Hunter Biden is feeling the squeeze as federal prosecutors are reportedly getting close to making a decision on whether to charge him while the public gets a deeper look into his personal life and financial affairs.
After lawyers for President Joe Biden’s adult son met with Department of Justice (DOJ) officials to discuss the criminal inquiry last week, sources told The Washington Post in a report published Wednesday that potential charges for tax- and gun-related crimes may soon follow from Delaware’s U.S. Attorney David Weiss.
Ever since 2018, FBI and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) investigators have reportedly been looking into the younger Biden on a number of issues. The meeting last week included representatives from the tax division and Weiss, according to CNN.
All the while, Republican lawmakers have been conducting their own investigations into Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings as well as finances of the Biden family at large over concerns of influence peddling. A pair of GOP lawmakers, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY), revealed on Wednesday a subpoena seeking an FBI record alleging a criminal bribery scheme involving Joe Biden, dating back to when he was vice president, and a foreign national.
The confluence of these developments led George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley to warn that the DOJ will “likely” use the ongoing Hunter Biden probe “as a basis to withhold this document and other information.”
President Biden, who is a little more than a week into his re-election campaign, has denied that he had knowledge of his son’s lucrative business dealings, which have links to foreign countries such as China and Ukraine. However, there is growing evidence — as underscored in emails reported by Fox News this week — that he met with several of Hunter Biden’s business associates during his time as vice president.
White House spokesperson Ian Sams released a statement chastising Republicans in Congress for what he called “unfounded, unproven, politically-motivated attacks against the President and his family without offering evidence for their claims or evidence of decisions influenced by anything other than U.S. interests.”
Although Hunter Biden has said he expects to be cleared of wrongdoing in the criminal investigation he faces, for months it has been reported that federal agents believed they had sufficient evidence to charge the younger Biden with tax crimes and a false statement related to a gun purchase. Law enforcement sources told NBC News about “growing frustration” in the FBI over a lack of charges as prosecutors have considered charging the younger Biden with three tax crimes and one false statement crime related to a 2018 firearm purchase at a time when he was struggling with a drug addiction.
In recent weeks, an IRS supervisor reached out to top lawmakers, seeking to make protected whistleblower disclosures to Congress about a high-profile investigation, which has been identified as the Hunter Biden probe.
Mark Lytle, the IRS official’s lawyer, said his client has already made disclosures to multiple inspectors general including “examples of preferential treatment and politics improperly infecting decisions” and claims that “contradict sworn testimony to Congress by a senior political appointee.” Lytle told CBS News that his client has emails and other communications to back up his disclosures.
The senior official referenced by Lytle in his letter to Congress has been identified as Attorney General Merrick Garland. Garland spoke briefly about the inquiry during congressional testimony in March. “I pledged not to interfere with that investigation and I have carried through on my pledge,” Garland testified to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Pressed about the IRS whistleblower and his testimony during a news conference on Tuesday, Garland said his statement under oath remains true. “Yes, it’s still the case,” Garland said. “I stand by my testimony and I refer you to the U.S. attorney for the district of Delaware, who is in charge of this case and capable of making any decisions that he feels are appropriate.”
Hunter Biden’s attorney, Chris Clark, has told news outlets the IRS official “appears” to have committed a crime. “It is a felony for an IRS agent to improperly disclose information about an ongoing tax investigation,” Clark said in a statement reported by NBC News.
Lytle told Fox News the statement was “unfortunate,” but stressed that his client is not backing down. “Attacks like this are kind of what he was worried about, but he wants to come forward and tell the truth,” he said.
In addition to all the investigatory activity, Hunter Biden is facing a paternity case in Arkansas. After The New York Post’s Miranda Devine wrote last week that Hunter Biden may be living in the White House to avoid being served with legal papers amid a legal fight with former stripper Lunden Alexis Roberts, the mother of his 4-year-old daughter, over child support, a judge this week ordered the first son to answer questions about his finances and possibly the “laptop from hell.”
The laptop, which Hunter Biden allegedly abandoned at a repair shop in Delaware, became a subject of interest in the final weeks of the 2020 campaign when The New York Post began reporting on details of the younger Biden’s shady business dealings and personal life that it contained. Over the past two years, many of the contents of the laptop, which was seized by the FBI, have been analyzed and shown to be authentic.
Increasing scrutiny is being placed on an October 2020 letter signed by 51 former intelligence officials suggesting the Hunter Biden laptop story could be part of a Russian disinformation operation. Congressional Republicans released portions of a transcribed interview in which former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell said “yes” when asked if a call around mid-October 2020 from Antony Blinken, an adviser to President Biden’s campaign who is now secretary of state, triggered the letter.
While Blinken denies soliciting the letter, Sens. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Grassley accused him of providing false testimony to Congress regarding his communications with Hunter Biden over the years and demanded records that refer or relate to the First Son for an investigation.