The conservative legal group America First Legal (AFL) is suing Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Department of Justice (DOJ) for allegedly failing to require Hunter Biden to register as a foreign agent during the Obama administration.
AFL is filing a lawsuit against Garland and the DOJ in Washington, D.C., because Hunter Biden was not required to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) during the Obama administration, when he was working for Ukrainian energy firm Burisma, according to a copy of the lawsuit obtained by the Daily Caller.
READ THE FULL LAWSUIT:
“On March 3, 2023, America First Legal asked the defendants to comply with the Act by requiring Mr. Biden’s registration. If the Department of Justice becomes aware that a certain individual is required to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, but that such registration has not occurred, then the Department has a nondiscretionary duty either to require it or to undertake a waiver rulemaking. Nevertheless, to date, the defendants have refused to do either of these things,” the lawsuit reads. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Hunter Biden Worked To Secure US Visa For Ukrainian Oligarch Allegedly Involved In Suspected Bribery Scheme)
“The defendants’ refusal to require Mr. Biden to register as a foreign agent denies America First Legal information which must be publicly disclosed pursuant to the Foreign Agents Registration Act, and for which it has a statutory right,” the document continues.
Biden was a board member of Burisma beginning in April 2014 when his father was vice president for President Obama. Emails obtained in March by AFL from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) show Hunter Biden told the Office of the Vice President (OVP) he was a legal adviser to Burisma and an attorney at the law firm representing the company.
AFL filed a legal complaint with the DOJ against Hunter Biden for failing to register under FARA shortly after AFL received the emails from NARA as a result of litigation. (RELATED: Here Are The Questions IRS Whistleblowers Must Answer In Front Of Congress)
In addition, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York indicted U.S.-Israeli citizen Gal Luft for “willfully” failing to register under FARA, among other charges. Luft’s FARA charges were based on his work for CEFC China Energy, a Chinese energy firm linked to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
Luft allegedly accepted payments from CEFC through his think tank, the Institute for the Analysis for Global Security, which was paid at least $700,000 beginning in 2015, according to Luft’s indictment. Luft has alleged he participated in a meeting with Joe Biden, Hunter Biden and CEFC officials in 2017, shortly after Joe Biden’s vice presidency ended, the New York Post reported July 5.
Hunter Biden in July 2017 allegedly sent a threatening text to CEFC associate Raymond Zhao, saying Joe Biden was in the same room, according to IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley’s sworn testimony to the House Ways and Means Committee. Hunter Biden texted a different CEFC associate Aug. 3, 2017, about how the “Biden’s [sic] are the best” at doing what his CEFC boss allegedly wanted, the House Oversight Committee revealed in late June. The following day, a subsidiary of CEFC sent $100,000 to Owasco P.C., a firm controlled by Hunter Biden, according to the committee.
A CEFC subsidiary sent a Hunter Biden business associate, Hudson West, more than $5 million in payments Aug. 8, 2017, according to a Senate Finance Committee report. West then paid nearly $5 million in payments to Owasco beginning Aug. 8, the Senate report continued.
House Oversight also released a memo in March about payments from another CCP-linked energy firm allegedly sent to Biden family members through Hunter Biden’s business associate Rob Walker.
“As detailed in our complaint, the record is quite clear. Hunter Biden appears to have used his unique access and position to the benefit of multiple foreign principals. 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, which continues to go out of its way to help President Biden, his family, and his radical liberal allies,” AFL Vice President and General Counsel Gene Hamilton said.
“The Attorney General has a non-discretionary duty to ensure that Hunter Biden registers as a foreign agent under FARA and provides the American people with transparency into his activities on behalf of foreign principals,” Hamilton added.
The DOJ declined to comment.