[FILE - This Dec. 4, 2013, file photo shows U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, left, arriving on Air Force Two in Beijing, China, with his son Hunter Biden, right, and his granddaughter Finnegan Biden. As the Vice President travels to Ukraine Saturday, June 7, 2014, his youngest son, Hunter, 44, has been hired by a private Ukrainian company that promotes energy independence from Russia, but is commercially active in the breakaway Russian-backed state of Crimea and owned by a former government minister with ties to Ukraine’s ousted pro-Russian president. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan, Pool)]
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hunter Biden, the youngest son of Vice President Joe Biden, has been kicked out of the military after testing positive for cocaine, two people familiar with the matter said Thursday.
The Navy said that Biden, a former lobbyist who works at a private equity firm, was discharged in February — barely a year after he was selected for the part-time position as a public affairs officer in the Navy Reserve. Citing privacy laws, the Navy did not give a reason for the discharge, which was not disclosed until it emerged in the media on Thursday.
In a statement released by his
attorney, Biden said he respected the Navy's decision and was moving
forward with his family's love and support. He did not give a reason for
his discharge.
"It was the
honor of my life to serve in the U.S. Navy," Biden said. "I deeply
regret and am embarrassed that my actions led to my administrative
discharge."
The vice
president's office declined to comment. Hunter Biden's attorney didn't
respond to inquiries about whether Biden had used cocaine.
Two
people familiar with the situation said Biden, 44, was discharged
because he failed a drug test last year. They weren't authorized to
discuss the incident by name and requested anonymity. The Wall Street
Journal first reported Biden's discharge and failed drug test.
Because he
was 42 at the time, he needed a special waiver to be accepted. Cmdr.
Ryan Perry, a spokesman for the Navy, said Biden had been assigned to
the Navy Public Affairs Support Element East, based in Norfolk,
Virginia.
The terms of Biden's separation
from the Navy were unclear. Typically, military members discharged for
failing drug tests don't receive an honorable discharge.
The
vice president speaks about his children frequently during public
appearances. In December, Hunter Biden and one of his daughters
accompanied the elder Biden on a trip to Asia, where the vice president
praised his son's work around the world as the chairman of the World
Food Program USA.
"I'm so incredibly proud of him," Vice President Biden said.
Earlier
this year, Hunter Biden raised eyebrows when he joined the board of a
private Ukrainian gas company, just as his father and the Obama
administration were working to wean Ukraine off Russian energy. At the
time, the vice president's office brushed aside questions about the
arrangement by saying that the younger Biden was a "private citizen."
Biden, a managing partner at investment firm Rosemont Seneca Partners,
has three children. His older brother, Beau Biden, is Delaware's
attorney general and an Army National Guard member who served a yearlong
deployment in Iraq.
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