The White House on Monday threatened to veto a proposed spending bill for military construction and veterans’ affairs, arguing that House Republicans are pursuing a partisan spending proposal that deviates from an agreement struck during debt ceiling talks.
"House Republicans had an opportunity to engage in a productive, bipartisan appropriations process, but instead, with just over two months before the end of the fiscal year, are wasting time with partisan bills that cut domestic spending to levels well below the (Fiscal Responsibility Act) agreement and endanger critical services for the American people," the White House said in a statement of administration policy.
"These levels would result in deep cuts to climate change and clean energy programs, essential nutrition services, law enforcement, consumer safety, education, and healthcare," the statement added.
The Biden administration argued that the House GOP proposals would lead to additional cuts from the Inflation Reduction Act, a signature piece of legislation focused on climate and health care initiatives that passed with Democratic votes last year.
The House Republican bill would also have "devastating consequences including harming access to reproductive healthcare, threatening the health and safety of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and Intersex (LGBTQI+) Americans, endangering marriage equality, hindering critical climate change initiatives, and preventing the Administration from promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion," the White House said.
"The Administration stands ready to engage with both chambers of the Congress in a bipartisan appropriations process to enact responsible spending bills that fully fund Federal agencies in a timely manner," the statement added.
In a separate statement, the administration said President Biden would veto a proposed agriculture spending bill, citing similar concerns that it contained deeper cuts than were agreed upon during debt ceiling talks earlier this year.
Lawmakers are scheduled to take up the military construction and agriculture appropriations bills this week.
The White House and Republican leaders in May struck a deal over spending that included an agreement to lift the debt ceiling and avoid a default. As part of that deal, the two sides agreed to a rollback of nondefense discretionary spending to fiscal 2022 levels, while limiting top-line federal spending to 1 percent annual growth for six years.
Lev Parnas, once a right-hand man to Rudy Giuliani, asked the GOP’s top congressional investigator to abandon efforts to uncover wrongdoing by the Biden family in Ukraine, calling the matter “nothing more than a wild goose chase” that has been “debunked again and again.”
Parnas’s Tuesday letter to House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.), obtained by The Hill, notes that Parnas and Giuliani's repeated efforts to dig up dirt on President Biden or his son Hunter yielded nothing and confused Ukrainian prosecutors.
It also recaps the efforts taken by the Trump team that resulted in the launching of the first impeachment inquiry into former President Trump. Democrats alleged he withheld aid from Ukraine in an effort to pressure officials there to provide incriminating evidence on the Bidens.
“Throughout all these months of work, the extensive campaigns and networking done by Trump allies and Giuliani associates, including the enormously thorough interviews and assignments that I undertook, there has never been any evidence that Hunter or Joe Biden committed any crimes related to Ukrainian politics,” he said.
He said Giuliani and all others involved in the matter “knew that these allegations against the Bidens were false.”
“Never, during any of my communications with Ukrainian officials or connections to Burisma, did any of them confirm or provide concrete facts linking the Bidens to illegal activities. In fact, they asked me multiple times why our team was so concerned with this idea.”
Comer dismissed the contents of Parnas’s letter.
“Now there's somebody that Giuliani was running around with and says we should drop investigations because Giuliani and him already looked into it. I mean, I don't think that that's credible,” he said.
“We're starting to see money from Ukraine coming in on some of these bank statements that we're going to release later,” he added, a reference to his investigation into Biden family finances.
Comer has based much of his investigation on an unverified tip to the FBI from a source who heard secondhand allegations Biden accepted a bribe. The bureau was unable to corroborate the tip.
Parnas has also previously provided a transcript of a conversation he says was with Mykola Zlochevsky, the reported source of the information, denying any improper conduct by President Biden or his son Hunter, who was serving on the board of energy company Burisma, which Zlochevsky owns. That information was turned over during the impeachment inquiry.
Parnas was convicted in court of making illegal campaign contributions to Trump.
His letter comes as Comer is under increasing pressure to advance his inquiry into President Biden, who he has alleged accepted a bribe.
Even some in the GOP have criticized his investigation, with former Trump advisor Steve Bannon saying last month Comer needed to “be prepared,” adding, “You are not serious. It’s all performative.”
Comer acknowledged Monday the difficulties of explaining the financial crimes he has alleged.
