Agents investigating Hunter Biden, the son of the US president, have collected evidence of tax fraud, and prosecutors are deciding whether to charge him or not, the Washington Post reports.

In 2018, a federal investigation was launched into the activities, especially abroad, of the youngest son of Joe Biden, a 52-year-old lawyer and lobbyist with a stormy past, the newspaper quoted by AFP recalls.

Agents believed for months they had enough evidence to prosecute him for tax evasion, the newspaper added, citing unnamed sources close to the case. According to those sources, they also determined he lied when he bought the firearm in 2018.

The federal prosecutor in the state of Delaware, where Joe Biden and his family live, must now decide whether he considers this evidence to be sufficient for a conviction at trial.

Prosecutor David Weiss was appointed by former Republican President Donald Trump, who made Hunter Biden one of his favorite targets.

The antics of Joe Biden’s son, who has long struggled with drug and alcohol addiction, regularly hit the headlines and were often seen as a potential obstacle to his father’s political career.

Ahead of the 2020 election, Donald Trump and his supporters have come under fire for accepting the position of director of Ukrainian gas group Burisma in 2014 when Joe Biden was vice president.

Donald Trump’s pressure on President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the case led to his first impeachment trial in 2020.

In an interview with the Washington Post, Hunter Biden’s lawyer condemned the sources who spoke to the newspaper. Breaching investigative secrecy is a “criminal offence”, Chris Clarke said.

“Prosecutors must weigh not only the evidence provided by the agents, but also those provided by other witnesses, including the defense,” he added. “There is no need to pressure them or criticize their work,” the lawyer added.