GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy is blasting a plea deal announced Tuesday that will keep President Joe Biden’s troubled son out of prison on two federal misdemeanor counts of failing to pay his taxes and a separate felony charge of possession of a firearm by a known drug user.
Multiple news outlets are reporting that Hunter Biden and his attorneys have reached an agreement in which U.S. Attorney David Weiss would recommend probation on the tax violations. The younger Biden also would avoid prison time on the gun possession charge, “subject to a pretrial diversion agreement,” his attorney said in a statement.
What critics are calling a “sweetheart deal” for the troubled son of a president who is facing his own legal troubles appears to end a five-year investigation first launched in 2018 by the Trump Department of Justice.
“The Hunter Biden plea deal is a joke. It’s a feigned retreat and reveals they’re even more scared than ever of scrutiny for the real crimes,” Ramaswamy, the outspoken biotech entrepreneur said in a statement Tuesday as he toured one Philadelphia’s infamous Kensington neighborhood, one of the most drug-and-crime-infested parts of inner-city America.
Just arrived in Kensington in Philly. Rampant drug use in plain sight on the middle of streets. Sheer misery. pic.twitter.com/kChe6K6aIg
— Vivek Ramaswamy (@VivekGRamaswamy) June 20, 2023
“The real target is the audio tapes of the alleged bribe for Hunter and Joe Biden from the Ukrainian executive of oligarch-owned Burisma. And the hundreds of billions of U.S. taxpayer funds kicked back to Ukraine to make good on the favor,” Ramaswamy said. “Don’t buy the deflection; it’s just a smokescreen.”
Allegations of a political pay-to-play scheme surround the president. A House investigation is looking into claims that an executive with Ukraine natural gas provider Burisma Holdings paid Joe Biden $5 million when he was vice president. Hunter Biden was paid handsomely for serving on the Burisma board, allegedly for access to his powerful father.
As Fox News reported, an FBI form dated June 30, 2020, details an interview with a “highly credible” confidential source who described multiple meetings and conversations he or she had with a top Burisma executive over the course of several years, starting in 2015.
“The Burisma executive explained to the confidential source that the company had to “pay the Bidens” because Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin was investigating Burisma, and explained how difficult it would be to enter the U.S. market in the midst of that investigation,” the outlet reported.
Last week, FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate admitted under questioning by U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) that the agency kept secret 17 audio recordings of Joe Biden and Hunter Biden with the Burisma executive who allegedly paid President Joe Biden $5 million.
Ramaswamy said it’s “no accident that the farcical Hunter Biden ‘plea deal’” follows on the heels of the Biden administration-appointed special counsel’s indictment of former President Donald Trump on charges related to his alleged mishandling of classified documents. Trump is by far the frontrunner in the Republican Party presidential nomination chase and is the No. 1 political enemy of Biden and the Democratic Party.
“[I]t’s the perfect fig leaf to pretend that ‘no one is above the law,’ while absolutely putting certain people above the law,” Ramaswamy said of the Hunter Biden deal. “It’s an Orwellian gesture that gives the news media exactly the level of cover that they needed. Amazing to see how this game is played.”
The Justice Department’s investigation into Hunter Biden was finally widely reported in December 2020, a month after the 2020 presidential election. The New York Post had, before the election, reported that the FBI was in possession of Hunter Biden’s laptop, which contained some damning information about his possible crimes. Much of the media ignored the story or dismissed it, accepting intelligence sources’ false claims that the laptop reports were more “Russian disinformation.”
The president’s son at the time acknowledged he had received a subpoena regarding his tax issues. Hunter Biden said in a statement issued then that he was “confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately, including with the benefit of professional tax advisors.”
Now he’s facing probation on the tax charges for pleading guilty to not paying in excess of $200,0000 in federal income taxes on more than $1.5 million in taxable income in calendar years 2017 and 2018, according to multiple new outlets. Hunter Biden ultimately paid all of his outstanding tax liabilities, according to media reports.
On the gun charge, the younger Biden “possessed a firearm despite knowing he was an unlawful user of and addicted to a controlled substance,” Weiss said. The count carries a maximum sentence of up to 10 years in prison, but the Justice Department said Hunter Biden had reached a pretrial agreement, ABC News reported. So the deferred judgment deal means he’ll avoid prison and the charge will ultimately be cleared from his record, if he abides by the terms of the deal.
“I know Hunter believes it is important to take responsibility for these mistakes he made during a period of turmoil and addiction in his life,” Christopher Clark, one of Hunter Biden’s attorneys, said in a statement. “He looks forward to continuing his recovery and moving forward.”
U.S. Rep. James Comer (R-KY-01), chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee that has uncovered troubling revelations about the Bidens and the FBI’s handling of its problems into the Trump-Russia collusion hoax, said the “sweetheart plea deal” will have no impact on the committee’s ongoing investigation into the Biden family.
“We will not rest until the full extent of President Biden’s involvement in the family’s schemes are revealed,” Comer said in a statement.
🚨🚨🚨
Hunter Biden is getting away with a slap on the wrist when growing evidence uncovered by the House Oversight Committee reveals the Bidens engaged in a pattern of corruption, influence peddling, and possibly bribery.
Read my full statement.👇 pic.twitter.com/9swtTaUUQu
— Rep. James Comer (@RepJamesComer) June 20, 2023
“Let’s be clear: the Department of Justice’s charges against President Biden’s son Hunter reveal a two-tiered system of justice,” Comer added. “Hunter Biden is getting away with a slap on the wrist when growing evidence uncovered by the House Oversight Committee reveals the Bidens engaged in a pattern of corruption, influence peddling, and possibly bribery.”
– – –
M.D. Kittle is the National Political Editor for The Star News Network.
Photo “Vivek Ramaswamy” by Vivek Ramaswamy. Background Photo “Joe and Hunter Biden” by Ben Stanfield. CC BY-SA 2.0.
