DOJ boasted crackdown on people who lie when buying firearms 5 months before Hunter Biden's sweetheart deal

Five months before letting Hunter Biden off the hook for illegally possessing a firearm, the Justice Department announced a crackdown on that very crime.

On Tuesday, U.S. attorney David Weiss announced a plea deal in which Biden would be offered pretrial diversion for making false statements to purchase a firearm that he was otherwise disqualified to purchase because of drug use.

Typically, the crime is a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. But Biden is not technically being prosecuted for the crime, so long as he abides by the terms of the diversion program. Biden is expected to spend zero nights in jail for his tax and gun crimes.

What did DOJ say before?

On Jan. 10, 2023, the Justice Department released a statement promising that federal prosecutors are aggressively pursuing "those who lie in connection with gun purchases."

"Keeping guns out of the hands of those who shouldn’t have them is of paramount concern," said U.S. attorney Robert Troester. "We will use the tools available to us to pursue those who use a straw purchaser or lie when trying to buy a gun."

The DOJ's press release included eight individuals who had recently pleaded guilty or were convicted for making false statements during firearm transactions. None of them received pretrial diversion.

Rather, the Justice Department made clear at the time, "Applicants who knowingly make false statements may also face criminal prosecution for a felony and up to 10 years in federal prison."

As TheBlaze reported, Bradford Cohen, an attorney who represents rapper Kodak Black, questioned the fairness of the plea deal because his client received a sentence of nearly four years in prison after pleading guilty to lying when purchasing firearms several years ago.

Weiss has not provided an explanation for why he offered such a lenient plea deal, so it's not clear how Biden's deal is congruent with other cases in which non-politically famous Americans committed the same crime.

TheBlaze reached out to the Delaware U.S. Attorney's Office, but a spokesperson declined to comment.

The plea deal still needs approval from a federal judge.

(H/T: The Washington Free Beacon)

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