In May 2019, Hunter Biden claimed in a statement that, “at no time have I discussed with my father the company’s business, or my board service, including my initial decision to join the [Burisma] board,” according to The New York Times.
He added, “I have had no role whatsoever in relation to any investigation of Burisma, or any of its officers. I explicitly limited my role to focus on corporate governance best practices to facilitate Burisma’s desire to expand globally.”
In October 2019, Biden did an extensive interview with ABC News in which he said he did “nothing wrong at all” while serving on the board of Burisma but admitted to “poor judgment to be in the middle of something that is — it’s a swamp, in many ways? Yeah.”
He said he regretted “not taking into account that there would be a Rudy Giuliani and a president of the United States that would be listening to this ridiculous conspiracy idea,” adding that it had been “completely debunked by everyone.”
Also in 2019, he told The New Yorker magazine and ABC he spoke with his father only once about his decision to serve on the board.
In October 2020, a New York Post report alleged that emails showed Biden introduced a Burisma Holdings executive to his father when he was vice president, disputing the elder Biden’s denials that he ever discussed international business interests with his son.
The younger Biden said he may have made a “mistake” by serving on the board but stressed it wasn’t an ethical lapse.
The son said he took full “responsibility” for his decision to serve on the board but reiterated he did nothing improper. “Not in any way whatsoever. I joined a board, I served honorably. … 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 President Trump’s sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. – who have been hitting Hunter Biden hard – seemed like characters out of a “B movie.”