Hunter Biden might face tax, gun charges: At least four different charges have been considered for the son of the president, although some prosecutors are “frustrated” by the pace of the case. An IRS agent, meanwhile, has come forward as a whistleblower.
Hunter Biden: How in Serious Trouble?
There’s a distinct possibility that the 2024 presidential election will occur between a Republican candidate who is himself under criminal indictment and a Democratic candidate whose son is under criminal indictment.
NBC News reported this week that federal prosecutors have considered four different criminal charges against the president’s son Hunter Biden, including three tax crimes and one related to an illegal gun purchase.
However, there is some frustration among prosecutions that the case hasn’t moved forward, the same report said. NBC quoted a pair of senior law enforcement sources who said the FBI finished “the bulk of” their work a year ago, as did the IRS.
It’s not clear if any charging decision has yet been made in terms of Hunter Biden’s case.
In addition, CNN reported Thursday that an IRS agent has come forward as a whistleblower, claiming “alleged mishandling and political interference in the ongoing criminal probe into Hunter Biden.”
“Despite serious risks of retaliation, my client is offering to provide you with information necessary to exercise your constitutional oversight function and wishes to make the disclosures in a non-partisan manner to the leadership of the relevant committees on both sides of the political aisle,” the whistleblower’s attorney, Mark Lytle, told the Wall Street Journal.
In addition, per WSJ reporting, the whistleblower claims to have information that “contradicts sworn testimony to Congress by a senior political appointee,” which CNN implied was Attorney General Merrick Garland’s claim before Congress that he had pledged not to interfere with the Hunter Biden probe.
The possible charges, per NBC, are “two misdemeanor counts for failure to file taxes, a single felony count of tax evasion related to a business expense for one year of taxes, and the gun charge, also a potential felony.”
U.S. Attorney David Weiss of Delaware was appointed by the Trump Administration to look into Hunter Biden’s case and stayed in that position after the change in presidents. The probe goes all the way back to 2018.
The Washington Post had reported last October that federal agents saw a “chargeable” case against Hunter Biden.
More Hunter Biden Drama
The case is different from what the House Oversight Committee is investigating, which mostly focuses on Hunter Biden’s overseas business ties, including any possible national security implications.
However, per the Post, the U.S. Attorney’s probe originally focused on those ties, before focusing on “whether he did not report all of his income, and whether he lied on gun purchase paperwork in 2018.” It is possible that the tax case will involve money Hunter Biden earned from his overseas business deals.
House Republicans have sought to prove that Hunter Biden has committed wrongdoing that reflects on the president himself, and also that other members of the president’s family have benefited from his overseas business deals in countries like China and Ukraine.
As for the gun charge, it concerns whether Hunter Biden lied on a form when he purchased a handgun in 2018. He had said that he was not using drugs, according to the report, which “prosecutors might be able to challenge based on his erratic behavior and possible witness accounts of his drug use around that period.” Biden has been open about his struggles with drug addiction in the past.
Per the New York Times, Hunter Biden’s defense attorney has claimed that the whistleblower “broke the law by disclosing confidential taxpayer information.”
“It is a felony for an I.R.S. agent to improperly disclose information about an ongoing tax investigation,” the lawyer, Christopher Clark, said. “The I.R.S. has incredible power, and abusing that power by targeting, embarrassing or disclosing information about a private citizen’s tax matters undermines Americans’ faith in the federal government.”
MORE: ‘Americans Will Pay The Price’: One Democrat Is Angry At Joe Biden
MORE: Could Joe Biden Get Impeached?
Expertise and Experience:
Stephen Silver is a Senior Editor for 19FortyFive. He is an award-winning journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.
