First lady Jill Biden insisted that her stepson Hunter Biden is innocent as federal prosecutors weigh possible tax and gun charges against him.
“Everybody and their brother has investigated Hunter,” Mrs. Biden told NBC News in an interview published Friday. “They keep at it and at it. I know that Hunter is innocent. I love my son and I will keep looking forward.”
Federal agents have told news outlets they have enough evidence to charge Hunter Biden, the son of President Biden and his first wife, who died in a car crash about 50 years ago, with tax crimes and making a false statement when he purchased a handgun in 2018.
No such charges, however, have been filed by David Weiss, the U.S. attorney in Delaware. Mr. Weiss, an appointee of President Donald Trump, is overseeing the investigation.
Federal law requires individuals to declare they are not unlawfully using or addicted to drugs when they buy a gun. Hunter Biden wrote in his autobiography that he was struggling with drug addiction in 2018, the same year he purchased the gun.
Mrs. Biden’s strong support of Hunter Biden stands in contrast with the president’s tepid defense in a CNN interview earlier this month.
The elder Biden didn’t deny that his son may have lied on a gun application.
“This thing about a gun — I didn’t know anything about it,” the president told CNN’s Jake Tapper. “But it turns out when he made the application to purchase a gun what happened was he said … you get asked the question: ’are you on drugs or do you use drugs?’”
“He said no,” the president said. “And he wrote about saying ’no’ in his book. I have confidence in my son.”
The president said he is proud of his son, who he said is “on the straight and narrow and has been for some years now.”
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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