(NewsNation) — It seems when it comes to Hunter Biden, it’s never enough for some. He simply can’t be investigated enough or punished enough or prosecuted enough.
Now, of course, Tuesday’s announcement of a plea deal on two counts of willful failure to pay federal income tax and one count of possession of a firearm by a person who is addicted to a controlled substance is not enough.
To be clear, I was one of those early on saying this criminal investigation is serious, that certain revelations from the laptop were serious, that many in the media wasn’t taking any of it seriously enough. We did full hours on this show when few in the mainstream media were talking about Hunter Biden.
But now that a Trump-appointed federal prosecutor has cut the deal, a prosecutor who was left in that position after Biden won the presidency to ensure that he, David Weiss and not Attorney General Merrick Garland made the call, and has now gotten guilty pleas on charges an ordinary citizen probably would not have been charged with at all, it’s apparently still not enough. In fact, it’s an outrage.
“It continues to show the two-tiered system in America. If you are the president’s leading political opponent, the DOJ is going to try to put you in jail and give you prison time, but if you are the president’s son, you get a sweetheart deal,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said.
Rep. Rich McCormick of Georgia said: “There’s a clear double standard here. It’s very aggravating to me to watch people who are living privileged lives getting away with essentially murder.”
Essentially murder? Let’s get some straight talk on this.
Hunter Biden pleaded guilty and now faces approximately two years probation and additional conditions of a federal diversion program relating to the gun charge.
Probation always sounds like a slap on the wrist, but these are crimes generally not even charged criminally, meaning the two cases for willful failure to pay taxes usually would not be charged because he paid the money back.
Typically, the IRS wants to get its money when it’s requested and merely levies fines. Very rarely do they prosecute.
In 2021, the most recent year on record, only 370 federal tax fraud offenders of any kind nationwide were sentenced to prison. Plus, there were additional factors in almost all of those cases, including prior criminal records and using sophisticated methods to cover up the crimes.
The gun charge for possession by a person addicted to a controlled substance almost never gets prosecuted on its own. Yes, it’s often added to charges, but it’s typically not charged alone.
But the other argument that has been made is that this is just the tip of iceberg, and that Hunter Biden accepting a plea deal on these crimes gets him off the hook for so-called influence peddling.
Earlier today on Fox News, their legal analyst Jonathan Turley made that case.
“It was an evasion of the more serious allegations facing Hunter Biden and the Biden family. So, it is historic in the sense that the president’s son is going to plead guilty to a criminal act. It is going to be very controversial for critics. I think for many, this is going to look like you ticketed the getaway driver after a bank robbery. You know, many people view the influence peddling allegation … there’s a very serious form of corruption with potential crime. And he’s going to plead guilty to relatively minor tax and gun charges. And that’s not going to satisfy a lot of people,” Turley said.
First of all, the prosecutor has made it clear the investigation is continuing. But just because Hunter Biden engaged in questionable business deals using his family name, which he did, it doesn’t necessarily mean he violated any other laws. Exactly what other law did he break? What law did they have a case on and not charge him with? What is the evidence?
It’s not like Weiss didn’t examine the other issues, as some including Turley have suggested. ABC News reports that prosecutors looked into Hunter Biden’s overseas business endeavors, including his stint on the board of Ukrainian energy firm Burisma and his work in China. If Weiss didn’t find a crime, it doesn’t mean that there is some “two tiered” justice, as now former President Donald Trump and others are claiming.
Furthermore, is this influence peddling road really one that Republicans want to go down? As I’ve pointed out before, you cannot talk credibly about allegations of influence peddling against Hunter Biden without bringing up Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner.
The Chinese government seems to have fast tracked trademarks Ivanka applied for after Trump took office and then additional ones right before and after then-President Trump reversed sanctions on Chinese telecommunications and smartphone maker ZTE for doing business with Iran and North Korea.
The reversal was also within days of the Chinese government agreeing to provide $500 million in loans to an Indonesian theme park with which the Trump Organization was involved.
Six months after leaving the White House, Jared Kushner secured a $2 billion investment from a fund led by the Saudi crown prince, a close ally during the Trump administration. And it was an investment that an advisory panel at the fund had actually recommended against but were personally overruled by the crown prince.
As it turned out, Kushner helped broker $110 billion in weapons sales to Saudi Arabia during his time in the administration. Former President Trump even vetoed two bipartisan measures that would have banned Saudi weapons sales.
I am not saying, “Let’s investigate the Trumps and the Kushners.” But if you want to pursue influence peddling allegations against Hunter Biden, then you have to look into the Trumps, as well.
More broadly, don’t accuse the DOJ of going soft unless you have the goods. If Hunter Biden’s name wasn’t Biden, he would not have gotten that lucrative gig consulting for Burisma, but he also likely would not have been charged with the crimes to which he has pleaded guilty. Those screaming about a double standard simply have no evidence to back up those claims.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author, and not of NewsNation.