used Hunter Biden’s decision to highlight what he said indicated differences between the Bidens and the Trumps.
“Here you have Hunter Biden stepping down from a position in order to make sure, even though there's been no accusation of wrongdoing, doing something just to make sure there's not even the appearance of a conflict of interests, while, in the White House, the president of the United States is a walking conflict of interests,” the mayor of South Bend, Ind., said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Buttigieg added: “The president's sons go around the world pretending like the fact that their father is the president of the United States has no impact on the international business dealings that they do.“
Mesires stated that were Joe Biden to become president, his son would avoid any possible conflict of interest.
“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. In any event, Hunter will agree not to serve on boards of, or work on behalf of, foreign owned companies.“
