Earlier this week, President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, reached a deal with federal prosecutors to plead guilty to two misdemeanors and avoid jail time in connection to an investigation into his taxes that dates back several years.
The agreement also allows the younger Biden to complete a so-called diversion program to avoid traditional sentencing on charges that he lied on a federal gun application form.
News about the lenient treatment of Hunter Biden came on the heels of former President Donald Trump’s federal indictment on charges related to mishandling classified documents, leading many critics to conclude that America essentially has a two-tiered system of justice.
In the latest installment of his new Twitter series, former Fox News Channel host Tucker Carlson weighed in with his assessment of the deal.
“This morning, Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to pretty much nothing,” he said. “Biden pled to two misdemeanor tax evasion charges then entered a diversion on a federal gun charge. That’s it. As far as Merrick Garland’s Justice Department is concerned, Hunter Biden is done.”
Although Biden is set to appear in court soon in connection with the plea agreement, Carlson asserted that the case was practically erased from existence in one fell swoop.
“There was no pre-dawn raid carried out live simultaneously on CNN, there was no perp walk, no handcuffs, no press conference,” he said. “Above all there was no felony. Hunter Biden, who broke federal gun laws, can still carry a gun. It’s like it all never happened.
Describing the action as “a secular miracle,” Carlson concluded that the Department of Justice “baptized” Biden and a “lifetime of sins” were “washed away in an instant.”
The central theme of his commentary, as well as that of many other prominent conservatives, is that Hunter Biden received preferential treatment because of his father. In the caption for his latest video, Carlson wrote: “As in most of the developing world, it’s safer to be the president’s son than his opponent.”
Ep. 5 As in most of the developing world, it's safer to be the president's son than his opponent. pic.twitter.com/AtRRaxYSjs
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) June 20, 2023
In an appearance on Fox News, legal scholar Jonathan Turley offered a similar assessment, noting that the Biden deal is “not going to help” with the widespread distrust many Americans have of the Justice Department.
“You know, for the average citizen, when it came to Trump, they rolled out a B-52,” he said. “And this is going to look like a crop duster that, you know, that is you have the son of the president who’s at the center of one of the greatest influence-peddling scandals in history. And that’s saying a lot in Washington, D.C. And he’s going to walk away with a couple of misdemeanors and a gun charge that they can likely expunge. That’s not going to sit well.”
