Hunter Biden to plead guilty in deal with feds
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Editor’s note: This file has been updated to clarify Hunter Biden will enter a pretrial diversion program as part of a deal with federal prosecutors who are expected to drop a gun charge against him.
Hunter Biden, President Biden’s son, will plead guilty to tax crimes in a plea deal with prosecutors, and he reached a diversion agreement relating to unlawful possession of a weapon, according to court papers filed Tuesday.
The plea deal, which must be accepted by a judge, likely would keep Hunter Biden out of jail.
Biden, 53, has been under investigation for tax matters since 2018. He reportedly paid off his tax liability in 2020, with court documents detailing he initially failed to make tax payments of more than $100,000 in both 2017 and 2018 on income exceeding $1.5 million.
Biden was charged with two counts of willful failure to pay income tax. The third charge stems from possession of a firearm in 2018, a weapon he was in possession of while using crack cocaine. Biden denied drug use when applying to secure the gun.
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In a separate agreement on the gun charge, the president’s son will be entered into a pretrial diversion program, meaning those charges are likely to be removed from his record if he complies with the terms of the program.
“With the announcement of two agreements between my client, Hunter Biden, and the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware, it is my understanding that the five-year investigation into Hunter is resolved,” Biden attorney Christopher Clark said in a statement.
“Hunter will take responsibility for two instances of misdemeanor failure to file tax payments when due pursuant to a plea agreement. A firearm charge, which will be subject to a pretrial diversion agreement and will not be the subject of the plea agreement, will also be filed by the Government,” he added.
A statement from David Weiss, the U.S. Attorney for Delaware, counters Clark’s claim the issue is resolved.
“The investigation is ongoing,” Weiss’s office said in a release.
According to The Washington Post, Biden is expected to agree to two years of probation in connection with the plea deal.
“I know Hunter believes it is important to take responsibility for these mistakes he made during a period of turmoil and addiction in his life. He looks forward to continuing his recovery and moving forward,” Clark said.
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President Biden has repeatedly defended his son from allegations of wrongdoing. The White House on Tuesday stressed support for Hunter Biden following the announcement of the plea deal.
“The President and First Lady love their son and support him as he continues to rebuild his life. We will have no further comment,” spokesperson Ian Sams said in a statement.
In an interview last October, the president said his son acknowledged in a book that he noted he was not using drugs on a gun application at a time when he was battling addiction.
The White House has sought to keep its distance from Hunter Biden’s ongoing legal case to avoid any implication the president was pressuring the Justice Department, and officials have repeatedly referred questions about the case to Hunter Biden’s lawyer. Upon taking office, the Biden administration allowed U.S. Attorney David Weiss, a holdover from the Trump administration, to continue to oversee the case.
President Joe Biden attends his granddaughter Maisy Biden’s commencement ceremony with first lady Jill Biden and children Hunter Biden and Ashley Biden at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Monday, May 15, 2023. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
The plea deal is likely to fuel Republican efforts to keep the business dealings of the president’s family in the spotlight.
Hunter Biden’s involvement in foreign business dealings has been a source of focus for Republicans for years. Former President Trump’s suggestion in 2019 that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky investigate Hunter and Joe Biden, then his political opponent, led to his first impeachment.
Reports that broke just before the 2020 election detailing the contents of a hard drive Hunter Biden purportedly owned, which included more details about the business dealings in addition to more salacious content, further fueled GOP interest in his business dealings and attempts to connect the now-president to them.
House Republicans have launched an investigation into the foreign business dealings of Hunter Biden, other family members of President Biden and their associates, raising alarm about foreign funds that flowed to the first family.
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Republicans have not produced evidence, though, that directly links President Biden to any of Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings. The president has denied knowledge of those business dealings.
In the past few weeks, House Republicans have highlighted an unverified tip to the FBI that then-Vice President Biden accepted a bribe from a foreign national, but they have not substantiated those claims.
In a statement, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) — who is heading up the Biden family business dealings probe — said the charges “reveal a two-tiered system of justice.”
“Hunter Biden is getting away with a slap on the wrist when growing evidence uncovered by the House Oversight Committee reveals the Bidens engaged in a pattern of corruption, influence peddling, and possibly bribery,” Comer said. “We will not rest until the full extent of President Biden’s involvement in the family’s schemes are revealed.”
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) questions Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, during a House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic oversight hearing of the CDC over their handling of the COVID-19 pandemic on Tuesday, June 13, 2023.
Comer’s bribery allegations stem from a tip to the FBI the agency was unable to corroborate.
“This development reflects the Justice Department’s continued institutional independence in following the evidence of actual crimes and enforcing the rule of law even in the face of constant criticism and heckling by my GOP colleagues who think that the system of justice should only follow their partisan wishes,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), Comer’s Democratic counterpart on the committee, said in a statement.
“Oversight Committee Republicans have advanced debunked conspiracy theories about President Biden and are now, again, wailing about the work of a Trump appointed U.S. Attorney.”
Hunter Biden’s previous drug addiction also became a GOP attack line.
In 2020, former President Trump pounced on the issue, at one point during a presidential debate mentioning that Joe Biden’s son was discharged from the military for cocaine use.
Then-candidate Biden defended his son.
“My son, like a lot of people … had a drug problem,” he said. “He’s overtaken it. He’s fixed it. He’s worked on it. And I’m proud of him. I’m proud of my son.”
Former President Donald Trump speaks at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., Tuesday, June 13, 2023, after pleading not guilty in a Miami courtroom earlier in the day to dozens of felony counts that he hoarded classified documents and refused government demands to give them back. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
Trump weighed in on Hunter Biden’s case after news of the plea agreement broke, criticizing the charges as being low-level.
“Wow! The corrupt Biden DOJ just cleared up hundreds of years of criminal liability by giving Hunter Biden a mere ‘traffic ticket.’ Our system is BROKEN!” the former president wrote on Truth Social.
Trump was arraigned last week on 37 counts following a Department of Justice indictment alleging he violated the Espionage Act and obstructed justice in taking classified records from his presidency and refusing to return them. He is also facing charges for concealing documents and misleading investigators.
Updated at 12:40 p.m.
Alex Gangitano contributed.
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