Conservatives Panic Over Hunter Biden’s Pretrial Divorce Agreement
Hunter Biden’s plea deal on a felony gun charge and two tax violations has been slammed as a “sweetheart” deal by critics who note others have landed behind bars for similar crimes.
The Justice Department announced last week that President Biden’s son had agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of willfully failing to pay federal income tax and entered into an early diversion deal for a separate charge of possession of a firearm by a man. An illegal user of or addict to a controlled substance.
Ted Cruz calls on House to investigate impeaching Biden over Hunter allegations: ‘Direct evidence’
Hunter Biden will make his first court appearance in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware on July 26, when he will formally plead guilty. The plea deal prevents a trial on a conviction for illegal possession of a firearm as a drug user, which can last days or even weeks.
The presiding U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika still has a chance to reject the deal, but the plea deal has been strongly criticized by voters from conservative politicians who say Biden was just a slap on the wrist.
“It continues to show the two-tier system in America,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said of Hunter Biden’s plea deal, comparing it to the federal charges facing former President Donald Trump. “If you’re a major political opponent of the president, the DOJ will literally try to put you in jail and give you jail time. But if you’re the president’s son, you get a sweetheart deal.”
Other Americans facing similar federal gun charges are months behind.
In a post on his website, John Lott, chief of the Crime Prevention and Research Center, described the case of Virginia woman Deja Taylor, whose 6-year-old son shot and wounded his teacher in January.
“Biden’s plea deal allows him to avoid charges of ‘money laundering, bribery, smuggling’ and being an unregistered foreign agent,” Lott wrote. “Deja Taylor also had other problems. Her son used a gun to shoot a teacher, but Taylor was not charged with a crime in that case.”
A Different Way to Visualize the 2024 Republican Race
Taylor was charged earlier this year with unlawful use of a controlled substance in possession of a firearm and making a false statement during the purchase of a firearm.
The controlled substance in this case is marijuana, which is legal in Virginia but not in the U.S. A controlled substance by law and still regulated by the federal government. Federal authorities said Taylor knew “that she was an illegal user” of marijuana when she bought her gun and denied using marijuana in the documentation.
Taylor had no criminal record prior to the charges. She pleaded guilty this month and is awaiting sentencing. The federal case against her could lead to up to 25 years in prison, though her attorneys said sentencing guidelines call for 18 months to 24 months in prison.
“Of the cases involving false statements in the purchase of a firearm referred for prosecution, over 60% were prosecuted,” Lott, a firearms and crime expert who previously worked in the DOJ’s Office of Justice program, told Fox News Digital.
“And the ones that didn’t prosecute it were because of problems with the evidence. These cases are resolved quickly in a few months, not five years. The evidence in Hunter Biden’s case is solid. There’s no doubt he’s a drug addict, he’s using illegal drugs.”
The U.S. handling the Biden case. Lott also took issue with how the media described attorney David C. Weiss as a “Trump appointee.”
“[Weiss] should have been a Republican so that there was no political bias in how the Hunter Biden case was handled,” Lott said. “However, President Obama actually appointed him as acting US attorney for the District of Delaware. Trump appointed the vice US attorney at the request of two Democrat US senators from Delaware.”
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and others also criticized Biden’s “sweetheart deal” on Twitter and compared it to Taylor’s case.
Biden’s DOJ is giving Hunter a sweetheart deal for lying on a firearm background check.
— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) June 21, 2023
Meanwhile, the same DOJ is sending Deja Taylor to prison for 18-24 months for the exact same offense.
What happened to equal justice under the law? https://t.co/NWf1qbVk7i
Deja Taylor: lawful user of marijuana in Virginia + bought a gun = 18-24 months in prison
— Gun Owners of America (@GunOwners) June 21, 2023
Hunter Biden: crack cocaine addict + bought a gun = 2 years probation
#DejaAndHunter https://t.co/bk1BYFcacw
Taylor’s attorney, James Ellenson, told Fox News Digital that he would resolve the “inconsistency” between his client’s case and Biden’s pretrial diversion agreement later this year.
“Unfortunately, Deja’s father is not the president of the United States so no girlfriend will accept it for us,” Ellenson said. “We will convey the inconsistency to the sentencing judge.”
Fox News Digital previously covered the Biden case and rapper Kodak Black, who was sentenced to more than three years in prison after pleading guilty to possession of firearms by a felon, possession of a stolen firearm, and possession of marijuana.
Kodak Black “received 46 months for the exact thing that Hunter Biden didn’t even ask for,” the rapper’s attorney, Bradford Cohen, told Fox News’s “Hannity” on Wednesday.
“He’s actually getting a diversion program, you never see diversion programs in federal court,” Cohen said. “I mean, less than 1% of people actually appeal to get into a diversion program.”
“If you score it, which is how you do it in the federal system, he scores somewhere in the neighborhood of two years in this case,” Cohen said.
Trump commuted Kodak Black’s sentence before leaving office in 2021.
Another man, Brian Martai Odell Hamilton of Oklahoma, faces up to 10 years in prison after pleading guilty in October to making false statements on ATF Form 4473, the Washington Times reported.
Hamilton was previously convicted of carrying a firearm while under the influence of marijuana in Oklahoma County, and federal prosecutors determined he lied on the ATF’s firearms transaction record form regarding his eligibility to purchase a firearm.
Biden has been under investigation since 2018 after reports of suspicious activity involving funds from “China and other foreign countries” were discovered. His gun charge stemmed from allegations that he lied during a gun purchase in 2018.
Republicans sharply criticized the deal this week, accusing Biden of using his father’s influence abroad during the Obama administration when Joe Biden was vice president.
“2 million people are currently incarcerated in America,” Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., previously told Fox News Digital. “We have 6,000 prisons. We could have found a place for Hunter. But the truth is, no one cares about Hunter Biden. Hunter is a rookie infection peddler and a troubled young man who sells access to his father. He’s a part of Biden. Crime Gamily, but he’s not a big man, He’s not the VP and he’s not the president he started as.”
“It’s deflection, deflection, deflection,” Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., previously told Fox News Digital. “Hunter Biden has been involved in more serious crimes and this plea deal creates the illusion that justice has been served – it has not.”
The Justice Department declined to comment when contacted by Fox News Digital regarding Biden’s earlier diversion agreement compared to similar cases. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.