A former assistant US attorney turned CNN commentator attacked the ‘preposterous’ amount of time it is taking to probe alleged criminal behavior by Hunter Biden.
Elie Honig, who now works as senior legal analyst for CNN, said on Monday that the lack of progress in five years was absurd.
He says the case could have been completed in five weeks, as others claimed elements of the investigation were being slow-walked because Hunter is President Biden’s son.
The DOJ has been investigating Joe Biden‘s 53-year-old son over possible violations of tax and money laundering laws, related to his business dealings in Ukraine, China and elsewhere since 2018.
The department is also looking into whether he lied on a 2018 gun permit application, where he confirmed he was not taking drugs.
Honig said the seemingly endless investigation was ‘beyond anything’ he has ever seen.
Elie Honig, a former federal prosecutor in Manhattan, said it was ‘preposterous’ that the ‘five week’ investigation into Hunter Biden’s gun permit had taken five years
Hunter Biden, now 53, declared on a 2018 gun permit application that he was not on drugs at the time
‘This is preposterous,’ he said.
‘This has been pending, according to our reporting at CNN, since 2018 – five years.’
Honig said he was shocked that Delaware US Attorney David Weiss, who is overseeing the inquiry, was taking so long to reach a charging decision.
‘By the way, this investigation is not the laptop,’ said Honig, referring to a hard drive full of embarrassing material belonging to Hunter, which has raised further questions about cash given to the first son by prestige firms.
‘This investigation is a tax issue: Did Hunter Biden declare his income? And a sort of obscure gun law: Did he possess a gun while he was addicted to drugs, which you’re not allowed to do under federal law, did he lie about that?
‘But five years? I mean, that’s a five-week investigation. And this spans the Trump administration and the Biden administration.’
He added: ‘Someone’s got to make a call on this case. I don’t know what is going on. It’s beyond anything I’ve seen before.’
Hunter Biden‘s lawyers are pointing to a Supreme Court decision last summer that established a broad right for American to carry firearms in public.
That could be a sound legal play, but it appears at odds with the president’s own view of the 6-3 ruling by the conservative-leaning court.
Attorneys for Hunter Biden have sought to discourage prosecutors from bringing a gun-related charge against their client based on an alleged false statement on a 2018 form where he denied being addicted to drugs
The gun ruling ‘contradicts both common sense and the Constitution and should deeply trouble us all,’ Biden said last year.
Conservative Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas authored the opinion, and said it protects ‘an individual’s right to carry a handgun for self-defense outside the home.’
President Biden has repeatedly called for new gun restrictions following a spate of mass shootings, including calling for renewing the assault weapons ban.
Hunter Biden’s defense team, including Chris Clark, have argued that a government gun charge could get tossed on appeal in light of the high court’s ruling, the New York Times reported earlier this month.
The pro-gun Firearms Policy Coalition retweeted the story and flagged the Biden quote about the ruling being an affront to ‘common sense.’
Federal authorities began that aspect of the investigation when Hallie Biden, the widow of Beau Biden, allegedly threw a handgun into a dumpster
A 2022 Supreme Court ruling that could provide a legal opening was authored by conservative Justice Clarence Thomas
U.S. Attorney David C. Weiss, a Trump appointee, is overseeing the investigation
Don’t take your guns to town: A Supreme Court decision last summer that established a broad right for American to carry firearms in public. Hunter had a spat with Hallie Biden, who allegedly threw his firearm into a dumpster in 2018, commencing an aspect of the current probe
The FBI reportedly began looking into the .38 caliber gun after his former girlfriend Hallie Biden, the former widow of Beau Biden, allegedly tossed it into a dumpster.
Angry texts about the incident were found on Hunter’s infamous laptop computer.
Hunter could face a potential false statements charge related to the form required for gun purchasers.
His team in the past has blasted prosecutors over alleged leaks related to the case.
On his 2018 form, Hunter checked ‘no’ when asked if he was ‘an unlawful user of, or addicted to, marijuana or any depressant, stimulant, narcotic drug, or any other controlled substance?’
He has since admitted in his autobiography that he was using drugs at the time.
