Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, has reached a plea agreement with the US Attorney for Delaware, to plead guilty to two federal misdemeanor counts of failing to pay his taxes, US media reported on Tuesday.
The agreement also includes a provision for probation for Biden for his tax violations, and the gun possession charge he faces is expected to be dismissed if he meets certain conditions. Legal experts say that the charges will most likely not result in jail time for Biden.
The decision by US Attorney David Weiss, appointed by former president Donald Trump in 2018, marks an end to a five-year investigation into Hunter Biden’s conduct. The Biden administration has kept Weiss in place to avoid having a US attorney appointed by the president oversee his son’s criminal case. The plea agreement comes amid ongoing scrutiny of the Biden family’s business dealings, which has been a frequent target of criticism from Republicans.
Chris Clark, attorney for Hunter Biden, has announced that his client has reached two agreements with the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware, resolving the five-year investigation into his conduct.
Hunter Biden will plead guilty to two instances of misdemeanor failure to file tax payments when due, while also facing a firearm charge that will be subject to a pretrial diversion agreement and will not be part of the plea agreement. In a statement, Clark said that Hunter Biden believes it is important to take responsibility for his mistakes during a period of turmoil and addiction in his life, and that he looks forward to continuing his recovery and moving forward. The plea agreement comes amid ongoing scrutiny of the Biden family’s business dealings, which has been a frequent target of criticism from Republicans.
The plea agreement reached between Hunter Biden and the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware suggests that prosecutors did not find cause to file charges related to his dealings with foreign entities or other wrongdoing.
The plea agreement is limited to two instances of misdemeanor failure to file tax payments when due, and a firearm charge that will be resolved in a pre-trial diversion agreement. The felony gun possession charge will be dropped if certain conditions are met by the defendant, such as not committing a crime in a given time period. Hunter Biden paid the outstanding taxes that he owed for 2017 and 2018 last year, the years named in the charges. A judge will schedule a date for an arraignment within the next several weeks, and Hunter Biden is expected to surrender to Delaware authorities and be processed by US Marshals there.
