Friday brought word of a plea deal with federal prosecutors and a video of first son Hunter Biden attending a White House function, a day after another significant incident involving him and his father, President Joe Biden, broke.
According to reports from earlier in the week, Hunter Biden decided to plead guilty to two minor tax dodging charges, and he also most likely won’t go to jail for a felony weapons allegation.
The first son was accused of evading taxes for two years in a row on an estimated $1.5 million in income. He was also charged with lying about his prior drug usage and addiction on a federal gun background check form in order to obtain a handgun.
Republicans and other first family detractors were incensed by the “sweetheart” plea agreement, which many claimed was yet another illustration of how the nation’s legal system has been politicized and divided into two tiers.
Hunter Biden cited his father once when he threatened a Chinese business partner for payment, according to testimony from two Internal Revenue Service whistleblowers that was made public by a Republican senator after his plea deal.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R-Mo.) made the disclosure following a hearing earlier in the day. He addressed the charges that the Biden administration interfered with U.S. Attorney David Weiss’s investigation of the president’s son during a press conference that followed.
A member of the IRS testified before Smith’s committee that the agency discovered messages from an iCloud search warrant in August 2020, but prosecutors “denied investigators’ requests to develop a strategy to look into the messages and denied investigators’ suggestion to obtain location information to see where the texts were sent from.”
Investigators were able to retrieve one WhatsApp conversation that was made from Hunter Biden to Henry Zhao on July 30, 2017.
A transcript of the conversation, in which Hunter Biden seems to have mentioned his father Joe Biden, was made available by Smith’s committee:
I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight. And, Z, if I get a call or text from anyone involved in this other than you, Zhang, or the chairman, I will make certain that between the man sitting next to me and every person he knows and my ability to forever hold a grudge that you will regret not following my direction. I am sitting here waiting for the call with my father.
Henry Zhao is a member of the Chinese Communist Party, according to author Peter Schweizer, and has previously worked with the daughter of China’s former state security minister.
But the White House and the president didn’t seem to care about any of the scandals. Critics of the Biden family were further incensed by video of Hunter Biden attending a state dinner for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and mingling with the tuxedo-clad attendees.
“No dignity, nothing,” one Twitter user said in response to the video.
It’s interesting to note that U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, who must approve any plea agreement, was also present. He dismissed claims of a politicized DOJ earlier in the day and charged detractors with ‘attacking democracy.’
Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) reacted by requesting that Garland explain why his first son was given such lenient treatment.
“Americans are serving prison time for doing exactly what Hunter Biden did. Biden’s DOJ needs to explain how Hunter Biden’s case is any different. Americans are quickly losing trust in our justice system,” he tweeted on Thursday.
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