Hunter Biden pleads guilty: The president’s son has agreed to a deal with the federal government to plead guilty to criminal charges.
Hunter Biden Saga Ending?
For about four years, the Republican Party has treated the various foibles of Hunter Biden, the president’s son, as a core part of its case against the Biden presidency.
Between his drug addiction, his abandoned laptop, his tax issues, and his overseas business dealings, the thinking seems to go, there must be some connection to the president, and some way Hunter’s various misdeeds can be used against his father.
Now, there’s been a major development in the Hunter Biden saga. And it’s not likely to make his political enemies happy.
On Tuesday morning, Hunter Biden reached a deal to plead guilty to charges involving the tax and gun cases against him, The Washington Post reported. The plea agreement ends an investigation that lasted for nearly five years, dating back to the Trump presidency, with Trump-era U.S. Attorney David Weiss supervising the investigation.
Per the Post, the younger Biden will “plead guilty to two minor tax crimes and admit to the facts of a gun charge under terms that would likely keep him out of jail,” with Hunter also entering a diversion program. The plea will have Hunter Biden admitting that he failed to pay taxes in 2017 and 2018 and that he illegally possessed a gun that he purchased in 2018.
The agreement came before any charges had been publicly filed.
Hunter Biden had purchased the gun at a time when, per his memoir, he was abusing drugs, although he had claimed in paperwork to not be using drugs. As for the tax charges, the younger Biden has said that he has paid back all money he owed.
As of this writing (and note, this is a developing story), the plea agreement does not appear to touch on any wrongdoing connected to any of Biden’s overseas business deals, although it’s possible the tax issues involve money he earned overseas. Those business deals had been part of the investigation.
According to the New York Times, the deal was “hashed out over several months by Hunter Biden’s legal team and federal prosecutors.”
“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,” Hunter Biden’s attorney Christopher Clark said in a statement to the Times.
“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. 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.”
The New York Post, which has been at the center of most Hunter Biden reporting for the last three years, illustrated its story about the plea with two different nude photos of the president’s son, gleaned from his laptop, along with one of a fully-clothed Hunter sitting with the president.
As for the House Oversight Committee, they are continuing to investigate what they call the “Biden Crime Family,” while seeking to draw insinuations about the overseas business ties of Hunter and other relatives of the president. Most recently, they have vowed to bring in more witnesses.
However, ever since Republicans took over the committee in January, they have continued to overpromise and underdeliver, continuing to promise “bombshell” revelations that have so far proved absolutely no wrongdoing whatsoever by the president himself. Even their potentially explosive accusation that President Biden received a bribe while vice president is very light on solid evidence, behind the existence of a years-old document in which someone alleged that the bribe took place.
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.
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