Hunter Biden Used Joe Biden's Connections to Help Criminal Romanian Businessman: Report
A new report alleges Hunter Biden in 2016 attempted to leverage then-Vice President Joe Biden’s influence to help a Romanian criminal avoid jail time.
Businessman Gabriel Popoviciu was convicted in 2016 in Romania for bribing a university official to purchase government-owned land for significantly lower than market price.
According to the Daily Mail report, Popoviciu hired Hunter Biden that same year with the intention of getting anti-corruption prosecutors to drop the case or cut him a deal.
The hiring was revealed back in 2019, but the new Daily Mail report alleges there was also an “extensive” propaganda campaign orchestrated by Hunter Biden for Popoviciu.
This information, if true, bodes badly for the Biden family, as there have been many questions about Joe Biden’s possible ties to his son’s business dealings.
Emails concerning the allegations show Hunter’s law firm colleagues at Boies Schiller Flexner seeking to set up meetings with the U.S. Ambassador to Romania. This occurred after they discussed amongst themselves if the ambassador would get involved in Popoviciu’s case.
The Daily Mail reported Hunter Biden then brought former FBI Director Louis Freeh to the table in order to use his contacts in U.S. Law enforcement to help Popoviciu.
The exclusive Daily Mail report alleges former FBI Director Louis Freeh was considered a “family friend” of the Bidens.
Any person who advocates for foreign entities to U.S. government officials, or acts as a publicist for a foreign entity in the U.S. has to place themselves to a Department of Justice public register.
This is in accordance with the Foreign Agents Registration Act, otherwise known as FARA.
There is, however, an exception for attorneys representing clients in a foreign case. These individuals are not required to register with FARA, as was the case for Hunter Biden’s colleagues.
Hunter and his associates later discussed possible media campaigns utilizing The Wall Street Journal and other smaller-scale sources to gain public support for Popoviciu, but they never went through with them.
A month before Hunter Biden reached out to Freeh, attorney Michael Gottlieb revealed he contacted then-US envoy to Romania Hans Klemm in an attempt to organize a meeting with Romanian prosecutors.
“We should put together a persuasive deck with all the procedural and substantive defects in the indictment / case against Gabs, and we should also probably put together the start of what would be a press strategy. And we’ll want to line up the big names to bring over,” Gottlieb wrote on May 17, 2016.
“Agreed Michael,” Hunter Biden wrote back. “Is now the time to begin to assemble a more high profile team that can speak to the injustice here. Who do we have at the firm that can speak with authority about anti-corruption. Mike I was going to reach out to Judge Freeh and if you can think of others of that stature I think now is the time to read them into the situation and see if they are willing to help. Ambassador Gittenstein mentioned names like former US Atty Patrick Fitzgerald.”
The plan ultimately failed to pay off, however, and Popoviciu was sentenced in 2017 by a Romanian court to seven years in prison.
In a statement at the time, Freeh said he was retained to conduct an “independent review” of the case “with the assistance of a team of experienced former federal prosecutors and former FBI Special Agents, one of whom speaks Romanian fluently.”
“This sentence and conviction are not supported by either the facts or the law,” Freeh said.
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