Davis: The facts about Hunter Biden 

If you care about facts, then continue reading. 

If you have a different interpretation or political reaction to these facts, I respect that. 

But if you deny facts — don’t care about facts — such as Donald Trump and the roughly 30 percent of his supporters who deny that Joe Biden was elected president in 2020 despite there being literally no evidence of any significant voter fraud — then stop reading. 

Let’s keep it simple about President Biden’s son, Hunter’s, prosecution (i.e., he pled guilty to misdemeanors relating to two years filings of late tax returns and gun purchase probation violations): 

Fact one: Less than one-10,000th of a percent of individual taxpayers who are guilty of intentional tax evasion (not counting criminal syndicates in drug dealing etc.) are ever criminally prosecuted. Rather, they are sued civilly and forced to return illegally evaded taxes plus interest and penalties. 

Don’t believe me? I’m just a Washington country lawyer. Believe the most famous tax preparation company of all time — H&R Block — which wrote in 2017: 

“Many people are afraid of IRS audits — and maybe even going to jail if they make a major mistake. In fact, fear of an IRS audit is one of the main reasons that people strive to file timely and accurate tax returns each year. But here’s the reality: Very few taxpayers go to jail for tax evasion. In 2015, the IRS indicted only 1,330 taxpayers out of 150 million for legal-source tax evasion….” 

That means — this is my opinion, not a fact — that Hunter Biden was prosecuted criminally because his father is the president. He was not given lighter treatment because of his father is president. In other words, in my opinion, Republicans have the truth exactly upside down when they accuse Hunter Biden of receiving special treatment. 

Leading to fact two: The decision to prosecute Biden and force him to plead guilty to two crimes (misdemeanors, but still crimes) was made by David Weiss, a U.S. attorney appointed by President Trump.

There has been a lot written about the motives and background of Weiss, who made the decisions to criminally prosecute Hunter Biden and the appropriate sanctions given the facts available to be proven in court. But not one GOP congressional leader has offered any facts to undermine his sincerity — only rumors. 

There is also not a single fact to support the speculations and innuendo of Republican congressional leaders and talk show guests that Attorney General Merrick Garland (or anyone else at the Justice Department) had any influence on Weiss.  

Fact three: The comparison not to prosecute Hillary Clinton’s handling of emails was made on the merits, without political influence. 

Anyone who doubts that cannot deny the following supporting indisputable facts: The decision not to criminally prosecute Clinton for her handling of the emails was confirmed by Trump administration and Republican congressional leaders, including Trump’s attorney general, Trump’s secretary of State, the Republican-controlled Senate Intelligence Committee and the Republican leaders on the House committee that investigated Clinton’s emails.  

Fact four: Maybe the most important one because I challenge even one Republican House leader to challenge this fact: 

There is no evidence that Joe Biden either assisted or obtained any financial benefit from his son Hunter’s decision to join the Ukrainian energy company, Burisma, or in any other activity by Hunter Biden. 

Now here is a fact that I will end this column with which I agree and cannot dispute: 

Hunter Biden took advantage of his last name and his father’s reputation to get a job and benefitted by that association.  

Yes, that is so. Do I blame Hunter? No, I don’t. Some people do, and that is their right. But is it unusual in politics for children of elected officials, especially famous ones, to benefit from their parents’ political positions? No, it is not.  

Lanny Davis served as a special counsel to President Bill Clinton in 1996-98 and on a post-9/11 privacy and civil liberties panel appointed by President George W. Bush. He is a co-founder of the Washington law firm Davis Goldberg Galper PLLC, specializing in legal crisis management in support of litigation and other legal issues and Trident DMG, a public relations and strategic communications firm. He is an author of four books on U.S. politics and policy and one book, “Crisis Tales,” on legal crisis management true stories of his work for high profile clients.