WASHINGTON — First son Hunter Biden has agreed to plead guilty to federal tax and firearms charges in a deal with his father’s Justice Department that’s expected to carry no prison time and leave his record free of felony convictions.
The charges announced by Delaware US Attorney David Weiss’ office amount to a slap on the wrist following a five-year investigation into Hunter, 53, for failing to report millions of dollars in income from countries such as China and Ukraine.
The president’s son will plead guilty to two misdemeanor charges of failing to pay federal income taxes, according to a letter submitted to federal court by Weiss, a Trump administration holdover recommended to his post by the state’s two Democratic senators, who are close Biden allies.
According to charging documents, Hunter failed to pay at least $100,000 in income taxes in both 2017 and 2018, though the precise amounts are not stated.
The first son allegedly received more than $1.5 million in taxable income in each of those years. Hunter reportedly borrowed $2 million to pay off back taxes last year in an attempt to avoid charges.
As part of the agreement, Hunter will enroll in a pretrial diversion agreement on the felony charge of illegally possessing a firearm as a drug user after he lied on a federal gun purchase form in October 2018 about his addiction.
The first son is expected to get probation lasting about two years on the gun charge, with a requirement that he stay sober, submit to drug testing, and avoid additional criminal behavior.
He may also be made to agree to never own firearms again.
Weiss’ office said the tax charges each come with a maximum sentence of 12 months and that the gun charge carries up to 10 years’ incarceration. But a source familiar with the probe said the feds would likely recommend probation for Hunter’s tax charges as well.
The final decision on whether to approve the deal is up to a federal judge — giving opponents a theoretical chance to derail the plan.
“A plea ‘deal’ is a tentative arrangement worked out between a prosecutor and a defendant. However, it has no legal effect on his status unless and until approved by a judge,” said George Washington University law professor John Banzhaf.
“The judge obviously has discretion as to who might speak [at a hearing], and how much weight to give to what they say,” Banzhaf said.
“Here, I believe that if responsible members of Congress were to tell the judge — and make at least a prima facie case — that they had and are in the process of developing more information that Hunter had been involved in more crimes — perhaps with the ‘big guy’ —and more serious crimes which would warrant greater punishment, probably including at least some jail time, it is possible if not likely that the judge would not accept the ‘sweetheart’ plea deal now and at this time, and would at the very least delay it until further information is brought forth,” Banzhaf said.
Amid a flurry of Republican denunciations of the plea deal, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said Tuesday afternoon, “Today’s plea deal cannot be the final word given the significant body of evidence that the FBI and Justice Department have at their disposal. It certainly won’t be for me.”
Hunter will — at least for now — avoid potential charges of working as an unregistered lobbyist under the Foreign Agents Registration Act and money laundering in connection with his work with foreign business partners, including his role on the board of Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Holdings.
FARA violations carry potentially stiff penalties — with 2016 Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort receiving a sentence of 60 months in federal prison in 2018 for his unregistered work on behalf of Ukrainian politicians.
The charging decision came about a month after the IRS dismissed a 13-person investigative team that worked on the case — allegedly in retaliation after supervisory agent Gary Shapley in April contacted Congress to allege a coverup featuring “preferential treatment” and alleged false testimony by Attorney General Merrick Garland about Weiss’ ability to make independent charging decisions.
Shapley and a second IRS whistleblower testified in the past month to the House Ways and Means Committee about alleged irregularities in the Hunter Biden case.
The Republican-led House Oversight Committee, meanwhile, is examining whether the FBI properly probed informant claims that Hunter and Joe Biden received $10 million in bribes to serve the interests of Burisma’s owner Mykola Zlochevsky.
Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) ripped Hunter’s agreement with prosecutors as a “sweetheart plea deal.”
“Let’s be clear: The Department of Justice’s charges against President Biden’s son Hunter reveals a two-tiered system of justice,” Comer said in a statement. “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.”
White House spokesman Ian Sams said, “The President and First Lady love their son and support him as he continues to rebuild his life. We will have no further comment.”
Hunter Biden’s attorney Chris Clark said, “With the announcement of two agreements between my client, Hunter Biden, and the Unite[d] States Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware, it is my understanding that the five-year investigation into Hunter is resolved.”
Clark added: “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.”
However, in a later statement, Weiss’ office said that despite the plea deal, “The investigation is ongoing.” That statement may allow federal authorities to refuse to supply documents to House Republicans.
The first son had announced shortly after his father won the 2020 presidential election that his “tax affairs” were under investigation by Weiss’ office.
The probe kicked off in 2018 when investigators started looking at whether Hunter and his business associates violated various tax and money-laundering laws during their dealings in Ukraine and China.