“Two things I've learned: People don't know what a shell company is, and they don't know what an LLC is. They don't know what money laundering is. We're going to try to explain in a more simple form ‘this is what they did,’” he told reporters.
Those in Trump’s orbit have alleged President Biden sought to withhold aid from Ukraine because its top prosecutor was threatening to investigate his son. Biden, joined by the international community, actually sought to pressure Ukraine to remove the man, Viktor Shokin, over corruption charges.
Parnas’s letter spends ample time breaking down the investigative efforts of Giuliani, which included trying to get Shokin’s replacement, Yuriy Lutsenko, to retain him for $200,000.
It details the repeated dead ends they hit, and the numerous efforts to pressure Ukrainian officials.
“Giuliani’s message to the [then-Ukrainian] president [Petro Poroshenko], who was running for reelection, was that Trump would support him and help him win if he made an official announcement of an investigation against Joe Biden,” Parnas writes.
Parnas ends with a plea to Comer to halt his investigation.
“There is no evidence of Joe or Hunter Biden interfering with Ukrainian politics, and there never has been,” Parnas writes.
“With all due respect, Chairman Comer, the narrative you are seeking for this investigation has been proven false many times over, by a wide array of respected sources. There is simply no merit to investigating this matter any further. I hope my letter has provided you with additional clarity on this point.”
President Biden said Thursday that he is headed to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R) district in Georgia to tout investments in manufacturing and his economic agenda.
“Since I took office, we’ve seen over 60 domestic manufacturing announcements all across the solar supply chain. One of the biggest is in Dalton, Georgia," the president said during remarks in South Carolina. "You may find it hard to believe, but that’s Marjorie Taylor Greene’s district. I’ll be there for the groundbreaking."
He was visiting the company Flex LTD to tout $500 billion in investments that private companies have made in manufacturing and clean energy during his administration.
Greene has emerged as one of Biden’s top critics on Capitol Hill and the president recently has been targeting Republican lawmakers who did not vote for his agenda but have hailed new investments in their states.
In South Carolina, Biden called out Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) for supporting part of his agenda while still joining every GOP lawmaker in voting against the Inflation Reduction Act last year.
While the White House did not confirm when the president will be heading to Georgia —another GOP stronghold like South Carolina — they shared that he will be showcasing how his "Bidenomics" agenda has brought jobs there.
“President Biden looks forward to showcasing how Bidenomics is bringing good-paying manufacturing jobs to Georgia,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said. “Bidenomics centers on growing the middle class, and is delivering the biggest manufacturing surge in decades."
"Meanwhile, congressional Republicans are attempting to repeal many of the policies that are fueling that manufacturing resurgence so they can cut taxes for the wealthy," Bates added.
The White House picked a fight with Greene, a close ally of former President Trump, last month after her hometown newspaper touted federal public safety grants the area was set to receive through the American Rescue Plan. Greene voted against the plan in March 2021 along with every other House Republican.
The Georgia lawmaker is also an ally of Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and supported him for the top House spot, breaking with the her House Freedom Caucus colleagues that opposed him. The Freedom Caucus voted this week to remove her from its ranks.
Republicans eager to impeach a Biden administration official have rallied around a new phrase to justify the rarely used move, accusing President Biden and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas of “dereliction of duty.”
The term, borrowed from the military, allows a court martial to punish service members who fail to obey orders or carry out their duties.
But experts say the GOP’s basis for removing either man from office is an odd fit for impeachment, which requires demonstrating high crimes or misdemeanors.
“It sounds quasi-official — it has a sort of military ring to it. But it's not as though high crimes and misdemeanors and dereliction of duty go together. … It's not traditionally one of the impeachment concepts that you would find in the panoply of presidential mistakes,” said Claire Finkelstein, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania who specializes in national security law and democratic governance.
“They're looking for a phrase that will kind of draw people in because it sounds semi-official, but will not actually require them to say something true and correct, like, ‘The President has actually done such and such,’” she added.
The impeachment resolution for Biden introduced by Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) accuses Biden of dereliction of duty and abuses of power in connection with how he has handled the border.
“Since his first day in office, President Biden has trampled on the Constitution through his dereliction of duty under Article 2, to take care that the laws be faithfully executed. Instead of enforcing our immigration laws, he has lawlessly ignored them,” Boebert said on the House floor this month before Republicans voted to refer the measure to committee.
