Hunter Biden’s criminal defense attorney met with Justice Department officials Wednesday to get a status update on the criminal cases pending against him. His legal team has been asking questions about the status for several weeks.
Reports indicate that the IRS and FBI concluded their investigations into Biden last year and recommended charges be brought.
Hunter Biden: Where Does He Stand?
Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, a Trump appointee, has been in charge of the investigation. The Biden administration has used his tie to the last administration to make the public case that it has not politicized the investigation. The meeting took place at the Justice Department’s headquarters in Washington.
Biden attorney Chris Clark met with representatives of Weiss’ office, officials of the Justice Department’s tax division, according to CNN.
The investigation has been looking into Biden’s income from China and Ukraine. Biden borrowed $2 million to repay his tax debts last year but remains potentially criminally liable for tax evasion.
The Gun
Biden purchased a pistol in 2018 during a period in which he admitted to having used cocaine. Federal regulations prohibit individuals who have used hard drugs from purchasing a firearm if the incident took place within the prior year. He checked no on the federal background check form where it asked if he had used illicit substances.
This infraction has generated controversy among Republicans and right-leaning activist groups such as Judicial Watch in the past few months. Judicial Watch recently filed a lawsuit looking for answers from the FBI about its involvement in an “alleged operation to protect Hunter Biden from the criminal consequences of his gun scandal.”
Tax Issues
Prosecutors are deciding whether to charge Biden with two misdemeanor charges for failing to file his taxes, one count of felony tax evasion related to the overreporting of expenses, and making a false statement about a gun purchase.
The meeting came in the wake of an IRS whistleblower’s claim that Merrick Garland lied to Congress when he testified that the Hunter Biden investigation was not being politically interfered with.
Clark accused the whistleblower of breaking the law by sharing his client’s confidential tax information with Congress.
“It is a felony for an IRS agent to improperly disclose information about an ongoing tax investigation,” Clark said. “The IRS 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. Unfortunately, that is what has happened and is happening here in an attempt to harm my client.”
The Biden White House denied the whistleblower’s claim.
“Since he took office and consistent with his campaign promise that he would restore the independence of the Justice Department when it comes to decision-making in criminal investigations, President Biden has made clear that this matter would be handled independently by the Justice Department, under the leadership of a US Attorney appointed by former President [Donald] Trump, free from any political interference by the White House,” White House spokesman Ian Sams said.
No further information about the case was available Thursday.
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John Rossomando was a senior analyst for Defense Policy and served as Senior Analyst for Counterterrorism at The Investigative Project on Terrorism for eight years. His work has been featured in numerous publications such as The American Thinker, Daily Wire, Red Alert Politics, CNSNews.com, The Daily Caller, Human Events, Newsmax, The American Spectator, TownHall.com, and Crisis Magazine. He also served as senior managing editor of The Bulletin, a 100,000-circulation daily newspaper in Philadelphia, and received the Pennsylvania Associated Press Managing Editors first-place award in 2008 for his reporting.
