Hunter Biden’s indictment on gun charges may be just the start of legal troubles that increasingly threaten President Biden’s reelection bid.
Federal prosecutors indicted the president’s son Thursday on three felony charges tied to possessing a firearm while using narcotics.
The charges carry a combined maximum sentence of 25 years, but the president’s son could face even more prison time on tax fraud and foreign lobbying charges linked to President Biden’s time as vice president.
The gun charges and threat of further prosecution have sprung from a plea deal that collapsed in court this summer.
Special counsel David Weiss said in a court filing last month that “a trial is now in order” on charges that Hunter Biden failed to pay more than $200,000 in taxes in 2017 and 2018. Mr. Weiss said he could bring the charges in California or the nation’s capital, but he didn’t provide a timeline.
Prosecutors signaled in a July hearing that they could expand their investigation to determine whether the president’s son should be prosecuted on charges of violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act, or FARA.
SEE ALSO: Hunter Biden sues IRS, alleging agents illegally disclosed his tax information
Hunter Biden raked in millions of dollars in foreign business deals. Former business associates said that was partly by leveraging his father’s clout as vice president. Those actions may open him to prosecution on failure to register as a foreign agent. Convictions on FARA violations landed multiple Trump associates in prison.
“That seems like a slam dunk. He took money on behalf of foreign actors and advocated for them and didn’t register,” said Mike Davis, a former counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee and president of the Article III Project, which advocates for constitutionalist judges and the rule of law.
Hunter Biden’s growing legal problems add to his father’s hurdles in his bid for a second term.
Former President Donald Trump, the front-runner for the 2024 Republican Party nomination, surpasses or ties Mr. Biden in general election polls. Many voters, including Democrats and critical independents, say Mr. Biden, 80, is too old to run for president again.
An Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll released Thursday found that half of voters lack confidence in the Justice Department’s handling of the Hunter Biden investigation because of IRS whistleblower allegations of bias and the Justice Department’s apparent favoritism toward the president’s son.
The whistleblowers disclosed, among other things, that Mr. Weiss allowed the statute of limitations to expire on tax fraud charges involving Hunter Biden dating back to 2014 and 2015. The charges involved evading taxes and making false statements regarding his $1 million annual salary for serving on the board of directors at Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy firm.
The president is facing an impeachment inquiry, launched Sept. 12 by House Republicans who say they have evidence that he used the power of the vice presidency to help his family rake in millions of dollars from foreign entities, including Burisma.
House investigators have scoured financial records to uncover more than $20 million that poured into the bank accounts of Biden family members and their associates from deals with China, Ukraine, Russia and other countries. Former business associates of the Biden family have testified to Congress and in an FBI interview that Mr. Biden phoned in or stopped by Hunter Biden’s business meetings and “brought the most value” to the “brand” that Hunter Biden and his business partners were selling to secure the lucrative deals.
On Thursday, one of the nation’s most prominent liberal pundits declared that Mr. Biden should not run for another term.
Mr. Biden had hoped his son’s legal troubles would be fully settled by now, but they have only grown more serious and more likely to implicate him after the plea deal on tax and gun charges crumbled in federal court this summer.
The deal would have spared Hunter Biden from gun charges or any prison time for tax fraud. It also would have foreclosed on further prosecution related to his past actions, including violations of the FARA Act.
When U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika forced prosecutors to admit in open court that they were providing Hunter Biden with broad immunity, prosecutors backtracked and said the Justice Department could prosecute Hunter Biden on other charges, including some related to FARA violations.
Hunter Biden cut hugely profitable deals with Ukraine, China and other countries where his politically powerful father held sway.
His actions could violate the 1938 FARA law, which requires special registration with the Justice Department by anyone who works on behalf of a foreign country to influence U.S. policy or public opinion.
FARA prosecutions were rarely used before 2016. Federal authorities used the once-obscure law to charge several associates of President Trump, including his former national security adviser, Michael T. Flynn, campaign manager Paul Manafort and inaugural committee chairman, Tom Barrack. Mr. Manafort and Mr. Barrack were convicted of the charges and imprisoned.
Republicans want Mr. Weiss to pursue similar charges against Hunter Biden related to foreign lobbying, money laundering and other crimes that dovetail with their impeachment inquiry.
House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer, the Kentucky Republican leading the impeachment probe, said Mr. Weiss must investigate “everyone involved in the fraud schemes and influence peddling” or it will show that the Justice Department is protecting Hunter Biden and President Biden.
Hunter Biden’s attorney Abbe Lowell did not immediately respond to a request for comment for this report.
In a statement after the indictment was announced Thursday, Mr. Lowell said prosecutors had determined that the gun charges were not warranted and the plea deal collapsed only because of “MAGA Republicans’ improper and partisan interference.”
Mr. Trump, posting on his social media site, said the move to charge Hunter Biden with gun offenses is meant to protect Mr. Biden from connection with his son on other crimes.
“This, the gun charge, is the only crime that Hunter Biden committed that does not implicate Crooked Joe Biden,” Trump said.
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
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