Each of the four impeachment resolutions targeting Mayorkas similarly accuses him of violating his oath of office by failing to enforce immigration laws.
The House Homeland Security Committee, which has been tasked with an investigation that would be used as the basis for any impeachment effort undertaken by House Judiciary, likewise kicked off its five-step plan with a phase dedicated to reviewing dereliction of duty.
“The blatant disregard for the Constitution of the United States, which states that the United States Congress passes the laws and the executive branch executes those laws, is just scratching the surface to the harm Secretary Mayorkas’s dereliction of duty has done to our country,” said Mark Green (R-Tenn.), the committee's chairman, in a press conference earlier this month kicking off the formal investigation.
“Mayorkas’s dereliction of duty has placed the safety of Americans’ second to his own personal agenda," Green added.
For Democrats, the GOP complaints over how the administration is applying — or failing to apply — the laws passed by Congress show the underlying dispute is a policy matter and therefore insufficient grounds for impeachment.
“Dereliction of duty is something that they have created out of whole cloth,” said Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), who served as a lead counsel to Democrats in the first impeachment of former President Trump before being elected to Congress.
“It has never been a grounds for impeachment. It is not a high crime and misdemeanor, and it is essentially arguing that they don't like the way that President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas have been handling their jobs, which, unfortunately for them, is the consequence of elections,” Goldman said.
Impeachment proceedings have been used four times for a president and once for a cabinet secretary.
There are different interpretations of what constitutes a high crime or misdemeanor, and Finkelstein said while impeachment can be used for “bad acts that are not criminal, very often the impeachment charges could also be charged as crimes.”
“President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas haven't violated the law. And I suspect that members of the GOP and Congress know that full well, and so they don't want to use any term that suggests that there may be a legal violation here. And so they're using this sort of made-up term that has a quasi-military frame to sound vaguely official, but it's really nothing that corresponds to what we would understand from the history of impeachment as a high crime and misdemeanor as the framers would have conceived,” she said.
Republicans have become more focused on arguing that Biden officials have violated immigration laws, particularly those dealing with detaining and releasing migrants that arrive at the border.
They also see a wave of fentanyl deaths as a failure to secure the border, though the vast majority of fentanyl that enters the U.S. is believed to come through ports of entry.
The Department of Homeland Security has argued Mayorkas has acted within his authority because the U.S. simply doesn't have the capacity to detain every person that seeks to enter the country, while parole laws allow DHS to permit some migrants to enter the U.S. while they await a determination in immigration court as to securing a more permanent legal status. The department has repeatedly encouraged Congress to take action to update immigration laws.
The White House, meanwhile, dismissed Boebert’s resolution as “staging baseless political stunts.”
“What you would need in order to move forward with impeachment is some finding that they have violated the law,” Goldman said.
“So the notion that he’s violated his oath of office is just simply saying that he in their view is not following the law, but what it amounts to without any evidence — and they have none — is just a disagreement about how we're dealing with the influx of migrants into this country who are largely escaping completely devastated governments [and] catastrophic situations,” he said, adding that the Biden administration has tried to deal with that “in a humane way.”
When asked about the legal underpinnings of dereliction of duty by The Hill, Green pointed to the statutes governing the military and the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ).
“The United States is not secure. His job is to secure the United States. He's failed. That's a dereliction of his duty,” Green said, noting the oath he took when entering West Point.
“Mayorkas’s oath is the same, right? It's not to the geography of America. It's not to the flag. It’s to the Constitution, the idea of America and to the way the Constitution orchestrates how the government is to work.”
The roots in the Uniform Code of Military Justice could be problematic for making a case.
“Neither Biden nor Mayorkas are subject to the UCMJ because they’re both civilians,” Finkelstein said. “Dereliction of duty as a military term does not apply to the Secretary of Homeland Security, nor does it apply to the president.”
Impatience, however, is growing among some in the Republican Party.
“I would hope that it would be this year — and very soon,” Boebert told reporters last week.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), who served as an impeachment manager for Trump’s first impeachment, dismissed the efforts as another example of Republicans “dragging down the institution of Congress.”
