Hunter Biden seeking State Department for help on lucrative energy project 'feels very strange': CNN reporter

A CNN panel reacted on Wednesday to the news that Hunter Biden reportedly sought help from the U.S. government for a possibly financially beneficial energy project in Italy while his father was vice president, and said it felt "very strange." 

"This isn‘t great. Hunter Biden, everybody in the White House has known for a long time, is an issue. The way that his lawyers responded to this disclosure saying, ‘Well, yeah, he sent letters but did nothing wrong.’ This feels very strange to people that the vice president‘s son was sending letters or making requests to other government officials and saying, ‘Hey, would you meet with this company?’," CNN's Edward-Isaac Dovere said.

The president's son sought assistance from the State Department for a lucrative energy project in Italy when President Biden was vice president, according to The New York Times, highlighting allegations that he used his father's political standing as leverage for his foreign business interests. 

"It does look like he was at least making people say, you notice my last name though, right?" Dovere continued. 

BIDEN WON'T PARDON HUNTER, WHITE HOUSE REAFFIRMS, BUT CRITICS AREN'T SO SURE

CNN's Edward-Isaac Dovere said the latest Hunter Biden news felt "very strange" to people on Wednesday. (Screenshot/CNN)

"One of the other things The New York Times reports here is that this document was suddenly shaken loose from the U.S. bureaucracy of the week that President Biden dropped out of the race," CNN host Kasie Hunt said. "They claim it's a coincidence."

Hunter Biden wrote at least one letter to the U.S. ambassador to Italy in 2016 seeking assistance for the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, where he was a board member, according to the Times. 

The response was lukewarm, as officials were somewhat hesitant to help with a request from the son of a sitting vice president on behalf of a foreign company. 

"It doesn‘t look good," Matt Gorman, a former adviser for Republican South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott's presidential campaign, said as part of the CNN panel. 

"He is still facing trial later this year for tax evasion around Burisma. And look, I think it’s one of the many reasons Democrats are probably breathing a big sigh of relief. They don’t have to worry about Hunter Biden in terms of presidential campaign trail politics, but you‘re right, this is the background of this. And this certainly, he‘s not going away anytime soon," Gorman continued. 

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Hunter Biden arrives at the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building in Wilmington, Delaware, on June 6. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)

Hunter Biden asked several people if they could arrange an introduction between Burisma and the president of the Tuscany region of Italy, where the company was pursuing a geothermal project, Biden's lawyer Abbe Lowell said. 

"No meeting occurred, no project materialized, no request for anything in the U.S. was ever sought and only an introduction in Italy was requested," Lowell said. 

Lowell told the Times that the outreach by Biden was a "proper request."

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The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.

Fox News' Louis Casiano contributed to this report.