{"id":2254091,"date":"2024-05-28T07:29:02","date_gmt":"2024-05-28T11:29:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/son-of-a-gun-the-hunter-biden-cases-that-never-were\/"},"modified":"2024-05-28T07:32:49","modified_gmt":"2024-05-28T11:32:49","slug":"son-of-a-gun-the-hunter-biden-cases-that-never-were","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/son-of-a-gun-the-hunter-biden-cases-that-never-were\/","title":{"rendered":"Hunter Biden: The Unfounded Accusations"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">10<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fson-of-a-gun-the-hunter-biden-cases-that-never-were%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2254091&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Hunter Biden, son of President Joe \u2062Biden, is set for \u2062trial conducted by\u2064 the GOP next week on gun-related \u2064charges. The initial efforts to investigate his \u200dforeign income and alleged influence-peddling have \u200bdwindled. However,\u2062 beliefs that the Justice Department has been lenient on him haven&#8217;t faded. Hunter Biden also faces charges \u200bof tax evasion after three months. Although he does not \u200cneed to address accusations of illegal lobbying for foreign powers, \u2064sex trafficking, misleading Congress, or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/3-trump-associates-in-fulton-county-election-case-plead-not-guilty\/\" title=\"3 Trump associates in Fulton County election case enter not guilty pleas.\">campaign\u2064 finance violations<\/a>, the GOP remains confused \u200bas to\u2064 why. Despite \u2062claims of Hunter Biden&#8217;s\u200c violations relating to the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and potentially breaching sex trafficking laws, no charges were pursued.\u2064 The GOP alleges that by avoiding further proceedings against \u200dHunter \u2063Biden, the Justice \u200dDepartment effectively ensured an \u200cunchallenged run for Joe Biden&#8217;s\u2063 presidency in the 2020 election.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong><em>Hunter Biden will stand trial next week on gun-related charges just as the GOP\u2019s effort to untangle his web of foreign moneymaking fizzles out. While the political will to impeach President Joe Biden over any involvement in his family\u2019s influence-peddling has all but disappeared, the belief that the Justice Department gave Hunter Biden favorable treatment has not. In this series, the <\/em>Washington Examiner<em> will look at where the saga stands on the eve of his first trial. Part one will look at the cases against him that never materialized.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/hunter-biden\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Hunter Biden\">Hunter Biden<\/a> is preparing to defend himself against gun-related charges and, three months later, against charges of tax evasion. <\/p>\n<p>But the first son does not have to answer allegations that he lobbied illegally for foreign powers, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/2438532\/hunter-biden-investigation-investigators-appear-to-have-considered-sex-trafficking-charges-against-first-son\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>engaged in sex trafficking<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/waysandmeans.house.gov\/ways-and-means-committee-releases-evidence-showing-hunter-biden-lied-under-oath-during-recent-congressional-testimony\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>lied to Congress<\/a>, or played a role in campaign finance violations. <\/p>\n<p>And Republicans are still struggling to understand why.<\/p>\n<p>A slow and stilted federal investigation into President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/tag\/joe-biden\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>Joe Biden<\/a>\u2019s son did not, in the eyes of his critics, result in the kind of accountability he deserved for the years he peddled influence while his father was vice president. <\/p>\n<p>Hunter Biden represented the interests of entities in Ukraine and China in ways that should have triggered disclosure requirements under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, Republicans say. He paid for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/2443544\/investigators-had-evidence-hunter-biden-wrote-off-prostitute-payments-as-business-expenses\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"travel of prostitutes\">travel of prostitutes<\/a> across state lines in potential violation of the Mann Act, a sex trafficking law. And he accepted millions of dollars to settle his taxes from a friend who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/2608137\/biden-donor-cited-political-risk-of-hunter-biden-taxes-before-paying-them-off\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>expressed a desire<\/a> to make the issue disappear ahead of the 2020 election.<\/p>\n<p>Investigators under the direction of then-Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, who was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/dojs-top-national-security-lawyer-slammed-investigation-into-government-wrongdoing-in-surveillance-of-trump-aide\/\" title=\"DOJ\u2019s Top National Security Lawyer Slammed Investigation Into Government Wrongdoing in Surveillance of Trump Aide\">appointed special counsel<\/a> in August, looked into each of those allegations during the course of their yearslong criminal investigation but did not pursue charges against Hunter Biden or others involved.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWeiss never wanted to prosecute Hunter and tried very hard to make the case go away with minimal record, no scrutiny of President Biden\u2019s complicity in the influence-peddling business, and no prison time,\u201d Andrew McCarthy, a former federal prosecutor, told the <em>Washington Examiner<\/em>. \u201cThe two pending cases happened only because Weiss was caught trying to orchestrate an indefensible guilty plea.