President Joe Biden responded to reporters’ questions about his son Hunter Biden’s guilty plea on Tuesday, saying, “I’m very proud of my son.”
Reporters shouted questions at the president while at a meeting in California on the implications of AI.
The Guilty Plea
Hunter Biden reached an agreement with the Justice Department regarding charges of neglecting to pay federal income tax and illegally possessing a firearm, according to the letter (pdf) filed in U.S. District Court in Delaware.According to the June 20 letter, Hunter Biden will plead guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses and is anticipated to reach an agreement with prosecutors on the felony charge of illegally possessing a firearm as a drug user, according to the agreement, which was made public on Tuesday.
It is not common for a federal criminal case to be resolved at the same time as the charges are filed in court, but it is not impossible.
The agreement concludes a lengthy Justice Department investigation into Biden’s second son, who has admitted to struggling with addiction since his brother Beau Biden’s death in 2015.
It also prevents a trial that would have generated days or weeks of distracting headlines for a White House that has worked hard to maintain a distance from the Justice Department.
Christopher Clark, an attorney for Hunter Biden, said in a statement that, to his knowledge, the five-year investigation has concluded.
What the Charges Mean
Earlier reports indicated that Hunter Biden, in 2018, “knowing that he was an unlawful user of and addicted to a controlled substance … did knowingly possess a firearm, that is, a Colt Cobra 38SPL revolver with serial number RA 551363, said firearm having been shipped and transported in interstate commerce,” according to the indictment.If certain criteria are met, pre-trial diversion programs permit defendants to have charges dropped. According to the Department of Justice, the programs’ goals include preventing future criminal activity and promoting rehabilitation.
The news comes as congressional Republicans investigate almost every aspect of Hunter Biden’s business dealings, including his foreign payments and other financial matters.
The news also broke days after the 37-count indictment of former President Donald Trump for allegedly mishandling classified documents on his Florida estate, a case with even more dramatic political implications.
The firearms charge alleges that Hunter Biden, for 11 days in October 2018, possessed a Colt Cobra 38 special handgun despite knowing he was a drug user.
Biden’s Previous Statements
In the weeks preceding Hunter Biden’s plea agreement, rumors circulated that the president’s son would soon be charged with a crime.The U.S. attorney’s office in Delaware is investigating the tax affairs of Hunter Biden. In 2020, the president’s son stated that he was treating the investigation “seriously” but was optimistic about a positive outcome.
“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 advisers,” Hunter Biden said in a statement issued by the Biden-Harris transition team in December 2020.
