No One is Above the Law — Unless You're Hunter Biden

The news wasn't exactly surprising: On Tuesday, Hunter Biden struck a plea deal on two federal charges of tax evasion and one of lying on a background check to purchase a firearm. The deal was simple — the president’s son pleads guilty to the tax charges, agrees to a pretrial diversion program on the gun charge, and avoids going to jail. And, from a media perspective, the White House can say all the Hunter Biden questions have been resolved. 

It really must be nice to be this connected, as well as especially lucrative. Hunter Biden can sit on the board of a Ukrainian energy company and be paid seven figures, despite not having any experience in, you know, the energy sector. Hunter and his consulting firm allegedly raked in seven figures from that cushy appointment and his work with Chinese and other foreign entities. 

It's not remotely clear to most of us exactly what services Hunter rendered to earn this kind of money. It's impossible to believe he would have had access to these foreign companies if his father hadn’t been the U.S. vice president at the time. 

When Democrats lost the House in 2022, they also lost the ability to limit the scope of the Hunter Biden investigation to taxes and gun applications. The GOP-run House Oversight Committee now says it has documented, through bank receipts and records, potentially millions of dollars in transfers to shell companies that appear to exist only in order to avoid being identified. 

According to Republican investigators, the receipts appear to show not just Hunter Biden but the president's brother and a niece being paid handsomely for who-knows-what services to foreign entities. Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) says investigators will try “to determine if President Biden is compromised by his family’s business schemes.” 

The timing around Hunter’s plea deal isn't lost on anyone paying attention, coming just over a week after Donald Trump was indicted on 37 counts regarding classified documents taken from the White House to his Mar-a-Lago residence. 

"No one is above the law!" was the pious cry heard from Democrats and from many in the media regarding Trump. Yet, given how soft this plea deal is for the president's son, that sentiment has been proven to be demonstrably false. 

The reaction from many in the media to Hunter’s deal was predictable. Consider the New York Times, which offered this opening paragraph in a Tuesday analysis written by Peter Baker, author of The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017–2021, a Times’ bestseller:

"After more than a half-century in politics, no subject may be more personally painful nor politically problematic for President Biden than his troubled son, Hunter. He is by all accounts a gaping wound in his heart and the most sensitive soft spot in his campaign armor.”

Not to be outdone was ABC's Jonathan Karl, who has written three Trump books in three years, including, Betrayal: The Final Act of the Trump Show. Karl joined the ladies of The View to discuss the plea deal earlier this week. 

"The Republicans have made lots of major allegations against Biden — against President Biden. They call it the ‘Biden Crime Family,’ " Karl said. "They claim they have traded off their name, and gotten money from foreign entities illegally. None of that's been proven. There's no evidence of that. But they're going to continue those investigations and make those allegations."

Karl was strongly suggesting that House Republicans are making false allegations against the Bidens, who are really the victims here, and that the GOP will continue going down this road in an effort to hurt the family for political reasons. But, seconds later, he broached this rather interesting nugget that turned his "there's no evidence" line on its head. 

"One of the details that we reported earlier they were looking into that's just so strange, he was given — Hunter Biden was given — a 2.8-carat diamond from a Chinese business associate,” Karl said. “What's it all about? We don't know."

What is that 2.8-carat diamond from a Chinese business associate all about? If only there were some journalists in the room to investigate this and other nuggets, that might answer the whole "we don't know" part.

Over at CNN, anchor Jake Tapper mocked Republicans for their complaints of a two-tiered justice system when it comes to how the president's son was treated and how Trump was treated.

"If they’re concerned about a two-tier system of justice, they should learn a little bit more about the kind of justice system that poor people get in this country. Because that is really a two-tier system of justice," Tapper lectured on Tuesday, in what quite possibly qualifies for the ‘Random-Deflection-of-the-Year Award.”

It was just last week when Tapper ordered his own control room to stop showing a live shot of Trump being greeted warmly at a restaurant in Miami's Little Havana. “I don’t need to see any more of that,” Tapper ordered producers on-air. "He’s trying to turn it into a spectacle and into a campaign ad. That is enough of that." 

If that isn't attempting to control a narrative, I’m not sure what is. 

As might be expected, the defense of the First Family was full-throated over at MSNBC, best underscored by former senator Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.). 

"Everybody needs to back off Joe Biden about this. He loves his son. Back off," McCaskill warned Republicans while fighting back tears. "They have no evidence of any kind of wrongdoing by Joe Biden, and it infuriates me that they're using this heartbreak against Joe Biden in this way. It's just not right."

For now, the Biden administration and congressional Democrats can say the final whistle has blown and there's nothing left to pursue as it pertains to the Biden family allegations. 

"With the announcement of two agreements between my client, Hunter Biden, and the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware, it is my understanding that the five-year investigation into Hunter is resolved," declared Chris Clark, Hunter’s attorney, this week. 

Many in the press feel the same way and will turn their attention back to their favorite and most-profitable subject: The trials and tribulations of Donald J. Trump. 

Let's be clear: Trump's trials, especially the one pertaining to the former president's alleged reckless handling of classified documents, is absolutely a big story. 

But with Trump, he's seen as guilty until proven innocent in the eyes of much of political media. With the Bidens, they're positively innocent until absolutely proven guilty. 

Hunter Biden will walk away for now with a love tap on the wrist. 

And all the heavy lifting will be left to the House Oversight Committee, which will be met with resistance from not only the White House but from many in the media who will devote their energy to the former president seeking to become president again.

Joe Concha is a media critic, politics and sports commentator, and a contributor on Fox News.