Hunter Biden, the son of former Vice President Joe Biden, admitted he used "poor judgment" in obtaining a lucrative job on the board of a Ukrainian gas company but insisted he did not violate any laws or ethical standards.
Speaking with ABC News for an interview broadcast Tuesday morning, the 49-year-old Biden said his last name has helped him advance in life, but noted that the jobs he had with companies in Ukraine and China have led to a "ridiculous conspiracy idea" that his father, who is seeking the Democratic Party's 2020 nomination for president, used his political office as a way to convince companies to hire his son.
"In retrospect, look, I think that it was poor judgment on my part," Biden said.
"I gave a hook to some very unethical people to act in illegal ways to try to do some harm to my father. That's where I made the mistake. So I take full responsibility for that. Did I do anything improper? No, not in any way. Not in any way whatsoever."
President Donald Trump and some of his allies, including his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, have accused the former vice president and his son of acting inappropriately as it relates to Hunter obtaining high-paying foreign jobs and investments while Biden was serving with President Barack Obama.
The accusations first surfaced earlier this year but have gained traction in recent weeks, particularly in the wake of a July phone call during which Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy about investigating the Bidens for corruption.
"Did I make a mistake? Well, maybe in the grand scheme of things, yeah," Hunter Biden said. "But did I make a mistake based upon some ethical lapse? Absolutely not.
"I joined a board, I served honorably. I did — I focused on corporate governance. I didn't have any discussions with my father before or after I joined the board as it related to it, other than that brief exchange that we had."
He added, "What I regret is not taking into account that there would be a Rudy Giuliani and a president of the United States that would be listening to this — this ridiculous conspiracy idea."
Biden later called the Trump family, including the president and his two adult sons, "irrelevant" and said "they're out of a B-movie."
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.