Hunter Biden to be indicted this month, special counsel says

Prosecutors are moving ahead with a criminal case against Hunter Biden after the implosion of a plea deal that would have resolved a long-running investigation into his tax and business dealings.

Special counsel David Weiss said he would seek an indictment of Hunter Biden by Sept. 29, keeping the younger Biden’s legal problems in the spotlight as President Biden pursues his re-election campaign.

Weiss’s statement, issued in an update to the federal court in Delaware, provided confirmation that prosecutors are moving ahead with a criminal case against the younger Biden, after his legal team and the government have traded blame in recent weeks over the implosion of two previously negotiated agreements that would have resolved a long-running investigation into Hunter Biden’s tax and business dealings.

Biden had expected to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax counts - and agree to other conditions to skirt prosecution on a gun charge - and avoid jail time.

Instead, the deal unraveled at a court hearing in July, talks to salvage it approached an impasse and Attorney General Merrick Garland named Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss as a special counsel to continue the investigation.

In the brief filing, Weiss told the federal judge in Delaware that the legal clock set in motion by the initial filing of the case meant that the government was obliged to obtain a grand jury indictment by Friday, Sept. 29.

“The Government intends to seek the return of an indictment in this case before that date,” the filing said.

The government referred to both the plea deal and the separate agreement related to the gun charge as an “unexecuted draft.” Hunter Biden’s legal team has argued the Justice Department reneged on the previously agreed-upon terms and that the gun deal - known as a diversion agreement - should stand.

US President Joe Biden.

In their own Wednesday filing minutes after the government’s memo, Hunter Biden’s lawyers said the court had received an “executed copy” of the diversion agreement, and that Biden would continue to follow the terms of the deal.

A White House spokesman referred inquiries to Hunter Biden’s personal representatives. A spokeswoman for the legal team had no immediate comment.

The prospect of an imminent indictment prolongs and magnifies Hunter Biden’s legal problems as his father campaigns for re-election in 2024.

Hunter Biden’s not guilty plea in July to federal tax charges was a surprise reversal that came after a federal judge in Delaware refused to sign off on the earlier deal he had reached to plead guilty to tax charges and enter a separate agreement to resolve a gun charge. The judge said she needed more information and time to review the deal, citing what she described as its atypical provisions. On Aug. 11, prosecutors said talks to salvage the gun agreement had also broken down.

Weiss’s team and defense lawyers kept trying to shore up the agreement during the weeks after the July 26 hearing but couldn’t overcome differences about the extent of the immunity from potential future prosecution Hunter Biden would receive. Weiss regarded the plea agreement as a draft that could be changed, even though it had been signed by one of his top prosecutors.

Before he was named a special counsel, Weiss proposed a new deal that didn’t contain the previous guarantee of immunity, and the talks collapsed.

Prosecutors have since sought to dismiss the previously filed tax charges, saying they need to try it where Biden lived during the years at issue in the case, 2017 and 2018, such as California or Washington, D.C.

Republican lawmakers have also continued to investigate Hunter Biden’s activities as well as the Justice Department’s actions leading up to the botched plea deal.

On Wednesday, Republican leaders of the House Judiciary, Oversight and Ways and Means committees sent a letter to the younger Biden’s lawyers, Chris Clark and Abbe Lowell, seeking an array of documents and communications between them and Weiss, arguing much of that information had already been made public in recent news reports.

“The information contained in these articles reinforces serious concerns regarding whether the Department has handled a case involving President Biden’s son in an impartial manner that is consistent with other prosecutions.” Clark left the defense team last month, saying he would testify as a witness in future battles over the now-defunct agreement.

The Wall Street Journal