Where's Hunter? Trump asks as Biden's son says he will leave China role – The Guardian, Theguardian.com

“Where’s Hunter?” Donald Trumpasked on Sunday, referring to the son of former vice-president Joe Biden.

Hunter Biden’sbusiness interests overseassit at the center of theHouse impeachment inquiry into Trump, who has admitted asking foreign powers to investigate.

“He has totally disappeared!” Trump tweeted on Sunday, adding without evidence the claim it “now looks like [Biden] has raided and scammed even more countries! Media is AWOL. ”

In fact, the media swarmed to an internet post written by Hunter Biden’s attorney, which said the 49 – year-old would step down from the board of a Chinese-backed private equity firm at the end of the month, as part of a pledge not to work on behalf of any foreign-owned companies should his father win the White House.

The post written by attorney George Mesires outlined a defense of the younger Biden’s work with companies in Ukraine and China, which have emerged as one of Trump’s chief lines of attack against his father despite no proof of impropriety in either case.

“Hunter makes the following commitment,” Mesires wrote. “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.

He continued: “He will continue to keep his father personally uninvolved in his business affairs, while availing himself as necessary and appropriate to the Office of the White House Counsel to help inform his application of the Biden administration’s guidelines or standards to his business decision-making. ”

Last month, the White Housereleased a transcript of a 25 July callin which Trump asks Ukraine’s new president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, to investigate Biden’s family and Ukraine’s role in the 2016 US election. The question of whether the call involved a quid pro quo for frozen US military aid weighs heavily on impeachment proceedings.

Trump has also asked China to dig into Hunter Biden’s work in that country, asserting without evidence that he earned $ 1.5bn from a “sweetheart” business deal there.

The president’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani,is also under increasing scrutinyfor his efforts to dig into Hunter Biden’s background. Late last week, two businessmen who played key roles in Giuliani’s efforts in Ukraine were charged with federal campaign finance violations.

Joe Bidenis a frontrunner for the Democratic nomination to face Trump next year, although he has lost significant ground to the Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren.

Republicansreacted to news of Hunter Biden’s decision to step away from the Chinese-backed company with deep skepticism. ********

“I think this is just another way to save a flailing campaign that’s going down,” Georgia representative Doug Collins, the top Republican on the House judiciary committee, told Sunday Morning Futures, on Fox News. “He knows he’s in trouble and this is just another way to try and detract attention.”

White House counsellor Kellyanne Conway told the same show Hunter Biden “should have done this quite a while ago”.

“This is a part of how Donald Trump won in the first place saying that we’re going to get rid of these sweetheart deals, we’re going to make sure that we clean up the axis of power in a place like Washington DC where someone like Hunter Biden get a $ 50, 000 a month retainer for Ukrainian energy company when everybody knows that he doesn’t have that skill set. ”

One of Joe Biden’s Democratic presidential rivals noted, however, that Trump’s children are openly trading on his name in business deals around the world.

“I think [Hunter Biden’s move] demonstrates the difference in standards relative to the White House,” Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, told CNN’s State of the Union.

“I mean, 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. ”

Mesires noted repeatedly that there is no evidence of wrongdoing against his client.

“Despite extensive scrutiny, at no time has any law enforcement agency, either domestic or foreign, alleged that Hunter engaged in wrongdoing at any point during his five-year term [in business in Ukraine],” Mesires wrote .

Of Biden’s work related to China, the attorney said: “To date, Hunter has not received any compensation for being on BHR’s board of directors. He has not received any return on his investment; there have been no distributions to BHR shareholders since Hunter obtained his equity interest. ”