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Fox News and CNN reported on Thursday, June 21, that the federal investigation into Hunter Biden is coming to a critical point as officials evaluate their options for bringing charges against the president’s son.
According to Fox News, a source close to the investigation commented that “officials are weighing possible charges for tax violations, foreign lobbying, and false statements” against Hunter Biden, who has been under federal investigation since 2018.
David Weiss, the Delaware federal prosecutor appointed by former President Donald Trump, is in charge of the investigation against the president’s son.
“The source told Fox News on Wednesday that Weiss and Justice Department officials were looking into whether to charge Hunter Biden with various tax violations and, more seriously, possible foreign lobbying violations,” the report read. “The source said Hunter Biden could face possible false statements charges.”
According to close sources cited by Fox News, the investigation was based on and found substantiation thanks to suspicious activity reports (SARs) relating to foreign transactions involving nations such as China. Sources explained that filing a SAR does not necessarily mean that a crime or infraction has been committed but rather that it is an out-of-the-ordinary transaction and that these types of reports can form part of a money laundering or tax investigation.
The source quoted by Fox News said that the decision on whether to file charges against Hunter Biden has not yet been made, and the investigation is still ongoing.
Even though the investigation has been ongoing for several years, Hunter Biden only acknowledged the existence of the investigation weeks after the 2020 presidential election. This after the New York Post exclusively published a report on his foreign business dealings, his relationship with the controversial Ukrainian company Burisma and the introduction of his father, Joe Biden, to a top executive of this firm a year after the then vice president pressured the Ukrainian government to fire a prosecutor investigating Burisma for corruption.
CNN: Possible filing of charges against Hunter Biden confronts officials
According to sources cited by CNN, as investigators look into possible charges against the president’s son, “prosecutors confront Justice Department guidelines to generally avoid bringing politically sensitive cases close to an election.”
“While no final decision has been made on whether to bring charges against President Joe Biden’s son, sources say the probe has intensified in recent months along with discussions among Delaware-based prosecutors, investigators running the probe and officials at Justice Department headquarters,” the news network reported.
According to CNN, the Hunter Biden investigation became a giant political challenge for Attorney General Merrick Garland, as “Weiss is one of a handful of appointees of former President Donald Trump who were kept on by the Biden administration because they were overseeing politically sensitive investigations.”
The report notes that right now, there is a power play and clashes within the Justice Department, as “current and former Justice Department officials say there is an unwritten rule that prosecutors avoid bringing politically sensitive cases within 60 days of an election.”
However, there is no consensus within the Justice Department as to whether the rules apply to this specific case because “Joe Biden isn’t on the ballot in the midterms.”
In recent months, the president’s son has been in the news for ongoing revelations about his private life found on a laptop computer abandoned in a Delaware repair shop.
Emmanuel Alejandro Rondón is a journalist at El American specializing in the areas of American politics and media analysis // Emmanuel Alejandro Rondón es periodista de El American especializado en las áreas de política americana y análisis de medios de comunicación.
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