Some six weeks after the proposed plea and diversion agreements between Hunter Biden and the Department of Justice over tax and gun charges was put on hold, newly minted Special Counsel David Weiss indicted the First Son on gun charges.
On Friday’s show, Megyn was joined by lawyers Dave Aronberg, state attorney for Palm Beach County, FL, and Mike Davis, founder and president of the Article III Project, to discuss the indictment and whether or not these charges will satisfy anyone on either side of the political aisle.
Hunter Biden Indicted
On Thursday, Weiss indicted Biden on three felony counts – including making false statements on a federal firearms form and possession of a firearm as a prohibited person – in connection with a gun he purchased in 2018.
The charges revolve around a Colt Cobra .38 Special he purchased from a Delaware gun shop and owned for about 11 days in October 2018. He was struggling with a cocaine addiction at the time, but he claimed to not be using or addicted to any illegal drugs on government forms.
According to the indictment, Biden “provided a written statement on Form 4473 certifying he was not an unlawful user of, and addicted to, any stimulant, narcotic drug, and any other controlled substance, when in fact, as he knew, that statement was false and fictitious.” It’s a federal crime to lie on the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives document or to possess a firearm as a drug user.
Weiss has been leading an investigation into Biden since late 2018. The probe appeared to be nearing its conclusion in June, when he announced what was dubbed by many to be a sweetheart plea deal that would allow Biden to plead not guilty to two federal tax misdemeanor charges and also enter a “diversion agreement” on the gun charge. The First Son would have been able to not plead guilty to the crime. So long as he adhered to the terms of the agreement, the charge would be removed from his record in two years.
Hunter was expected to plead guilty to the tax charges in late July at a Wilmington, DE, courthouse as part of the plea arrangement with the DoJ. It was believed that prosecutors would recommend two years of probation for the offenses, but that all fell apart when after U.S. District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika raised multiple concerns about the specifics of the deal.
By mid-August Attorney General Merrick Garland announced he appointed Weiss as special counsel in the probe. In the past, IRS whistleblowers who worked on the case and Republicans in Congress have suggested Weiss be elevated to special counsel because, as the U.S. attorney in Delaware, he couldn’t pursue charges in other jurisdictions.
At every turn, Garland and Weiss insisted he had the purview he needed. Yet in a televised statement last month, the attorney general said Weiss informed him that the “investigation has reached a stage at which he should continue his work as a special counsel.”
‘They’ve Made No One Happy’
The five-year statute of limitations for some of the weapons offenses were set to expire in October, which is believed to have played a role in the timing of Weiss’ indictment. Biden’s attorneys are pushing back on the charges because of the agreement prosecutors had previously made with him. The prosecutors, meanwhile, say that deal never went into effect.
Reaction from inside and outside the beltway has been mixed. “Biden defenders are out there kind of saying, ‘See, this is fair. It’s a fair DOJ because they’ve brought three felony counts against Hunter Biden… he could spend between 10 and 25 years in prison… if anything, this is unfair treatment versus what the average civilian would get,’” Megyn noted.
Davis cautioned against making too much of the indictment. “Don’t be fooled,” he said. “[Weiss] has been covering for the Biden’s for years.” He referenced a few examples: “He let the statute of limitations expire on very serious tax charges. He buried evidence deemed credible by the Pittsburgh U.S. attorney that Joe Biden may have taken a $10 million foreign bribe from Burisma and changed American policy. This David Weiss was the one who came up with this secret sweetheart plea deal with Hunter Biden with this backdoor pardon for all these crimes.”
He does not believe the First Son is “going to spend a day in jail.” Instead, “they’re going to let this criminal process work its way through the presidential election… and then either Joe Biden will pardon his son and maybe himself or David Weiss will come to another sweetheart deal… where there’s no jail time,” Davis said. “In the meantime, they’re going to protect the Bidens, particularly Joe Biden, from Congressional subpoenas.”
Aronberg agreed with Davis that Biden will not face any jail time, but, the way he sees it, “in trying to make everyone happy, [Weiss] made no one happy.” The left, he said, is “infuriated because this gun charge is rarely charged, rarely invoked, especially when the gun is not used for another crime.” The right, meanwhile, “thinks that Hunter Biden is the head of some international criminal conspiracy” and believes “this is small potatoes,” he added.
The net-net: “They’ve made no one happy here,” Aronberg concluded.
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Aronberg and Davis by tuning in to episode 628 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.