Federal investigators believe they have enough evidence to charge President Joe Biden’s son Hunter with tax fraud and lying about his drug use on a federal gun purchase form, according to sources familiar with the investigation who spoke to the Washington Post.
Federal authorities began looking into Hunter Biden’s foreign business activities in 2018. Sources for the investigation told the Washington Post their efforts have recently focused on whether he correctly report all of his income, and whether he lied on federal gun purchase paperwork in 2018. The sources said they now have enough evidence to pursue charges.
The decision to actually charge Hunter Biden will reportedly now go to U.S. Attorney in Delaware, David C. Weiss, an appointee of former President Donald Trump. Attorney General Merrick Garland has already made clear that Weiss is in charge of the case and vowed there would be no political interference in Weiss’s decision-making.
The potential tax fraud charges relate to whether or not Hunter Biden declared all of his income from his various foreign business dealings.
The potential gun charges reportedly stem from a handgun purchase the president’s son made in October of 2018, in which Biden allegedly marked “no” to a question on a federal gun purchase form about whether he was “an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?”
Hunter Biden has admitted to past drug use, including smoking crack cocaine. A case over whether he lied on the federal form would focus on whether Biden’s drug use overlapped with the time he purchased the gun.
In March, CNN reported federal investigators were looking into a 2018 incident in which Hunter Biden’s then-girlfriend Hallie Biden — the former wife of Joe Biden’s late son Beau Biden — took a handgun belonging to Hunter Biden and threw it in a garbage can behind a grocery store located near a high school.
Politico reported last year that U.S. Secret Service agents had intervened after the 2018 incident, reaching out to the owner of the Delaware gun store where Hunter Biden reportedly purchased the gun and asking him to turn over the purchase records. Rob Palmieri, the gun store owner, reportedly refused, questioning the agents’ motives and suspecting they were trying to take and conceal Hunter Biden’s gun purchase records.
In response to a request for comment from the Washington Post, Hunter Biden’s lawyer Chris Clark accused federal investigators of leaking information about the case.
“It is a federal felony for a federal agent to leak information about a Grand Jury investigation such as this one,” Clark said in a prepared statement. “Any agent you cite as a source in your article apparently has committed such a felony. We expect the Department of Justice will diligently investigate and prosecute such bad actors. As is proper and legally required, we believe the prosecutors in this case are diligently and thoroughly weighing not just evidence provided by agents, but also all the other witnesses in this case, including witnesses for the defense. That is the job of the prosecutors. They should not be pressured, rushed, or criticized for doing their job.”
