A new report says federal investigators have two areas of focus as they reach a “critical juncture” in their investigation of Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden.
The CNN report on Wednesday noted there is another dimension — politics.
The Justice Department has a policy of not filing charges in sensitive cases in the 60 days before an election, the outlet reported, citing “people briefed on the matter.”
But some people within the Justice Department have pushed back, saying the president is not on the ballot in November’s midterm elections, the unidentified sources told CNN.
The report said the probe “initially focused on Hunter Biden’s financial and business activities in foreign countries dating to when Joe Biden was vice president,” but “prosecutors have narrowed their focus to tax and gun-related charges.”
The sources said the president is not being investigated.
Discussions of whether to charge Hunter Biden and what charges to bring have included the FBI and the IRS, CNN reported.
One issue dogging the debate has been whether the president’s son could claim that he was unable to know right from wrong because of his well-chronicled drug use. The report said prosecutors have now decided that is not a barrier to charging Hunter Biden.
But the timing bothers some in the department, according to CNN.
The Justice Department tries to avoid filing charges in politically sensitive cases when doing so can impact an election.
The 60-day rule was cited multiple times by Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016 when she insisted the FBI played politics by announcing in late October that potentially new evidence had been found concerning her email scandal.
In May, Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memo reminding prosecutors of the policy.
But July is not September, and there is precedent for charges being filed in the summer of a midterm election year.
In 2018, charges were filed in two politically sensitive cases – one involving Michael Cohen, the former attorney for former President Donald Trump, and another targeting then-Republican Rep. Chris Collins of New York.
The Hunter Biden investigation began in 2018 under the direction of David Weiss, the U.S. attorney in Delaware.
Republicans have vowed that if they regain control of Congress in the midterm elections, they will open an investigation into Hunter Biden’s business dealings in China and Ukraine and the potential links that may exist between those deals and his father.
In an Op-Ed published earlier this month in the New York Post, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy of California and Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and James Comer of Kentucky said that “contrary to Joe Biden’s statement that he never spoke to Hunter about his foreign business dealings, associates state that he was fully aware of his family’s business dealings and influence peddling.”
“There is evidence of a direct sum of money set aside for ‘the Big Guy’ — who witnesses have identified as Joe Biden — from foreign nationals,” they said.
“This raises significant questions about our national security and the role foreign nationals were allowed to play when he was vice president.
“We have uncovered some answers, but many questions remain. In November, the American people will decide whether they accept being told what information they are allowed to know by a colluding media, including who is making policy decisions for this country and for whose interests.
“A Republican majority will be committed to uncovering the facts the Democrats, Big Tech and the legacy media have suppressed.”
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