Prosecutors Think They Have Evidence to Charge Hunter Biden: Report
By: Sonam Sheth (Business Insider)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Hunter Biden. Paul Morigi/Getty Images for World Food Program USA Redeem now
- Prosecutors think they have enough evidence to bring a criminal case against Hunter Biden.
- The Washington Post reported that they believe they can charge Biden with tax crimes.
- Investigators also think they can indict the younger Biden for making a false statement linked to a gun purchase.
Federal prosecutors believe they have enough evidence to charge President Joe Biden's son, Hunter, with financial crimes and false statements, The Washington Post reported, citing people familiar with the case.
The younger Biden first revealed the existence of the federal investigation into him in December 2020, saying in a statement that prosecutors were looking into his taxes.
"I learned yesterday for the first time that the U.S. Attorney's Office in Delaware advised my legal counsel, also yesterday, that they are investigating my tax affairs," the statement said. "I take this matter very seriously but I am 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 Post reported Thursday that investigators also think they have enough evidence to charge Hunter Biden with making a false statement related to a gun purchase. The US attorney in Delaware will now decide whether to move forward with a criminal case.
CNN reported that prosecutors first started investigating Hunter Biden's taxes in 2018 but temporarily halted the probe because of Justice Department rules barring prosecutors from taking actions that could influence the outcome of an election.
An indictment against Hunter Biden would mark the biggest test yet of the president's pledge to restore independence and public trust in the Justice Department.
This story is breaking. Check back for updates.
www.washingtonpost.com /national-security/2022/10/06/hunter-biden-tax-gun-charges/
Federal agents see chargeable tax, gun-purchase case against Hunter Biden
Devlin Barrett, Perry Stein 8-10 minutes 10/6/2022
Federal agents investigating President Biden’s son Hunter have gathered what they believe is sufficient evidence to charge him with tax crimes and a false statement related to a gun purchase, according to people familiar with the case. The next step is for the U.S. Attorney in Delaware, a Trump administration holdover, to decide on whether to file such charges, these people said.
The investigation into Hunter Biden began in 2018, and became a central focus for then-president Donald Trump during his unsuccessful 2020 reelection effort. Initially, the investigation centered around Hunter Biden’s finances related to overseas business ties and consulting work . Over time, investigators with multiple agencies focused closely on whether he did not report all of his income, and whether he lied on gun purchase paperwork in 2018, according to the people familiar with the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing case.
Agents determined months ago they had assembled a viable criminal case against the younger Biden. But it is ultimately up to prosecutors at the Justice Department, not agents, to decide whether to file charges in cases where prosecutors believe the evidence is strong enough to lead to a likely conviction at trial.
Given the intense political interest in a criminal probe involving the son of a sitting president, Attorney General Merrick Garland has made clear that the U.S. Attorney in Delaware, David C. Weiss, who was nominated by Trump in late 2017, is supervising the case.
Garland has vowed there will be no political or otherwise improper interference in the Hunter Biden case, and has not moved to push Weiss to make a decision, the people familiar with the matter said. It is not uncommon for Justice Department investigations to take years to finish.
A spokeswoman for Weiss declined to comment, as did spokespeople for the Justice Department, and the FBI and the IRS, the two primary investigative agencies.
Asked about the case, Chris Clark, a lawyer for Hunter Biden, accused investigators of leaking information. “It is a federal felony for a federal agent to leak information about a Grand Jury investigation such as this one,” Clark said in a written statement. "Any agent you cite as a source in your article apparently has committed such a felony. We expect the Department of Justice will diligently investigate and prosecute such bad actors. As is proper and legally required, we believe the prosecutors in this case are diligently and thoroughly weighing not just evidence provided by agents, but also all the other witnesses in this case, including witnesses for the defense. That is the job of the prosecutors. They should not be pressured, rushed, or criticized for doing their job.”
