Republican attacks on Hunter Biden’s plea are nonsense

It didn’t take long for MAGA World to attack the plea agreement between Hunter Biden and the Justice Department, signed for by David Weiss, a Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney in Delaware who stayed on to complete the investigation. The president’s son has agreed to admit his guilt to two misdemeanor tax charges of failure to pay taxes on more than $100,000 of income in 2017 and 2018.

An additional charge of failing to report that he was a drug addict when he purchased a gun will be held in suspension and dismissed if he completes successful probation, almost certainly requiring clean drug testing over a period of years. The Justice Department said Tuesday that it was not the end of the case, but that the investigation was continuing.

The deal gives the lie to the narrative that Merrick Garland’s Justice Department would not hold the president’s son accountable or that it “slow-walked” the investigation to protect Biden in his reelection campaign. His son’s guilty plea and sentencing in a few months will now extend further into the campaign season than it would have had it been resolved earlier.

Further disproven is President Biden’s statement just last month that “my son’s done nothing wrong.”

We do not know the evidence that prosecutor Weiss collected, its strength or his likelihood for obtaining a conviction had he decided to try the case. But no matter to Republicans seeking to make political hay, none of whom prudently said, “Let’s wait and see what we learn beyond the initial headline.”

Former President Trump immediately posted on social media that the potential penalties are “traffic tickets.” Traffic tickets, of course, impose fines and do not expose violators to jail time. Florida Sen. Rick Scott called it a “mockery.” Rep. James Comer, chair of the House Oversight Committee, repeated the GOP talking point of a “two-tiered system of justice.”

Once again, Republicans have proven their misunderstanding of the criminal justice system. It is built for accountability to the law and cannot bear the partisan baggage they want it to carry. A prosecution is not meant to serve the political purposes of those trying to make Hunter Biden a surrogate punching bag for his father, any more than Trump’s criminal trials are meant to resolve the nation’s political challenges.

The criminal justice system welcomes guilty pleas because defendants accept responsibility and face consequences. Prosecutors avoid the risks of trial — hung juries or acquittals. Ask Special Counsel John Durham, who was appointed by Trump Attorney General William Barr. Durham lost the only two cases he brought before juries, failing in his mission to prove an FBI conspiracy in launching the 2016 Trump-Russia investigation.

Guilty pleas allow the system to function because if every case were tried, courts would be jammed with criminal cases and could never deal with society’s need for justice in civil cases involving people harmed physically, emotionally or financially.

MAGA World finds it easy to ignore two paramount realities: First, Donald Trump, too, has the opportunity to plead guilty to far lesser charges than those for which he has been indicted. Second, there is no evidence that Hunter Biden sought to obstruct a federal investigation. That is the reason, as Barr has made clear, that Trump has been charged with such serious felonies. The rule of law cannot tolerate those who conceal or tamper with evidence in an effort to conceal their culpability.

It’s also important to keep in mind that after Hunter Biden appears in court, pleads guilty and is subject to a sentencing report from an impartial probation officer, the judge in the case could sentence him to 12 months in jail, rejecting the prosecutor’s expected recommendation of probation. That happens all the time.

Meanwhile, Comer has promised to continue to investigate the wild allegations that Hunter Biden was a vehicle for his father to receive bribes in Ukraine. So far, his committee’s partisan stunts have proven only that they have no evidence of wrongdoing by the president.

Knock yourself out, Rep. Comer. It’s too much to ask that you leave the criminal justice system to do its work.

Dennis Aftergut is a former federal prosecutor and civil litigator, currently of counsel to Lawyers Defending American Democracy.