“I am concerned that as they always do, they use a process that is properly applied as a precedent to abuse the process. But this is all about ingratiating yourself among MAGA members and Trump followers and it's disgraceful,” he said.
“It’s consuming the time of Congress to keep going through these right-wing exercises designed to gain Trump's favor.”
House Republicans are grappling over whether to move forward with impeaching President Biden and a host of his top officials, putting a spotlight on how the conference has turned to impeachment as a tool to target administration officials.
Republicans disagree over how hard to push for impeachment because some are worried the efforts could backfire after the party heavily criticized Democrats for their House impeachments of former President Trump.
Here’s a look at who House Republicans are targeting for impeachment, and why they are doing so.
President Biden
President Joe Biden speaks during a Monday event about high-speed internet infrastructure, in the East Room of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
It’s far from clear that most Republicans want to move forward with impeachment proceedings against Biden.
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) introduced a procedural measure to force a floor vote on her impeachment articles, which led to internal sparring and a days-long clash between GOP leaders and the congresswoman. The House voted to punt the resolution to committees and avoid making lawmakers vote on it on the floor.
The resolution, which many Republicans deemed as premature, accused Biden of “a complete and total invasion at the southern border.” The resolution includes two articles related to Biden’s handling of matters along the U.S.-Mexico border — one for dereliction of duty and one for abuse of power.
During the last Congress, GOP lawmakers in the minority introduced several impeachment resolutions against Biden, targeting him on immigration, the COVID pandemic and the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. Boebert’s move was an escalation that threatened to put vulnerable moderates in the caucus in a tough spot if they had to vote on it.
There are other voices in the GOP calling for Biden’s impeachment.
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley told Fox News this week that congressional Republicans “absolutely should” look into impeachment. Her comments followed an IRS whistleblower’s claims about tax crime investigations into the president’s son Hunter Biden.
But Boebert’s push has been dismissed by some in her party as frivolous.
“I’ve got a pretty high bar for impeachment,” Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) said last week. “I fear that snap impeachments will become the norm, and they mustn’t.”
Attorney General Merrick Garland
Attorney General Merrick Garland during a Senate Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Subcommittee answers a question during a hearing to discuss the President’s FY 2024 budget for the Department of Justice on Tuesday, March 28, 2023. (Greg Nash)
Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) brought up impeaching Garland this week, tying it to the Department of Justice’s handling of the investigations into Hunter Biden.
McCarthy said an impeachment inquiry could be warranted over alleged political bias and DOJ “weaponization.” The push has been fueled by an IRS whistleblower’s claims, denied by Garland, that there was political interference in tax crime investigations into Hunter Biden.
“Someone has lied here,” McCarthy said Wednesday on Fox News. “If we find that Garland has lied to Congress, we will start an impeachment inquiry.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) filed articles of impeachment against Garland last summer over the FBI’s search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property for classified and sensitive documents.
“If the whistleblowers’ allegations are true, this will be a significant part of a larger impeachment inquiry into Merrick Garland’s weaponization of DOJ,” McCarthy said in a tweet.
McCarthy’s focus on Garland is a change in how he has handled calls from Republicans to impeach other members of the Biden administration. He has vowed any impeachment proceedings would not be political.
The White House has bashed the idea of a Garland impeachment inquiry, saying it is an effort to distract from the economy and other topics top of mind for Americans.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas
Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas speaks at a March 10 news conference ahead of the lifting of Title 42. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)
Republicans, led by Greene and fellow Reps. Andy Biggs (Ariz.) and Pat Fallon (Texas), have targeted Mayorkas with articles of impeachment over the flow of migrants at the southern border.
House Republicans have held multiple hearings focused on what they describe as Mayorkas’s “dereliction of duty,” and mishandling of border policy, pointing to surges of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border that set records in 2022.
“I just think that more and more people are starting to come around to the necessity to impeach the guy,” Biggs said.
House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.) recently announced the panel would kick off a formal investigation of Mayorkas as a necessary step ahead of an impeachment inquiry.
The focus on Mayorkas has drawn criticism from Democrats who believe Republicans are resorting to impeachment over what amounts to a disagreement over immigration policy.
Homeland Security also has pushed back on GOP arguments over the border while largely blaming Congress for the problems.
The push to impeach Mayorkas has also been complicated by a drop in apprehensions at the southern border in the weeks after the Biden administration ended Title 42, which had been in place since 2020 and allowed for the rapid expulsion of migrants.
