“The View” co-host Sunny Hostin defended the charges against Hunter Biden on Tuesday, arguing “no one is above the law.”
Biden pled guilty to two tax misdemeanor charges over failure to pay and reached a plea deal over a gun felony with Trump-appointed federal prosecutor David Weiss on Tuesday to avoid potential jail time. Hostin defended these charges with ABC News chief White House correspondent Jonathan Karl, who joined “The View” to discuss the case.
“It shows that no one is above the law, which is important,” Hostin told Karl. “Not even the president’s son.”
Biden is charged with illegally purchasing a firearm while using drugs and for failing to pay his taxes in 2017 and 2018. Hostin questioned why the charges are being brought forth five years after the fact, and pointed out that Biden’s business dealings with Ukrainian oil company Burisma is not part of the current charges.
“First of all, it’s important to point out here that the prosecutor here, David Weiss, was appointed under the Trump administration,” Karl said. “So his investigation, again, started under Trump, has been going on for five years. We don’t know the full extent of the investigation, we do know he had access to the laptop. We do, we can judge based on the witnesses that went before the grand jury, that he looked into questions related to his dealings in Ukraine. But, it’s a great question.”
Karl said it there appears Biden “did something wrong” and alleged a “conflict of interest” related to Biden’s business dealings in Ukraine, where he sat on Burisma’s Board of Trustees. A recent FBI file alleges that Ukrainian oligarch Mykola Zlochevsky, the owner of Burisma, discussed $5 million bribes to Biden and then-vice president Joe Biden. (RELATED: ‘I Read It Gleefully’: ‘The View’ Co-Hosts Celebrate Trump’s Indictment)
“I was concerned. 2014, this is almost ten years ago,” he continued. “I found it remarkable that the son of the then-vice president of the United States was getting paid $50,000 a year by the largest Ukrainian energy company. He kept getting that money until 2019. And he had no apparent skills or experience on the questions of energy. And at that point, while Biden was vice president, he wasn’t just vice president, he was the point person in the Obama administration on Ukraine. So, it seemed to me, and it’s why I asked the question at a White House briefing, there’s at the very least an appearance of a conflict of interest. Why did they hire him?”
Former President Donald Trump compared the Hunter Biden deal to a “traffic ticket.” A White House statement read, “the president and first lady love their son and support him as he continues to rebuild his life. We will have no further comment.”
