Hunter Biden: A political liability?
Is Hunter Biden getting favorable treatment from the Justice Department because his father is president? asked James Freeman in The Wall Street Journal. An IRS supervisor “is offering a disturbing answer.” The unnamed special agent, who recently asked Congress for whistleblower protections, claims that Hunter Biden—under investigation for tax crimes since 2018—has not been indicted because of improper political interference, and that Attorney General Merrick Garland lied to Congress about having no input on that case. Another damaging scandal is brewing, said Michael Goodwin in the New York Post. Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), head of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, has produced “bank records that show millions of dollars from China being divvied up among as many as nine Biden family members” as a result of Hunter’s involvement in a business there. In response, Joe Biden said only, “That’s not true.” As the 2024 campaign gathers speed, even the liberal media will find it hard to ignore “the landslide of incriminating evidence likely to come.”
Republicans may be overhyping Hunter’s scandals, said Matt Stieb in New York magazine, but he’s still a “liability” who could become an issue in his father’s re-election bid. The federal prosecutor overseeing the tax case— David Weiss, a Trump appointee whom the Biden administration left in charge of the case—reportedly believes he has enough evidence to charge Hunter with several tax crimes and a felony for lying about his drug use on a 2018 gunpermit application. So why the holdup in a charging decision?
During his father’s first campaign, Hunter responded to accusations by “largely keeping silent and staying out of the limelight,” said Matt Viser and Tyler Pager in The Washington Post. But as House Republicans ramp up their investigations, the 53-year-old “is trying to reclaim a more public presence” as a trusted adviser to his father, who clearly likes having his son around. Hunter—now in recovery and in a stable marriage—was at the president’s side during his recent trip to Ireland. The president appears “unbowed by the controversy around his son” and proudly introduced him to crowds at various stops in Ireland. In a speech, Biden mentioned his son and quoted his own father: “He’d always say, ‘Joey, remember: Family is the beginning, the middle and the end.’”