Trump defense team member Pam Bondi told senators the president had ample reason to be concerned about Hunter Biden’s work as a paid board member for the Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings.
Bondi quoted multiple media reports questioning the propriety of Biden’s position on the board.
She said he was paid more than $83,000 a month for his work even though he had no background in natural gas or in Ukrainian government relations while his father, Joe Biden, then the vice president, had a key role in U.S. dealings with the nation.
“All we are saying is that there was a basis to talk about this, to raise this issue, and that is enough,” Bondi said.
House Democrats contend that claims of any wrongdoing involving the former vice president’s son amount to debunked conspiracy theories, and that Hunter Biden has no knowledge of the central allegations about President Donald Trump’s actions regarding Ukraine.
Then-Ukrainian prosecutor general Yuriy Lutsenko said in a May 2019 interview with Bloomberg News that Hunter Biden “did not violate any Ukrainian laws.” Trump’s former special Ukraine envoy, Kurt Volker, during House testimony last November called it a “conspiracy theory” that Joe Biden’s work in Ukraine would have been influenced by his son’s board seat.
Another Trump lawyer, Eric Herschmann, said Hunter Biden “didn’t know anything about the natural gas industry at all.” He played a video of an ABC television interview in which the vice president’s son was asked whether he would have been asked to be a member of the Burisma board if his name were not Biden.
“I don’t know, probably not,” Hunter Biden responded.
© Copyright 2025 Bloomberg News. All rights reserved.