FBI Director Christopher Wray
FBI Director Christopher Wray gives an opening statement during an April 27 hearing to discuss President Biden's fiscal 2023 budget request for the FBI. (Greg Nash)
Greene in May said she would target Wray and introduce articles of impeachment against him.
The congresswoman argued that Way turned the FBI into Biden and Garland’s “personal police force” and that the FBI has “intimidated, harassed, and entrapped” U.S. citizens who have been “deemed enemies of the Biden regime.”
While citing some FBI actions that she argued show the agency overreached, Greene referred to the plot that multiple men had in 2020 plotted to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D). She noted that two of the men were acquitted after defense attorneys argued that the FBI entrapped them and convinced them to engage in the conspiracy.
She also mentioned that the FBI searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property for classified and sensitive documents, arguing that the former president didn’t break any laws. Trump has been indicted by a Miami jury over his handling of the records.
Wray is scheduled to testify before the House Judiciary Committee on July 12.
The hearing comes after the Republican-led House Oversight Committee threatened to hold Wray in contempt over his initial refusal to turn over a document detailing an unverified tip that GOP lawmakers claim shows then-Vice President Biden’s involvement in a bribery scheme. The panel later backed off its contempt threat.
The FBI and Justice Department as a whole have become common targets for conservatives, who have repeatedly claimed federal law enforcement is biased against Republicans and has been weaponized. Those claims have been supercharged by the federal indictment of Trump on charges over his retention of classified government documents after he left office.
The White House is picking a fight with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) after her hometown newspaper in Floyd County touted federal public safety grants the area was set to receive through the American Rescue Plan.
Greene, along with every other House Republican, voted against the American Rescue Plan in March 2021.
The White House took a shot at Greene over that vote after the Rome News-Tribune in Greene’s district ran an article on the front page Tuesday that highlighted a more than $1 million federal public safety grant the Floyd County Commission is set to accept.
“President Biden is proud of the resources he’s provided to stand up for the rule of law, crack down on gun crimes, and keep cops on the beat in Floyd County – and across the country,” White House spokesperson Robyn Patterson said in a statement first provided to The Hill.
“Unlike Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene who voted against this funding, as well as to defund federal law enforcement and fire thousands of Border Patrol agents, President Biden is committed to ensuring law enforcement has the resources they need to keep Northwest Georgians safe,” she added.
The money is appropriated through the Public Safety and Community Violence Reduction grant program, which is funded by the American Rescue Plan and meant to address violent gun crime and community violence that increased as a result of COVID-19.
Greene on Wednesday called the White House’s comment “ignorant” and railed against Biden’s handling of the situation at the border.
“Since taking office, Joe Biden’s blatant violation of our border laws has caused a flood of over 5,000,000 illegal aliens into our country, allowed 85,000 trafficked children to go missing, and murdered hundreds of Americans each day with Mexican cartel-smuggled Chinese-made fentanyl. Our district doesn’t face a crime epidemic, but we are feeling the real effects of Biden’s border crisis. My constituents are dying due to the drugs he allows into our country,” Greene said in a statement to The Hill.
“The flippant comment from the White House would be laughable if it wasn’t so ignorant of what Northwest Georgia faces due to border invasion created by Joe Biden,” she added.
Tuesday is not the first time that the White House has gone after Greene, a firebrand Republican congresswoman who has emerged as one of Biden’s top critics on Capitol Hill.
Greene has introduced impeachment articles against Biden. Last week, she voted with Republicans to refer a resolution to impeach Biden over the situation at the southern border to two congressional committees.
In March, during the House Democratic retreat in Baltimore, Biden mocked Greene while delivering remarks to lawmakers, asking the crowd of the Georgia Republican “isn’t she amazing?”
And last month, White House spokesperson Ian Sams circulated a memo that criticized House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and Greene for their “bizarre focus” on Biden and his family members.
More generally, the White House has accused House Republicans of opposing funding for law enforcement with their votes against the American Rescue Plan and of cutting funding for border security when they supported the debt limit plan the conference approved in April.
Last August, the White House wrote on Twitter, “Every single Republican in Congress voted against funding for law enforcement in President Biden’s American Rescue Plan.” And last month, the White House circulated a memo arguing Republicans were gutting border security with their debt limit bill.
