The US' first son reached a plea agreement with the Department of Justice (DoJ) on Tuesday concerning federal tax and weapon possession charges: Hunter Biden is expected to admit that he withheld $100,000 in taxes in 2017-2018.
However, it's a far cry from what he really owed to the US government, explained Just the News, an independent media outlet founded by US investigative journalist John Solomon. Citing supervisory IRS agent-turned-whistleblower Gary Shapley, the media outlet pointed out that Hunter has failed to pay about $2.2 million in taxes since 2014.
Earlier this week, Shapley's bombshell testimony alleging the first son's tax crimes and the DoJ's meddling to shield the younger Biden, was made public. The whistleblower insisted that the Hunter's misdeeds included not only tax evasion but also filing false tax returns since at least 2014: "Altogether it was around $2.2 million," he told US lawmakers.
However, most of these felonies had been swept under the rug by the DoJ, according to Shapley. The department's apparent interference in Hunter's case ranged from refusing to approve search warrants to allowing the statute of limitation to expire in some instances, as per the supervisory IRS agent and his subordinate.
For its part, Hunter's legal team insists that he had belatedly paid over $2 million in back taxes and penalties, accusing the IRS whistleblowers of a biased approach.
Nonetheless, US legal observers believe that the DoJ's apparent cover-up of Hunter's tax affairs and other potential felonies is fraught with the risk of a bigger scandal in the making. In particular, legal scholar Jonathan Turley raised concerns about the "absence of certain charges in the plea deal given to Hunter Biden" in his blog on Saturday.
According to Turley, the DoJ somehow overlooked Hunter acting as a de facto unregistered foreign agent, something that former President Donald Trump's associate Paul Manafort was promptly accused of. The first son likely violated the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) while striking business deals with foreign entities including in China, Romania and Ukraine during and after his father's vice presidency, the lawyer pointed out.
What's more disturbing is that the Justice Department never initiated an investigation into the Bidens' purported influence-peddling despite allegations of millions of dollars generated from Hunter's foreign partners, according to Turley. Indeed, the House Oversight Committee has recently unveiled evidence supposedly proving hefty transfers to Biden family members from foreign sources. Still, Attorney General Merrick Garland has so far refused to appoint a special counsel to look into the matter.
The DoJ also appears to be uninterested in investigating bribery allegations involving Hunter Biden and his father as well as a 2017 Whatsapp message with threats from Hunter Biden to one of his Chinese associates, following which the Chinese reportedly sent $5 million to Hunter's account.
According to Turley, the DoJ, Congressional Democrats and US mainstream media want these stories to disappear. He quoted former Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) as saying "Everybody needs to back off!" while addressing GOP investigators and conservative critics.
"Of course, it still remains a challenge to hide an elephant if even one audience member goes looking. Polls show that the public overwhelmingly wants to pull back the curtain and see the elephant," Turley noted, adding that the simmering scandal will create certain obstacles in the way of Joe Biden's re-election bid.