Meanwhile, a separate investigation was launched after Hunter’s sister-in-law-turned-lover, Hallie Biden, threw away his handgun — leading to a search by Secret Service agents for the weapon and disclosure to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives of its sale.
A copy of Hunter’s Oct. 12, 2018, gun transaction form subsequently revealed that he had answered “No” to the question, “Are you an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?”
Hunter has previously acknowledged struggling with drug addiction in the wake of the 2015 death of his brother, Beau.
Former President Donald Trump, who was indicted this month on federal charges for allegedly mishandling classified documents that carry a de facto life sentence, posted on Truth Social: “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!”
Separately, Trump’s Make America Great Again PAC slammed Hunter’s agreement as a “sweetheart deal” cut by the Justice Department “in order to make their bogus case to ‘get Trump’ appear fair.”
“Meanwhile, Biden’s DOJ continues to turn a blind eye to the Biden family’s extensive corruption and bribery scheme,” spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said. “The American people need President Trump back in office to appoint a truly independent special prosecutor that will finally bring justice.”
Hunter and his uncle James Biden reaped a financial windfall during Joe Biden’s vice presidency, often seeking out business in countries where their powerful relative led US policy.
The House Oversight Committee recently identified nine Biden relatives who allegedly received foreign income from shady figures in China and Romania.
Hunter wrote in emails retrieved from his abandoned laptop that he had to give “half” of his income to his father.
Hunter and James Biden received $4.8 million from a partnership with government-linked CEFC China Energy in 2017 and 2018, according to a Washington Post review of Hunter Biden laptop records.
A May 2017 email penciled in Joe Biden, referred to as the “big guy,” for a 10% cut.
Apart from the alleged Burisma bribes, Hunter earned up to $1 million for serving on the company’s board from 2014-2019 while his dad led the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy, including shepherding US support for Ukraine’s national gas industry and pushing out a prosecutor who at one point investigated his son’s company.
Joe Biden met with at least two of his son’s associates at the company, according to email records and Obama White House visitor logs.
In an earlier China deal, Hunter cofounded investment fund BHR Partners with Chinese state entities in 2013 — just 12 days after Hunter joined VP Biden aboard Air Force Two for an official trip to Beijing, the Wall Street Journal reported. Hunter introduced his dad to BHR CEO Jonathan Li in China’s capital and Joe Biden later wrote college recommendation letters for Li’s children.
The status of Hunter’s 10% stake in BHR, which says it manages nearly $2.2 billion in assets, remains unclear with the White House refusing to provide any transparency. Purported leaked BHR documents suggest Hunter’s “sugar brother” Kevin Morris, a wealthy Hollywood lawyer who reportedly provided Hunter with the $2 million last year to pay off his tax bill, may have taken the stake, though government databases were not updated.
In 2015, Hunter Biden took Mexican business associates to the vice presidential residence and the group posed for a photo with his dad.
He helped set meetings on behalf of one of them, Interject airline founder Miguel Aleman Magnani, with Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx in 2014 and 2015 and a separate one with the administrator of the Federal Aviation Authority.
In 2016, Hunter and his business partner Jeff Cooper joined Joe Biden on Air Force Two for an official trip to Mexico City.
Then-Vice President Biden attended an April 16, 2015, dinner that his son arranged at DC’s Cafe Milano with a small group of international associates including Vadym Pozharskyi of Burisma, a three-person Kazakhstani delegation and the Russian billionaire Yelena Baturina and her husband, the former mayor of Moscow Yury Luzhkov.
Baturina allegedly paid $3.5 million to a firm associated with first son Hunter Biden in February 2014 as she sought out US property investments.
Baturina and another Russian billionaire who sought out US property investments with Hunter Biden have avoided President Biden’s sanctions against Russia’s business elite over the more than one-year war in Ukraine.
Hunter Biden’s alleged role in influence-peddling spans nearly two decades.
In 2006, when Biden was the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, first brother James Biden openly boasted about selling influence as he and Hunter Biden sought to take over a hedge fund based in New York, according to the book “The Bidens: Inside the First Family’s Fifty-Year Rise to Power” by Politico reporter Ben Schreckinger.
“Don’t worry about investors,” James Biden allegedly told a corporate executive. “We’ve got people all around the world who want to invest in Joe Biden… We’ve got investors lined up in a line of 747s filled with cash.”
After his father assumed the presidency, Hunter Biden launched an art career seeking as much as $500,000 for his novice works. The House Oversight Committee is demanding that Hunter’s Manhattan art dealer, Georges Berges, hand over a list of buyers.
With Post wires
