Romanian oligarch hired Hunter Biden to influence US policy, special counsel says

Prosecutors in special counsel David Weiss' office are accusing Hunter Biden of accepting payments from a Romanian businessman who was attempting to "influence U.S. government agencies," while his father Joe Biden was vice president.

If true, the allegation would mark the closest prosecutors have come to tying President Joe Biden to his son's overseas business endeavors -- a matter congressional Republicans have spent years scrutinizing.

The special counsel's claim, in a court filing Wednesday in the younger Biden's federal tax case, stems from Hunter Biden's work on behalf of Gabriel Popoviciu, a wealthy Romanian who prosecutors say hired the president's son for legal work in late 2015.