Hunter Biden, son of US President Joe Biden and a recurring target of the Republican opposition, has pleaded guilty to two tangled criminal cases against him and is hoping to settle the scores while his father’s 2024 campaign takes shape.
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This means that the lawsuits against 53-year-old Hunter Biden have “ended”, his lawyer assured in a statement on Tuesday. “Hunter is eager to acknowledge the mistakes they made while struggling with anguish and addiction in his life.”
“I’m very proud of my son,” said the American President at the beginning of the afternoon.
For its part, the Republican opposition condemned a Justice Department that would crack down on Donald Trump — who was recently indicted for managing top-secret documents — while working to avoid jail time for the current president’s son at all costs.
Hunter Biden pleads guilty to one count of federal income tax fraud, as prosecutor David Weiss, who handles the case in the state of Delaware, the cradle of the Biden family, has detailed.
According to the same source, he would also reach an agreement with the public prosecutor’s office in the event of a violation of the gun law, which would amount to an admission of guilt.
He is accused of acquiring a firearm as a drug addict in 2018.
Former President Donald Trump, who could run against Joe Biden again in 2024, estimated in a reaction on his Truth social network that Hunter Biden received only a penalty comparable to a banal “highway traffic fine” and claimed that the judicial system was “broken”.
House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy called him “preferential treatment.”
The President’s youngest son — the eldest, Beau, died of brain cancer in 2015 — detailed his struggles with addiction, particularly crack, in a book published in spring 2021.
– “Nothing hurts” –
He tells of the first drama of his life, the death of his mother and little sister in a car accident in 1972.
Beau and Hunter were seriously injured in the accident, which occurred shortly after Joe Biden was elected Senator from Delaware.
The Democrat later remarried Jill Biden, with whom he raised his two sons, and had a daughter.
Hunter Biden, a former lawyer-turned-artist-turned-artist, also claims in his book that he is now off alcohol and drugs.
The US President, candidate for the 2024 election, has always publicly supported him and has already declared that he is “proud” of him during a heated debate against him and Donald Trump before the 2020 presidential election.
The legal epilogue announced on Tuesday is unlikely to change the Republican opposition’s attacks on Hunter Biden’s business past.
Conservative lawmakers accuse Hunter Biden of doing shady deals in Ukraine and China during Joe Biden’s vice presidency under Barack Obama (2009-2017), benefiting from his father’s networks and name.
In particular, they direct their attacks at a highly paid position held by Hunter Biden on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma.
The president’s son has always denied doing anything illegal or even immoral, but admitted in his book that he would not take the job if he could step down.
Joe Biden has also denied these allegations of corruption.
“My son did nothing wrong,” he said in an interview with MSNBC last May. “I trust him,” added the American President.