Paul Morigi/Getty Images for World Food Program USA
Hunter Biden
- Hunter Biden is stepping down from his role on the board of a Chinese-backed private equity company.
- In a statement posted online, Biden's lawyer said he vowed to avoid all foreign business dealings after years of controversy over his ties abroad.
- President Donald Trump and his top associates have repeatedly pushed unproven corruption allegations against the two Bidens.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Hunter Biden is stepping down from his role on the board of a Chinese-backed private equity company and vowed to avoid all foreign business dealings after months of controversy over his ties abroad, according to his attorney.
In a statement posted on Medium and first reported by Bloomberg
Trump and his lead attorney Rudy Giuliani have led the charge, repeatedly pushing unproven corruption allegations against Hunter and the 2020 Democratic hopeful.
Mesires wrote that Biden is now prioritizing avoiding conflicts of interest that could interfere with his father's future political aspirations and will continue to keep his father out of his business affairs.
"Hunter always understood that his father would be guided, entirely and unequivocally, by established US policy, regardless of its effects on Hunter's professional interests," the statement said. "He never anticipated the barrage of false charges against both him and his father by the President of the United States."
Read more: The Joe and Hunter Biden Ukraine controversy, explained
Bloomberg noted that a person familiar with the matter told the outlet that Hunter released the statement without direction from the former vice president.
The statement also detailed the extent of Biden's business dealings in Ukraine and China, which have sparked controversy for years but have come under a new spotlight as the race for 2020 heats up.
In May 2014, Hunter Biden signed on as a board member of Burisma Holdings, Ukraine's largest gas-production company, during its own board's anti-corruption efforts into the company's leadership. He recommended the law firm Boies Schiller Flexner, where he was "a counsel."
A press release announced upon Hunter Biden's hiring said he was in charge of the company's international legal relations with different companies, but he later denied that characterization and the Bidens batted down controversy from the move while the former vice president was in office.
However, a bombshell New York Times story published on May 1, 2019 detailed Joe and Hunter Biden's ties to Ukraine and said the former vice president had successfully gotten a Ukrainian prosecutor removed from office, which raised questions about a possible conflict of interest, but was attributed to a larger push coming from former President Obama's administration for the Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin to be removed over concerns of corruption in his office.
Despite the evidence of any wrongdoing by either Biden, Trump has since repeatedly pushed a narrative of suspicion and even publicly called on China to investigate the Bidens.
That request was rejected, as a spokesman for China's foreign ministry said it would not be probing the internal affairs of other countries.