Hunter Biden updates: Plea deal on tax charges potentially ends DOJ probe

The younger Biden has been under investigation for alleged tax-related offenses.

ByPierre Thomas, Aaron Katersky, and Lucien Bruggeman
Last Updated: June 20, 2023, 4:55 PM EDT

Hunter Biden, the president's son, has agreed to plead guilty to a pair of tax-related misdemeanors and enter into a pretrial diversion agreement that would enable him to avoid prosecution on one felony gun charge, which would potentially end a yearslong probe, according to court documents filed Tuesday.

Biden will acknowledge his failure to pay taxes on income he received in 2017 and 2018, according to the agreement. In exchange, prosecutors will recommend probation, meaning he will likely avoid prison time. For the gun charge, he will agree to pretrial diversion, with the charge being dropped if he adheres to certain terms.

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Jun 20, 2023, 10:05 am

Hunter Biden to plead guilty to tax charges, enter pretrial program for gun charge

Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, has agreed to plead guilty to a pair of tax-related misdemeanors as part of a deal that would potentially end a politically fraught and yearslong probe into his personal and professional life, according to court documents filed Tuesday.

Under an agreement negotiated with the U.S. attorney's office in Delaware, the younger Biden, 53, will acknowledge his failure to pay taxes on income he received in 2017 and 2018. In exchange, prosecutors will recommend probation, meaning he will likely avoid prison time.

The agreement also includes what is known as a pretrial diversion for one felony count related to illegal possession of a firearm, which would not require Hunter Biden to submit a plea on that charge and stipulates that prosecutors would agree to drop it if he adheres to certain terms over a specified period of time.

If a federal judge accepts the deal, Tuesday's development would mark the conclusion of an investigation that has dogged not only Hunter Biden, but also his father, whose political foes have latched onto the younger Biden's overseas business dealings to level allegations depicting the entire Biden family as corrupt.

Jun 20, 2023, 10:08 AM EDT

Plea agreement could end yearslong probe

Federal authorities with the U.S. attorney's office in Delaware, led by U.S. Attorney David Weiss, a Trump-era appointee, opened their investigation into Hunter Biden in 2018. The investigation spilled into public view in December of 2020, shortly after Joe Biden secured the presidency, when Hunter Biden confirmed the probe into his "tax affairs."

Prosecutors have since examined a range of potential crimes as part of their investigation and brought several witnesses before a federal grand jury empaneled in Wilmington, Delaware.

The impetus for the probe and investigators' primary focus was whether Hunter Biden paid adequate taxes on millions of dollars of his income. The younger Biden paid off at least one significant tax liability of nearly $2 million in 2021 with the help of a Los Angeles-based entertainment lawyer name Kevin Morris, ABC News has reported.

Beyond his taxes, investigators scrutinized a gun application form signed by Hunter Biden in 2018. On the form, he checked a box indicating he was not an "unlawful user" of drugs, despite later acknowledging that he was indeed addicted to crack cocaine around that time, ABC News has reported.

A Yale-trained lawyer, Hunter Biden repeatedly said he was cooperating with investigators and remained "100% certain" that he would be cleared of any wrongdoing. Joe Biden has said he's never spoken to his son about his foreign business and recently said Hunter Biden "has done nothing wrong." There are no indications that the federal investigation involved the president in any way.

The White House has repeatedly sought to distance the president from the probe, and Attorney General Merrick Garland assured Congress that there would not be "interference of any political or improper kind."