The president’s son might soon be facing indictment. Unnamed sources for Fox and CNN claim the Hunter Biden probe is near or has reached a “critical phase,” though no final charging decisions have reportedly been made. While speculation abounds and actual facts are scarce, it seems the most likely outcome is a generous plea deal – if any charges are brought at all.
Hunter Biden Probe
The federal grand jury examining Hunter Biden’s business dealings concluded its most recent term in June, but no charges have yet been filed. US Attorney for the District of Delaware David C. Weiss is now said to be weighing a number of charges, which include tax violations and making a false statement relating to the purchase of a firearm – an interesting legal issue for the son of so rabidly anti-gun a politician as Joe Biden.
The investigation stretches back to 2018, and initially focused on Hunter's financial and business activities in foreign countries while his father was vice president. But investigators have examined a much broader scope of potential crimes since, including violations of money laundering, campaign finance, and foreign lobbying laws.
A Politically Sensitive Situation
One aspect of being Joe Biden’s son while the father is even remotely active in politics is that any scandal involving Hunter can be considered “politically sensitive.” And the DOJ takes issue with prosecuting politically sensitive cases during election years – or so say the department memos. In practice, the fact that 2018 was a midterm election year didn’t stop federal prosecutors from indicting then-President Donald Trump’s former attorney, Michael Cohen, and former-Representative Chris Collins, a New York Republican up for re-election at the time.
Cohen wasn’t protected, one might argue, because neither he nor the actual office holder connected to him were running that year. That’s a fair point – one which applies just as well to Joe and Hunter Biden in 2022. Rep. Collins, however, was in the middle of an election, and still he was charged. Presumably, for this to be considered a politically sensitive case, it would have to be because of the effect such negative press could have on the Democratic Party. Again, no such consideration was given to the GOP in previous years. The 2018 indictments were damaging to the Republicans’ reputation, regardless of who was running for office, and the party is still on trial today thanks to the prime-time debacle that has been the Jan. 6 committee hearings.
A Deal in the Making?
Jim Trusty, a former federal prosecutor and former chief of the DOJ’s Organized Crime Section, told the New York Post that he doubts officials are withholding charges because of the looming midterms. “From the reporting that I have read, it seems more like a generous guilty plea is on the horizon, not some sweeping indictment,” he said. “It does not take four years to put together a dinky gun case or many of the cases deemed tax cases.”
Trusty explains that after hearing a lot about drug addiction and nothing at all of conspiracy, it seems the “critical phase” is more a matter of reaching a plea agreement that ends the entire inquiry. It wouldn’t be the first time the federal government and media tried to sweep under the rug a Hunter Biden scandal for the sake of his father’s political career – recall the laptop that was “fake news” until after the 2020 election concluded? And the last thing the Bidens or Democrats in general want is a thorough investigation into allegations of influence peddling – which by its very nature would draw in a much bigger Biden name than Hunter’s.
