The White House and its allies are ready to mark Hunter Biden’s plea agreement with the Justice Department as the end of the saga involving President Joe Biden’s son, but for Republicans, it is only just beginning.
Hunter Biden will plead guilty to federal tax charges and enter into a pretrial diversion program on a gun charge in a deal that will likely see him avoid jail time.
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Biden’s team made a rare public acknowledgment of the troubled presidential son’s legal woes when this arrangement was announced. “The president and first lady love their son and support him as he continues to rebuild his life,” White House Counsel’s Office spokesman Ian Sams told reporters. “We will have no further comment.”
That is the line favored by Democrats on Capitol Hill as well. “A five-year-long thorough investigation by a Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney has reportedly concluded with Hunter Biden pleading guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges and entering pretrial diversion on a gun-related charge,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE), a Biden ally, said in a statement. “From press accounts, I am encouraged that Hunter is taking responsibility for his actions, paying the taxes that he owes, and preparing to move on with his life.”
“Well, after five years of investigation by a Trump U.S. attorney, I have to believe that what they’ve come up with is defensible,” Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) told the Washington Examiner outside the Senate chamber. “In light of past sentencing procedures, I don’t practice law in that area, so I don’t know for sure, but misdemeanor tax offenses are serious. But I’m sure the people who are on the other side wish they were even more so.”
That is an understatement. Many congressional Republicans have long viewed the charges being contemplated by the DOJ insufficient to hold Hunter Biden to account for what they regard as shady foreign business dealings and influence-peddling, at a minimum trading off his father’s name and political power.
House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) has been trying to make a broader case that the president himself is implicated, as the “Big Guy” said to be getting a cut of the profits. Congressional investigators also eye the president’s brother as part of the “Biden crime family.”
Comer and Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) vowed to continue their investigations. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) told reporters the plea deal could even “enhance” their efforts.
The juxtaposition of the Hunter Biden plea deal with former President Donald Trump’s federal indictment, a classified documents case that exposes the 2024 Republican presidential candidate to serious legal jeopardy, has GOP lawmakers reiterating their protests against a “two-tiered” and “weaponized” system of justice.
“Because the question is, is it equal justice?” McCarthy said. “So, you have one leading opponent of the current president that is now indicted [and] is supposed to do jail time. You have a president’s son that the investigation went on for a very long time that now has to do no jail time.”
This has become a problem in the race for the White House as the elder Biden seeks a second term.
“While the Biden family gets a slap on the wrist with kid gloves, the Department of Justice throws the kitchen sink at political opponents, raids the homes of pro-life advocates, and targets parents as ‘domestic terrorists,’” Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) said in a fundraising email sent by his presidential campaign, playing off earlier remarks he made to Fox News host Sean Hannity. “If there’s one thing I know, it’s this: The ‘big guy’ has some explaining to do.”
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The White House is likely to return to its policy of either declining to answer questions about Hunter Biden or referring them to the DOJ. “We’ve been very clear to not comment on anything related to any type of investigation,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said last year.
But at some point, the unwillingness to comment on what the DOJ still describes as an ongoing investigation will be in tension with the desire to close the book on Hunter Biden’s problems. It’s a tension Republicans are fully prepared to exploit.
Emily Jacobs contributed to this report.