The accusation that Republicans are defunding the police through their vote against the American Rescue Plan, however, has been contested. The Washington Post’s fact checker awarded the claim three pinocchios in 2021.
Alex Gangitano and Brett Samuels contributed. Updated on June 28 at 12:16 p.m.
The White House on Monday bashed House Republicans for being "desperate to distract" from their economic agenda after Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) floated the idea of an impeachment inquiry into Attorney General Merrick Garland over the handling of investigations into Hunter Biden.
“Speaker McCarthy and the extreme House Republicans are proving they have no positive agenda to actually help the American people on the issues most important to them and their families,” said Ian Sams, White House spokesman for oversight and investigations, in a statement first obtained by The Hill.
McCarthy said Sunday there may be a possible impeachment inquiry into Garland over alleged political bias and “weaponization” of the Department of Justice, with the push fueled by an IRS whistleblower’s claims about tax crime investigations into President Biden’s son.
“If the whistleblowers’ allegations are true, this will be a significant part of a larger impeachment inquiry into Merrick Garland’s weaponization of DOJ,” McCarthy said in a tweet.
Sams argued that president and Cabinet officials are traversing the country this week to tout Biden’s economic agenda, all while Republicans are focused on pushing out partisan stunts.
“Perhaps Congressional Republicans are desperate to distract from their own plan to give even more tax cuts to the wealthy and big corporations and add more than $3 trillion to the deficit, but instead of pushing more partisan stunts intended only to get themselves attention on the far right, they should work with the President to actually put the middle class and working Americans first and expand the historic progress to lower costs, create jobs, boost U.S. manufacturing and small businesses, and make prescription drugs more affordable,” he said.
The White House also argued Monday that impeaching Garland and the handling of investigations into the president’s son is not a priority for American families.
“It’s unfortunate that congressional Republicans want to continue to focus on an issue that Americans — that’s not their priority,” press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters. “We would welcome congressional Republicans to join us on working on behalf of the American people.”
McCarthy's interest in a Garland impeachment is a change in how the Speaker has handled calls from Republicans to impeach members of the Biden administration, and he has vowed any impeachment proceedings would not be political.
Last week, House Republicans released testimony from two IRS whistleblowers who were involved in investigating Hunter Biden’s taxes, alleging prosecutors slow-walked the case against him.
That investigation led to the president’s son reaching a deal to plead guilty to two counts of willful failure to pay income tax and an agreement relating to unlawful possession of a weapon last week.
President Biden and Garland have both defended the integrity of the Justice Department, and the president has stressed that the department acts independently.
Editor's note: This file has been updated to clarify Hunter Biden will enter a pretrial diversion program as part of a deal with federal prosecutors who are expected to drop a gun charge against him.
Hunter Biden, President Biden's son, will plead guilty to tax crimes in a plea deal with prosecutors, and he reached a diversion agreement relating to unlawful possession of a weapon, according to court papers filed Tuesday.
The plea deal, which must be accepted by a judge, likely would keep Hunter Biden out of jail.
Biden, 53, has been under investigation for tax matters since 2018. He reportedly paid off his tax liability in 2020, with court documents detailing he initially failed to make tax payments of more than $100,000 in both 2017 and 2018 on income exceeding $1.5 million.
Biden was charged with two counts of willful failure to pay income tax. The third charge stems from possession of a firearm in 2018, a weapon he was in possession of while using crack cocaine. Biden denied drug use when applying to secure the gun.
In a separate agreement on the gun charge, the president's son will be entered into a pretrial diversion program, meaning those charges are likely to be removed from his record if he complies with the terms of the program.
“With the announcement of two agreements between my client, Hunter Biden, and the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Delaware, it is my understanding that the five-year investigation into Hunter is resolved,” Biden attorney Christopher Clark said in a statement.
“Hunter will take responsibility for two instances of misdemeanor failure to file tax payments when due pursuant to a plea agreement. A firearm charge, which will be subject to a pretrial diversion agreement and will not be the subject of the plea agreement, will also be filed by the Government,” he added.
A statement from David Weiss, the U.S. Attorney for Delaware, counters Clark’s claim the issue is resolved.
“The investigation is ongoing,” Weiss’s office said in a release.
