Hunter Biden will plead guilty to federal tax charges Wednesday. Here’s what you need to know.

Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, is expected in court Wednesday to plead guilty to federal tax charges.

It will mark the end of a yearslong investigation into Biden’s taxes and foreign business dealings that has been spotlighted throughout his father’s presidency. It’s also the first time the Justice Department has brought charges against a sitting president’s child.

Biden, 53, is expected to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax offenses as part of a plea deal.

The plea agreement in federal court in Delaware will make the investigation “resolved,” Biden’s attorney Chris Clark said in a statement.

As part of the deal, federal prosecutors will decline to pursue a felony gun charge, allowing Biden to avoid potential jail time.

With the investigation unfolding in the public eye, the president and his second son became the center of scrutiny in political circles, particularly right-wing Republicans.

Here’s what you need to know:

The five-year investigation examined Hunter Biden’s role in foreign businesses — including his board position with the Ukrainian energy company Burisma. Former President Donald Trump’s attempts to pressure Ukraine into investigating the Bidens and Hunter’s involvement with Burisma led to Trump’s first impeachment.

The Senate Republicans’ investigation into Biden’s board position floated conflict-of-interest concerns but concluded that it was “not clear” how his role “affected U.S. policy toward Ukraine.”

As Joe Biden was elected president, far-right pressure on his son remained intense.

In October 2020, a month before the election, the New York Post reported that it had received a copy of a hard drive from a laptop Hunter Biden used from Trump’s personal attorney at the time, Rudy Giuliani. The story alleged that the laptop showed international corruption from Hunter Biden and his father.

“Hunter Biden’s laptop” became a pressure point among far-right Republicans. But the story was met with skepticism surrounding the laptop’s origins and Giuliani’s involvement. To date, no evidence has emerged connecting Russian intelligence to the laptop or the emails on it.

Prosecutors ultimately closed in on two issues: Biden’s failure to pay income taxes on time and lying about his substance abuse on a firearm application form.

With the tax charges, Biden failed to pay taxes in 2017 and 2018. He owed more than $100,000 each year. In 2021 — after the investigation was opened — he paid back taxes in full. Biden is expected to plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts of willful failure to pay federal income tax.

The gun charge has to do with a handgun application he filled out in 2018, in which he said he was not using drugs. Biden has been open about his struggles with substance abuse, leading prosecutors to allege that he was lying on his application.

In his memoir, Beautiful Things, Biden talks about his struggle with addiction. He wrote that he first bought crack cocaine when he was 18 and started drinking while in high school.

He has been in and out of rehab multiple times and held long stints of sobriety between relapses. In Beautiful Things, Biden said his addictions took a dark turn following the death of his older brother, Beau, from brain cancer in 2015.

Biden has not entered a plea to the firearm charge, but news reports say he will enter into an agreement with prosecutors to avoid jail time.

According to the Associated Press, Biden will plead guilty to the two tax charges and has reached a pretrial agreement regarding the gun charge.

“Hunter will take responsibility for two instances of misdemeanor failure to file tax payments when due pursuant to a plea agreement,” Clark said in a statement. “A firearm charge, which will be subject to a pretrial diversion agreement and will not be the subject of the plea agreement, will also be filed by the Government. I know Hunter believes it is important to take responsibility for these mistakes he made during a period of turmoil and addiction in his life. He looks forward to continuing his recovery and moving forward.”

According to the AP, this likely means that as long as Biden adheres to the agreement’s conditions, the gun case will be wiped from his record.

Biden is scheduled to be in court at the Wilmington federal courthouse at 10 a.m. Wednesday, court documents say.

Trump — who has been the subject of two arraignments with a potential third looming — and other Republicans have attempted to use Hunter Biden’s case to call out Joe Biden’s Justice Department, comparing the treatment of the president’s son to his own case.

News of Hunter Biden’s plea deal dropped just days after Trump’s 37-count indictment involving classified documents was publicized.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy claimed Hunter Biden received more favorable treatment than Trump. “If you are the president’s son, you get a sweetheart deal,” he said. Trump, who had long complained about the lack of charges against Hunter Biden, has also complained about the plea terms. Legal experts have cast doubt on the “sweetheart deal” claims, saying Biden has actually faced harsher prosecution than others on similar charges.

“The corrupt Biden DOJ just cleared up hundreds of years of criminal liability by giving Hunter Biden a mere ‘traffic ticket.’ Our system is BROKEN,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social.

But as experts point out, the Biden investigation and charging decisions were made largely by Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss, a Trump appointee. The FBI is run by Christopher Wray, a Trump selection.

The president has been careful not to weigh in on his son’s case aside from expressing love and support.

When asked about his son’s federal charges at an unrelated meeting last month, Biden said, “I’m very proud of my son.”

A separate statement from the White House’s counsel office said that the president and first lady Jill Biden “love their son and support him as he continues to rebuild his life,” and “we will have no further comment.”

Biden’s court appearance and agreement will negate the need for a trial. On Wednesday, a federal judge is expected to approve the agreement’s terms and set a sentencing date.

Still, while Biden’s attorney says he considers this to be the closing chapter, the Department of Justice said in a statement that its investigation remains ongoing.

Critics, including McCarthy, are calling for more information from the Department of Justice surrounding its investigation.