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Roughly one month before his appointment as special counsel last year, Weiss <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/1710613\/hunter-biden-plea-presidents-son-pleads-not-guilty-after-judge-blows-up-plea-agreement\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>offered Hunter Biden a plea deal<\/a> that would have spared the first son from any additional investigative scrutiny and keep him out of jail for the narrow tax and gun offenses to which he was prepared to plead guilty. The deal unraveled in spectacular fashion under questioning from a judge, setting off a chain of events that led to Weiss indicting Hunter Biden in Delaware and California on gun and more serious tax charges.<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>President Joe Biden\u2019s son Hunter Biden arrives for a court appearance, Friday, May 24, 2024, in Wilmington, Delaware. (AP Photo\/Matt Rourke)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>So near and yet so FARA<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cIn my opinion, [Weiss] is trying to do reputation repair while still making sure the investigations are contained,\u201d McCarthy said. \u201cIf, for example, they <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/nsd-fara\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"expanded into FARA\">expanded into FARA<\/a>, that would involve the lobbying of the Obama administration on behalf of Burisma. That gets right to the then-VP.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Republicans have considered Hunter Biden\u2019s alleged FARA violations the strongest case against him that never materialized. While Joe Biden served as vice president, Hunter Biden pocketed $83,000 per month starting in 2014 to serve on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma as its chairman fought off a corruption investigation in Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p>Two IRS whistleblowers who came forward last year with records and testimony about delays in the Hunter Biden investigation said the Department of Justice effectively shut down the investigation into <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/documents-and-texts-reveal-hunter-biden-spent-30k-on-prostitutes-in-5-months\/\" title=\"Documents and Texts Reveal Hunter Biden Spent k on Prostitutes in 5 Months\">alleged illegal foreign lobbying<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Gary Shapley, an IRS agent who spent years on the case, said the refusal in 2022 of the Joe Biden-appointed U.S. attorney in Washington, D.C., to partner with Weiss on an indictment for Hunter Biden allowed the statute of limitations to run out on alleged offenses from the start of Hunter Biden\u2019s work with Burisma. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere were also potential FARA issues relating to 2014 and 2015,\u201d Shapley <a href=\"https:\/\/waysandmeans.house.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Whistleblower-1-Transcript_Redacted.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>told Congress<\/a> last year. \u201cThe purposeful exclusion of the 2014 and 2015 years sanitized the most substantive criminal conduct and concealed material facts.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure><figcaption>IRS Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley, left, and Joseph Ziegler, an IRS agent with the criminal investigations division, are sworn in at a House Oversight and Accountability Committee hearing with IRS whistleblowers, Wednesday, July 19, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Stephanie Scarbrough)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Shapley also said one of Weiss\u2019s prosecutors, former Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf, shut down a search warrant in the fall of 2020 for the emails of a Democratic firm that worked alongside Hunter Biden with Burisma.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis was a significant blow to the Foreign Agents Registration Act piece of the investigation,\u201d Shapley said.<\/p>\n<p>The firm, Blue Star Strategies, was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/2583305\/hunter-biden-investigation-doj-enforced-foreign-lobbying-rules-on-hunters-business-partners\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>permitted to file<\/a> a FARA registration in 2022, years after its work representing Burisma. A Justice Department investigation into Blue Star Strategies was subsequently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/politics\/2022\/05\/17\/burisma-blue-star-strategies-doj-probe\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>closed<\/a>. A lawyer who represented the embattled chairman of Burisma was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/2711698\/former-burisma-lawyer-registers-retroactively-as-foreign-lobbyist-after-biden-investigations\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>allowed to file FARA disclosures<\/a> for his foreign lobbying in January, nearly eight years after the fact.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWeiss\u2019s disappearing of the Blue Star investigation signaled that Hunter would not be pursued under FARA (and allowing the statute of limitations to lapse cinched it),\u201d McCarthy said.<\/p>\n<p>By contrast, the Justice Department <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/436276\/hunter-biden-investigation-trump-associates-faced-charges-for-similar-conduct\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>took a far more aggressive approach<\/a> to enforcing FARA against Trump associates. Former Trump advisers Paul Manafort and Rick Gates were not allowed to file FARA disclosures retroactively and instead faced criminal charges for unregistered foreign lobbying; prior to their indictments, the Justice Department had only criminally enforced the law <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vox.com\/the-big-idea\/2017\/11\/3\/16596484\/fara-foreign-agents-registration-manafort-enforcement-scandal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>seven times<\/a> in the previous five decades.<\/p>\n<p>Tristan Leavitt, president of Empower Oversight and attorney for the IRS whistleblowers, said some of the delays in the case stemmed from a sense of caution within the Justice Department ahead of the 2020 election.