Hunter Biden: Who is the man Donald Trump asked Ukraine to investigate?

“There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son,” Donald Trump said on a call to Ukraine’s President. So who is he? Here’s what you need to know.

The White House has released a transcript of Donald Trump’s controversial phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, where he asked his counterpart to “look into” former vice president Joe Biden’s son.

Democrats allege the US President asked Mr Zelensky to dig up dirt on his political rival ahead of next year’s presidential elections while holding out the prospect of US aid and have now launched a formal impeachment inquiry.

But Mr Trump insists the call was “very friendly and totally appropriate”. “This is nothing more than a continuation of the greatest and most destructive witch hunt of all time!” he said.

So who is Joe Biden’s son and why might Mr Trump think he’s fishy?

WHO IS JOE BIDEN’S SON?

Hunter Biden is Joe Biden’s youngest son. Picture: AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivai

Hunter Biden is Mr Biden’s youngest son. Picture: Astrid Stawiarz/Getty Images

The man Mr Trump referred to in his phone call with Mr Zelensky was Mr Biden’s youngest son, Hunter.

Mr Biden had three children with his first wife Neilia — Beau, Hunter and Naomi — though sadly Beau died of brain cancer in 2015 and Naomi was tragically killed alongside Neilia in a car crash in 1972. Mr Biden then had a fourth child, Ashley, with his second wife Jill.

Hunter, 49, grew up around politics and has worked as both a lawyer and lobbyist since graduating from Yale Law School in 1996.

But his most controversial role was on the board of Ukraine’s premier oil and gas company, Burisma.

WHY WAS IT CONTROVERSIAL?

Hunter worked for Burisma from 2014 to 2019.

During that time, the company was accused of corrupt practices and was the target of an investigation led by the Ukrainian prosecutor general.

But Joe Biden, who advocated for reforms in Ukraine during his time as US vice president under president Barack Obama, pushed for the prosecutor’s ouster due to his poor progress in fighting corruption.

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Hunter worked for Burisma while his father, Joe, was Barack Obama’s vice president. (Photo by Mitchell Layton/Getty Images)

That lead to suggestions from Ukrainian media that Hunter’s role on the board might’ve been intended to protect the company from prosecution.

But there was never any evidence found of illegal conduct by either Biden.

SO WHY IS TRUMP STILL INTERESTED?

Mr Trump still thinks the whole situation is suspicious — and that’s where his phone call with Mr Zelensky comes in.

Will the Democrats apologize after seeing what was said on the call with the Ukrainian President? They should, a perfect call - got them by surprise!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 25, 2019

A transcript of the July 25 phone call released by the White House on Wednesday showed Mr Trump directly asked Mr Zelenskiy to investigate Hunter.

“There's a lot of talk about Biden's son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that, so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great,” he said.

“Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it ... it sounds horrible to me.”

The call is now at the centre of the Democrats’ impeachment probe because in the days before the call, Mr Trump ordered advisers to freeze $400 million (A$593 million) in military aid for Ukraine.

That’s prompted speculation he was holding out the money as leverage for information on the Bidens — something Mr Trump has denied.

Nancy Pelosi announced the impeachment inquiry on Tuesday. Picture: Alex Wong/Getty Images/AFP

“The actions of the Trump presidency revealed dishonourable facts of the president’s betrayal of his oath of office, betrayal of his national security and betrayal of the integrity of our elections,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said while announcing the inquiry on Tuesday.

“The president of the United States has betrayed our country ... I support impeachment,” Hillary Clinton said on Twitter.