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Agence France-Presse

Shady business deals, drugs and women. Hunter Biden has lived a turbulent life under two shadows: that of his father, US President Joe Biden, and his older brother Beau, who died of cancer in 2015.
His troubles make him a vulnerable target for Joe Biden’s opponents, and the attacks are unlikely to end with the plea deal he reached with the Justice Department to avoid prison on tax and gun charges.
With the president now running for a second term in office, Republicans – particularly Donald Trump – are accusing father and son with reaping millions of dollars through Hunter’s business deals in China and Ukraine.
If some see Hunter, 53, as the family black sheep, his father has stuck by him.

“I’m very proud of my son,” Joe Biden said in California on Tuesday in response to a shouted question from reporters during a round table on artificial intelligence.
The comment came after the president and his wife, Jill, issued a brief statement following the announcement of the deal.
Musk hails release of internal Twitter files on Hunter Biden laptop story
“The president and first lady love their son and support him as he continues to rebuild his life,” White House spokesperson Ian Sams said. “We will have no further comment.”
A graduate of the elite Yale law school, Hunter drifted between jobs in government, banking and lobbying before landing in a family-controlled hedge fund and his own international business consultancy in the late 2000s.
But his life was marred by alcoholism and addiction to crack cocaine and stints in rehabilitation.
Hunter ties his addictions to the car crash that killed his mother and sister when he was three and hospitalised him with a fractured skull.
But he also lived in the shadow of Beau, who had a sterling military career and went into politics, with his father predicting he could become president one day, before being felled by brain cancer in 2015.
After that, at nearly every opportunity Joe spoke of his loss of his son, empathising with others who had lost children.

Meanwhile Hunter rarely got a mention.
Hunter wrote in his memoir that after Beau’s death the drugs only got worse, hitting bottom around the time his father’s vice-presidency ended in 2017.
His marriage fell apart and he lost custody of their three daughters.
He had an affair with Beau’s widow, had a child with another woman in Arkansas who sued him, and then saw his files, emails and lurid photos from his laptop computer made public by his father’s enemies.
4 of the biggest scandals involving US presidential kids
And he came under investigation by the Justice Department over millions of dollars he earned from his overseas investments.
But if Joe seemed to favour Beau, he defended Hunter when challenged over him, like during the 2020 presidential race when Trump raised Hunter’s drug use and business deals during a debate.
“My son, like a lot people … had a drug problem,” Joe Biden said on national television.
“He’s overtaken it, he’s fixed it, he’s worked on it. And I’m proud of him. I’m proud of my son,” he said.

In his 2020 memoir Beautiful Things, Hunter Biden recounts his days chugging vodka from the bottle, wandering around seedy neighbourhoods at night searching for crack, and multiple failed attempts to get clean.
He said that in 2019 he was able to pick himself up after an intervention by his father and his second wife Melissa.
The one thing that helped him, he wrote, was his father’s unconditional love.
“He never abandoned me, never shunned me, never judged me, no matter how bad things got,” Hunter wrote.
“There were times when his persistence infuriated me – I’d attempt to fade to black through alcoholism or drug addiction, and then there he was, barging in again with his lantern, shining a light, disrupting my plans to disappear,” he said.
Trump asks Putin for dirt on Biden’s son’s dealings with Moscow mayor’s wife
Today Hunter says he is clean. He had a son with Melissa, whom he named Beau.
He took up painting, though that brought fresh controversy when unnamed collectors bought his works for prices in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Even with the federal case now behind him, questions about his business dealings are not going away as his father is expected to face Trump again in the 2024 presidential election.
Last month Republicans in Congress accused the Biden family of taking in more than US$10 million from Hunter’s business deals -though they offered little evidence.
“Hunter Biden and his associates courted business in countries that correlated directly with Joe Biden’s work as vice-president,” said House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer.
Both Bidens deny the charges.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg


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United States

Hunter Biden reaches plea deal on gun, tax charges. Here’s a look at his troubled past

President Joe Biden said he was proud of his son Hunter (pictured), who is entering into a deal with federal prosecutors on tax and firearms-related charges. File photo: Reuters

US President Joe Biden and Hunter Biden disembark from Air Force One. File photo: Reuters

Hunter Biden and his wife Melissa Cohen. Photo: AFP

Joe Biden with his sons Beau (left) and Hunter, and his then-future wife Jill in an undated photo. Photo: Joe Biden via AFP

Joe Biden’s son Hunter to plead guilty to tax crimes, reaches deal on gun charge

Hunter Biden, son of US President Joe Biden, speaks to guests during the White House Easter Egg Roll in April 2022. Photo: AP

US President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden are seated with their son Hunter Biden as they attend an event in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in May. Photo: Reuters

US Republicans probe art sales by president’s son, Hunter Biden

President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden. File photo: TNS

Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump on Air Force One, when Donald Trump was US president. File photo: @ivankatrump / Instagram

Elon Musk hails release of internal Twitter emails linked to Hunter Biden laptop story

Billionaire Elon Musk. Photo: AP

Hunter Biden. Photo: Reuters

4 of the biggest scandals involving US presidential kids, from Donald Trump Jr.’s tweets and Hunter Biden’s taxes to Malia Obama’s viral smoking video – which was defended by Ivanka

Find out what scandals these presidential kids have gotten into. Photos: Reuters; @balleralert/Twitter; @onlytrumpjr/Instagram; AFP

Barbara and Jenna Bush are the twin daughters of former US president George W. Bush. Photo: Reuters

Barbara and Jenna Bush, daughters of former US president George W. Bush, attend the Florida Inaugural ball held in Washington, in 2001. Photo: Reuters

Former US president Barack Obama jokes with his daughter Malia Obama in April 2016 as they walk to board Air Force One from the Marine One helicopter. Photo: AP

Donald Trump Jr. has faced numerous controversies. Photo: EPA-EFE

Donald Trump Jr. compared Syrian refugees to Skittles in 2016. Photo: @DonaldJTrumpJr/Twitter

Donald Trump Jr. travelled to Mongolia for an eight-day excursion that included hunting an endangered breed of sheep, for which he was later granted approval after he had already killed it. Photo: @onlytrumpjr/Instagram

Hunter Biden is the son of US president Joe Biden. Photo: @slimefin/ Twitter

US president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden attend an NCAA basketball game between Georgetown University and Duke University in Washington, in January 2010. Photo: Reuters

News

World

United States & Canada

Hunter Biden has reached a plea deal on federal tax and gun charges to avoid jail
US president’s son has admitted to struggles with drug and alcohol addiction


Hunter Biden’s troubles make him a vulnerable target for President Joe Biden’s opponents, and attacks are unlikely to end with a plea deal to avoid prison on tax and gun charges.


Joe Biden

US Politics

Donald Trump

Hunter Biden reaches plea deal on gun, tax charges. Here’s a look at his troubled past

Hunter Biden has reached a plea deal on federal tax and gun charges to avoid jail US president’s son has admitted to struggles with drug and alcohol addiction

Hunter Biden has reached a plea deal on federal tax and gun charges to avoid jail

US president’s son has admitted to struggles with drug and alcohol addiction