Hunter Biden again dodges foreign agent charge in new indictment

WASHINGTON — First son Hunter Biden was indicted Thursday on nine federal tax fraud charges, but critics of the long-running investigation into the political scion were quick to note that he still doesn’t face charges for allegedly violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) — which could implicate his father, President Biden.

Special counsel David Weiss said in a statement his investigation remains “ongoing,” leaving open possible additional charges, but Republican members of Congress slammed the omission.

“Unless US Attorney Weiss investigates everyone involved in the Bidens’ fraud schemes and influence peddling, it will be clear President Biden’s DOJ is protecting Hunter Biden and the big guy,” House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) said in a statement late Thursday.

“Hunter Biden’s corporate entities implicated by today’s indictments funneled foreign cash that landed in Joe Biden’s bank account,” Comer added.

In FARA cases, prosecutors allege that a defendant operated on behalf of a foreign principal — which can include governments, political organizations or individuals seeking to influence US officials — without complying with registration and disclosure requirements.

FARA cases generally must be filed within five years of an offense, meaning many of Hunter’s best-known actions linking foreign associates to his then-vice president father may not be prosecutable.

Hunter, however, served on the board of Ukrainian gas company Burisma from 2014 until 2019 — earning $1 million per year while his dad led US policy toward Ukraine and half that amount beginning in March 2017, after Joe Biden’s vice presidency ended — and held a 10% stake in Chinese state-backed investment fund BHR Partners from 2013 through at least part of 2021, giving prosecutors potential avenues to seek FARA charges.

In the latest indictment, Hunter, 53, faces three felony and six misdemeanor counts over alleged evasion of $1.4 million in taxes during a four-year period from 2016 to 2019.

The case, which carries a maximum of 17 years in prison for Hunter if he is convicted, is being brought by Weiss in Los Angeles.

Hunter Biden separately faces three federal gun-charge felonies in Delaware that carry a maximum of 25 years in prison.

In June, Weiss signed off on a probation-only plea deal for the first son on both tax and gun charges after Biden-appointed US attorneys in Los Angeles and Washington, DC, declined to partner on tax cases in their jurisdictions.

The president’s son walked away from that “sweetheart” deal during a July court hearing over his attorneys’ demands for assurances that he had immunity from criminal responsibility for other past conduct, leading to Weiss’ appointment Aug. 11 as special counsel, which allows him to bring cases outside of Delaware.

Hunter’s alleged FARA violations that may be too old to prosecute cover his actions during his father’s vice presidency, which ended in 2017.

Those include convening DC dinners in 2014 and 2015 attended by his father and his associates from Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine, and bringing Mexican associates to the vice president’s residence and setting up meetings for them with Obama-Biden administration officials.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), a member of the Oversight Committee, tweeted Friday, “DOJ left off FARA charges. The income came from foreign countries and we have proof.”

FARA charges can result in significant prison terms.

Former President Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign chairman Paul Manafort was sentenced in 2018 to 60 months behind bars specifically for FARA violations related to his work in Ukraine, plus another 30 months for tax and bank fraud and witness tampering.

“The omission of the FARA charges remains the glaring contradiction with other cases, including against various Trump associates,” George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley told The Post Friday.

“There is no evidence that Weiss ever seriously pursued those allegations. The result was to further insulate the White House in the scandal. A FARA charge would have added pressure on Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special counsel on the corruption scandal itself. Indeed, the indictment is itself a marvel of evasion — charging the evasion of tax without addressing the corruption producing the money itself.”

The latest charges were announced as the House of Representatives prepares to vote next week to formally authorize an impeachment inquiry into the president for alleged corruption.

The vote tentatively is scheduled for Wednesday — the same day that Hunter Biden is due to appear for a House Oversight Committee deposition.

Republican leaders say the first son will be held in contempt — potentially leading to even further criminal liability — if he refuses to appear.