Hunter: Plea Deal
-
Hunter Biden reaches deal to plead guilty in tax, gun case
President Biden’s son Hunter has reached a tentative agreement with federal prosecutors to plead guilty to two minor tax crimes and admit to the facts of a gun charge under terms that would likely keep him out of jail, according to court papers filed Tuesday.
Any proposed plea deal would have to be approved by a federal judge, and it was not immediately clear what day Hunter Biden, 53, might appear in court to enter his guilty plea.
The agreement caps an investigation that was opened in 2018 during the Trump administration, and has generated intense interest and criticism since 2020 from Republican politicians who accused the Biden administration of reluctance to pursue the case. The terms of the proposed deal — negotiated with Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, a holdover from President Donald Trump’s administration — are likely to face similar scrutiny.
The court papers indicate the younger Biden has tentatively agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges of failure to pay in 2017 and 2018. The combined tax liability is roughly $1.2 million over those years, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe details of the agreement that are not yet public. Prosecutors plan to recommend a sentence of probation for those counts, these people said. Biden’s representatives have said he previously paid back the IRS what he owed.
Additionally, Biden plans to admit to illegally possessing a weapon following his 2018 purchase of a handgun. As part of that admission, he expects to be entered in a diversion program, a less punitive form of sentence typically applied to people with substance abuse problems. In all, prosecutors would recommend two years of probation and diversion conditions. If Biden successfully meets the conditions of the diversion program, the gun charge would be removed from his record at the end of that period, the people said.
The gun purchase that led to the criminal charge happened in late 2018, at a time when, by his own telling in his autobiography, Hunter Biden was regularly abusing crack cocaine. When he filled out paperwork to buy the gun, however, he denied using drugs or having a drug problem, exposing him to a potential charge of making a false statement on the document, as well as illegal gun possession once he acquired the weapon. Biden owned the gun for less than two weeks, because his then-girlfriend threw it away, according to public accounts of that time period.And, Republicans will pounce and seize.
Hunter Biden’s proposed plea deal will likely become grist for the 2024 presidential race, as the nation’s two main parties once again debate the influence of politics on law enforcement, and the effects of law-enforcement investigations on political campaigns.
Biden’s defenders have argued that Hunter Biden is a recovering addict accused of relatively minor offenses — the type of case that would not typically be prosecuted by federal authorities, barring some additional aggravating factors that are not present in this case. They suggest the investigation would have been dropped long ago if he wasn’t the president’s son.
Republicans seeking to win back the White House have sought to tie Hunter Biden’s legal woes directly to his father, claiming the extent of wrongdoing in the Biden family goes far beyond a simple tax and gun case, and that the Justice Department is trying to avoid prosecuting more serious matters. Attorney General Merrick Garland has said he gave full authority over the investigation to Weiss, a Trump appointee, and would not interfere in any charging decision.@George-K said in Hunter: Plea Deal:
the extent of wrongdoing in the Biden family goes far beyond a simple tax and gun case, and that the Justice Department is trying to avoid prosecuting more serious matters.
Will this minor deal cover the Chinese bribery case?
We will probably hear that it does.
-
@Jolly said in Hunter: Plea Deal:
Oh, the commercials that can be made...
I can already see one from DeSantis: Trump’s DA gave a sweetheart deal to Hunter Biden.
@Jon said in Hunter: Plea Deal:
@Jolly said in Hunter: Plea Deal:
Oh, the commercials that can be made...
I can already see one from DeSantis: Trump’s DA gave a sweetheart deal to Hunter Biden.
Living rent free...
-
This meet your criteria?
Hunter Biden is charged with two violations of failure to pay income tax and one violation of unlawful possession of a firearm by a person prohibited. If convicted, he faces a maximum penalty of 12 months in prison on each of the tax charges and a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on the firearm charge. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
David C. Weiss, U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware, made the announcement. The investigation is ongoing.
Which investigation is he referring to, the one Biden plans to plead guilty to or something else?
-
By the way, Wesley Snipes got 3 years for tax evasion.
Just sayin'.
"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... " - Mik, 6/14/08
The saying, "Lite is just one damn thing after another," is a gross understatement. The damn things overlap.
-
-
https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/lauryn-hill-sentenced-to-3-months-in-prison-1560724/
Grammy-winning singer Lauryn Hill was sentenced Monday to three months in prison and an additional three months in home confinement for failing to pay taxes on about $1 million in earnings.
Hill, a 37-year-old South Orange resident, pleaded guilty last year in the case.
-
@George-K said in Hunter: Plea Deal:
By the way, Wesley Snipes got 3 years for tax evasion.
Just sayin'.
He got three years for being black.
Welcome to America. Home of the free? More like home of racism.
@Horace said in Hunter: Plea Deal:
@George-K said in Hunter: Plea Deal:
By the way, Wesley Snipes got 3 years for tax evasion.
Just sayin'.
He got three years for being black.
Welcome to America. Home of the free? More like home of racism.
I've already done the orange is the new black joke on more than one occasion.
Still,
-
I guess we do have systemic racism after all.
