CNN analyst: Report on California grand jury ‘bad news’ for Hunter Biden
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CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig suggested it doesn’t bode well for Hunter Biden that a California grand jury is being used in a special counsel’s investigation into the president’s son.
“It’s bad news for Hunter Biden any way you slice this,” Honig said during an interview on “Anderson Cooper 360″ on Thursday evening. “Let’s remember, he already has a pending indictment in the federal district court in Delaware for the firearms-related charges.”
Honig was responding to a CNN report published Thursday that said special counsel David Weiss will be using a California grand jury to obtain documents and testimony from possible witnesses in the ongoing federal investigation into Biden’s business.
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The Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation appears to be focused on Biden’s alleged failure to pay taxes by IRS deadlines. It’s not clear if any witnesses have appeared in person or if investigators are looking at anything beyond tax matters at this time, CNN reported.
CNN said the move by Weiss indicates he may be seeking new charges against Biden after previously bringing gun charges against him in Delaware. Honig said Biden may be looking at a second indictment out of California.
“If we think about the potential tax charges here, it’s important to keep in mind, when Hunter Biden went into court a few months ago with DOJ, they had a deal that he was going to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses, and they agreed — DOJ and Hunter Biden agreed — that he was going, that he had failed to pay over $1 million in income taxes that he owed,” Honig said.
“So, assuming, which I think is a fair assumption, that DOJ has evidence of that, that feels like the minimum charges he may face,” Honig continued.
Biden was set to take a plea deal to tax charges and settle a gun charge during a July 26 hearing in Delaware, but the judge in the case questioned the parameters of the deal and whether he fully understood what he was agreeing to. The deal unraveled.
The president’s son pleaded not guilty in early October to charges relating to concealing drug use when buying a weapon. The plea kicked off a battle to beat an indictment from the DOJ, as House Republicans have zeroed in on Hunter Biden and his father.
Weiss has previously used a federal grand jury in the Delaware investigation. Prosecutors brought forward multiple witnesses to testify in Wilmington last year before the deal fell apart. According to the CNN report, the special counsel may use previously collected evidence by the grand jury in Delaware in a different federal court.
Republican members of Congress, particularly those on the House Judiciary and Oversight and Accountability committees, are also attempting to gather information into the Biden family’s business dealings and impeachment inquiries into the president.
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