Hunter Biden plea deal called ‘slap on wrist’ after similar tax, gun cases ended with prison terms

WASHINGTON — First son Hunter Biden’s likely probation-only plea deal copping to two misdemeanor tax crimes and one gun-purchase crime is being called a “slap on the wrist” compared to substantial prison sentences imposed in similar cases.

It’s unclear why the first son was not charged with working as an unregistered foreign agent after the evidence on his abandoned laptop showed he helped foreign associates meet US officials, including his then-vice president father and various other Obama-Biden administration figures.

• In a similar gun-charge case, rapper Kodak Black, then 22 years old, was sentenced in 2019 to 46 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to providing an incorrect Social Security number on a federal gun purchase form in order to buy three guns from a Miami-area shop.
• “Jersey Shore” star Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino was sentenced in 2018 to eight months in federal prison for failing to pay $2.3 million in taxes over five years. His older brother, Marc Sorrentino, was sentenced to 24 months for keeping $8.9 million for himself. Both Sorrentinos admitted to single counts in their indictment (tax evasion and preparing a false return, respectively).
• In 2008, actor Wesley Snipes was convicted by a jury of three misdemeanor counts of failing to file tax returns worth a total of $15 million. He was sentenced to three years in prison, despite being acquitted of felony charges of conspiracy to defraud the government and filing a false claim.
• Former President Donald Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen, who later became a critic of the 45th president, was sentenced in 2018 to three years in federal prison in a case that dealt primarily with tax fraud.
• Former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg in January was sentenced to five months in prison in New York on charges for not paying about $2 million in taxes on non-salary compensation such as work-provided cars and tuition for relatives.

  The 75-year-old was released from Rikers Island in April after serving about four months.

• Trump’s 2016 campaign chairman Paul Manafort, then 69, was sentenced in 2018 to 60 months in prison specifically for violating FARA by repping a Ukrainian political party without first registering with the Justice Department.

When I first read the joke about Elon Musk was offering to buy the Department of  Justice from the Clintons I laughed,  but it’s not funny anymore.  John