Any charging decision involving the Biden case is especially fraught because Trump and his allies have made accusations of corruption in Hunter Biden’s business dealings a key line of attack against Democrats, both before and after the 2020 presidential race. At the height of the election campaign, Trump allies revealed that a Delaware computer shop owner had turned over to the FBI a laptop that had apparently belonged to Hunter Biden. Trump and others argued the data on the laptop showed evidence of unethical and possible illegal business deals; Joe Biden and his supporters denounced the efforts as a smear.
In March, The Washington Post reported that two computer security experts had reviewed thousands of the emails purportedly from Hunter Biden’s computer and found they were authentic communications, based on cryptographic signatures from Google and other technology companies. It could not be determined for this article whether the laptop and its contents were useful in the Justice Department investigation.
The Biden probe has proceeded with relatively little fanfare in recent months amid the much larger and more public Justice Department and FBI investigation into whether Trump mishandled classified material at Mar-a-Lago — and a separate federal investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. Trump and his allies have sharply criticized federal law enforcement over both those cases.
Questions about the younger Biden’s foreign business ventures have long dogged his father’s political life. Trump and his GOP allies specifically cite as ethical conflicts Hunter Biden’s past work for a Ukrainian gas company while his father was vice president, as well as his China-related business affairs. In a July 2019 phone call, Trump urged Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate both Joe and Hunter Biden — part of a pressure campaign that led to the first of Trump’s two impeachment trials in Congress.
In December 2020 federal agents sought to interview the younger Biden, leading him to publicly acknowledge that he was under investigation. “I take this matter very seriously but I am 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,” Hunter Biden said in a statement at that time.
Clark, Hunter Biden’s lawyer, said in his statement Thursday that he has “had no contact whatsoever with any federal investigative agent. Therefore, a rendition of the case from such an ‘agent’ is inherently biased, one-sided, and inaccurate. It is regrettable that law enforcement agents appear to be violating the law to prejudice a case against a person who is a target simply because of his family name. ”
Republicans have pressed the Biden administration to appoint a special counsel to take over the investigation into the president’s son, arguing the step was needed to ensure public confidence in the probe’s outcome. Under Justice Department regulations, any special counsel would still answer to the attorney general, however. Garland chose not to make such an appointment, instead keeping the case with Weiss, whose previous career as a federal prosecutor stretches back decades and includes violent crime and white-collar cases.
In the early days of the Biden administration, a Justice Department official said removing Weiss as U.S. Attorney as he was overseeing the Hunter Biden case would likely spark significant political backlash.
In April, after White House chief of staff Ron Klain said Biden “is confident that his son didn’t break the law,” Garland was asked at a Senate hearing about how the Justice Department is handling the case.
Weiss “is in charge of that investigation. There will not be interference of any political or improper kind,” Garland answered. “We put the investigation in the hands of a Trump appointee from the previous administration.”
The primary focus of the tax investigation has been whether Hunter Biden did not declare income related to his various business ventures, including overseas. The gun paperwork part of the investigation stems from 2018, a time period in which Hunter Biden, by his own account, was smoking crack cocaine.
In October of that year, Biden purchased a handgun, filling out a federal form in which he allegedly answered “no” to the question whether he was “an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?”
According to a book Hunter Biden later wrote about his struggles with substance abuse, he was using drugs heavily that year.
Prosecutions for false statements on gun-purchase forms are relatively rare, but they do happen. In the fiscal year that Hunter Biden purchased that handgun, Justice Department records show prosecutors received 478 referrals for lying on the forms. Of those, charges were filed in 298 cases, or about 60 percent of the time.
Federal agents refer to such cases as “lying and buying.” Historically, prosecutors have significant discretion to decide which ones are worth federal resources.
“A prosecutor can say they have bigger fish to catch, or they can decide to seek a deal,” said Joseph G. Green, a retired agent from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “As agents, we would always include as many charges as we could, but it’s ultimately up to the prosecutor to decide which ones they will bring.”
Ann E. Marimow contributed to this report.
This is the exclusive that only the Washington Post has. You mean Hunter Biden who made millions from influence peddling, may only be charged with Tax violations or a gun purchase?