<\/p>\n<p>\u200b\u200b\u201dWhether one likes it or not, I think there is a lot of sensitivity, or there certainly was, coming from 2020 after Crossfire Hurricane, after the Hillary Clinton investigations,\u201d Leavitt told the <em>Washington Examiner<\/em>, referring to the code name the Justice Department gave the ill-fated investigation into former President Donald Trump\u2019s alleged collusion with Russia.<\/p>\n<p>Hoping to avoid highly-publicized investigative steps that could have been perceived as hurting Joe Biden\u2019s candidacy, Justice Department officials slowed the pace of the Hunter Biden investigation in 2020.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey very much wanted to have it not come out before the election,\u201d Leavitt said.<\/p>\n<p>And those decisions came before Joe Biden placed his preferred personnel at Justice Department headquarters and in the two U.S. attorney offices that would later effectively block Weiss from pursuing indictments.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe initial delays were during the [then-Attorney General Bill] Barr DOJ, so you had a different set of folks there anyway,\u201d Leavitt said.<\/p>\n<h2>Lucky Mann <\/h2>\n<p>In October 2020, just days before the election, a Justice Department tax attorney <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/2438532\/hunter-biden-investigation-investigators-appear-to-have-considered-sex-trafficking-charges-against-first-son\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>circulated<\/a> to prosecutors and investigators evidence they had gathered of Hunter Biden\u2019s potential Mann Act violations. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/wex\/mann_act\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"Mann Act\">Mann Act<\/a> forbids the transportation of \u201cany woman or girl for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery, or for any other immoral purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The first son has not faced charges for conduct related to prostitution despite the details investigators gathered about flights Hunter Biden had funded for suspected escorts.<\/p>\n<p>The Justice Department also appeared to close off further investigation of Hunter Biden\u2019s friend and lawyer, Kevin Morris, for paying the first son\u2019s tax bills ahead of the 2020 election. <\/p>\n<p>Morris wrote in a February 2020 <a href=\"https:\/\/gop-waysandmeans.house.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/Exhibit-607A-Tax-Filing-Email-from-KPM-02.07.2020_Redacted.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>email<\/a> that Hunter Biden\u2019s unfiled tax returns posed a \u201cconsiderable risk personally and politically.\u201d He went on to pay some of Hunter Biden\u2019s tax bills that year in what investigators considered a possible campaign finance violation, as the email and interviews with other witnesses suggested the payments were intended to help Joe Biden\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Shapley said Wolf, then a prosecutor in the Delaware U.S. attorney\u2019s office, blocked investigators from digging into the campaign finance issue. According to an affidavit made public Wednesday, Wolf was summoned to the CIA in 2021 for a classified briefing and told Shapley upon returning that investigators <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/3013664\/cia-investigators-kevin-morris\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>could no longer pursue<\/a> Morris as a witness.<\/p>\n<p>Shapley said he never received an explanation as to why Morris was off limits and what role the CIA played in that decision.<\/p>\n<h2>Perjury puzzle<\/h2>\n<p>More recently, Hunter Biden has faced accusations of committing perjury during a deposition he gave to the House in February. Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee published documents last week to support their claims that Hunter Biden lied to Congress on multiple occasions, including by denying having control of a bank account for which he was listed as the beneficial owner and by denying ever having helped a foreign contact obtain a visa despite emails showing he tried to help Burisma\u2019s chairman obtain one.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER\"><strong>CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>But to date, neither Biden nor the associates with whom he worked most closely during his years working abroad have faced charges for that conduct, outside of the two indictments Hunter Biden now faces. Joe Biden, who as vice president repeatedly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/2580512\/hunter-biden-investigation-business-boomed-after-joe-biden-attended-two-key-dinners\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title>met with Hunter Biden\u2019s foreign business partners<\/a>, was never investigated; prosecutors shut down the ability of investigators to ask witnesses about his involvement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo me, the bigger question,\u201d Leavitt said, \u201cis \u2026 what are the Joe Biden cases that never were?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Next week, Hunter Biden faces trial on gun charges as the GOP&#8217;s probe into his foreign earnings fizzles. Despite fading political desire to impeach President Biden for potential family influence peddling, the perception that the Justice Department gave Hunter preferential treatment remains persistent<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2775,"featured_media":2254092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/AP24145571951621.jpg.optimal.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[538],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2254091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-washington-examiner"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/AP24145571951621.jpg.optimal.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2254091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2775"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2254091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2254091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2254092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2254091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2254091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2254091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}