Hunter Biden Deal

Hunter will take responsibility for two instances of misdemeanor failure to file tax payments when due pursuant to a plea agreement.

Attorney Christopher Clark, who represents Hunter Biden, on a plea deal reached with the Justice Department on a criminal investigation.

Why It Matters: The deal includes Hunter Biden, the son of U.S. President Joe Biden, who will plead guilty to two misdemeanors for failing to pay taxes in 2017/2018; he also struck a deal on a felony gun charge (he will be charged for the crime related to taxes and serve probation), according to court filings in Delaware.

Is the investigation over? Depends on who you quote.

"The investigation is ongoing." U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Delaware

This likely concludes a long-awaited federal investigation into the President's son, according to Hunter's legal team.

Republicans respond: "If you're Biden's leading political opponent, the DOJ will try to put you in prison. If you're Biden's son, the DOJ will give you a sweetheart deal." Speaker Kevin McCarthy (D-CA)

Criticism from gun industry: NSSF CRITICIZES DOJ DEAL FOR HUNTER BIDEN’S GUN CRIMES

Context from The New York Times:

"No one questions that Mr. Biden, a 53-year-old Yale-educated lawyer, has had significant personal troubles and pursued a professional path that has intersected with his father’s in ways that raised ethical issues.

After his father became vice president, he built relationships with wealthy foreigners that brought in millions of dollars, surfacing concerns inside the Obama administration and among government watchdog groups that he was cashing in on his family name.

He went into a downward spiral after his brother, Beau, died in 2015, becoming addicted to crack and engaging in tawdry, self-destructive behavior.

But the questions about what occurred during that period never led to conduct that prosecutors believed could win them a conviction in court.

In Ukraine, Hunter Biden sat on the board of Burisma, which was led by an oligarch who at the time was under investigation for corruption. He was paid tens of thousands of dollars a months for the position, which he held while his father was vice president and overseeing the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy.

Republicans have also pointed to an equity stake that Hunter Biden took in a Chinese business venture, and to his failed joint venture with a Chinese tycoon who had courted well-connected Americans in both major parties — at one point he gave the younger Mr. Biden a large diamond as a gift — but who was later detained by Chinese authorities.

Allegations promoted by Republicans that the elder Mr. Biden’s Justice Department went easy on his son are unlikely to fade away.

In April, an I.R.S. supervisor who had been overseeing the investigation into Hunter Biden hired a lawyer and went to Congress, alleging political favoritism in how the investigation had been handled. Congressional Republicans have pledged to investigate the claims, which have also been referred to inspectors general at the Justice Department and I.R.S."