Here is the most important line:
“A prosecutor can say they have bigger fish to catch, or they can decide to seek a deal,” said Joseph G. Green, a retired agent from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. “As agents, we would always include as many charges as we could, but it’s ultimately up to the prosecutor to decide which ones they will bring.”
Hunter can plead this out and walk away. Yet another miscarriage of justice by the left.
As many non-Democrats have long suspected.
Really? I saw no mention of his laptop or Ukraine.
yes.
Oh, just pretend you did anyway.
Neither did anybody else. Yet here you are.
It looks like those FBI whistleblowers were right.
Those are lesser crimes.
Its interesting that the seeded article is incorrect. Whether that is deliberate or not is unknown.
The Washington Post article DOES NOT say that prosecutors have determined there is enough evidence to charge Hunter Biden with anything, it is "federal investigators" that have said that. Biden's lawyer is calling for the leaking agents to be prosecuted.
I wonder why Business Insider got this story wrong.
it's interesting that you provided nothing as to why you THINK it's wrong.
And yet here you are seeding it.
Is there something wrong with you?
The Business Insider article which was seeded refers to a Washington Post story as the source for saying prosecutors say they have evidence to charge Hunter Biden.
Read the Washington Post article. It doesnt say that. It says that "agents" say there is enough evidence. There is a big difference between the two.
This may have been leaked by MAGA leaning FBI agents who wanted this out prior to the election.
Doesnt mean Biden is innocent, or guilty, but the leak of this story is not from the prosecutors.
Why is this a leak? If the investigators think they have enough, what's the problem with getting it out there? If it WERE the prosecutors telling the story prior to issuing indictments, that would be a different story.
And I know you say the lawyer wants "the leaking agents to be prosecuted" but why?
You didn't seed the Washington Post article. Maybe seed the correct article and we'll read it.
I thought you didn't do the conspiracy theory thing.
Hunter Bidens lawyer says it is illegal for law enforcement to leak information gathered from a grand jury.
Take it up with him.
I find it very curious that agents feel empowered to make this call AT THIS TIME.
Everyone thought the Secret Service was clean until it came out they were infiltrated by MAGA who were erasing their phones.
You never know.
Read the first comment and then you will have read the Washington Post article.
I had already seeded the BI article before I realized it was inaccurate in relation to the Washington Post article.
Oh, then maybe Hunter will walk like Bill Ayers and Daniel Ellsberg. It seems that only lefties walk if the FBI or DOJ does somehing wrong.
I don't think that's how this goes. I think this thing is going to come to an end with Hunter paying a fine. This is to clear the slate before the Republicans take over congress and they can hammer away at Hunter and the FBI.
I read the seeded article. Now if you fucked that up, that's on you. Maybe you should correct it.
This can only be about one thing: the Republicans getting the gavels next year. That investigation has been going on for 4 years. About 20 FBI whistleblowers said that Hunter is being protected by the bureau. They want to bring this thing to an end in a way that won't hurt Hunter.
As Joe said just the other day "nobody fucks with the Bidens."
I fucked up? There is something wrong with you. I posted both articles.
Oh the irony of your statement after years worth of FBI and DOJ leaks on Trump investigations.
So you intentionally seeded one article the distract your own article. So, yes. You fucked up.
all that to protect a crackhead and incompetence in the WH.
I thought that was hilarious coming from somebody who can't put together a coherent sentence.
Perhaps it is the lean difference between the two. Here are two examples of that very theory on another story from a while back.............
And this from Salon who jumped on the story from the "We Hate Cops" point of view that needed correction.
All depends on ones slant...............................
Only if you think there is no difference between prosecutors and FBI agents.
I was talking about the differences in the slant of the reporting media sources comparing how the same stories are told one way out of the blocks
How much does this leak have to do with the coming election?
We already know there are a lot of MAGA in the FBI.
Very little. Btw, when has the Washington Post ever leaked a story to hurt democrats?
We already know there are a lot of MAGA in the FBI.
Projection at its worst!
LOL.
The election that was effected was the one where the laptop story was quashed
The Washington Post are not the leakers, the FBI agents are.
