Congressional Republicans on Tuesday blasted the plea deal Hunter Biden reached with the Justice Department in which the younger Biden pleaded guilty to two misdemeanors for failing to pay taxes on time and avoided prosecution on a separate gun charge. Republicans accused President Biden of orchestrating a lenient penalty for his son while conducting a vendetta against Trump.
"If you are the president's leading political opponent, the Department of Justice tries to literally put you in jail and give you prison time," House Speaker Kevin McCarthy told reporters at the Capitol. "If you are the president's son, you get a sweetheart deal."
Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley charged that the deal "only raises further questions about Hunter Biden's crimes and the double standard of justice."
Representative James R. Comer of Kentucky, the chairman of the Oversight Committee called the charges against Hunter Biden a "slap on the wrist," and said, "We will not rest until the full extent of President Biden's involvement in the family's schemes are revealed."
Comer has been looking for evidence of wrongdoing by the president, but so far has failed to unearth any.
Senator Rick Scott tweeted, "This doesn't show equal justice. It's a mockery of our legal system by a family that has no respect for our laws."
"We have a two-tiered justice system in our country. It's a disgrace," charged Ohio Senator J.D. Vance.
Not to be outdone by these demagogic broadsides, former president Trump posted to Truth Social, "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!"
This is all rubbish.
Start with the two alleged offenses. There's simply no comparison between them. Trump stole government property that contained nuclear secrets and secret plans for defending the United States.
Hunter Biden was late paying his taxes and allegedly lied about drug use when purchasing a firearm.
There's also no comparison between the defendants.
Trump was president of the United States and is the leading Republican candidate for president in 2024. For years, he has violated major laws and constitutional provisions to gain power and wealth with impunity—until now.
Hunter Biden is the son of the current president. For years, Trump and his enablers have tried to make the younger Biden a political scapegoat for questioning the honesty of his father. But Hunter Biden is not his father.
Third, there's not a scintilla of evidence that the White House played a role in either case. Consider that the United States attorney who led the investigation of Hunter Biden, David C. Weiss, was appointed by Trump. It's a credit to Biden and proof of his commitment to the independence of the Justice Department that Biden kept Trump's U.S. attorney on to investigate a matter involving his own son.
Can you imagine Trump keeping on a Democratic-appointed U.S. attorney to investigate one of his children?
Consider also that Jack Smith, the person who investigated Trump, was appointed by special counsel by Merrick Garland expressly to give Smith independence from the Justice Department and remove any taint of political partisanship.
In addition, the grand jury that decided to indict Trump was composed of ordinary Americans, mostly from southern Florida.
Despite all this, it's still possible that many Americans will fall for the Republicans' false claim of a double standard of justice. Why? Because Trump and leading Republicans are going full blast selling this deceptive story.
Meanwhile, President Biden is saying nothing about either case. He's doing his job being president.
This is as it should be. But in a media ecosystem where the loudest and most belligerent voices get the attention, merely doing his job puts Biden at a severe disadvantage.
Robert B. Reich is an American political commentator, professor and author. He served in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton. Reich's latest book, The System: Who Rigged It, How We Fix It, is out now. He also writes regularly at robertreich.substack.com.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
