Biden makes first comment on son’s legal troubles
The prosecution of Hunter Biden is “up to the Justice Department,” his father US President Joe Biden told reporters on Friday, breaking his silence on the special counsel probe into his son’s activities.
“I have no comment on any investigation that’s going on,” he added.
Hunter Biden was expected to plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of willful failure to pay income taxes last month in a plea deal that would also have allowed him to avoid punishment for the charge of gun possession while an illegal drug user if he completed a pre-trial diversion program.
The gun charge, which stems from misrepresenting his active addiction status in an application to purchase a firearm, typically comes with a prison sentence of up to 10 years. Biden is also alleged to have not paid taxes on at least $1.5 million he earned in 2017 and 2018, though he reportedly paid the overdue bill in 2020. The deal would have allowed him avoid any jail time or have felonies on his record.
Judge Maryellen Noreika brought the process to a halt when she declined to accept the plea deal, pointing out that US attorney David Weiss appeared to have given Biden immunity even from other potential crimes not mentioned during the proceedings. Attempts to reach a replacement deal failed, Weiss revealed on Friday.
Last week, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Weiss as special counsel to investigate the 53-year-old lobbyist. However, Weiss has been leading the Hunter Biden investigation since 2019, leading both Biden’s lawyers and his detractors to argue the appointment changes nothing.
Weiss asked the judge to dismiss the Delaware tax charges on Friday, supposedly as a prelude to re-filing them in California or Washington DC. The Trump-appointed prosecutor has denied IRS whistleblowers' claims that the Justice Department interfered in the investigation.
While Weiss has declined to bring any charges beyond the tax and gun indictments, footage obtained from the laptop Biden abandoned in a Delaware repair shop depicts voluminous illegal activity, including sex with possibly-underage prostitutes, smoking copious amounts of crack, and brandishing his illegal gun. Emails from the laptop – and testimony from Biden’s former business partner, Devon Archer – also hint at a massive and potentially illegal influence-peddling scheme purportedly involving the “big guy” himself, Joe Biden, who was reportedly patched in to over a dozen international business calls.
Biden has repeatedly denied any knowledge of or involvement in his son’s international business dealings. However, the laptop's contents suggest he met with no fewer than 14 of his son’s business associates from Ukraine, China, Mexico, and Kazakhstan as well as the US.
