What to know about Hunter Biden’s plea deal

Hunter Biden enters a plea deal over tax evasion and firearm charges; Rescuers race to recover a missing Titanic-bound submersible.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Jariel Arvin.

Hunter Biden pleads guilty to tax charges

Handout/DNCC via Getty Images

• Tuesday, Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of failing to pay taxes in a deal with federal prosecutors. [Vox / Andrew Prokop]
•  Hunter also admitted to a felony charge of unlawfully possessing a gun while being a drug user, but prosecutors will drop the charge if he completes a two-year probation. [Politico]
• Experts say Hunter, 53, is likely to avoid jail time, but a judge has the final say. [ABC News]
• The plea deal ends the five-year federal investigation into Hunter Biden’s finances, led by Trump-appointed US attorney for Delaware David Weiss. [Associated Press / Lindsay Whitehurst]
• Republican lawmakers, who have long attacked Hunter for alleged corruption overseas and accused the White House of weaponizing the Justice Department, reacted angrily to the charges. [BBC / Bernd Debusmann Jr]
• Hunter Biden is likely the first son of a sitting president to face criminal charges; it’s unclear what impact the deal will have on President Biden’s bid for a second term in 2024. [Reuters]

📍 If you read just one story

Vox's Li Zhou explains former President Donald Trump's recent defense of his handling of classified documents on Fox News. [Vox / Li Zhou]

The search for the vanished Titanic submersible

• Tuesday, rescue crews continued searching for a research submersible that vanished while carrying five people to explore the Titanic’s wreckage. [NBC News]
• The 22-foot-long vessel went missing in the North Atlantic Ocean Sunday after losing contact with a research ship. [New York Times]
• Officials estimate the vessel had about 40 hours of breathable air remaining at 1 pm ET Tuesday. The US and Canada are scanning an area 900 miles off the coast of Massachusetts that’s larger than Connecticut. [Guardian]
• The passengers include a Pakistani billionaire and his son, a British businessman, a French diver, and the CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, which charges $250,000 for the journey. [CNN / Nouran Salahieh and Eric Levenson]
• An employee who raised concerns in 2018 about the safety of the vessel traveling to deep depths was fired, according to legal documents obtained by the New Republic. [ New Republic / Daniel Strauss]

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Romania has indicted misogynist influencer Andrew Tate on rape and human trafficking charges. [Vox / Rebecca Jennings]

• A team of archeologists has reconstructed the face of a 16-year-old Anglo-Saxon girl buried 1,300 years ago. [BBC / Katy Prickett]
• Tuesday, French police investigating alleged financial corruption raided the headquarters of the 2024 Paris Olympics. [CNN / Joseph Ataman and Aurore Laborie]
• The judge handling Donald Trump’s classified documents case has scheduled a two-week trial for August — but the start could face delays. [NBC / Michael Mitsanas and Daniel Barnes]

"Hunter will not be charged with any of the unfounded and outlandish issues Republicans and right-wing media have used to smear him with for years."

[Democratic operative David Brock on Hunter Biden's plea deal / BBC]

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