Report Says Federal Agents Think Hunter Biden Could Be Charged — But Federal Prosecutor Has Yet To Decide

Topline

An anonymously sourced report in the Washington Post Thursday claimed federal agents involved in investigating Hunter Biden think they have enough evidence to warrant criminal charges, though a top Justice Department official in Delaware will make the ultimate decision on charges.

President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden leave Holy Spirit Catholic Church in Johns Island, … [+] S.C., after attending a Mass, Saturday, Aug. 13, 2022.

Key Facts

Anonymous sources told the Post that agents decided several months ago they had a sufficient criminal case against President Joe Biden’s son Hunter when it came to charges related to tax crimes and a false statement related to a gun purchase.

The gun charge relates to a purchase of a handgun in 2018, which required Hunter Biden to fill out a form answering a question on whether he was using narcotics, to which he responded “no,” despite his own admission in a book he wrote later that he was smoking crack cocaine at the time.

The investigation—which started in 2018 and has been used by former President Donald Trump during and after his bid for re-election as an attack against Joe Biden—also centered on whether Hunter Biden did not declare income from certain business ventures, including some conducted abroad, according to the Post.

Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump and whom Attorney General Merrick Garland chose to oversee the case, still has to choose whether to bring charges against the president’s son, the outlet reported.

Hunter Biden’s attorney, Chris Clark, slammed the report, telling the Post it is a “federal felony for a federal agent to leak information about a Grand Jury investigation such as this one,” adding, “We expect the Department of Justice will diligently investigate and prosecute” any source that disclosed information about the investigation, comments he confirmed to Forbes.

He also told the outlet no federal agents had contacted him, claiming any information on the case coming from “such an ‘agent’ is inherently biased, one-sided, and inaccurate,” and that law enforcement agents seem to be “violating the law to prejudice a case against a person who is a target simply because of his family name.”

Surprising Fact

Few individuals tend to face charges for false statements related to gun purchases, which the Justice Department calls “lying and buying,” according to the Post. The outlet cited Justice Department records from 2018, the year Hunter Biden purchased a handgun, which showed the department filed charges for 298 cases that year for lying on gun forms, out of about 478 total case referrals to the agency.

Tangent

Trump and other Republicans have leveled a host of allegations against the president’s son about his business dealings for years. Just before the 2020 election, Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, gave information to the New York Post, which reported about a cache of data from the external hard drive of a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden that he allegedly left at a computer repair shop. The FBI seized the laptop after the computer repair shop told agents about it. The story about the laptop was amplified by many conservative outlets and claimed the cache of evidence from the computer implicated Hunter and other members of the Biden family in several scandals, including improper business deals as well as a conspiracy theory that Joe Biden engaged in illicit activities relating to his son’s employment with the Ukrainian natural gas and oil company Burisma. According to nonprofit fact-checking website Politifact, “nothing from the laptop has revealed illegal or unethical behavior by Joe Biden as vice president with regard to his son’s tenure as a director for Burisma, a Ukraine-based natural gas company.” It is unclear whether the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop played a role in the Justice Department investigation, the Post reported Thursday.

Key Background

The Justice Department’s investigation was originally centered on Hunter Biden’s financial and business dealings in foreign countries, including his work for businesses and tycoons in Ukraine and China, starting when Joe Biden served as vice president. Investigators looked at whether Hunter Biden violated foreign lobbying laws, campaign finance and tax laws, as well as federal firearm laws, before eventually narrowing their focus to tax and gun-related charges, multiple anonymous sources told CNN in July. Ethical questions have been raised over the years about Hunter Biden’s consulting and investment work abroad, including whether he properly paid taxes for that work. Hunter Biden first acknowledged in 2020 he was under investigation by the federal government after law enforcement agents asked to interview him, saying at the time he was “confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately, including with the benefit of professional tax advisors.” Senate Republicans in recent weeks have pushed for the White House to appoint a special counsel to take control of the criminal investigation to ensure the investigation is free from political influence, though Garland has denied the request, according to the Post.

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Key Facts

Surprising Fact

Tangent

Key Background

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