(WASHINGTON) — Congressional Republicans, who have made Hunter Biden one of their top targets, signaled they’re not satisfied with the new indictment brought against him.
Hunter Biden was indicted Thursday by special counsel David Weiss on felony gun charges. The three criminal counts are related to his 2018 purchase of a revolver while he was addicted to cocaine.
The development comes weeks after a plea deal between prosecutors and the Hunter Biden fell apart. The agreement would’ve allowed Hunter Biden to plead guilty to a pair of misdemeanor tax offenses and avoid prosecution on a felony gun charge by entering into a pretrial diversion program.
“Ironically, that’s the one crime you can’t tie Joe Biden into,” Rep. James Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, told reporters in response to the indictment.
“The Justice Department’s sweetheart plea deal fell apart after a federal judge refused to rubberstamp it,” Comer added in a statement. “Mountains of evidence reveals that Hunter Biden likely committed several felonies and Americans expect the Justice Department to apply the law equally. Today’s charges are a very small start, but unless U.S. Attorney Weiss investigates everyone involved in fraud schemes and influence peddling, it will be clear President Biden’s DOJ is protecting Hunter Biden and the big guy.”
House Republicans have criticized Weiss’ investigation in the past, arguing Hunter Biden should be more aggressively prosecuted over his business dealings.
Comer said Republicans are looking for indictments related to “money laundering, violation of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, tax evasion, the list goes on and on.”
Rep. Andy Biggs, a Republican hard-liner, claimed Thursday “more serious charges” will be coming Hunter Biden’s way.
“These should not be the last charges Hunter Biden faces,” Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., also wrote in a post to X.
On the other side of the aisle, Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin said the indictment is evidence that “the rule of law is functioning in America.”
“He’s entitled to due process and the presumption of innocence the way Donald Trump is,” Raskin said. “And we should support the rule of law as it applies to all criminal suspects and defendants in the country.”
The White House is not commenting on the indictment, instead referring reporters’ questions to Hunter Biden’s legal team and the Department of Justice.
Abbe Lowell, Hunter Biden’s attorney, criticized the charges and accused Weiss of “bending to political pressure.”
“As expected, prosecutors filed charges today that they deemed were not warranted just six weeks ago following a five-year investigation into this case,” Lowell said. “The evidence in this matter has not changed in the last six weeks, but the law has and so has MAGA Republicans’ improper and partisan interference in this process.”
“We believe these charges are barred by the agreement the prosecutors made with Mr. Biden, the recent rulings by several federal courts that this statute is unconstitutional, and the facts that he did not violate that law, and we plan to demonstrate all of that in court,” Lowell added.
President Biden has long defended his son amid controversies and legal woes.
Biden had maintained he was confident Hunter had done nothing wrong as the federal investigation into his tax affairs and overseas business dealing was being conducted. When the now-defunct plea deal was first announced in June, Biden responded to questions shouted by reporters with the statement: “I’m very proud of my son.”
Copyright © 2023, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
