WASHINGTON — House Republicans released long-anticipated testimony from former Delaware US Attorney David Weiss on Monday, revealing that the prosecutors of former first son Hunter Biden felt they lacked sufficient evidence to prove he acted as a foreign agent.
Weiss, who brought tax and gun crime cases against the Hunter, now 55, admitted in a June 6 interview with the House Judiciary Committee that he “personally” considered bringing charges under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) but dropped the matter when his team “couldn’t prove it.”
“[W]e didn’t have enough evidence to prove that Hunter Biden had acted as a — as an agent of a foreign principal and had engaged in political activity in that regard. We just couldn’t put together a sufficient case,” Weiss said, according to a transcript of the interview released by the Judiciary panel.
“[W]hat I’d say is personally I viewed consideration of a FARA charge — I did give some credence to whether the agent was acting on behalf of a foreign government as opposed to a foreign principal — a foreign individual or a foreign private corporation,” added the former Delaware US attorney.
“I do view them differently. However, the statute encompasses — the way it’s written, it would encompass both activity. But I do agree, as your question suggested, there is — in my mind, there is a difference in the seriousness or the — of the conduct that you’re talking about, acting on behalf of a foreign government versus a foreign corporation.”
The House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry and past investigations dug up instances of Hunter Biden frequently invoking his father’s name to secure lucrative business deals and engage with clients from Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Russia and China.
In a court filing last August, Weiss hinted at FARA violations involving Hunter lobbying State Department officials when his father was vice president to scuttle a probe of convicted briber and Romanian businessman Gabriel Popviciu.
His business partner Rob Walker’s LLC was paid more than $3 million from 2015 and 2017, one-third of which was transferred eventually to Hunter’s bank accounts.
Weiss wrote in the filing that the younger Biden and Walker specifically “structured [the] business relationship in an effort to avoid having to register as a foreign agent.”
In 2016, Hunter had also asked officials at the US Embassy in Rome to help him with a venture involving the Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Holdings, while his dad was still vice president, according to State Department records obtained by The New York Times via a Freedom of Information Act request.
The request came as the Biden scion was receiving up to $1 million per year sitting on Burisma’s board — while his father handled Ukraine policy for the Obama administration.
Other emails on the first son’s abandoned laptop showed a more than $5 million business pursuit between Hunter, first brother James Biden and others with a Chinese state-backed investment fund — included a 10% stake held by Hunter for the “big guy.”
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), one of three leaders in the GOP’s impeachment inquiry of Joe Biden, alleged last year that tracing the funds through “shell companies” uncovered how James Biden eventually deposited 10% in his brother’s account.
The Biden family member and the 46th president’s White House denied that the transfer was improper and said it was a loan repayment.
FARA charges typically are filed within five years of an offense and involve a defendant allegedly operating on behalf of a foreign principal without registering complying with registration and disclosure requirements.
Foreign principals can include governments, political organizations and individuals seeking to influence US officials.
Joe Biden repeatedly denied ever interacting with any of his son’s business associates — despite emails and witness testimonies contradicting his claims — and claimed that Hunter had “done nothing wrong” in his work abroad.
Hunter Biden’s legal team rejected an early plea offer from Weiss’ prosecutorial team in a sensational July 2023 court hearing, in part because it didn’t provide sweeping immunity from FARA charges.
“The court recessed, and there was a discussion, and upon going back on the record, Mr. [Christopher] Clark, for the second time that day, completely capitulated and said, no, that language does not cover FARA or anything other than tax, gun, and any drug activity described as part of either the tax or the gun charges,” Weiss recalled in his interview last month.
“So he wasn’t seeking a global settlement of all potential criminal activity that Hunter Biden had been involved with?” a Judiciary panel member asked of the defense attorney’s approach.
“I’m not going to say that,” Weiss responded.
The Weiss interview disclosed the reasons why the prosecutor had to be elevated to special counsel status by Attorney General Merrick Garland toward the end of the five-year investigation — despite claiming he was the “ultimate authority” over charging decisions.
Weiss also shared the difficulties in pulling together a team to work on the prosecution.
“All I know was I didn’t get a whole lot of resumes,” he said at one point.
Then-President Biden pardoned his son last December following a guilty plea to evading $1.4 million in tax payments and a conviction for illegally possessing a handgun while abusing crack cocaine.
That grant of clemency, which the 46th president repeatedly said he would not approve, also shielded Hunter from any crimes committed between Jan. 1, 2014 and Dec. 1, 2024.
“[T]he pardon that covered 11 years of Hunter Biden’s conduct, those matters had been disposed of,” Weiss recounted, saying why he did not address FARA and other matters in his January 2025 report on the special counsel probe.
“Then the question was even if I investigate — even if those matters had been investigated, third parties were involved,” he added.
“And I was uncomfortable with the notion — consistent, I think, with Department policy — of — with Hunter Biden being off the table and his conduct, discussing what any of those investigations may have meant for third parties that I wasn’t going to charge.”
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