Biden joins son Hunter at Penn graduation as corruption claims swirl

WASHINGTON — President Biden and first son Hunter Biden sat together Monday at the University of Pennsylvania graduation ceremony for Hunter’s daughter Maisy — as House Republicans investigate the president’s role in foreign business dealings and prosecutors review possible criminal charges against Hunter.

The 80-year-president and his son, 53, wore matching aviator sunglasses in the bleachers at Philadelphia’s Franklin Field — with Hunter at one point flashing a thumbs-up to journalists.

First lady Jill Biden and first daughter Ashley Biden also attended.

Hunter Biden has been a frequent presence by his father’s side in public despite scandals involving the Biden family’s overseas income — even touring ancestral sites in Ireland last month with his dad and first sister Valerie Biden Owens.

Hunter and first brother James Biden repeatedly involved their powerful relative in foreign business relationships during and after his vice presidency, and House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) last week described nine Biden family members who allegedly got foreign cash.

Hunter’s attorneys met with Justice Department leaders April 26 in a sign that a charging decision may come soon in a tax fraud investigation that reportedly began in 2018.

The criminal probe of Hunter has explored whether he evaded taxes, laundered money, violated foreign-lobbyist laws and lied about his drug use on a gun purchase form. He reportedly borrowed about $2 million last year to pay back taxes, though doing so doesn’t legally absolve the original non-payment.

An IRS whistleblower who supervised the tax fraud case against Hunter Biden since early 2020 informed Congress last month that he wanted to share information about a cover-up after already making disclosures to the Treasury and Justice departments’ inspectors general.

A different whistleblower informed Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) this month that the FBI has an informant file from 2020 alleging that Joe Biden accepted bribes as vice president.

Comer issued a legally binding subpoena, but last week the FBI refused to give it to Congress.

NBC reported last month that there is “growing frustration” within the FBI over the fact that Delaware US Attorney David Weiss, who is supervising the case, had not yet brought charges after the bureau concluded most of its work last year.

Joe Biden met with relatives’ business associates on many occasions — including those from China, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Russia and Ukraine — and House Republicans allege that Biden family members offered no legitimate business services and were merely selling access to the upper reaches of US government.

After his father took office as president and promised no further family conflicts of interest abroad, Hunter launched an art career seeking as much as $500,000 for his novice works. His New York art dealer has not complied with Comer’s demand for buyer information.

Joe Biden formerly worked at the University of Pennsylvania as an honorary professor after his vice presidency ended in 2017.

The Ivy League school also set up the personal DC office for Joe Biden at the foot of Capitol Hill where classified documents were found in November — prompting the January appointment of special counsel Robert Hur to investigate whether the president or anyone in his orbit broke the law.

The elder Biden earned nearly $1 million from the University of Pennsylvania between 2017 and 2019 despite just nine reported public engagements with students, some of which appeared unrelated to his role as “Benjamin Franklin Presidential Practice Professor” — such as a 2017 visit to promote his own book “Promise Me, Dad.”

Biden drew outrage when he picked the University of Pennsylvania’s longtime president Amy Gutmann to be ambassador to Germany shortly after he became president.