Donald Trump’s allies are blasting Hunter Biden’s plea deal reached with the Department of Justice, in which President Joe Biden’s son has agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges in exchange for a deal on a federal gun charge.
“Reeks of favoritism,” Donald Trump Jr. said in a statement to Scripps News.
“Where are the charges for money laundering, failure to file as foreign agents, registration act filing while lobbying for a foreign country and bribery?” Roger Stone, a longtime Trump adviser, pressed when reached for comment.
“DOUBLE STANDARD FOR JUSTICE,” House Oversight Committee chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, tweeted.
Hunter Biden reached a deal to plead guilty to federal tax crimes, according to court documents filed with the U.S. District Court in Delaware.
Biden has agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of willful failure to pay federal income tax, according to court documents. He is expected to reach an agreement about a charge of possessing a firearm while he was addicted to drugs, according to those court documents.
Hunter Biden charged with federal tax, weapons offenses
The president's son agreed to a plea deal that averts a trial that would have generated days or weeks of distracting headlines for the White House.
'Kid gloves'
Former President Donald Trump has been using Hunter Biden’s legal woes to argue that Republicans are victims of an unfair weaponization of the Justice Department and legal system under the Biden administration.
For weeks, Trump — who so far has been indicted by a New York grand jury in connection with hush money payments to an adult film star and by a federal grand jury for his handling of classified documents since leaving the White House — has openly suggested that Hunter Biden will reach some type of plea deal arrangement.
“They are using the DOJ & FBI against me to Rigg the 2024 Election. They’ll hit Hunter with something small to make their strike on me look ‘fair,’” Trump posted earlier this month on the ultraconservative social media platform Truth Social.
Trump’s eldest son agreed.
“If you are a Republican, Biden’s DOJ will throw the book at you and try to put you in prison for 100 years,” Trump Jr. said in a statement. “But if you happen to have the right last name like Hunter, they will protect you and treat you with kid gloves.”
The Trump family has been heavily scrutinized for their business dealings before, during and after Trump’s time in the White House.
New York attorney general Letitia James, a Democrat, is suing the former president, the Trump Organization and Trump’s children Ivanka, Don Jr. and Eric for fraudulent business practices. That case reportedly goes to trial in October.
Trump told Fox News' Bret Baier on Monday that his children would not serve in a second administration if he was elected in 2024. Polls show Trump as the dominant Republican front-runner in the primary.
Scripps News' Olivia Guthrie contributed to this report.
