Amid a flood of disclosures about Hunter Biden’s business practices, allegations of bribes and corruption, and claims that Mr. Biden fils received “preferential treatment” from prosecutors, Republicans are engaging in an aggressive public relations operation in the hopes of scuttling his plea agreement, which, if approved by a judge, is expected to allow the first son to avoid jail time. 

A federal judge at Delaware is supposed to approve the plea deal during a July 26 hearing. Mr. Biden’s attorneys have said that with the consummation of the plea agreement, Mr. Biden should be able to put his legal woes behind him.

Yet since the deal was announced last month, there have been multiple new public disclosures, including several developments this week, that could put approval of the deal in doubt. The Republican-led House Oversight Committee on Wednesday conducted a hearing in which two IRS whistleblowers testified that Mr. Biden received “preferential treatment” from senior Biden administration Department of Justice officials who “slow-walked” and obstructed the final two years of the Hunter Biden probe at every step. The investigation, purportedly led by the United States attorney for Delaware, David Weiss, led Mr. Biden to plead guilty to two counts of misdemeanor tax evasion.  

During Wednesday’s hearing, the IRS whistleblowers laid out in detail some of Mr. Biden’s tax offenses, which had previously not been exposed. They included claiming tax breaks for money spent on prostitutes as well as on renting a French chateau for a vacation during which Mr. Biden admitted in his memoir that he “learned to cook crack.”  

Then, on Thursday, Senator Grassley released the expurgated text of an FBI “FD-1023” form that lays out information from a “confidential human source” in a criminal investigation. The form, which the FBI had resisted sharing with Republican lawmakers for months, laid out in detail an alleged bribery scheme in which Ukrainian energy executives discussed paying Hunter Biden and his father millions of dollars to further their business interests while the elder Biden was vice president. 

According to the source, one of the Ukrainian businessmen said Hunter Biden was more “stupid” than his dog, but that he paid him in order for his interests to be “protected.” 

With these reports of alleged corruption that extend far beyond tax evasion, Republican lawmakers are demanding the appointment of a special counsel, for the Department of Justice to answer to the whistleblowers’ accusations of obstruction, and to explain whether it is seriously investigating the bribery accusations in the FD-1023.

The chairman of the Oversight Committee, Congressman James Comer, is now saying he will send “between six and ten criminal referrals” for Mr. Biden and other members of the Biden family to the Department of Justice based on evidence already recovered in the six-month investigation. 

The Oversight Committee chairman said his colleague, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, “showed evidence of the president’s son committing a crime, violating the Mann Act,” a law adopted in 1910 that criminalizes the transportation of “any woman or girl for the purpose of prostitution or debauchery.” At the Wednesday hearing, Ms. Greene detailed evidence that Mr. Biden often traveled with prostitutes, which she claimed was a violation of the Mann Act. Ms. Greene also horrified many of the hearing’s participants by holding up enlarged photos of Mr. Biden engaged in sex acts with women who were allegedly prostitutes.

“She showed the plane tickets, she showed the pictures, she showed the evidence,” Mr. Comer continued. “You know, there’s no question he violated it. That’s another thing that he could have been charged with.”

Beyond GOP lawmakers’ efforts to secure the appointment of a special prosecutor and to kill Mr. Biden’s plea deal, the plea agreement is also threatened by a lawsuit from the conservative Heritage Foundation. The group has filed suit against the DOJ for allegedly failing to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request it had submitted that would have allowed the public to review communications that mentioned the possibility of Mr. Weiss being appointed special counsel for the investigation into the first son. 

“The allegations involve not only many other members of the President’s family, but the President himself,” the lawsuit states. “Because the Attorney General of the United States, Merrick B. Garland, was appointed by the President, one would expect the appointment of a Special Counsel.”

“There is immense national interest in the disturbing conflict between the Attorney General and the Whistleblowers,” the lawsuit continues. “There also is immense political interest. The records sought would provide clarity to essential questions so that Congress and the American people can judge the matter for themselves.”