Prosecutors are nearing a decision on whether to charge President Biden’s son Hunter with tax- and gun-related violations, according to people familiar with the matter, the culmination of a four-year investigation that Republicans have sought to portray as evidence the Biden family is corrupt.
Biden’s attorneys met at Justice Department headquarters in downtown Washington last week to discuss the case with U.S. Attorney David Weiss of Delaware, according to the people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing criminal investigation. Typically, that sort of meeting — in which defense lawyers urge prosecutors not to seek an indictment of their client, or to seek reduced charges — comes toward the end of an investigation.
The people familiar with the matter said Weiss is nearing the end of his decision-making process, although they offered no specific timetable. They cautioned that the probe has taken longer than some officials thought it would, frustrating some law enforcement officials, and conceivably could slow down again before a decision has been reached.
Any decision could have a significant impact on President Biden, who just launched his reelection campaign, bringing national attention to a sensitive topic that aides often struggle to broach with the president. Republicans seeking to win back the White House have sought to tie Hunter Biden’s legal woes directly to his father.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has told Congress that the department’s decisions in the case would not be politicized and has said he has granted Weiss — a holdover from the Trump administration — complete authority to run the investigation.
Garland reiterated that stance Tuesday at a news conference on an unrelated matter, telling reporters who asked about the status of the investigation: “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.”
The attorney general was not present at the meeting with Hunter Biden’s lawyers last week, the people familiar with the matter said. A spokeswoman for Weiss declined to comment, as did a lawyer for Biden. Biden said of himself in December 2020 that he had “handled my affairs legally and appropriately.”
Although Hunter Biden kept a low profile during the 2020 presidential campaign — when he had spiraled into a battle with addiction and became a focal point of Republican attacks — he has taken on a more public and assertive role in recent months. He has appeared with his father at events including the state dinner for French President Emmanuel Macron and the Kennedy Center Honors, and was by the president’s side at nearly every stop last month during a trip to Ireland, their ancestral homeland.
“Stand up, guys,” the president said at one stop, asking his son and his sister to rise and be recognized. “I’m proud of you.”
The Washington Post reported last year that federal agents had concluded that they had enough evidence to charge Hunter Biden with tax crimes and making a false statement related to a gun purchase. But it is ultimately up to prosecutors at the Justice Department, not agents, to decide whether to file charges; prosecutors generally do so if they think the evidence is likely to lead to a conviction at trial.
The investigation into Hunter Biden began in 2018 and centered on his finances related to overseas business ties and consulting work. Over time, investigators shifted their focus to whether he failed to report all of his income and whether he lied on a form for a gun purchase by denying that he was a drug abuser.
Hunter Biden’s own memoir, “Beautiful Things,” recounts in detail his long battle with drug addiction, saying that for stretches of 2018, he smoked crack “every 15 minutes.” Of key interest to prosecutors is his October 2017 purchase of a handgun — at a time when, by his own account, he was using drugs. Biden filled out a federal form related to the purchase 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?”
Prosecutions for false statements on gun-purchase forms are relatively rare, but they do happen. Federal agents refer to such cases as “lying and buying.” Historically, prosecutors have significant discretion to decide which ones are worth federal resources.
When President Donald Trump ran for reelection in 2020, facing off against Democrat Joe Biden, he made allegations of wrongdoing against Hunter Biden a centerpiece of his campaign. At the height of the campaign, Trump allies revealed that the owner of a Delaware computer had turned over to the FBI a laptop that had apparently belonged to Hunter Biden. Trump and others argued that data on the laptop showed evidence of unethical and possible illegal business deals; Joe Biden and his supporters denounced the efforts as a smear.
Last year, The Post reported that two computer security experts had reviewed nearly 129,000 emails purportedly from Hunter Biden’s computer and determined, on the basis of cryptography signatures from Google and other technology companies, that at least 22,000 could be authenticated. The Post has not been able to learn whether the laptop and its contents have been useful in the Justice Department investigation.
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Biden’s attorneys met at Justice Department headquarters in downtown Washington last week to discuss the case with U.S. Attorney David Weiss of Delaware, according to the people familiar with the matter, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss an ongoing criminal investigation. Typically, that sort of meeting — in which defense lawyers urge prosecutors not to seek an indictment of their client, or to seek reduced charges — comes toward the end of an investigation.
The people familiar with the matter said Weiss is nearing the end of his decision-making process, although they offered no specific timetable. They cautioned that the probe has taken longer than some officials thought it would, frustrating some law enforcement officials, and conceivably could slow down again before a decision has been reached.
Any decision could have a significant impact on President Biden, who just launched his reelection campaign, bringing national attention to a sensitive topic that aides often struggle to broach with the president. Republicans seeking to win back the White House have sought to tie Hunter Biden’s legal woes directly to his father.
Attorney General Merrick Garland has told Congress that the department’s decisions in the case would not be politicized and has said he has granted Weiss — a holdover from the Trump administration — complete authority to run the investigation.
Garland reiterated that stance Tuesday at a news conference on an unrelated matter, telling reporters who asked about the status of the investigation: “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.”
The attorney general was not present at the meeting with Hunter Biden’s lawyers last week, the people familiar with the matter said. A spokeswoman for Weiss declined to comment, as did a lawyer for Biden. Biden said of himself in December 2020 that he had “handled my affairs legally and appropriately.”
Although Hunter Biden kept a low profile during the 2020 presidential campaign — when he had spiraled into a battle with addiction and became a focal point of Republican attacks — he has taken on a more public and assertive role in recent months. He has appeared with his father at events including the state dinner for French President Emmanuel Macron and the Kennedy Center Honors, and was by the president’s side at nearly every stop last month during a trip to Ireland, their ancestral homeland.
“Stand up, guys,” the president said at one stop, asking his son and his sister to rise and be recognized. “I’m proud of you.”
The Washington Post reported last year that federal agents had concluded that they had enough evidence to charge Hunter Biden with tax crimes and making a false statement related to a gun purchase. But it is ultimately up to prosecutors at the Justice Department, not agents, to decide whether to file charges; prosecutors generally do so if they think the evidence is likely to lead to a conviction at trial.
The investigation into Hunter Biden began in 2018 and centered on his finances related to overseas business ties and consulting work. Over time, investigators shifted their focus to whether he failed to report all of his income and whether he lied on a form for a gun purchase by denying that he was a drug abuser.
Hunter Biden’s own memoir, “Beautiful Things,” recounts in detail his long battle with drug addiction, saying that for stretches of 2018, he smoked crack “every 15 minutes.” Of key interest to prosecutors is his October 2017 purchase of a handgun — at a time when, by his own account, he was using drugs. Biden filled out a federal form related to the purchase 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?”
Prosecutions for false statements on gun-purchase forms are relatively rare, but they do happen. Federal agents refer to such cases as “lying and buying.” Historically, prosecutors have significant discretion to decide which ones are worth federal resources.
When President Donald Trump ran for reelection in 2020, facing off against Democrat Joe Biden, he made allegations of wrongdoing against Hunter Biden a centerpiece of his campaign. At the height of the campaign, Trump allies revealed that the owner of a Delaware computer had turned over to the FBI a laptop that had apparently belonged to Hunter Biden. Trump and others argued that data on the laptop showed evidence of unethical and possible illegal business deals; Joe Biden and his supporters denounced the efforts as a smear.
Last year, The Post reported that two computer security experts had reviewed nearly 129,000 emails purportedly from Hunter Biden’s computer and determined, on the basis of cryptography signatures from Google and other technology companies, that at least 22,000 could be authenticated. The Post has not been able to learn whether the laptop and its contents have been useful in the Justice Department investigation.
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