Hunter Biden will plead guilty in exchange for avoiding prison time in a tax and firearms matter. Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden's son, has reached an agreement with federal prosecutors on allegations of failing to pay federal income tax and unlawfully possessing a firearm. He will plead guilty to tax infractions but will likely escape prison time.

WASHINGTON (AP) – According to a letter filed in U.S. District Court in Delaware, President Joe Biden's son Hunter has reached an agreement with federal prosecutors on allegations of failing to pay federal income tax and unlawfully possessing a handgun and will plead guilty to tax infractions but would likely escape prison time.

As part of the arrangement announced Tuesday, Hunter Biden will plead guilty to minor tax charges. If he follows the terms of the agreement, he will avoid prosecution on a charge of illegally having a weapon as a drug user. It is rare, although not unheard of, to conclude a federal criminal case at the same moment the charges are presented in court.

Under a Justice Department document, Hunter Biden

President Biden's son has reached a tentative agreement with the US attorney in Delaware, agreeing to enter guilty pleas to two misdemeanor tax counts and admitting to felony gun possession.

According to the document, Hunter Biden's plea will include an admission that drug usage was a part of his firearms crime and that he is going into a pretrial diversion plan. According to a person familiar with the arrangement, Hunter Biden must remain drug-free for two years and cannot conduct any more felonies. If Hunter Biden does this, the gun count will be dropped. This does not constitute a guilty plea.

President Biden reacted to inquiries about Hunter Biden at an event in California on Tuesday afternoon by stating, "I am very proud of my son." A White House spokeswoman previously stated, "The President and First Lady love their son and support him as he rebuilds his life." We shall not make any additional comments."

The agreement must be approved by a federal judge in Delaware. At a hearing in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, Hunter Biden is anticipated to enter a plea to the offenses listed in the deal. A hearing date has not yet been set.

During an afternoon Tuesday interview on MSNBC, Hunter Biden's attorney, Chris Clark, stated that his "expectation, preferably about the following continuing, is that he'll be released without conditions."

"I think the judge is going to do what's fair, and what's fair is, you know, my client gets on with his life," Clark said.

His wilful refusal to pay taxes in 2017 and 2018 is the basis for the two misdemeanor tax allegations. According to a document, Hunter Biden earned more than $1.5 million every year. With the help of a loan from his personal attorney, he has since fully settled outstanding taxes and fines, including $2 million allegedly paid to the US Treasury last year. The felony firearm charge refers to a drug user's possession of a pistol in 2018. The pistol was a Colt Cobra 38SPL, according to the petition, and Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss stated in a statement that Hunter Biden possessed it for 11 days in October 2018.

The inquiry is still underway, according to Weiss' office in a statement released Tuesday morning. Clark had earlier told CBS News that "it is my understanding that the five-year investigation into Hunter has been resolved."

"As part of a plea agreement, Hunter will accept responsibility for two instances of misdemeanor failure to file tax payments when due."  The government will also file a firearm charge, which will be subject to a pretrial diversion arrangement but will not be the subject of the plea deal," Clark said. "I understand Hunter believes it is critical to accept responsibility for the mistakes he made during a period of turmoil and addiction in his life."  He is eager to continue his recuperation and move forward."

According to sources close to the president's son, the decision to enter into a plea deal was influenced by Hunter Biden's admission that there were repercussions for his drug consumption, which was substantial at the time his taxes were due.

Weiss, who was chosen by then-President Donald Trump in 2018, conducted the probe.

President Biden retained Weiss in the job, ostensibly to avoid any impression of meddling in the continuing inquiry against the president's son. The Justice Department has gone to considerable efforts to maintain Weiss' independence, even as it has been heavily attacked by Republican senators and others for the length of the investigation.

The potential plea bargain comes at a time when Republican presidential contenders and members of Congress are under investigation.

Congress has been criticizing the Justice Department for being "weaponized" by the Biden administration against Republican opponents. It also comes less than a week after a Special Counsel appointed by US Attorney General Merrick Garland won a federal grand jury indictment against Trump on felony charges coming in part from his alleged "willful retention" of sensitive data. The White House has vehemently rejected any political meddling.

In a Senate floor address on June 12, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley accused the Justice Department of utilizing "every resource to investigate candidate Trump, President Trump, and former President Trump," but "haven't nearly had the same laser focus on the Biden family."

According to a representative for a Trump-affiliated political action organization, Trump will appoint a

"truly independent special prosecutor" if elected in 2024.

Hunter Biden's probe stretches back to at least 2018.

 

According to sources, the FBI thought it had sent enough material to federal prosecutors in October 2022 to support prosecution. A whistleblower IRS supervisory agent told CBS News earlier this year that prosecutors were taking unprecedented measures to slow-walk a high-profile political case, which sources identified as the one involving the president's son.

For a time, it looked that the inquiry was larger in nature, encompassing Hunter Biden's numerous overseas business interests. However, according to a person familiar with the specifics of the agreement with prosecutors, Hunter Biden's legal team anticipates that the arrangement would say that those cases are now resolved.

