According to a recent source, federal investigators are focusing on two areas as their probe into Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son, reaches a “critical juncture.”
The CNN report on Wednesday noted there is another dimension — politics.
According to “people briefed on the matter,” the Justice Department has a policy of avoiding pressing charges in sensitive cases 60 days before an election.
However, some Justice Department officials have resisted, claiming that the president will not be on the ballot in November’s midterm elections, according to CNN’s unnamed sources.
The report said the probe “initially focused on Hunter Biden’s financial and business activities in foreign countries dating to when Joe Biden was vice president,” but “prosecutors have narrowed their focus to tax and gun-related charges.”
According to the sources, the president is not being probed.
The FBI and the IRS have been involved in discussions over whether to charge Hunter Biden and what charges to file, according to CNN.
One point of contention has been whether the president’s son may claim that his drug usage rendered him unable to distinguish between good and wrong. According to the article, prosecutors have decided that this is no longer an impediment to pursuing Hunter Biden.
According to CNN, the timing upsets some in the department.
When pursuing charges in politically sensitive cases could have an impact on an election, the Justice Department seeks to avoid doing so.
The 60-day rule was used numerous times by Democratic presidential contender Hillary Clinton in 2016, when she claimed the FBI was playing politics by disclosing potentially new evidence concerning her email scandal in late October.
Attorney General Merrick Garland reminded prosecutors of the policy in a memo sent in May.
But July is hardly September, and charges have been filed in the summer of a midterm election year before.
Charges were filed in two politically contentious cases in 2018: one against Michael Cohen, the former attorney for former President Donald Trump, and another against then-Republican Rep. Chris Collins of New York.
The Hunter Biden investigation was launched in 2018 by David Weiss, the United States Attorney for the District of Delaware.
Republicans have promised that if they retake control of Congress in the midterm elections, they will launch an inquiry into Hunter Biden’s business connections in China and Ukraine, as well as any possible links between those transactions and his father.
In an Op-Ed published earlier this month in the New York Post, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and James Comer of Kentucky said that “contrary to Joe Biden’s statement that he never spoke to Hunter about his foreign business dealings, associates state that he was fully aware of his family’s business dealings and influence peddling.”
“There is evidence of a direct sum of money set aside for ‘the Big Guy’ — who witnesses have identified as Joe Biden — from foreign nationals,” they said.
“This raises significant questions about our national security and the role foreign nationals were allowed to play when he was vice president.
“We have uncovered some answers, but many questions remain. In November, the American people will decide whether they accept being told what information they are allowed to know by a colluding media, including who is making policy decisions for this country and for whose interests.
“A Republican majority will be committed to uncovering the facts the Democrats, Big Tech and the legacy media have suppressed.”
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