Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said a plea deal on tax charges for Hunter Biden, President Biden’s son, will not slow down House Republicans’ investigation into the Biden family’s business dealings.
“It continues to show the two-tier system in America,” McCarthy said of Hunter Biden’s plea deal. “If you are the president’s leading political opponent, the DOJ tries to literally put you in jail and give you prison time. But if you are the president’s son, you get a sweetheart deal.”
“Now, this does nothing to our investigation,” McCarthy told reporters Tuesday morning. “It actually should enhance our investigation, because the DOJ should not be able to withhold any information now saying that there’s a pending investigation. They should be able to provide [House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer] with any information that he requires.”
Hunter Biden agreed to plead guilty to tax crimes and reached a diversion agreement related to unlawful possession of a weapon.
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His attorney, Christopher Clark, said in a statement that his understanding was that the matter was resolved, but U.S. Attorney David C. Weiss’s office said in its own statement Tuesday that the investigation is still ongoing.
Later Tuesday, McCarthy suggested that the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) claims that the investigation is ongoing is merely an effort to withhold information from the House.
“How can Hunter Biden plead guilty, no jail time, and the DOJ say there’s still an investigation, try to withhold information to the House? That’s unacceptable and will not stand,” he told reporters.
Pressed on if he thinks that is the DOJ’s intention, McCarthy responded, “It has to be.”
“Because you cannot plead guilty, say you’re not gonna do jail time, and then say you can’t give papers to the U.S. House of Representatives — that’s not gonna stand. That’s not gonna work,” he said.
Asked what the American people can expect from Republicans going forward on investigations, McCarthy said GOP lawmakers will “continue to follow whatever information leads us to.”
Republicans have long probed the foreign business dealings of President Biden’s family and its associates but have so far not produced evidence that the president directly benefited from those dealings or knew any details. The president has denied knowledge of Hunter Biden’s business activities.
In the past several weeks, the GOP has seized on an FBI tip that President Biden was involved in a bribery scheme with a foreign national. The tip came from what lawmakers in both parties describe as a credible source with secondhand knowledge of the allegation but has not been verified.
“We found out, lo and behold, even though the FBI tried to hold from us, that in a 1023 form, that people have said that they had to pay the president’s family money for favors,” McCarthy said, in reference to the unverified claim.
McCarthy also referenced financial records obtained by Republicans that they say showed millions of dollars moving through shell companies and benefiting members of the president’s family. The records did not show money flowing to President Biden himself.
Comer — who said the “sweetheart plea deal” was a “slap on the wrist” — also said his committee will plow ahead with its investigation into Hunter Biden despite the recent development.
“Hunter Biden is getting away with a slap on the wrist when growing evidence uncovered by the House Oversight Committee reveals the Bidens engaged in a pattern of corruption, influence peddling, and possibly bribery,” Comer said in a statement Tuesday morning.
“These charges against Hunter Biden and sweetheart plea deal have no impact on the Oversight Committee’s investigation,” he continued. “We will not rest until the full extent of President Biden’s involvement in the family’s schemes are revealed.”
McCarthy on Tuesday sought to draw a comparison to the federal indictment of former President Trump earlier this month, part of the Justice Department’s investigation into the mishandling of classified documents. Trump pleaded not guilty to all 37 charges.
President Biden is also under investigation by the DOJ for the potential mishandling of classified documents, though the two cases bear significant differences: Trump is accused of obstructing attempts by authorities to regain the documents, including asking his attorneys to lie about their existence or destroy them, while Biden’s attorneys alerted authorities when records were discovered and handed them over.
McCarthy, nonetheless, juxtaposed the two Tuesday as part of his argument that the justice system is two-tiered.
“You have a sitting president today that now has a son that gets a sweetheart deal, that now the president today has [his] top political opponent indicted and has potential jail time. And you have the same problem yourself, but there’s no movement on that,” McCarthy said. “So I think that — to all Americans — seems as though it’s a two-system, and that’s what wrong.”
Updated at 12:46 p.m. EDT.