Hunter Biden indicted over lies about drug addiction while buying gun
WASHINGTON — First son Hunter Biden was indicted Thursday in Delaware by special counsel David Weiss on three counts related to lying about being addicted to crack cocaine when he bought a gun nearly five years ago — two days after House Republicans launched an impeachment inquiry into President Biden’s role in Hunter’s foreign business dealings.
The charges carry a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison and Hunter, now 53, could face additional criminal cases in DC and Los Angeles for tax fraud and illegal foreign lobbying, among other potential counts.
The first son is accused of lying about his drug use on a gun purchase form in 2018, when he bought a Colt Cobra revolver during a period when he admitted in his 2021 memoir “Beautiful Things” that he was abusing narcotics.
“Hunter Biden knowingly made a false written statement on the Form 4473, intended and likely to deceive the dealer,” Weiss’ office said, and then “during an 11-day period between Oct. 12 and Oct. 23, 2018, Hunter Biden possessed a firearm while knowing he was an unlawful user of or addicted to [drugs], in violation of federal law.” The gun was disposed of in a trash can behind a food store on the latter date by first daughter-in-law Hallie Biden, who was married to Hunter’s brother, Beau, until his death in 2015 and then dated Hunter.
“That’s one of about a dozen crimes that Hunter Biden’s committed, and ironically that’s the one crime that he committed that you cannot tie Joe Biden into,” House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) told reporters outside the Capitol.
“So, we’ll see what happens with the other 11 or so crimes that the president’s son’s committed.”
Comer added that the case would “absolutely not” cause House Republicans to change course on their impeachment inquiry and urged Weiss to bring indictments “for money laundering, violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act [FARA], tax evasion, the list goes on and on.”
House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), who is spearheading the impeachment inquiry into the president, told reporters outside the Capitol that the gun charges needed to be followed by other indictments.
“That’s one of about a dozen crimes that Hunter Biden’s committed, and ironically that’s the one crime that he committed that you cannot tie Joe Biden into,” Comer said.
“So we’ll see what happens with the other 11 or so crimes that the president’s son’s committed.”
Comer said the case would “absolutely not” change the course of impeachment proceedings and urged Weiss to now bring indictments “for money laundering, violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, tax evasion, the list goes on and on.”
Another Republican, Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, told CNN that “getting Hunter on the gun charge is like getting Jeffery Dahmer on littering.”
Hunter walked away in July from a plea deal that would have granted him two years of probation for failing to pay more than $2 million in taxes on foreign income from countries such as China and Ukraine. As part of that deal, Hunter would have admitted to the gun offense, but it would have been expunged after the completion of probation.
The inquiry announced by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) will focus on President Biden’s involvement in his family’s overseas business dealings, which centered on Hunter and first brother James Biden.
The impeachment inquiry announced by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) is focused on President Biden’s alleged involvement in Hunter and first brother James Biden’s overseas ventures.
Comer said Tuesday that the panel would subpoena the bank records of Hunter and James Biden, including to determine whether any foreign funds flowed to the president.
White House spokesman Ian Sams declined to comment on the indictment, saying, “We would refer you to Hunter’s personal representatives or to the Justice Department.”
Hunter’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, said in a CNN interview that if the case were to reach trial he is prepared to dispute the facts of the case.
“At the time that he purchased his gun, I don’t think there is evidence that that’s when he was suffering,” Lowell said, referring to Hunter’s crack-cocaine addiction.
The attorney also said he would argue in court that the diversion agreement remains in effect for the gun offenses, and said the indictment “violates the agreement the government made with Hunter Biden,” which he called “a standalone agreement.”
“The constitutionality of these charges is very much in doubt,” Lowell claimed, calling them “unique and unjustified.”
“Hunter owned an unloaded gun for 11 days. There has never been a charge like this that has been brought in the United States,” he said.
Hunter Biden abandoned the earlier plea deal after his legal team demanded that federal prosecutors affirm at a July 26 court hearing that he had blanket immunity for all past conduct, including alleged violations of FARA that weren’t charged in the initial deal.
Cornell University law professor Randy Zelin, who specializes in white collar criminal defense, told The Post he expects Biden’s lawyers to file a “Santebello motion” arguing that the plea agreement should be enforced.
“From all indicators, Hunter Biden’s lawyers have been honoring their end of the agreement. He’s been complying with the terms of the diversion agreement, he’s been behaving himself. Their position, I believe, is that they will file a motion to enforce that prior plea agreement,” he said.
Critics of Weiss’ initial handling of the gun and tax charges decried the earlier deal as a sign of preferential treatment.
Rapper Kodak Black’s lawyer noted at the time that his client was sentenced in 2019 to 46 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to providing an incorrect Social Security number on a federal gun purchase form in order to buy three guns from a Miami-area shop.
“2 tiers of justice?” the rapper’s attorney Bradford Cohen wrote. “Kodak was charged for the same crime. Got over 3 years. Mr. Biden will not serve a day. Feels right?”
Weiss was nominated as US attorney by former President Donald Trump in 2017. He was recommended to the job by Delaware’s two Democratic senators, who are close Biden allies, and previously was acting US attorney under President Barack Obama.
The New York Times reported last month that Weiss said earlier this year that he did not want to bring any charges against Hunter Biden after he allegedly was blocked from bringing tax charges by Biden-appointed US attorneys in the nation’s capital and southern California.
Weiss reportedly decided he would charge Hunter Biden only after IRS agent Gary Shapley in April alleged a coverup in the case, resulting in the announcement of the since-aborted probation-only plea deal in June.
Shapley and another whistleblower, IRS case agent Joseph Ziegler, said prosecutors in Weiss’ office blocked them from investigating President Biden’s alleged role in his son’s foreign ventures, despite communications that directly implicated him, such as a threatening July 30, 2017, WhatsApp message in which Hunter Biden wrote to a Chinese government-linked business associate that he was “sitting here with my father” and warned of consequences if a deal was aborted, immediately preceding the flow of $5.1 million to Biden-linked accounts.
Shapley and Ziegler say prosecutors tipped off Hunter Biden to a planned search of a storage unit and an interview approach and were denied full access to Hunter Biden laptop records and weren’t told about an FBI informant file outlining a $10 million Ukraine bribe allegation, which was referred in 2020 to Weiss’ office.
Attorney General Merrick Garland, who testified twice to Congress that Weiss had the power to bring charges against Hunter Biden outside of Delaware, granted Weiss special counsel powers on Aug. 11 so that he could file tax charges in other jurisdictions.