Federal agents believe there is enough evidence to criminally charge Hunter Biden with tax crimes and lying about his drug use when he bought a handgun in 2018, the Washington Post and CBS News have reported.
But the U.S. attorney in Delaware, who is overseeing the investigation into the president’s son, has yet to decide whether to file criminal charges in the case, the Post reported.
This federal prosecutor, David C Weiss, was originally appointed and served in Donald Trump’s administration, and continued to serve in Biden’s administration in part because of the political backlash his removal likely would have caused, given of his oversight of the Biden investigation, the Post reported. .
A spokesperson for Weiss’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In September, more than 30 Senate Republicans called on Biden’s Attorney General Merrick Garland to give Weiss “special protections and authorities” to ensure the independence of his investigation.
CBS News reported that Biden’s team believes the sources who spoke to The Washington Post were driven by “frustration within the FBI over the time it takes for prosecutors to deliberate on this case” and that the FBI ” trying to pressure prosecutors to act.”
Hunter Biden’s attorney, Chris Clark, accused federal agents of unlawfully leaking information and asked the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute the leak.
“It is a federal crime for a federal agent to disclose information about a grand jury investigation such as this,” Clark wrote to The Washington Post. “Any agent you cite as a source in your article has apparently committed such a crime.”
Hunter Biden has confirmed he is under investigation for tax matters in 2020 shortly after his father won the presidency. Hunter Biden’s business dealings and advice in Ukraine and China, including being paid $50,000 a month by Ukrainian company Burisma, have long drawn political scrutiny and questions about the ethics of his dealings with foreign companies given his father’s political influence.
Donald Trump’s attempt to uncover the wrongdoings of Hunter Biden and his father in Ukraine – which included pressuring the Ukrainian president to investigate his political rival – led to the Republican president’s first impeachment by Congress .
The ongoing investigation into Hunter Biden’s tax transactions looked at whether he failed to report income related to different business transactions, including overseas, The Washington Post reported.
Another alleged crime federal agents identified was Biden’s assertion, on a federal form he filled out in 2018 to purchase a handgun, that he was not addicted to or illegally using drugs. , although he wrote in a memoir that he used drugs often that year, the Post reported.
“We believe that prosecutors in this case are diligently and thoroughly evaluating not only the evidence provided by the officers, but also all of the other witnesses in this case, including defense witnesses,” said Clark, the attorney for Biden, to the Post. “They should not be pressured, rushed or criticized for doing their job.”
Clark did not immediately respond to a Guardian request for comment. The Justice Department and FBI also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.