Rep. Jim Himes said it is “clear” Hunter Biden broke the law, following the collapse of Biden’s plea deal over tax misdemeanors.
“Let me say something that you never heard a Republican member of Congress say in the four years of the Trump administration, which is that if Hunter Biden broke the law, he should be prosecuted,” Himes (D-Connecticut) told MSNBC on Friday.
“And it is clear that he broke the law with respect to taxes and possibly the ownership of a handgun. He should be held accountable for that.”
Himes added there was “zero evidence” that the Bidens are guilty of any crimes related to Hunter’s business practices, and he slammed Republican claims of guilt as a “fever dream.”
Hunter’s Plea Struck Down
Himes’ remarks come just days after a plea deal between the president’s son and the Justice Department hit a snag as a Delaware federal judge expressed reservations about accepting a revised agreement during a court hearing last Wednesday.
Hunter Biden, the second-oldest son of President Joe Biden, was under investigation by the DOJ for his tax history. He has also been hit with a charge of being dishonest about his history of drug addiction during an application for a gun permit.
Last month, he agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor charges related to failure to pay income taxes on time.
However, there was a reversal of the initial plea deal, and Hunter Biden pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor charges after questions were raised by the presiding judge, who declared the deal “null and void.” The judge raised concerns about the scope of immunity from prosecution offered in the deal.
Himes believes that Hunter Biden committed crimes and should be held accountable for them, including potential tax offenses and any trading on his father’s influence. He criticized Republicans for not taking a similar stance regarding Donald Trump and his family’s alleged crimes.
Trump’s Legal Woes
Himes also accused the erstwhile Trump administration of “daily abuses of federal authority”.
“You know what, when you start talking about erasing security cameras and that sort of thing, it’s pretty clear you know, that something was wrong,” he stated.
Court documents filed on Thursday suggest the ex-president is facing a slew of new charges related to the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, with accusations of obstructing justice and willfully retaining a top-secret document. This is on top of his various other mounting legal troubles.
Numerous Republicans were critical of the initial plea deal that Hunter Biden received, arguing that he got off with lighter charges than he deserved. Some accused President Biden of intervening on his son’s behalf to secure the deal, but the White House and the investigation’s leaders denied any such intervention.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has stressed that Hunter Biden’s case was handled independently by the DOJ, which was under the leadership of a prosecutor appointed by former President Donald Trump.
Georgia Gilholy is a journalist based in the United Kingdom who has been published in Newsweek, The Times of Israel, and the Spectator. Gilholy writes about international politics, culture, and education.
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