MAGA Complains New Hunter Biden Indictment Missing Key Charges

Hunter Biden’s most recent legal troubles stemming from tax-related charges have been critiqued by some Make America Great Again (MAGA) Republicans for not going far enough.

The 56-page indictment filed in California on Thursday alleges that President Joe Biden’s son, 53, evaded at least $1.4 million in federal taxes between 2016 and 2019. Three felony and six misdemeanor charges allege that he failed to file and pay taxes, false tax return and evasion of assessment.

He is accused of spending money on prostitution, online pornography and luxury cars, including $388,810 in business-related travel in 2018 despite having “done little to no business” in that year. That same year, he is accused of spending more than $1.8 million, including $772,000 in cash withdrawals, $383,000 in “payments to women,” and $151,000 in clothing and accessories.

A White House spokesperson on Friday declined to comment to Newsweek, which also reached out to Hunter Biden’s legal team.

The newest allegations follow a failed plea deal in July, in which Hunter’s lawyers were close to finalizing a deal with prosecutors in which the president’s son would have pleaded guilty to two tax-related misdemeanors in exchange for the dropping of a felony gun charge. In October, Hunter, who has a history of drug addiction, pleaded not guilty to charges of illegally possessing a firearm as a drug user.

One charge that has not been levied against Hunter Biden relates to potential violations of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), a nearly 90-year-old U.S. law that requires public disclosure of political activities of those who represent foreign interests.

The president’s son has been accused of receiving money from Ukrainian gas company Burisma Holdings and Chinese private equity fund BHR Partners, which House Republicans as part of their impeachment inquiry into the president have pointed to as key aspects of purported wrongdoing. President Biden has strongly denied any wrongdoing, and insists he “never talked business” with his son or his business partners.

“[The new charges are] timely given Hunter is supposed to show up to our committee this week to be deposed,” Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Friday. “Of course the DOJ would have never charged him without the IRS whistleblower’s courageous testimonies, but the DOJ left off FARA charges. The income came from foreign countries and we have proof.”

Newsweek reached out to Greene via email for comment.

Representative James Comer, chair of the House Oversight Committee and a Kentucky Republican, said Thursday that the newest charges support testimony from Internal Revenue Services (IRS) whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler that the Department of Justice (DOJ) has been derelict towards any FARA-related charges even though “corporate entities…funneled foreign cash that landed in Joe Biden’s bank account.”

Ziegler has told members of the House Ways & Means Committee that the investigation was “outside the bounds” of anything he had experienced in his 13 years as an agent.

Previous documents released by the committee showed that the DOJ ordered FBI and IRS investigators involved to “remove any reference” to President Biden in a search warrant related to FARA, though following the collapse of the so-called “sweetheart” plea deal in July, a DOJ official implied that potential FARA charges remain on the table.

A DOJ spokesperson told Newsweek on Friday it had nothing to add to its press release that was issued on Thursday and relayed the charges.

Representative Byron Donalds, a member of the House Oversight Committee and a Florida Republican, has repeatedly pushed for the president and his son to both be charged for FARA violations.

“If Joe even knew or understood that [Hunter] was representing foreign entities without being licensed or registered to do so, he is a co-conspirator in the violation of FARA regulations & statutes under U.S. law,” Donalds told Fox News in September.

A spokesperson for Donalds referred Newsweek on Friday to the congressman’s Thursday X post, in which he wrote, “How’s that for ‘paying your fair share,’ huh, Joe?” about the newest indictment.