Representative Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, said on Sunday that he believes Hunter Biden did “a lot of really unlawful things,” while also admitting that the process of appointing a special counsel to investigate the president’s son was bumpy.
The comments come two days after U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed U.S. Attorney David Weiss as special counsel to oversee the Hunter Biden investigation, a decision that some Republicans criticized. Weiss, who has been investigating Hunter Biden since the Department of Justice (DOJ) launched its probe in 2018, charged him with failure to pay federal income taxes and illegally possessing a firearm in June.
The charges led to a plea deal that Republicans strongly criticized as a “sweetheart deal” that favored the president’s son. However, the deal fell apart in late July after U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, who is presiding over the case in Wilmington, Delaware, took issue with some of the deal’s terms. Hunter Biden has since pleaded not guilty to the charges filed against him.
As the investigation unfolds, several Democrats have added their voices to the chorus of politicians who have criticized Hunter Biden and his alleged crimes, including Representative Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts and Representative Jim Himes of Connecticut. Raskin added his opinion to the mix in an interview with ABC News on Sunday.
“We’ve all seen clear that this guy was addicted to drugs and did a lot of really unlawful and wrong things,” Raskin said, the top Democrat on the GOP-led House Oversight Committee that launched an investigation into Hunter Biden’s business dealings with foreign entities in countries like China and Ukraine.
The congressman added that Democrats have allowed the justice system to “run its course” regarding the Biden investigation, a courtesy he claimed Republicans haven’t returned when it comes to the indictments filed against former President Donald Trump.
“They’re not saying that about Donald Trump,” Raskin said. “Anytime Donald Trump actually gets indicted after a grand jury has already determined that there is probable cause, they attack prosecutors, they attack the judges, they attack the system. For them Donald Trump can never be guilty of anything.”
Newsweek reached out to Raskin’s Washington, D.C., office by phone for comment.
Trump is currently facing 78 felony charges in total, spread across three indictments. Those cases, which he has plead not guilty to and accused them of being a politically-motivated witch hunt, include charges related to claims he orchestrated a hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels ahead of the 2016 presidential election, mishandled classified documents, and broke the law attempting to reverse the 2020 election outcome.
On Sunday, Raskin also called the Biden investigation bumpy when it comes to Weiss being appointed special counsel.
“From my perspective, it is the rule of law and the justice system working itself out the way that it does and, obviously, it’s bumpy and this side or that side doesn’t necessarily prefer this course of events,” the Democratic lawmaker said. “But our job, I think, as political people is to allow the justice system to run its course.”
Republicans have taken the Hunter Biden investigation as an attempt to pin charges on President Joe Biden as well, who continues to maintain that he had no knowledge of his son’s business dealings.
Newsweek also reached out to the White House by email for comment.
Devon Archer, former friend and business partner of Hunter Biden’s, testified before the House Oversight Committee in July. During his testimony, Archer said that Hunter Biden called his father many times during business dealings over a 10-year period, that the two never discussed deals, and the younger Biden was selling the illusion of access to his father.
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