The indictment of Hunter Biden on three gun-related charges is a “very small start” and could be used to protect the president’s son from future charges, Republicans reacted Thursday following the announcement of the charges.
“Today’s charges against Hunter Biden are a very small start, but unless U.S. Attorney Weiss investigates everyone involved in the fraud schemes and influence peddling, it will be clear President Biden’s DOJ is protecting Hunter Biden and the big guy,” House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) posted on X following the indictment.
“The Justice Department’s sweetheart plea deal fell apart after a federal judge refused to rubberstamp it,” Comer continued. “Mountains of evidence reveals that Hunter Biden likely committed several felonies, and Americans expect the Justice Department to apply the law equally.”
Hunter Biden was charged Thursday with one count of false statement in the purchase of a firearm, one count of possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance, and one count of false statement related to information required to be kept by federal firearms licensed dealer.
“My son’s done nothing wrong. I trust him. I have faith in him,” President Joe Biden stated in May. “This thing about a gun — I didn’t know anything about it.”
Though Hunter Biden could potentially face prison time, Special Counsel David Weiss’s indictment did not include any Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) or tax violations.
The charges are unlikely to be the last, ABC News reported.
Hunter Biden’s previous plea deal included tax violations. It did not include FARA violations. Weiss told the judge overseeing the plea deal negotiations that his ongoing probe included FARA violations, causing the judge to question the agreement that ultimately fell apart.
“But where are the indictments for tax fraud, FARA abuse, money laundering, and sex trafficking???” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) questioned.
“Weiss’s charges today continue his deceptive pattern — for years — of protecting Hunter,” Mike Davis, founder and president of the pro-Trump Article III Project and former chief counsel for nominations to Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA), posted on X.
“More troubling, Weiss is protecting President Biden,” Davis said. “Indeed, where are Hunter’s charges related to foreign corruption, acting as an unregistered foreign agent, tax evasion, wire fraud, and other criminal charges that could implicate President Biden?”
Constitutional scholar Jonathan Turley argued the indictment could be used as a reason for Joe Biden not to run for reelection.
“This may be the first child of a sitting president ever indicted. I previously raised the possibility that Joe Biden could pardon Hunter and then cite that abuse of power as a reason for declining to run for reelection,” he posted on X.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality.