From right to left, Hunter Biden, Roger Stone and Paul Manafort PHOTOS COURTESY OF FLORIDABULLDOG.ORG

Hunter Biden’s plea deal on misdemeanor tax charges with the Justice Department has drawn scorn from Republicans who insist the president’s son got a cozy, lenient deal.

“It continues to show the two-tier system in America,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) told reporters Tuesday. “If you are the president’s leading political opponent, the DOJ tries to literally put you in jail and give you prison time. But if you are the president’s son, you get a sweetheart deal.” But McCarthy and numerous other Republican lawmakers who’ve complained about Hunter Biden’s deal, which included his agreeing to enter a pre-trial diversion program for illegally possessing a handgun while he was addicted to drugs, have short, politically convenient memories.

According to the Justice Department’s press release announcing the charges, Hunter Biden failed to pay income taxes of more than $200,000 due in 2017 and 2018 on total taxable income of more than $3 million. The New York Times reported in March 2022 that Hunter Biden told an associate he paid the tax liability of more than $1 million, and that he had to take out a loan to pay it off.

Nevertheless, Biden, 53, agreed to plead guilty to both tax charges. Further, Politico has reported that prosecutors have agreed to dismiss the firearms charge if he successfully completes two years’ probation.