As the congressional investigations into Hunter Biden continue to ramp up, so have public appearances with his father, President Joe Biden.
First was at a lavish December state dinner with French President Emmanuel Macron. Six months later, on June 22, Hunter Biden attended another state dinner for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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Two days prior, on June 20, the Department of Justice had announced in a court filing that Hunter Biden planned to plead guilty to two federal tax crimes, both misdemeanors. Part of the plea deal would also see the president’s son enter a diversion program for illegally possessing a firearm.
At the most recent state dinner, Hunter Biden joined a prestigious guest list, ranging from Ralph Lauren to House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). But also alongside Hunter Biden was the man whose agency had been investigating him — Attorney General Merrick Garland.
All the while, various Republican-led House committees have been probing Hunter Biden’s past activities, including alleged influence-peddling schemes going back to his father’s vice presidential tenure from 2009-17. That’s a bad look, at the very least, GOP lawmakers said.
“Damn. He went to a state dinner with Merrick Garland there,” Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) told the Washington Examiner. “The president of the United States inviting his son, who’s under investigation, you know, under indictment, plead guilty, whatever, and to go to a state dinner with Merrick Garland, it’s just the optics are terrible. But that’s just kind of true of the administration right now.”
But President Joe Biden and his communications team don’t seem flummoxed by it, with the commander in chief’s actions harkening back to the title and lyrics to the band Kansas’s epic 1976 progressive rock anthem, “Carry On My Wayward Son.” The White House defended the president’s decision to allow Hunter Biden to attend the dinner just days after it was revealed he would plead guilty.
Hunter Biden also recently was seen leaving with his father heading to Camp David for vacation and on a White House balcony alongside his father, watching the fireworks on July 4.
Joe Biden hasn’t directly addressed his son’s plans to plead guilty to the federal charges. The day the news dropped, Biden said he was “very proud of my son” and didn’t elaborate.
A White House spokesperson also said at the time that “the president and first lady love their son and support him as he continues to rebuild his life. We will have no further comment.”
The public appearances of Hunter Biden with his father and other members of his father’s administration have led to Republicans in Congress believing the president doesn’t take his son’s charges seriously.
“It sort of feels like they’re rubbing our noses in it,” Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), told the Washington Examiner. “Not just to the investigators but to the country.”
Republicans point to Hunter Biden’s “sweetheart” plea deal as proof that Republicans and Democrats are held to different standards in the eyes of the law, often comparing it to former President Donald Trump’s 37 federal charges in relation to his handling of classified documents when he was out of office.
Other members believe the public appearances, especially the ones alongside Garland, show the Bidens don’t care.
“What matters to me is that, what is it now, like 60% of the country thinks there’s a double standard in our justice system,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) told the Washington Examiner. “I tell people they think that because there is, and that’s what we’re trying to address with what we’re working on.”
In addition to legal troubles, Hunter Biden, 53, has spoken of a troubled personal life. The Yale Law School graduate has admitted to squandering money during his first marriage on drugs, alcohol, and prostitutes. In 2014, he was kicked out of the Navy Reserves after testing positive for cocaine.
The Investigations
Three House committees are intensely scrutinizing Hunter Biden’s criminal case and if the DOJ interfered in any way with the investigation.
The House Oversight, Judiciary, and Ways and Means committees have started working in tandem to probe the DOJ’s actions in Hunter Biden’s criminal case — that after two IRS whistleblowers alleged the DOJ blocked David Weiss, the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney for Delaware, from bringing charges in the jurisdiction of his choice, and concealed information relating to an alleged foreign bribery scheme involving Hunter Biden and then-Vice President Joe Biden from IRS and FBI investigators on the case.
“These whistleblowers provided information about how the Justice Department refused to follow evidence that implicated Joe Biden, tipped off Hunter Biden’s attorneys, allowed the clock to run out with respect to certain charges, and put Hunter Biden on the path to a sweetheart plea deal,” House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said in a statement. “Americans are rightfully angry about this two-tiered system of justice that seemingly allows the Biden family to operate above the law.”
In light of the whistleblower testimony, Hunter Biden’s legal team has started an aggressive effort to discredit the IRS whistleblowers.
That legal team includes high-profile veteran Washington attorney Abbe Lowell. Former GOP Rep. Denver Riggleman, who was previously a senior technical adviser for the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol, is working with the legal team as well. Riggleman was a House member from 2019-21, representing a conservative southern Virginia district. He lost renomination in 2020 to Rep. Bob Good (R-VA) and has since left the GOP.
On June 30, Lowell sent a 10-page letter to Rep. Jason Smith (R-MO), the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, attempting to discredit the whistleblower testimony.
“Since taking the majority in 2023, various leaders of the House and its committees have discarded the established protocols of Congress, rules of conduct, and even the law in what can only be called an obsession with attacking the Biden family,” Lowell said in the letter. “Your recent actions and joint statement with Chairmen Comer and Jordan make clear that you have joined this ignoble group, adopting their irresponsible tactics as your own.”
And since it was revealed Riggelman was working with Hunter Biden’s legal team, the former congressman has taken to social media to sway public opinion in favor of the president’s son.
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“Truth matters. When I took this job, I wasn’t pro-Hunter or anti-Hunter. I am pro-data and facts,” Riggelman tweeted on July 5. “Forensics make clear that considerable information linked to Hunter Biden is questionable.”
The IRS critics, who House Republicans call “whistleblowers,” though it’s doubtful they meet that technical, legal definition, are set to testify before the House Oversight Committee on July 19. It is likely Hunter Biden’s legal team will heavily push back on any information that comes out of the hearing.
