| The president's son Hunter Biden has reached a tentative agreement to plead guilty to two minor tax crimes. Here's what that means and what could happen to him. How we got here: The Justice Department started investigating Hunter Biden's various business deals while President Donald Trump was in the White House. When Joe Biden became president, he kept the Trump-appointed investigator on the job and let the investigation play out. Over five years, it narrowed in scope to the following charges: - Failure to pay taxes: Hunter Biden will plead guilty to failing to pay more than $100,000 in taxes in both 2017 and 2018 after making more than $1.5 million each year. He has struggled with debt but has paid the IRS back taxes thanks to a loan from a wealthy friend. Prosecutors are recommending probation, people familiar with the deal have told The Washington Post.
- Lying when making a gun purchase: Hunter Biden will also admit to lying on a form for a gun he bought in 2018 by denying he misused drugs, but he will not technically plead guilty. In turn, prosecutors will agree not to prosecute him, but he has to abide by certain conditions to get the charge dropped from his record. It's a deal called a diversion program that is typically applied to nonviolent offenders with substance use problems. To buy the gun, Biden filled out a federal form asking him whether he was "an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance." He checked no, but he's written a book saying at the time he was addicted to crack cocaine, smoking it as often as "every 15 minutes."
 Hunter Biden in February. (Elizabeth Frantz/Reuters) | Is this connected to Hunter Biden's laptop? It's not clear whether the laptop — a mainstay of Republican criticism of the Biden family — has anything to do with this investigation. Apparently Hunter Biden left a laptop in a Delaware repair shop before the 2020 election and it made its way into the hands of Trump allies. The FBI subpoenaed the computer repair shop to get the laptop about a year into its investigation of Hunter Biden. The contents that The Post could authenticate suggest that Hunter Biden profited from business deals in China and Ukraine because of his name and connections but that his father did not. There is no evidence they violated any laws. There is also no evidence that he influenced his father's policies, but ethics experts have raised concerns that foreign companies sought out Hunter Biden to sit on their boards to raise their legitimacy and international profiles. The Trump and Hunter Biden cases, compared Hunter Biden is getting out of a wide-ranging investigation with no jail time, while Trump, if convicted, faces a possible sentence of years, maybe decades. For Trump, that fits neatly into his ongoing narrative that President Biden's government is unfairly targeting him. But that ignores the facts of each case. Other than both centering on high-profile figures in politics, they are quite different. Trump is accused of refusing to give back government secrets. Even some Republicans say his alleged conduct raises serious concerns. Hunter Biden's legal problems appear to stem from a troubled time in his life. He appears to have cooperated, rather than lie to investigators. One of his lawyers, Chris Clark, said in a statement: "I know Hunter believes it is important to take responsibility for these mistakes he made during a period of turmoil and addiction in his life. He looks forward to continuing his recovery and moving forward." Why is there so much attention on Hunter Biden in the first place?  House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) at a February hearing in front of a displayed New York Post front page featuring Hunter and President Biden. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post) | Starting with the 2020 election, critics of Joe Biden have latched onto every salacious detail about Hunter Biden's life and combined that with snippets of texts and emails, and even nude photos from his laptop, to paint a picture of an unsavory, corrupt family. Hunter Biden has struggled with debt and addiction. He had a relationship with his deceased brother's wife. But allegations of more-serious crimes out there now about him, his finances and his laptop lack context and, crucially, evidence. |
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