The U.S. Department of Justice has charged Hunter Biden with the illegal possession of a handgun in 2018 and failure to pay roughly $1.2 million in federal taxes in 2017 and 2018.
However, President Joe Biden’s son has reached a tentative deal with federal prosecutors to avoid jail time, according to a letter filed Tuesday with the U.S. District Court in Delaware.
Under the terms of the agreement, Hunter Biden will plead guilty to the pair of tax misdemeanors (his representatives say he has already paid the IRS the money he owed). He will also enter a two-year period of probation for the gun felony that, if violated, would result in prosecution for unlawfully possessing a firearm while being a user of illegal drugs.
Citing people familiar with the plea deal, who spoke on condition of anonymity to describe details of the agreement that are not yet public, The Washington Post reported that “if Biden successfully meets the conditions of the diversion program, the gun charge would be removed from his record at the end of that period.”
As the Post observed: “The agreement caps an investigation that was opened in 2018 during the Trump administration, and has generated intense interest and criticism since 2020 from Republican politicians who accused the Biden administration of reluctance to pursue the case. The terms of the proposed deal—negotiated with Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, a holdover from President Donald Trump’s administration—are likely to face similar scrutiny.”
“Any proposed plea deal would have to be approved by a federal judge,” the newspaper noted. “Both the prosecutors and the defense counsel have requested a court hearing at which Hunter Biden, 53, can enter his plea.”
