Hunter Biden friend sounded alarm about tax payment as possible 2020 campaign finance violation

In the seemingly endless saga of Hunter Biden's tangled web of questionable business and financial dealings, it emerged this week that a donor to Joe Biden's presidential campaign advised that outstanding tax liabilities of the then-candidate's son created a risk of campaign finance violations, as the Washington Examiner reports.

The facts of the situation were laid out in an email message released by the GOP-led House Ways and Means Committee, a communication among several brought forward by two IRS whistleblowers who had worked on a probe of Hunter Biden's financial affairs.

That warning came from Kevin Morris, an entertainment lawyer who grew close to Hunter Biden after the pair met at a campaign event in 2019 and who raised red flags to accountants who were working with his friend to clean up his outstanding issues.

Morris' email from February of 2020 stated of Hunter Biden's overdue tax filings, “We are under considerable risk personally and politically to get the returns in.”

His concerns appeared to stem from the fact that federal election law mandates that any donation benefitting a political candidate must be reported, even if they do not come in the form of a direct payment to a campaign, and that Morris' payment of Hunter Biden's tax liabilities on his behalf could be so construed.

The presidential campaign of Joe Biden did not report or characterize Morris' largesse as any sort of in-kind donation, though it appeared designed to thwart negative news reporting on Hunter Biden's federal delinquencies.

Indeed, IRS and FBI investigators had asked James Biden, brother of Joe Biden, why he thanked Morris specifically for actions taken “on behalf of the family,” bolstering the argument that the money was an in-kind donation to the Biden campaign.

In the end, Morris, described by some in the media as Hunter's “sugar brother,” reportedly ponied up nearly $4.9 million in assistance to his buddy, much of which has been described as a loan, though no documentation of such an arrangement appeared to exist until late 2021.

It seems likely that more questions about Morris' relationship to Hunter Biden and the payments made in his behalf will arise in the near future, now that the latter has been indicted on nine tax-related charges by a federal grand jury in California, as the Associated Press reported.

Hunter Biden faces three felonies and six misdemeanors in the tax case, a tally that stands in addition to federal gun charges leveled against him in Delaware federal court.

Commenting on the latest charges, special counsel David Weiss remarked that Hunter Biden “spent millions of dollars on an extravagant lifestyle rather than paying his tax bills.

According to the indictment documents themselves, Biden spent funds on adult entertainment, illegal drugs, luxury lodgings, exotic cars, failing to use available funds to meet his tax obligations.

If found guilty on all of the tax counts, Hunter Biden could theoretically face upwards of 17 years in prison.

However, most legal commentators do not believe any sentence approaching that duration is at all likely, even if the government were to secure convictions, but the expansion of the first son's legal troubles are certainly doing his father no favors in terms of his reelection bid.