Legal Experts React to GOP Criticism of Hunter Biden Plea Deal

Legal experts are downplaying the right-wing upset over the purported “lenient” terms of Hunter Biden‘s plea deal.

Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Bidenhas become a frequent target of conservative scrutiny. In 2020, it was confirmed that the younger Biden faced a federal criminal investigation of his tax history.

News went viral on Tuesday that Hunter Biden plans to plead guilty to federal misdemeanor charges this week, sparking a wave of condemnation among Republicans.

As part of the deal, Hunter Biden will have to plead guilty to two federal misdemeanor counts related to failure to pay past taxes. He faces another charge of unlawful firearms possession, but court documents obtained by the Associated Press show that this charge could be dismissed if he agrees to certain terms.

Those most angered by news of the plea deal were several prominent allies of former President Donald Trump who denounced the possibility of Hunter Biden receiving a sentence of probation. MAGA supporters slammed the deal as too soft, comparing it to the hundreds of years in prison Trump could face if convicted of the 37 federal charges against him. The former president referred to Hunter Biden’s possible punishment as a “mere traffic ticket.”

However, several legal scholars and prominent attorneys have weighed in, saying probation would be a “typical” sentence, and that politics and the Biden name have nothing to do with it.

Newsweek has reached out via email and Twitter to Bradley Moss, national security attorney, and legal analyst Glenn Kirschner.

Former federal prosecutor and CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams told a panel on the news network that for one accused of these crimes—who cooperates with investigators and pleads guilty—this is a “straightforward” deal.

“Give us some context here about these charges, this plea deal,” said CNN anchor Alex Marquardt. “You have two tax misdemeanors. They’re going to resolve this felony gun charge. How does this strike you?”

“It does not strike me as alarming at all, Alex,” Williams responded. “Think of it this way. In our federal system, about 97, 98 percent of cases that actually are brought end up resulting in a plea deal. It is incredibly common for someone who is charged with a federal crime to plead guilty. With that in mind, this kind of arrangement for these types of crimes would not be that alarming. Set aside the politics, set aside the fact that it’s Hunter Biden, this is a very straightforward plea deal from a prosecutorial perspective.”

Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitzwho represented Trump during his first impeachment, said during an episode of his podcast that Hunter Biden’s sentence is “just about right.” He said that non-prison sentences, including probation or a diversion program, are “fair.”

“That’s what most people would get for filing taxes late, even though technically it could be called a felony, almost nobody’s ever prosecuted for a felony for filing their taxes late,” Dershowitz said. “In fact, many people are not prosecuted at all for … filing their taxes late, they’re just given fines.”

Kirschner said President Biden did the “right thing” by leaving Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney David Weiss in position to handle the case.

While weighing in during a segment of The Last Word on MSNBC on Tuesday, Kirschner said that after years of investigations and digging into the president’s son, all they got was “two misdemeanor failures to file taxes in a timely matter.”

“If his last name wasn’t Biden, if he wasn’t famous, I don’t know that he would have been prosecuted at all,” Kirschner added.