According to The Washington Post, Biden is expected to agree to two years of probation in connection with the plea deal.
“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,” Clark said.
President Biden has repeatedly defended his son from allegations of wrongdoing. The White House on Tuesday stressed support for Hunter Biden following the announcement of the plea deal.
“The President and First Lady love their son and support him as he continues to rebuild his life. We will have no further comment," spokesperson Ian Sams said in a statement.
In an interview last October, the president said his son acknowledged in a book that he noted he was not using drugs on a gun application at a time when he was battling addiction.
The White House has sought to keep its distance from Hunter Biden’s ongoing legal case to avoid any implication the president was pressuring the Justice Department, and officials have repeatedly referred questions about the case to Hunter Biden’s lawyer. Upon taking office, the Biden administration allowed U.S. Attorney David Weiss, a holdover from the Trump administration, to continue to oversee the case.
President Joe Biden attends his granddaughter Maisy Biden's commencement ceremony with first lady Jill Biden and children Hunter Biden and Ashley Biden at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Monday, May 15, 2023. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)
The plea deal is likely to fuel Republican efforts to keep the business dealings of the president’s family in the spotlight.
Hunter Biden’s involvement in foreign business dealings has been a source of focus for Republicans for years. Former President Trump’s suggestion in 2019 that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky investigate Hunter and Joe Biden, then his political opponent, led to his first impeachment.
Reports that broke just before the 2020 election detailing the contents of a hard drive Hunter Biden purportedly owned, which included more details about the business dealings in addition to more salacious content, further fueled GOP interest in his business dealings and attempts to connect the now-president to them.
House Republicans have launched an investigation into the foreign business dealings of Hunter Biden, other family members of President Biden and their associates, raising alarm about foreign funds that flowed to the first family.
Republicans have not produced evidence, though, that directly links President Biden to any of Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings. The president has denied knowledge of those business dealings.
In the past few weeks, House Republicans have highlighted an unverified tip to the FBI that then-Vice President Biden accepted a bribe from a foreign national, but they have not substantiated those claims.
In a statement, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) — who is heading up the Biden family business dealings probe — said the charges “reveal a two-tiered system of justice.”
“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. “We will not rest until the full extent of President Biden’s involvement in the family’s schemes are revealed.”
Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) questions Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, during a House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic oversight hearing of the CDC over their handling of the COVID-19 pandemic on Tuesday, June 13, 2023.
Comer’s bribery allegations stem from a tip to the FBI the agency was unable to corroborate.
“This development reflects the Justice Department’s continued institutional independence in following the evidence of actual crimes and enforcing the rule of law even in the face of constant criticism and heckling by my GOP colleagues who think that the system of justice should only follow their partisan wishes,” Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), Comer’s Democratic counterpart on the committee, said in a statement.
“Oversight Committee Republicans have advanced debunked conspiracy theories about President Biden and are now, again, wailing about the work of a Trump appointed U.S. Attorney.”
Hunter Biden’s previous drug addiction also became a GOP attack line.
In 2020, former President Trump pounced on the issue, at one point during a presidential debate mentioning that Joe Biden's son was discharged from the military for cocaine use.
Then-candidate Biden defended his son.
“My son, like a lot of people ... had a drug problem,” he said. “He’s overtaken it. He’s fixed it. He’s worked on it. And I’m proud of him. I'm proud of my son.”
Former President Donald Trump speaks at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, N.J., Tuesday, June 13, 2023, after pleading not guilty in a Miami courtroom earlier in the day to dozens of felony counts that he hoarded classified documents and refused government demands to give them back. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
Trump weighed in on Hunter Biden’s case after news of the plea agreement broke, criticizing the charges as being low-level.
“Wow! The corrupt Biden DOJ just cleared up hundreds of years of criminal liability by giving Hunter Biden a mere ‘traffic ticket.’ Our system is BROKEN!” the former president wrote on Truth Social.
Trump was arraigned last week on 37 counts following a Department of Justice indictment alleging he violated the Espionage Act and obstructed justice in taking classified records from his presidency and refusing to return them. He is also facing charges for concealing documents and misleading investigators.
Former President Trump is calling for the New York judge overseeing his hush money criminal case to recuse himself, arguing the judge cannot be impartial.
