Former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said he is “surprised” by reporting on the federal investigation into Hunter Biden about FBI agents believing they have sufficient evidence to charge President Joe Biden’s adult son with crimes.
Evidence to support charges for tax crimes and a false statement pertaining to a gun purchase gathered by the FBI and Internal Revenue Service has already been sent to the U.S. attorney in Delaware, CBS News reported Friday. Now it is up to the Trump-appointed federal prosecutor, David Weiss, to pursue charges. Whatever Weiss chooses, Ratcliffe, a Trump-era spy chief, said by now he would have expected a leak about a different assortment of charges.
DAVID WEISS, THE US ATTORNEY WHO HOLDS HUNTER BIDEN’S FATE IN HIS HANDS
“What I am surprised at is that two years after having corroborating in a laptop and corroborating witnesses like Tony Bobulinski talking about foreign agent registration violations and influence peddling corruption that the leaks aren’t about those types of charges,” Ratcliffe told Fox News host Trey Gowdy in an interview that aired Sunday, referring to Hunter Biden’s former business partner who says he spoke to the FBI. “I would have expected that at this point in time.”
Hunter Biden’s lawyer, Chris Clark, said he wanted the Justice Department to conduct a leak investigation in response to the reporting on federal agents believing they have enough evidence to charge his client. “As is proper and legally required, we believe the prosecutors in this case are diligently and thoroughly weighing not just evidence provided by agents, but also all the other witnesses in this case, including witnesses for the defense. That is the job of the prosecutors,” Clark also said. Hunter Biden has denied any wrongdoing.
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Talking about potential tax fraud charges, Ratcliffe, who also is a former congressman and former East Texas U.S. attorney, said that for the evidence to make it as far as the Weiss, it had to have been “reviewed and approved” twice by different segments of the Justice Department, if proper protocol is being followed. “If the U.S. attorney in Delaware is looking at this, there is little doubt there is sufficient evidence to — of probable cause to charge Hunter Biden with tax fraud,” Ratcliffe said.
Ratcliffe also guessed that the Justice Department is evaluating Hunter Biden’s defense, which he said “everybody thinks” is going to hinge on him blaming his actions on being “an alcoholic and drug addict for that period of time,” and lacking criminal intent.
