By Ashley Oliver, Justice Department Reporter. Media: Washington Examiner.
A conservative legal group filed a lawsuit on Tuesday against Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Department of Justice over claims the department failed to enforce the Foreign Agents Registration Act for Hunter Biden.
America First Legal claimed in the lawsuit the DOJ had a legal obligation to require President Joe Biden’s son to register with the DOJ his involvement with Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings Limited when Hunter Biden joined its board in 2014.
AFL also cited Hunter Biden’s business pursuits with Chinese oil tycoon Ye Jianming, for which the younger Biden explicitly sought in 2017 to avoid registering as a foreign agent, according to text messages between him and his former business partner Tony Bobulinski.
The group contended that because the FBI had subpoenaed Hunter Biden’s laptop in 2019, the DOJ “had actual knowledge that Hunter Biden has been a statutorily defined foreign agent of (at a minimum) Ukrainian and Chinese principals.”
He “therefore was legally obligated to register as such. However, the Department has neither required Mr. Biden to register nor undertaken a waiver rulemaking,” the lawsuit stated.
The filing is based, in part, on a trove of emails AFL acquired from the National Archives that reveal Hunter Biden communicated with U.S. government employees in their official capacity about Burisma during the Obama administration, which, according to AFL, is evidence the younger Biden was subject to FARA.
FARA requires, per DOJ, “certain agents of foreign principals who are engaged in political activities or other activities specified under the statute to make periodic public disclosure of their relationship with the foreign principal, as well as activities, receipts and disbursements in support of those activities.”
AFL’s lawsuit comes after the group filed a complaint with DOJ on the matter in March, which, according to the lawsuit, the DOJ did not respond to.
Gene Hamilton, AFL vice president and general counsel, said of the lawsuit that it reveals Hunter Biden “appears to have used his unique access and position to the benefit of multiple foreign principles.”
“Any other American would have been criminally prosecuted for failing to register as a foreign agent for this conduct, but not under Merrick Garland’s Department of Justice,” Hamilton added, urging Garland to take action and register the younger Biden.
The DOJ did not respond to a request for comment.
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