Biden's son Hunter made money from Russia, China: Trump

Washington: Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's son Hunter received a large sum of money from Russia and China, US President Donald Trump has alleged and said that the mainstream media is "underplaying" the story and keeping quiet on it.

"It's hard to believe, when you see the kind of money that he (Hunter) has made from China, from Russia, where the wife of the mayor of Moscow gives him three-and-a-half million dollars and nobody even has any question about it," Trump told reporters at a White House news conference on Sunday.

According to a Senate Republican report released last week, during Biden's tenure as vice president, Hunter, 50, received a USD 3.5 million wire transfer from Elena Baturina, the widow of Moscow's former mayor Yury Luzhkov.

The report further alleged that Chinese nationals lavished Hunter and other members of the Biden family with money, giving Hunter and Biden's brother James credit cards for a USD 100,000 international shopping spree.

Despite such a damaging report being published, the mainstream media is "underplaying the story and keeping quiet on it," Trump said.

"If we had a media that was fair -- even just reasonable -- this would be the biggest story for years and years and years. Then you'd really be entitled to real Pulitzer Prizes, not the fake committee that gives you these fake awards," he told reporters.

"Why did he (Hunter) get three-and-a-half million dollars? I'll tell you why: Because Joe Biden was in on it...There's no way that he wasn't. And (Hunter) uses Joe Biden's plane -- Air Force Two. Uses Joe -- and they go to China, and then he comes back, and he never mentioned it to his father that he just got a billion and a half dollars?

"And now it's turning out that it's much more money than that...It's turned out to be much more money from China...a member of the Chinese Communist Party gave him a lot



of money. And the press has no interest in these stories...It's very disheartening for the people of our country," Trump said.

Meanwhile, in an interview to Fox News, Senator Ron Johnson said some of these payouts are "just stunning".

"I don't know what that was about, but let's go through the report and please go through the key findings. What struck you most in terms of the money that Hunter Biden accepted from these foreign countries and foreign companies while his father was vice president," he said.

According to the Senate Republican report, Hunter was serving on Burisma's board (supposedly consulting on corporate governance and transparency), when Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky allegedly paid a USD 7 million bribe to officials serving under Ukraine's prosecutor general, Vitaly Yarema, to "shut the case against Zlochevsky".

"George Kent testified that this bribe occurred in December 2014 (seven months after Hunter joined Burisma's board), and, after learning about it, he and the resident legal adviser reported this allegation to the FBI, it said.

Kent is serving as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs since September 4, 2018. His early service has included assignments in the US diplomatic missions to Poland, Thailand and Uzbekistan.

In addition to the over four million dollars paid by Burisma to Hunter Biden and his business partner, Devon Archer, for membership on the board, Hunter, his family, and Archer received millions of dollars from foreign nationals with questionable backgrounds, the report said.

"Hunter Biden had business associations with Ye Jianming, Gongwen Dong, and other Chinese nationals linked to the Communist government and People's Liberation Army. Those associations resulted in millions of dollars in questionable transactions," it alleged.