Watchdog Blasts Sweetheart Plea Deal with Hunter Biden; What About FARA?

NLPC blasted the lenient plea agreement between the U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware David Weiss and Hunter Biden whereby Hunter will plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax violations with no jail time and have a felony gun registration charge dismissed in a pretrial diversion program.

Following the five-year long investigation, no charges were brought against Hunter under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) for engaging in political activities on behalf of Burisma and Chinese interests, despite overwhelming evidence which NLPC had presented to the Justice Department in 2020.

Hunter will plead guilty that he willfully failed to pay taxes “over $100,000” in both 2017 and 2018. By pleading guilty to two misdemeanors rather than two felonies for tax evasion, the sentence for misdemeanors ranges from probation to one-year prison sentence. The prosecutor has agreed to ask for probation for the tax charges. Notably, the charging documents don’t specify how much “over $100,000” Hunter owed for each year.

Last year it was reported that Hollywood attorney Kevin Morris lent Hunter over $2 million to pay his back taxes and for living expenses, suggesting that it was much more than $100,000 owed for each year.  In any event, U.S. Sentencing Guidelines call for prison sentences of approximately 15-21 months for this level of offense. Allen Weisselberg, Donald Trump’s Chief Financial Officer, received a 5-month prison sentence for failing to pay taxes on company fringe benefits, a violation less serious than Hunter’s failure to pay taxes.

“It’s outrageous that after a five-year investigation of Hunter Biden, the best that the prosecutor can come up with is a couple misdemeanor charges and then agree to a slap on the wrist as punishment,” said Paul Kamenar, counsel for NLPC.  “Hopefully, the House Oversight Committee will pursue evidence of bribery and foreign money influence of the Biden family.”

“Charging Hunter on his failure to file as a foreign agent would have been a no-brainer. David Weiss is going to look pretty stupid if there’s an even bigger bribery scandal.” said Peter Flaherty, Chairman of NLPC.