A federal subpoena received by CBS News in 2019 sought Hunter's financial details.

as well as the president's brother, James, and two business associates. The subpoena required them to turn over data about transactions with the Bank of China dating back to 2014 when Joe Biden was vice president. A subpoena issued in December 2020 sought records dating back to January 2017 "regarding (Hunter) Biden's income, assets, debts, obligations, and financial transactions... as well as all personal and business expenditures."

In addition, the subpoena sought "all federal, state, local, and foreign tax documentation related to (Hunter) Biden."

According to papers and an attorney involved in the case, prosecutors investigating Hunter Biden also requested data from paternity litigation, which included his tax records.

• "They wanted every record relating to Hunter Biden that we had," attorney Clint Lancaster told CBS News in April 2022. Lancaster

• Lunden Roberts, a woman who sued Hunter Biden in 2019 claiming he was the father of her kid, was represented by him. He agreed to pay child support after a DNA test revealed he was the father.

• Hunter Biden was a frequent participant at his father's White House functions throughout, and President Biden has supported his son, saying on MSNBC recently: "My son has done nothing wrong. I have faith in him. I believe in him, and it affects my presidency by making me proud of him."

• Mr. Biden has also stated that he had no involvement in his son's business operations.

• "I have never taken a penny from any foreign source in my life," Mr. Biden declared during a presidential debate in October 2020.

From the beginning, The investigation into the economic transactions of a man whose father served as a prominent U.S. senator, vice president, and presidential contender had exceptional hurdles. The probe began as Hunter Biden faced repeated political attacks from the right, including the public disclosure of his laptop computer, and continued as Hunter Biden conducted a counter-offensive, launching civil lawsuits against his political adversaries.

Whistleblowers have recently voiced concerns about the speed of the federal criminal investigation. Sources inside the FBI informed CBS News and other news agencies in October 2022 that agents thought they had supplied Weiss with enough information to indict Hunter Biden months earlier.

six months, on April 2023, The attorney for an IRS criminal supervisory special agent requested whistleblower protections from Congress to speak out about allegations that a sensitive political investigation had been hampered by "preferential treatment and politics," 

According to a letter obtained by CBS News.

Sources later verified that the criticism was directed at the Hunter Biden investigation.

"As President Trump predicted, Biden's Justice Department is cutting a sweetheart deal with Hunter Biden to make their bogus case to 'get Trump' appear fair," Karoline Leavitt, a Make America Great Again Inc. spokesman, stated. "Meanwhile, Biden's DOJ continues to turn a blind eye to the Biden family's extensive bribery and corruption scheme."

The agreement concludes a long-running Justice Department inquiry into Biden's second son, who has admitted to suffering from addiction since his brother Beau Biden's death in 2015. It also avoids a trial, which would have created days or weeks of distracting headlines for a White House that has worked hard to separate itself from the Justice Department. According to a source close to the inquiry, the Justice Department will recommend probation on the tax charges, which means Hunter Biden will not face prison time. However, the court has the last say on whether or not to accept any arrangement. The individual was not allowed to talk publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity to The Associated Press.

• Hunter Biden's lawyer, Christopher Clark, stated In a statement, he stated that he believed the five-year probe was finally complete.
• "I know Hunter believes it is important to accept responsibility for these mistakes he made during a period of turmoil and addiction in his life," Clark added. "He looks forward to continuing his recovery and moving forward."
• The announcement comes as House Republicans conduct their own investigations into practically every element of Hunter Biden's business operations, including overseas payments and other financial matters. It also comes just days after former President Donald Trump was indicted on 37 counts for mishandling confidential materials at his Florida resort, a case with far more significant political ramifications.

1. Joe Biden has also been confronted with concerns regarding his son's business activities and drug use.
2. "The President and First Lady adore their son and are committed to his success."
3. to reconstruct his life," according to a statement from the White House Counsel's Office.

According to the gun accusation, Hunter Biden had a pistol, a Colt Cobra 38 special, while knowing he was a drug user for 11 days in October 2018. The offense has a possible jail penalty of up to ten years, but the Justice Department said Hunter Biden had struck a pretrial deal on it. The full scope of the situation was not immediately revealed.

The minor tax offenses to which the younger Biden is expected to plead guilty are significantly more restricted in scope than the claims pursued for years by House Republicans, who are looking into overseas payments and other areas of his finances.

The arrangement comes as the Justice Department investigates. 

what may be the most serious case in its history against Trump, the Russia investigation? The former president is the first to face federal criminal accusations.

• That charge has already sparked a barrage of Republican criticism, allegations of "politicization" of the Justice Department, and a resurgence of suspicions about Hunter Biden's financial transactions.
• According to Attorney General Merrick Garland, the Trump accusations came from a special counsel he hired especially to ensure the probe remained impartial. Meanwhile, Trump appointed David Weiss, the United States Attorney for the District of Delaware, to file the Hunter Biden accusations.
• The Justice Department inquiry became public in December 2020, one month after the presidential election, when Hunter Biden stated that he had been served with a subpoena as part of the department's probe into his taxes. The subpoena sought information on the younger Biden's economic relationships with many organizations, including Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company.

In an apology at the time, Hunter Biden stated that he was "confident that a professional and objective review of these matters would show that I handled my affairs legally and effectively, particularly with the benefit of professional tax advisors."