Hunter Biden’s latest tax indictment has fanned the fire of criticism against the president, who faces an impeachment inquiry by House Republicans and growing evidence that he personally benefited from his son’s overseas business deals.
The latest indictment, which features nine more charges related to allegedly failing to file or pay taxes and filing falsely, backs up critics of the Biden family who say the impeachment inquiry is not without merit.
“This indictment describes extremely serious felony violations of federal law for not only failing to pay taxes, but for engaging in a deliberate, intentional scheme to evade paying those taxes, including by claiming false and fraudulent business deductions. The standard sentence for that is many years in prison,” Hans von Spakovsky, a legal expert at the right-leaning Heritage Foundation, told The Center Square.
“This also proves that the claims that there is nothing for the House committee to investigate is nonsense and it shows that the president himself was potentially involved in a shady, crooked business enterprise that sold government access for millions of dollars and did everything to hide its income from disclosure,” he added.
House Oversight Committee Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., also raised concerns about reports from IRS whistleblowers that the Department of Justice interfered in the IRS investigation into Hunter Biden.
“The Department of Justice got caught in its attempt to give Hunter Biden an unprecedented sweetheart plea deal and today’s charges filed against Hunter Biden are the result of Mr. Shapley and Mr. Ziegler’s efforts to ensure all Americans are treated equally under the law. Every American should applaud these men for their courage to expose the truth,” Comer said. “IRS whistleblowers also revealed investigators were prevented from following evidence that could have led to Joe Biden.”
The Biden family and associates received more than $20 million from several overseas entities, including China and Russia, with Comer saying some of those funds were funneled to the president himself. The ongoing Congressional investigation into that matter is separate but linked to the latest tax charges indictment, which laid out how Hunter Biden spent lavishly on prostitutes, drugs and more while not paying taxes.
“Between 2016 and October 15, 2020, the Defendant spent this money on drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature, in short, everything but his taxes,” the indictment said.
Comer threatened Hunter Biden with a contempt of Congress charge if he skips his scheduled deposition next week.
Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley and Criminal Investigator Joseph Ziegler, both IRS employees with nearly 30 years of combined experience at the agency, testified earlier this year that Hunter Biden received preferential treatment.
The whistleblowers testified that Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf helped block investigators’ plan for an interview of the president and a search warrant of the Biden residence in Delaware.
Biden’s DOJ also took fire for what was considered a lenient plea deal that was offered to Hunter Biden but later fell through.
“But it also shows that he was almost right – he would have gotten away with this through a sweetheart plea deal with no jail time except for a federal judge questioning the unprecedented leniency of government prosecutors,” said Hans von Spakovsky. “And even though these are very serious charges – finally – they also show the incompetence of DOJ prosecutors or their deliberate malfeasance since he is only being charged with four years of tax violations when we know that these prosecutors allowed the statute of limitations to expire on prior years of similar tax violations.”
