Hunter Biden reveals that Trump's DOJ is investigating him — just as the president wanted

On Wednesday afternoon, Hunter Biden, son of President-elect Joe Biden, announced via the transition team that the Justice Department is investigating his tax history.

"I learned yesterday for the first time that the U.S. Attorney's Office in Delaware advised my legal counsel, also yesterday, that they are investigating my tax affairs," he said in a statement. "I take this matter very seriously but I am confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately, including with the benefit of professional tax advisors."

In an attached statement, the transition team added: "President-elect Biden is deeply proud of his son, who has fought through difficult challenges, including the vicious personal attacks of recent months, only to emerge stronger."

Since 2019, President Donald Trump and his allies have been sharply critical of Hunter Biden, lambasting his overseas business connections in Ukraine and China, which appear to indicate the son's attempts to profit off his father's famous name. However, despite extensive efforts, opponents of the president-elect have not been able to conclusively link him to his son's dealings or implicate either of them in clear wrongdoing or illegality. As the 2020 campaign came to a close, new sketchy reports emerged from Rudy Giuliani and a few news outlets claiming to have uncovered Hunter Biden's laptop after he abandoned it at a repair shop. They claimed that the laptop showed impropriety on the part of Hunter Biden and the family, but the allegations were thin and unverified.

Some argued that the stories and accusations could be the work of an intentional foreign disinformation campaign.

But regardless about the provenance of the information or the content of the allegations, Trump and his allies whipped up suspicions about Hunter and the Biden family in an effort to tar the former vice president heading into the election. Trump personally called for Attorney General Bill Barr to investigate Hunter Biden and even claimed that Joe Biden shouldn't even be allowed to run for president.

Trump's call to investigate the Bidens inevitably casts doubt on the propriety of a Justice Department investigation into Hunter, and the factual basis for the investigation remains unexplained. Reports about the Biden laptop indicated that the FBI was investigating a related matter, but it wasn't clear whether Hunter Biden was viewed a subject or a target of that probe.