Chuck Grassley: ‘Justice’ in Hunter Biden conviction

Iowa U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said Wednesday that justice was served in Hunter Biden’s conviction on criminal gun charges, but he continues his assertion the justice system is targeting former President Donald Trump.

Speaking with reporters, Grassley characterized then initial plea deal reached between Biden’s lawyers and prosecutors as too generous, and said the judge was right to reject the deal last summer.

“Thankfully, some justice has finally been served here in the state of Delaware after a responsible judge refused to accept DOJ’s original sham plea,” Grassley said.

On Tuesday, a jury found Hunter Biden guilty on three felony counts related to the purchase of a handgun in 2018, when prosecutors said he lied on a federal form by saying he was not using or addicted to illegal drugs.

Grassley has been a prominent critic of Hunter Biden as far back as 2020, when he led an investigation into Biden’s banking records.

Last year, Grassley released the contents of a 2020 FBI document that included unverified claims that both Hunter and Joe Biden were involved in a $10 million bribery scheme with a Ukrainian CEO. The source of the document was later indicted on a charge of lying to the FBI about those claims.

Grassley has argued the dozens of felony charges facing Trump, in multiple jurisdictions, are evidence that the justice system is biased against the former Republican president.

With Biden’s conviction, Grassley said his opinion hasn’t changed. He said he believes Trump’s prosecutions were motivated by his decision to seek the presidency again, while Hunter Biden’s prosecution was not politically motivated.

Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, who represents northeast Iowa's 2nd District, also referenced Biden’s failed plea deal and set her sights on the November election.

“This just scratches the surface of the Biden family’s crime & corruption,” Hinson said in a social media post Tuesday. “Full accountability is coming in November when we fire Joe Biden and re-elect President Trump.”

Iowa State Auditor Rob Sand, the only statewide elected Democrat and a former criminal prosecutor, said Tuesday he trusts juries to make the right decision.

“Precisely as I said after Donald Trump’s jury verdict, in seven years as an assistant attorney general, I found juries in both liberal and conservative counties took the work seriously and tried to do right,” he said in a social media post.

U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, a Republican who represents Iowa’s southeast 1st Congressional District, told reporters that Hunter Biden was offered a “sweetheart plea deal.”

“Average ordinary people would already be in jail for these types of charges,” she said in a video posted by the liberal news outlet the Heartland Signal. “I think it’s reassuring to see the criminal justice system work.”