Trump’s lawyers noted in a new filing apparent political donations Judge Juan Merchan made to then-presidential candidate Joe Biden and liberal-leaning groups. They also referenced the judge’s participation in a previous case related to Trump and reports that Merchan’s daughter works at a progressive digital agency.
“This case before this Court is historic and it is important that the People of the State of New York and this nation have confidence that the jurist who presides over it is impartial,” Trump’s lawyers wrote. “Most respectfully, the foregoing facts compel the conclusion that Your Honor is not and thus should recuse.”
Trump faces 34 counts of falsifying business records in connection with reimbursements made to his then-fixer, Michael Cohen, for making a $130,000 hush payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 election.
Trump has pleaded not guilty, while he also remains under multiple other criminal investigations.
A person named Juan Merchan who works for the New York court system donated $35 in July 2020 to political causes, according to Federal Election Commission records. The donations comprise a $15 donation to Biden’s presidential campaign, $10 to the Progressive Turnout Project and $10 to a group called “Stop Republicans.”
Trump’s lawyers demanded Merchan explain the contributions.
“The fact that Your Honor previously donated money to President Trump’s opponent in 2020 might suggest to the reasonable observer that the Court would rather another candidate be elected in 2024 over President Trump,” the attorneys wrote.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to comment and indicated it will respond in court papers.
Trump’s legal team further took aim at media reports that Merchan’s daughter is the chief operating officer at a progressive digital agency, Authentic Strategies, which lists Biden’s campaign and other Democratic candidates as clients.
“Your Honor’s familial relationship with the President and COO of Authentic is particularly problematic given the role this very case may play in political campaigns and advertising in the 2024 presidential election,” Trump’s team wrote.
“It is likely that many of President Trump’s opponents, both political candidates and organizations, will attempt to use this case — and any rulings by the Court — to attack him,” they continued. “Indeed, virtually every client listed on Authentic’s website has been critical in the past of President Trump and fundraised on these criticisms.”
The Hill has reached out to Authentic Strategies for comment.
Trump’s filing further notes Merchan’s role overseeing the criminal prosecution of Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s former chief financial officer. Weisselberg as part of a plea deal was sentenced to five months in jail for his participation in a tax-fraud scheme, and Trump’s lawyers are accusing Merchan of overstepping by attempting to induce Weisselberg to cooperate against Trump.
New York trial judges are not categorically barred from facilitating plea agreements, but they must abide by certain limits.
Susan Necheles, one of Trump’s attorneys who signed the recusal motion, represented the Trump Organization as the Manhattan district attorney’s office prosecuted the scheme. When the Trump Organization had its trial for tax fraud, Necheles squarely pinned the blame on Weisselberg.
“Your Honor’s prior conduct in attempting to induce cooperation against President Trump and his interests creates a perception that Your Honor is biased against President Trump and warrants recusal in this case,” Necheles and Todd Blanche, another Trump attorney, wrote in court filings on Friday.
“Surely, the Court would not have pushed Mr. Weisselberg to cooperate against President Trump and his interests unless it thought he was someone who was worthy of prosecution,” they continued. “That mindset reveals Your Honor as someone who has prejudged the defendant’s guilt and is biased against his interests.”
Trump's lawyers in recent weeks have separately attempted to move the former president's case to federal court, a move prosecutors are opposing. Merchan retains oversight of the case until the federal court rules on that attempt.
President Biden is expected to withdraw his nomination of Michael Delaney to serve on the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, two sources familiar with the decision told The Hill on Thursday.
Delaney’s nomination has been in limbo in the Senate Judiciary Committee, with Democrats unsure of his controversial handling of a sexual assault case at a boarding school in New Hampshire.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, had urged the Biden administration earlier Thursday to withdraw the nomination.
“His answers to questions from committee members, regarding a lawsuit where he represented a private school accused of allowing sexual harassment and assault of a minor student, were ‘beyond the pale’ bad,” the senator said in a statement.
The New Hampshire attorney has come under fire for representing St. Paul’s School, an elite private high school in New Hampshire, against a lawsuit brought by female student who was sexually assaulted on campus when she was 15.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told The Hill last week he was undecided about Delaney’s nomination. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) returned last week to her post on the committee and greenlit three judicial nominees who were stalled with her absence, but the panel has not brought up Delaney for a vote.
