Who is Hunter Biden and what are the ‘Twitter files’?

Twitter’s handling of reporting about Joe Biden’s son and his laptop will be under scrutiny at a congressional hearing
Hunter and Joe Biden. Ex-Twitter bosses were asked to attend a congressional committe examining whether there was bias in relation to reporting about the president’s son
Getty Images

Joe Biden's son, Hunter, is in the news as former Twitter chiefs prepare to testify to a congressional committee about how they handled reporting on him.

Vijaya Gadde, the social network’s former chief legal officer, James Baker, former deputy general counsel, and Yoel Roth, former head of safety and integrity, are set to answer questions posed by the House oversight committee on Wednesday as to whether they acted with bias to protect the president’s son.

The claim has been a longstanding hang-up for Republicans who have felt mistreated by social media giants, particuarly in the run-up to the 2020 US election.

Previously, Donald Trump and his allies accused President Biden of improperly intervening in Ukraine’s affairs to protect his son Hunter from criminal investigation.

This follows the Democrats attempting to impeach Mr Trump over an alleged attempt to coerce Ukraine's president to dig up dirt on the Biden family.

But who is Hunter Biden, what are the Twitter files, what are his connections to Ukraine and why did he matter in the 2020 US election?

Here's everything you need to know:

Who is Hunter Biden?

Hunter, 49, is an American lawyer and businessman and Mr Biden’s second son.

His brother Beau, Mr Biden’s eldest son, died of a brain tumour in 2015 aged 56.

He is a founding partner of investment and advisory firm Rosemont Seneca Partners.

What are the Twitter files?

The saga dates back to a New York Post article from October 2020, which reported the tabloid had received a copy of Hunter Biden’s laptop hard drive.

The Post published an article about the younger Biden based on files contained within the hard drive, claiming the lawyer introduced his father to a top executive at Ukrainian energy firm. It said less than a year later Joe Biden fired a prosecutor who was looking into the company, Burisma.

The tabloid said it had received the hard drive from Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani after Mr Biden had dropped it off at a computer repair shop and never retrieved it.

Twitter blocked users from sharing links to the article for days, saying it had concerns over misinformation and a report based on possibly hacked materials. It later changed its guidelines following the Biden controversy, its then chief executive Jack Dorsey adding its actions were “unacceptable”.

Current owner Elon Musk has since published files showing pressure from the Biden administration was among factors in the blocking of the story.

The issue has been revived after the Republicans won back control of the Congress.

Republican committee chairman James Comer said: “Americans deserve answers about this attack on the first amendment and why big tech and the Swamp colluded to censor this information about the Biden family selling access for profit.”

The Congress hearing will further examine what happened.

Joe Biden, Hunter Biden
Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, earlier this month
AP

What are Hunter Biden’s connections to Ukraine and China?

Hunter Biden served on the board of Ukraine's largest private gas company, Burisma, between 2014 and 2019. He was reportedly paid up to $50,000 a month by the energy company.

In February 2014, the country was rocked by the Maidan revolution, in which pro-Western politician Petro Poroshenko took over the presidency – with the backing of the US government. As a result, between 2014 and 2016, Hunter's father visited Ukraine a dozen times on official duties.

The question of a possible conflict of interest – with Hunter reaping vast sums of money in a country where his father was actively working with the government – was raised publicly at the time.

Mr Biden reportedly told his son: “I hope you know what you are doing.”

“I do,” Hunter replied.

Hunter was also a board member of a Chinese private equity fund, BHR. He took up the role in 2013 while his father was vice-president of the US. BHR is backed by some of China's largest state banks. However, he resigned from the board in April 2020 – while retaining a 10 per cent stakeholding.

What was on his alleged laptop?

An article in the New York Post, supposedly based on evidence from a laptop owned by Hunter, claimed that President Biden met one of his son's Ukranian associates. The article alleged that Vadym Pozharskyi, an adviser to Burisma, thanked Hunter for inviting him to meet President Biden in Washington. The Biden election campaign claims that no meeting ever took place.

Another email allegedly from the laptop claims that Hunter Biden received $10m a year from a Chinese billionaire for “introductions alone”.

What are the other issues?

The subject of Hunter Biden's business dealings in Ukraine has been raised repeatedly during the run-up to the 2020 election.

Donald Trump was impeached for allegedly attempting to pressure the president of Ukraine to find potentially damaging information on the Biden family.

On his part, Trump alleges that President Biden, as vice-president, pressured Ukraine’s government to fire a Ukrainian prosecutor because he had investigated Burisma.

President Biden’s position on the prosecutor is that he was removed owing to being soft on corruption.

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