Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, is expected in court today to plead guilty to federal tax charges.
It will mark the end of a yearslong investigation into Biden’s taxes and foreign business dealings that has been spotlighted throughout his father’s presidency. It’s also the first time the Justice Department has brought charges against a sitting president’s child.
Biden, 53, is expected to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax offenses as part of a plea deal.
The plea agreement in federal court in Delaware will make the investigation “resolved,” Biden’s attorney Chris Clark said in a statement.
As part of the deal, federal prosecutors will decline to pursue a felony gun charge, allowing Biden to avoid potential jail time.
With the investigation unfolding in the public eye, the president and his second son became the center of scrutiny in political circles, particularly right-wing Republicans.
How did we get here?
The five-year investigation examined Hunter Biden’s role in foreign businesses — including his board position with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. Former President Donald Trump’s attempts to pressure Ukraine into investigating the Bidens and Hunter’s involvement with Burisma led to Trump’s first impeachment.
The Senate Republicans’ investigation into Biden’s board position floated conflict-of-interest concerns but concluded that it was “not clear” how his role “affected U.S. policy toward Ukraine.”
As Joe Biden was elected president, far-right pressure on his son remained intense.
In October 2020, a month before the election, the New York Post reported that it had received a copy of a hard drive from a laptop Hunter Biden used from Trump’s personal attorney at the time, Rudy Giuliani. The story alleged that the laptop showed international corruption from Hunter Biden and his father.
“Hunter Biden’s laptop” became a pressure point among far-right Republicans. But the story was met with skepticism surrounding the laptop’s origins and Giuliani’s involvement. To date, no evidence has emerged connecting Russian intelligence to the laptop or the emails on it.
What’s happening now?
Prosecutors ultimately closed in on two issues: Biden’s failure to pay income taxes on time and lying about his substance abuse on a firearm application form.
With the tax charges, Biden failed to pay taxes in 2017 and 2018. He owed more than $100,000 each year. In 2021 — after the investigation was opened — he paid back taxes in full. Biden is expected to plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of willful failure to pay federal income tax.
The gun charge has to do with a handgun application he filled out in 2018, in which he said he was not using drugs. Biden has been open about his struggles with substance abuse, leading prosecutors to allege that he was lying on his application.
In his memoir, Beautiful Things, Biden talks about his struggle with addiction. He wrote that he first bought crack cocaine when he was 18 and started drinking while in high school.
Biden has not entered a plea to the firearm charge, but news reports say he will enter into an agreement with prosecutors to avoid jail time.