Trump Jr. claims double standard in Hunter Biden deal

by Lauren Sforza - 06/20/23 2:04 PM ET

Donald Trump Jr. railed against the plea deal struck between Hunter Biden and federal prosecutors, saying Tuesday that it “reeks of favoritism.”

“The blatantly politicized nature of Joe Biden’s Justice Department under AG [Merrick] Garland couldn’t be more clear today,” Trump Jr. wrote in a statement. “The plea deal that they cut with Hunter Biden reeks of favoritism and brazenly reveals a system where there are two-tiers of Justice, wholly dependent on your political affiliation.”

President Biden’s son will plead guilty to tax crimes in the plea deal made with the prosecutors and will enter a pretrial diversion program in connection to an unlawful possession of a weapon, according to court documents filed Tuesday. This comes just a week after former President Trump pleaded not guilty to 37 federal counts of mishandling classified documents and attempting to keep those documents from the government.

If the plea deal is accepted by a judge, Hunter Biden will likely stay out of jail.

Trump Jr., along with other Republicans, is decrying the deal struck between Biden and federal prosecutors as a double standard, pointing to how his father, the former president, was recently indicted by the Justice Department. He wrote that the while the Justice Department is taking aim at Republicans, the department will “protect” those who have “the right last name,” like Biden.

“If you are a Republican, Biden’s DOJ will throw the book at you and try to put you in prison for 100 years, but if you happen to have the right last name like Hunter, they will protect you and treat you with kid gloves,” he wrote. “We are no longer a nation with equal Justice under the law, but rather something more akin to a 3rd world banana republic, where the law exists to protect the ruling class, while targeting the opposition.”

“Imagine living in a country where the President openly tries to send the leader of his political opposition to prison for life, while giving his blatantly corrupt son a sweetheart deal to avoid prison and keep the grift going,” he wrote in a separate tweet. “Wouldn’t want to mess up that 10% for the Big Guy!”

The former president also commented on Biden’s plea deal and compared the charges to a “traffic ticket” Tuesday. Republicans in Congress have also vowed to keep the investigations into Biden going, with Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) saying the plea deal shows a “two-tier system in America.”