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The charges against the president’s son may add a special touch to the investigation just as House Republicans are holding a vote to officially authorize it, but they do not implicate President Biden in any way.
By Luke Broadwater and Glenn Thrush
Report from Washington
The scathing and lewd federal indictment of Hunter Biden for tax evasion has given House Republicans a boost at a critical time in their impeachment inquiry against President Biden, shedding light on the kind of wrongdoing committed by his son that they have unsuccessfully tried to attach with the president himself.
Republicans immediately embraced the allegation, with descriptions of invoices to “multiple women,” stays at luxury hotels, clubs at a “sex club” and at least the rental of a Lamborghini canceled as business expenses as part of a $1 million “plan. “. tax invoice – as validation of your request. The charges, they said, would never have been filed had it not been for the testimony of two IRS agents. Operatives who have become whistleblowers in Congress and ruined a “cherished” plea deal between Hunter Biden and prosecutors.
At the maximum critical level, however, the indictment is far from helpful to Republicans: It never mentions President Biden, even indirectly, and it provides no evidence linking the son’s misdeeds to the father’s.
Republicans have a daunting challenge: building a bridge between Hunter Biden’s vices and his accusations that his father committed serious crimes and misdemeanors, and giving the impression that his impeachment inquiry is more than retribution for impeachment. impeachment and impeachment of former President Donald J. Trump. Array
Still, for the small organization of classic House Republicans who were once reluctant to embark on what appeared to be an evidence-free and politically motivated impeachment inquiry, Hunter Biden’s latest indictment provides a measure of political protection at a vital time.
Armed with those allegations, House Republicans intend to move forward next week with their plans to hold a floor vote to authorize the impeachment inquiry and demand that Hunter Biden testify behind closed doors on Dec. 13, promising contempt of Congress’s fees if he continues to do so. . reject. Employees who participated in the survey said they didn’t expect any change in their strategy.
“It’s far from over,” promised Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. “These new tariffs on the years in which Hunter Biden made millions of dollars from foreign countries promoting access to the Biden family logo. . . a logo built on and around Joe Biden’s political career. “
Former Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, who has been skeptical of his party’s impeachment campaign, said Biden Sr. would be judged by his own moves “and what his son does. “
“But the president will have to answer whether he was involved in any way in those activities with Hunter,” Christie, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, said in an interview on MSNBC.
Biden’s allies have accused House Republicans of interfering in the criminal investigation, bringing up Smith’s efforts to block a plea deal by petitioning a federal court last summer.
Republicans are now signaling their goal of requesting information, lately sealed, that they presented to grand juries in any of the Biden cases, under a provision of their impeachment plan.
The Ways and Means Committee heard additional closed-door testimony this week from the two IRS agents, Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, who detailed the wide diversity of tax allegations against Hunter Biden. The men also described how they were prevented from following safe leads that tried to follow him and added by asking about Hunter’s father.
“During the investigation of Hunter Biden, the F. B. I. and the I. R. S. ” These charges further confirm the need for Congress to move forward with an impeachment inquiry against Joe Biden to explore all the facts for Americans to judge.
The 56-page indictment transmitted Thursday through Special Representative David C. Weiss is, at the very least, a catalyst for those efforts: a story of debauchery that is either an ethical condemnation or an indictment detailing Biden overspending. “especially minus their taxes. “
Prosecutors said Hunter Biden falsely claimed that the cash paid a salary to the women he had private relationships with, thereby reducing his tax burden, and fraudulently attempted to deduct non-public expenses as valid business expenses.
“Despite having little to no business activity, the defendant directed Personal Assistant 2 in 2018 to put him on his payroll and provide physical care benefits to 3 women with whom he had romantic or sexual relationships,” wrote Mr. Weiss, who began investigating the case. In the case five years ago, they have become the president’s son as Trump’s appointed U. S. attorney for Delaware.
The Grand Jury of the Central District of California indicted Biden on 3 counts of tax evasion, failure to register and pay taxes, and filing a false or fraudulent tax return. If he is convicted, he faces up to 17 years in prison, according to Justice. department officials said.
The charges came five months after he appeared to be on the verge of reaching a plea deal that would have saved him prison time and potentially granted him broad immunity from long-term prosecution stemming from his business dealings. But the deal fell through, and in September he was indicted in Delaware on three counts similar to his illegal acquisition of a handgun in 2018, a time when he was a heavy drug user. Biden’s lawyers intend to file a motion to dismiss the case next week.
However, tax burdens have been the most serious detail of the investigation, and the indictment, while widely expected, has hit many in Biden’s camp hard.
His son’s legal troubles weigh heavily on President Biden, other people close to the president said, and he is less concerned about the political consequences than the consequences they are having on his son’s intellectual state and his recovery from alcohol and substance abuse, specifically if the instances go to trial.
This follows a familiar trend for the president, who is deeply protective of his son, the last living child from his first marriage. His wife, Neilia Hunter Biden, was killed in a car crash in 1972 that also claimed the life of their 1-year-old daughter and left their young sons Hunter and Beau seriously injured. Even before Beau’s death from cancer in 2015 and Hunter’s slide into addiction, the president lashed out at any attendee who said anything critical toward his youngest son.
The president’s allies were also very concerned about what they perceived as Biden’s reluctance to renegotiate the plea deal over the summer, following the deal that would have avoided prison time and granted broad immunity to Biden, Biden said. It disintegrated under a federal judgment in Wilmington, Del.
Biden’s lead attorney, Father Lowell, sharply criticized Weiss for his resolution to impeach, saying he bowed to pressure from Republicans who had done everything they could to derail the plea deal before it was finalized.
In one respect, the timing of the indictment could work to the younger Mr. Biden’s advantage: It gives him the cover of citing the ongoing criminal case to invoke his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination if he testifies in the House impeachment inquiry, as Republicans are demanding that he do next week.
“This greatly increases the odds he takes the Fifth,” said John F. Fishwick, who served as a U.S. attorney in Virginia under President Obama.
Hunter Biden has come forward to testify publicly but has been reluctant to submit to personal questions for fear that Republicans will twist his words and selectively reveal amounts out of context of his testimony. Testifying in either case would pose a threat because his comments before Congress could be used against him in the federal case.
In addition to their existing felony cases, a contempt of Congress fee, if approved through the Department of Justice, carries a maximum sentence of one year and a fine of up to $100,000.
Republicans plan to discuss the impeachment inquiry in the Rules Committee on Tuesday. The resolution authorizes three Republican-led panels to continue their investigations and petition a court for grand jury materials; retroactively approves a slew of subpoenas that have already been issued; and allows for the hiring of outside counsel, among other provisions.
“We know from whistleblowers that the investigation into the president’s son was obstructed,” said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla. , chairman of the Rules Committee. “So there’s enough to keep searching and, in fact, to give investigators all the equipment they need to get to the truth. “
Luke Broadwater covers Congress with an article on congressional investigations. Learn more about Luke Broadwater
Glenn Thrush covers the Department of Justice. He joined The Times in 2017 after working for Politico, Newsday, Bloomberg News, The New York Daily News, The Birmingham Post-Herald and City Limits. More about Glenn Thrush
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