The Washington Post has printed many stories unfavorable to Democrats. The Hillary emails and all the Benghazi bullshit come immediately to mind.
Whoever leaked it, the prognosis is fairly simple. Hunter won't be charged with anything before the election, but immediately after he will get charged with something minor, sauch as a tax violation or an illegal gun purchase. That will end the case before the Republicans take over the committees next year.
Based on the way Biden and the left have abused the law, that is exactly where this is going.
TRUTH
Thought you didn't do the whole conspiracy theory thing.
Perhaps it is just a matter of convenience?
Like we are supposed to believe the FBI, who have favored the Democrats for the past 7 years, suddenly are looking into the President's crackhead kid.
Funny how it all worked out. Some people only got investigated by people who hate them and the same investigators get to investigate their own.
Why do I feel like somethings missing?
It is kind of odd that when it comes to the opposition, the FBI has a suspect but no crime. But when it comes to investigating their own, the FBI works like the Keystone Cops.
Would you stop already!
Where the hell were you for the last six years when there was nothing but massive leaks from the FBI and DOJ on Trump investigations? Republicans didn't weaponize the DOJ and FBI; that was the Democrats!
You are bitching about 50 something FBI and DOJ whistleblowers coming forward to report on their departments' operating procedures being violated. Many of those coming forward aren't even Republicans and didn't vote for Trump! But they are being punished by the FBI and DOJ in violation of the law!
What a massive lie!
According an Office of the Inspector General report released Thursday, Comey violated DOJ and FBI policies, as well as the FBI's employment agreement, by keeping copies of four of his memos in a personal safe and asking a law professor friend to make one memo public after Trump fired him in May 2017.
Isn't funny how Democrats forget it was Comey himself that helped torpedo Hillary. He was the one that announced he reopened the investigation after classified documents were found on Weiner's pad.
Of course Comey was also the asshole that let Hillary off the hook to begin with by not indicting her; even with ample evidence she violated the law.
Comey is one of the last people that should ever be trusted. Him complaining about leaks is hilarious.
Comey wasn't trying to torpedo Hillary, what he did was help President Hillary Clinton from being investigated for those emails on Weiner's laptop by an unfriendly congress and also the embarrassment the FBI would suffer if it was found that the FBI knew about those emails for a couple of months before the election and did nothing about it. Remember he also cleared her again ending all investigations giving the republican congress nothing to go on.
Don't think that everything that is happening is spur of the moment, as what most people believed Comey did to Hillary, he was looking to the future as to how to help Hillary. Just think that not everything is as it seems, look to other possibilities and how it will play out in the future.
He's a gift that keeps giving.
To who? Reject the "gift". Simple.
It's not me you have to worry about.
I'm a hardcore Democrat and there is almost nothing that could make me vote for a Republican in a presidential election.
I do worry that Biden could get entangled in an influence peddling scandal.
Perhaps the gods will shine on us and the Dems will retain control of the House.
"I do worry that Biden could get entangled in an influence peddling scandal."
As well you should, as he will be.
"Perhaps the gods will shine on us and the Dems will retain control of the House."
Not a chance in hell
I gotta be honest about this story. I just do not give a shit about Hunter Biden, and I can't imagine why the average middle of the spectrum American would either. I comment here to say so because this dude is in the news practically every day. And from what I can tell, there is virtually no reason for it beyond politics. When he is actually charged with a crime, maybe we'll all have something to talk about.
Oh come on. Joe didn't get anything out of all that influence peddling?
He never knew about it?
It’s like I always say: Make the case and prosecute, if you can. Otherwise, it’s just gossip.
Nope!
You need a willing DA and AG to do that.
With Democrat tool Garland as AG Democrats don't get brought to justice.
That’s nothing more than a partisan conspiracy theory. Lack of prosecution doesn’t automatically mean the AG is corrupt. On the contrary, the Justice Department is literally investigating him right now. I mean, that’s the seed.
Same. If he was in office it would be different, but he's just another US citizen... Guilty or not, I just don't care.