Hunter Biden reportedly asked the US government for help for Ukrainian gas company Burisma

WASHINGTON — Hunter Biden has asked the U.S. ambassador to Italy for help with an energy project that a Ukrainian gas company was working on when his father was vice president, The New York Times reported.

Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son, wrote a letter to the ambassador in 2016 seeking help for Burisma, a company working on a geothermal project in Italy, the newspaper reported, citing recently released documents and interviews.

At the time, Hunter Biden was on the board of Burisma, which had trouble getting regulatory approval for the project, an entrepreneur involved in the project told the newspaper.

The disclosure is likely to fuel Republican criticism of Hunter Biden’s foreign dealings, which have been at the center of GOP investigations into the president’s family. The report comes weeks before Hunter Biden is set to go on trial in federal court on allegations that he failed to pay taxes on money he received from Burisma and other foreign businesses.

Prosecutors said in court documents last week that they wanted to present evidence at trial about Hunter Biden’s other business dealings, including an arrangement with a Romanian businessman who tried to “influence U.S. government policy” while Joe Biden was serving as vice president.

Hunter Biden’s lawyer said his client’s contact with the ambassador on Burisma’s behalf was a “valid request” and that he had reached out to “various individuals” for help in arranging a meeting between Burisma and the president of the Italian region of Tuscany.

“No meeting took place, no project was carried out, nothing was requested in the United States, only an introduction was requested in Italy,” said lawyer Abbe Lowell.

According to the newspaper, records suggest that embassy officials were concerned about Hunter Biden’s request. One official wrote, “I want to be careful not to overpromise.”

A White House spokesman told The Times that while the president was vice president, he was unaware that his son had contacted the embassy on behalf of Burisma.

“He’s not doing business with his son,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said of the president on Wednesday. “He’s certainly not aware of that, and that’s something Hunter Biden needs to talk about. He’s a private person, that’s something he needs to focus on.”

Pressed on whether Biden was pleased with his son’s behavior, Jean-Pierre told reporters: “I can’t talk about it. It’s something that’s an ongoing process.”

John R. Phillips, then the U.S. ambassador to Italy, said he received many letters and did not remember Hunter Biden contacting him.

“I would certainly bring it to his attention” if the younger Biden reached out to him, Phillips told the newspaper. “Out of courtesy, I would probably make sure he got some kind of response, but not necessarily from me. And I wouldn’t even want to encourage that, because I wouldn’t drag us into something like that.”

The Burisma project never came to fruition and it is unclear whether the embassy ever agreed to help the company.

Hunter Biden’s trial, set to begin in September in Los Angeles, accuses him of running a four-year scheme to avoid paying at least $1.4 million in taxes during a period in which the president’s son admitted to battling drug addiction.

Hunter Biden’s attorneys have indicated they will argue at trial that drug use affected his decision-making and judgment to the point that he was “incapable of forming the requisite intent to commit the crimes charged.”

He was convicted of three felonies in a separate case alleging that he lied on a mandatory gun purchase form in 2018 by claiming he did not illegally use or was addicted to drugs. He could face up to 25 years in prison at his sentencing scheduled for Nov. 13 in Wilmington, Delaware, but as a first-time offender, he is likely to get a much shorter sentence or avoid prison altogether.