The announcement that federal prosecutors have reached a plea deal with President Joe Biden’s son Hunter over tax and gun charges marks the likely end of a five-year Justice Department investigation that has dogged the Biden family.
The announcement that federal prosecutors have reached a plea deal with President Joe Biden’s son Hunter over tax and gun charges marks the likely end of a five-year Justice Department investigation that has dogged the Biden family.
It doesn’t, however, mean that congressional Republicans are done with their own wide-ranging probe into nearly every facet of Hunter Biden’s business dealings, including examining foreign payments and other aspects of his finances.
Some of the Republican candidates hoping to face off against President Biden in the 2024 election are decrying the deal as evidence of an unfair justice system, particularly in light of the recent federal indictment of GOP front-runner Donald Trump, though there are obvious differences between the two cases.
Here’s what to know about the charges, plea agreement, other probes involving the president’s son and the politics:
WHAT ARE THE CHARGES?
According to a letter filed in U.S. District Court in Delaware, Hunter Biden has been charged with misdemeanor charges of failing to pay federal income tax. Court documents allege that he failed to pay more than $200,000 in federal income taxes for 2017 and 2018.
The federal probe into Hunter Biden began in 2018, bursting into public view in December 2020 — one month after the presidential election — when he revealed that he had received a subpoena as part of the Justice Department’s scrutiny of his taxes.
That subpoena sought information on the younger Biden’s business dealings with a number of entities, including Burisma, a Ukraine gas company whose board he joined in 2014. That move sparked concerns about the perceptions of a conflict of interest, given the elder Biden was deeply involved in U.S. policy toward Ukraine.
An investigation by the then-Republican-controlled Senate did not identify any policies that were directly affected by Hunter Biden’s work.
At the time of that subpoena, Hunter Biden said that he was “confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately, including with the benefit of professional tax advisors.”
The younger Biden has also reached an agreement with the Justice Department on a charge that he illegally possessed a firearm while being a drug user.
Federal law prohibits people who use drugs from possessing firearms or ammunition, although a federal judge challenged the legality earlier this year. According to the Justice Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, between 1998 and 2014, nearly 100,000 prospective gun purchasers went home empty-handed because they were flagged as using illegal drugs.
