Hunter Biden appears to have ducked other possible charges — including money laundering, bribery and human trafficking — as part of a plea agreement he entered into with federal prosecutors that is likely to result in him serving no jail time.
The president’s 53-year-old son will plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of failing to pay his federal income taxes on at least $3 million he earned from overseas business dealings, and he will participate in a pretrial diversion arrangement for a felony firearms charge after he lied about his drug use on a gun purchasing form in 2018.
However, court filings revealing the deal make no mention of more serious charges Hunter’s laptop indicates he exposed himself to.
Unregistered foreign agent
Hunter likely violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) while negotiating lucrative business deals with entities in China, Mexico, Romania, Russia and Ukraine during and after Joe Biden’s tenure as vice president — with George Washington University Law Professor Jonathan Turley last year calling the evidence “unassailable and undeniable.”
The then-second son visited his father at least 30 times at the Obama White House and at Joe Biden’s Delaware home, often within days of meetings with foreign nationals, according to schedules found on his abandoned laptop.
Other emails from the laptop show Hunter Biden may have passed along funding requests to then-Vice President Biden from the crown prince of Yugoslavia and the crown princess of Serbia, as well as peddled access to his influential father to cash in on construction contracts in Colombia.
“If Hunter relayed the request for US government assistance then that would be a FARA-registrable event,” Craig Engle, a FARA expert and head of the political law practice at Arent Fox Schiff, told The Post in July 2022.
The Justice Department sentenced Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s former 2016 campaign chairman, to 60 months in prison in 2018 for FARA violations stemming from his own work in Ukraine, as well as 30 months more for tax and bank fraud and witness tampering.
The improper lobbying accusations also extend to Hunter’s work as a board member for Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian natural gas company, where he earned $1 million annually.
The House Oversight Committee is probing claims from an FBI informant who alleged Hunter and Joe Biden each received a $5 million bribe to help Burisma’s owner evade a corruption investigation of his own.
Money laundering
The committee has also combed through bank records and found evidence that at least nine Biden family members received payouts from million-dollar deals that Hunter inked in China and Romania.
One the eve of the 2020 election, Hunter’s former business partner Tony Bobulinski alleged that he had evidence of his onetime associate’s money laundering and said he would hand over evidence from cell phones to the FBI.
“Hunter Biden is getting away with a slap on the wrist when growing evidence uncovered by the House Oversight Committee reveals the Bidens engaged in a pattern of corruption, influence peddling, and possibly bribery,” Oversight panel Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said in a statement Tuesday. “These charges against Hunter Biden and sweetheart plea deal have no impact on the Oversight Committee’s investigation.”
Solicitation of prostitution and sex trafficking
Other members of the committee — including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) — have said Treasury Department records also show Hunter’s profits flowed to human trafficking rings in the US, Russia and Ukraine.
The first son repeatedly cavorted with Eastern European prostitutes, according to Suspicious Activity Reports viewed by the congresswomen and photo evidence on Hunter’s abandoned laptop.
“The DOJ proved today they are not serious about holding the Biden family accountable for crimes that have been committed,” Mace told The Post. “This indictment of Hunter is just a slap on the wrist, this is a sweet deal for him on a nothing burger tax charge and federal gun charges, when in fact we have seen evidence of racketeering, RICO, money laundering, bribery, prostitution rings, you name it, and they have yet to charge him five, six, seven years later.”
“We do believe the House Oversight Committee will refer charges on other illegal doings by Hunter Biden, by other members of the Biden family, and maybe even the current president,” she added.
The office of Delaware US Attorney David Weiss announced the charges but added that its “investigation is ongoing.” However, Cornell law professor Robert Hockett told The Post Tuesday that statement amounted to a prosecutorial formality.
“My guess would be that they will continue to probe, just to sort of make sure they have got all the loose ends already captured and tied up,” he said. “But whether they will find more, it doesn’t seem to be highly likely.”
“Certainly new charges could be brought, but they would have to be brought on the basis of new evidence,” Hockett added. “Once a judge approves the deal and it’s finalized then no additional charges can be brought later on the basis of the evidentiary record that we currently have.”
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