Republican senators released records Monday that they said showed the Biden Justice Department had a “double standard” in its handling of allegations of tax evasion and potential human-trafficking violations involving presidential son Hunter Biden.
The Trump Justice Department provided records to the GOP lawmakers that, the senators said, the Biden administration had failed to hand over to them when requested in 2022, when Joe Biden was president.
Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, chairmen of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, said the records show the government possessed significant evidence of potential Mann Act violations committed by Hunter Biden at least as early as October 2020, at the end of President Trump’s first term.
The Mann Act prohibits “knowingly transporting any individual, male or female, in interstate or foreign commerce or in any territory or possession of the United States for the purpose of prostitution or sexual activity.”
It is unclear whether additional steps were taken at the time to fully investigate.
“My oversight has repeatedly shown the Biden administration maintained a double standard of justice that shielded Hunter Biden from full accountability, whether it be for federal tax evasion or alleged human trafficking violations,” Mr. Grassley said in a statement.
The Republican lawmakers said in a September 2020 report that records in their possession indicated that Hunter Biden had paid nonresident women in the U.S., who were citizens of Russia and Ukraine.
Some of the transactions are linked, they said, to what “appears to be an Eastern European prostitution or human trafficking ring.”
Some of the text messages that the Justice Department provided Monday to the GOP lawmakers include references to “.ru” emails, indicating the addresses are Russian in origin.
Mr. Johnson, in a statement, said that it “should shock no one that the Biden administration stonewalled my and Senator Grassley’s efforts to determine whether the FBI investigated Hunter Biden for using escorts linked to human trafficking rings.”
“President Biden’s cronies at DOJ looked the other way and let Hunter Biden off the hook, despite all the evidence pointing toward criminal violations,” he said.
The Washington Times reached out to a lawyer for Hunter Biden.
Mr. Grassley said, “DOJ and FBI possessed evidence of potential crimes, yet it’s unclear what steps they, as well as Special Counsel [David] Weiss, took to fully investigate this shocking evidence. We do know President Biden followed it up by issuing an unprecedented pardon to get his son off the hook for serious crimes.”
Then-President Biden announced the pardon of his son on Dec. 1, 2024, in a reversal in the final weeks of his presidency.
He issued a “full and unconditional pardon” for any offenses Hunter Biden “committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024.” The time frame covered Hunter Biden’s entire time on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma and much of his other overseas activities, including in China.
In June 2024, Hunter Biden was found guilty of three felonies related to purchasing a firearm in 2018 when he was addicted to cocaine. In September 2024, he pleaded guilty to three felonies and six misdemeanors involving tax evasion.
After the pardon, a federal judge dismissed the gun case on Dec. 3, 2024.
