Hunter Biden, Vice President Joe Biden's son, was discharged from the Navy Reserve this year after failing a drug test, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday night.
Biden, who got the boot after testing positive for cocaine, served part time in the reserves in Norfolk, Va. while also working as a partner at an investment firm.
Who is Hunter Biden?
Hunter graduated from Georgetown University and earned a law degree from Yale. After graduation he was a member of the Jesuit Volunteer Corps Northwest.
He's lesser known than his older brother, Beau Biden, now the Delaware attorney general, who served a year-long deployment in Iraq and has announced plans for a 2016 gubernatorial run in the state.
What did he do in the military?
Hunter's membership in the American armed forces was brief: He enlisted in the Navy Reserves less than two years ago.
In January 2013, the vice president joked about his son's decision to join the military later in life. 'We have a lot of bad judgment in my family,' Biden said.
The vice president's office has not yet released a comment about Hunter's discharge. But the announcement might not fare well for the Second Family, which touts their status as a military family in speeches and public appearances.
Hunter Biden said in a statement that it was 'the honor of my life to serve in the U.S. Navy, and I deeply regret and am embarrassed that my actions led to my administrative discharge. I respect the Navy's decision. With the love and support of my family, I'm moving forward.'
Does he have much experience in politics or Washington?
Yes -- both in the public and private sectors.
He was appointed by President Bill Clinton to serve as a director in the Department of Commerce handling ecommerce policy issues, a post he held from 1998 to 2001.
From 2001 to 2008, he worked as a lawyer and federal lobbyist at a firm he co-founded. He resigned from this post when his father was asked by then-Sen. Barack Obama, who at the time refused donations from lobbyists, to join his presidential ticket.
Along the way, he's enjoyed stints as chairman of PARADIGM, a hedge fund agency. He also held a job as senior vice president at MBNA Corporation, the world's largest independent credit-card issuer at the time.
In 2006, President George Bush nominated Hunter to serve on the Amtrak board of directors. He served a five-year term after a unanimous confirmation by the U.S. Senate.
What has he been up to recently?
In May 2014, Hunter signed on as a lawyer and board member of Burisma Holdings Ltd., a large Ukrainian gas production company.
The appointment caused a stir, given that it occurred around the same time that his father and the White House were engaged in diplomatic missions in the region to wean Ukraine off Russian energy sources. Critics argued that Hunter's work for a country promoting Ukrainian energy independence was a blatant conflict of interest.
But, the vice president's office brushed off the controversy, insisting that Hunter is a private citizen whose actions don't represent the views of the government
That brings us to the present day. Hunter may no longer be in the Navy, but he still has his hands in public service. He's the board chairman at World Food Program USA, an organization fighting poverty and hunger, and he serves on the President's Advisory Board of the Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington
Hunter also has a job at his alma mater as an adjunct professor at Georgetown's School of Foreign Service. He is married and has three daughters.
Posted by Unknown on Friday, October 17, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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