Hunter Biden plea deal 'controversy' won't sit well with critics: Jonathan Turley
Fox News contributor Jonathan Turley breaks down the charges filed against Hunter Biden in a federal tax and gun case
Fox News contributor and legal scholar Jonathan Turley joined "America's Newsroom" Tuesday to break down the "controversy" created by the Hunter Biden plea deal and its avoidance of the "most damaging" influence-peddling allegations facing the Biden family.
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JONATHAN TURLEY: This is a relatively minor case, so it can be handled relatively quickly. But that's going to be really the controversy here. For critics, this is going to reinforce the view of a two-tiered system. You know, the majority of Americans polled believe that the indictment of Donald Trump was politically motivated and constitutes election interference. That shows you the level of distrust that the public has with the Department of Justice. This is not going to help. You know, for the average citizen, when it came to Trump, they rolled out a B52, and this is going to look like a crop duster that, you know, that is you have the son of the president who's at the center of one of the greatest influence-peddling scandals in history. And that's saying a lot in Washington, D.C. And he's going to walk away with a couple of misdemeanors and a gun charge that they can likely expunge. That's not going to sit well. And I think there's going to raise a couple of questions for folks on the Hill. One is, was the U.S. attorney in Delaware given full authority to investigate the influence-peddling aspects of Hunter Biden's work? He was getting millions of dollars that he should have been paying taxes on. But that's the way he raised that money. It's who it came from. That's the most damaging for the Biden family. There's going to be another aspect to this. If this is indeed closed, then the Department of Justice is going to have less of an ability to refuse material to Congress because they will not have an ongoing criminal investigation involving Hunter Biden.
Hunter Biden has agreed to plead guilty in the federal case stemming from years-long investigation into his tax affairs, Fox News has confirmed.
Fox News has confirmed that the president's son will plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of willful failure to pay federal income tax. Hunter Biden also agreed to enter into a pretrial diversion agreement regarding a separate charge of possession of a firearm by a person who is an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.
The U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware David C. Weiss said, according to the tax Information, Hunter Biden "received taxable income in excess of $1,500,000 annually in calendar years 2017 and 2018."
"Despite owing in excess of $100,000 in federal income taxes each year, he did not pay the income tax due for either year," Weiss' office said Tuesday. "According to the firearm Information, from on or about October 12, 2018 through October 23, 2018, Hunter Biden possessed a firearm despite knowing he was an unlawful user of and addicted to a controlled substance."
Fox News' Brooke Singman and David Spunt contributed to this report.