Prosecutors Hold Off Final Hunter Biden Case Decision Amid Talks With Defense Lawyers
Investigators have believed for months there was enough evidence to charge him on tax and gun-related charges, people say
WSJ
Prosecutors are holding off on a final decision on whether to bring a case against President Biden’s son, Hunter, while they review defense evidence in the long-running investigation, people familiar with the matter said.
Investigators for months have believed there is enough evidence to charge the younger Mr. Biden with tax crimes and a false statement related to a gun he purchased, and had expected a case to be brought by the end of the summer, the people said.
Prosecutors from the U.S. attorney’s office in Delaware, which has been leading the investigation, are struggling with whether certain facts, such as his well-documented drug addiction, would present a defense against a potential criminal tax case, the people said. Mr. Biden’s defense team met with Justice Department prosecutors in recent weeks, trying to counter the government’s potential case, some of the people said.
The decision of whether to bring any charges would be up to prosecutors, who must assess whether they think that evidence is strong enough to win a conviction at trial.
The White House referred questions about the younger Mr. Biden to the Justice Department. A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment.
“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,” Mr. Biden’s attorney Chris Clark said in a written statement.
In December 2020, soon after his father won the presidency, Hunter Biden said his tax matters were under investigation,
a probe that began in 2018, adding he was “confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately.”
Since then, prosecutors have called several of Mr. Biden’s associates and other witnesses to testify before the grand jury as part of a wide-ranging investigation into the president’s son’s business dealings. They have been examining whether he violated tax or other laws, including those governing lobbying for foreign governments, through his business relationships in Ukraine, China, Kazakhstan and elsewhere, some of the people said.
The investigation appeared to be gaining momentum earlier this year, as prosecutors gathered information from several of his associates about the sources of his foreign income, including from Ukraine, and examined the younger Mr. Biden’s relationship with a company that handled some of his finances, The Wall Street Journal reported in March.
They also extensively questioned Mr. Biden’s associates about his drug and alcohol use, spending habits and state of mind in 2018, suggesting they were exploring whether such activity would serve as a defense. In his 2021 memoir, “Beautiful Things,” the younger Mr. Biden detailed his battle with alcohol and crack cocaine.
As the investigation continued, Mr. Biden paid around $1 million that he had owed in back taxes, the Journal previously reported. It isn’t known if that represents his entire tax liability.
The Washington Post earlier Thursday reported that agents believed they had enough evidence to charge the younger Mr. Biden.
The investigation is one of several politically charged probes unfolding under Attorney General Merrick Garland, who hasn’t made any public comment about where the Biden case stands. While he replaced many of the U.S. attorneys appointed by Mr. Trump, Mr. Garland left in place Delaware’s top federal prosecutor, David Weiss, a Trump appointee, to continue the investigation.
Mr. Garland said recently that President Biden “made clear when he appointed me that he would not interfere with, in any way, investigations, and he has stood by that.”
The Justice Department often avoids bringing major politically sensitive cases close to an election, and with the November midterms approaching, experts say it is unlikely prosecutors would bring charges in this case as well as several others before them. In addition to the Hunter Biden investigation, other politically-sensitive probes include the handling of classified and other sensitive government documents at former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home. FBI agents in August seized boxes of documents from the resort.
Mr. Trump’s legal team has described it as a paperwork dispute, and Mr. Trump has denied wrongdoing.
Prosecutors are separately examining the actions of Mr. Trump and his allies in efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, including before and during the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol by his supporters. Mr. Trump has denied wrongdoing.
