Hunter Biden is not hiding. Even some Democrats are uncomfortable.

At last week’s state dinner at the White House, Hunter Biden seemed to be everywhere. Cheerful and sociable, he worked in the pavilion with a grin and enthusiasm, shaking hands and hugging other guests.

One guest who certainly didn’t want to chat with him, however, was Merrick B. Garland, the attorney general whose Justice Department reached a plea just two days earlier in which the president’s son will likely avoid jail time.

The presence of the younger Biden at such a high-profile event so soon after the plea deal proved to be the buzz of the evening. It attracted all the more attention given the risk of a chance encounter with the country’s top law enforcement official, who would rather cut off a thumb than be caught looking good-natured with the target of an investigation he had guaranteed would be conducted by the book.

It also didn’t go unnoticed when, just days later, Hunter Biden hopped on and off Marine One with the president on his way to and from Camp David for the weekend.

In the nation’s capital, where such things are rarely coincidental and always noticed, the oh-so-public appearances came across as an in-your-face message of defiance from a president determined to show his support for his son in the face of relentless venomous attacks. Still, some Democrats, including current and former Biden administration officials, privately saw it as an unnecessary poke-the-bear gesture.

“He knew exactly what he was doing, and he was willing to put up with the appearance issues to send a message to his son that he loves him,” said Norman Eisen, the ethics czar in the White House of President Barack Obama when Biden was vice chairman.

Had he advised Mr Biden, Mr Eisen said, he would have warned him about “the flak they would take,” but added that it would be a matter of optics, rather than rules. “That’s probably more of a question for an etiquette czar than an ethics czar,” he said. “Certainly, there is no violation of any ethical rule as long as they don’t talk about the matter.”

The White House said Mr Biden was just a father.

“In all governments, regardless of party, it is customary for presidential family members to attend state dinners and accompany presidents to Camp David,” White House spokesman Andrew Bates said Tuesday. “The president and the first lady love and support their son.”

The White House footage a week after Hunter Biden’s plea deal was announced highlights the predicament for a president with a 53-year-old son traumatized by family tragedy and a devastating history of addiction to alcohol and crack cocaine. While Democrats despise the far right’s conspiratorial fixation on Hunter’s problems, some of the president’s allies privately complain that he, understandably, turns a blind eye to his son. They regret that he did not intervene more assertively to prevent the younger man from trading with the family name in business dealings.

It’s a subject that advisers don’t easily raise with Mr Biden, and so many of them have to watch him handle it and respond accordingly. They take comfort in the belief that many Americans understand a father’s love for his son, even one who makes mistakes, and believe that this will no more hurt Biden’s bid for re-election next year than his victory. about President Donald J. Trump in 2020. And they recognize that no matter what the family does, Hunter will be a target for the next 16 months.

The plea deal last week was fraught for many reasons. It meant that the president’s son admitted criminal conduct by failing to file his taxes on time and would be subject to a diversionary program on charges of illegal gun possession, but would face time behind bars if a judge approves. Republicans immediately denounced it as a “sweetheart deal” by the Biden team.

In fact, the decision was announced by a Trump appointee, David C. Weiss, a US attorney who was detained by Biden’s Justice Department to give the impression that he would not interfere in his investigation of Hunter Biden. Mr. Garland and Mr. Weiss have both insisted that Mr. Weiss had what he called “ultimate authority” over the matter.

There is no evidence that the president or the White House played any role — unlike Mr. Trump, who openly and repeatedly pressured the Justice Department during his term to prosecute his alleged enemies and drop cases against his allies. traps.

But congressional Republicans have promoted two IRS “whistleblowers” who allege that the Justice Department restrained Mr. Weiss, despite his own denial. Republicans plan to call Mr. Weiss to testify in the coming days and threaten to impeach Mr. Garland.

One of the IRS agents produced a message from Hunter Biden in 2017 invoking his father, who was absent at the time, to pressure a potential Chinese business partner to agree to a deal. While reiterating that the president “did not conduct business with his son,” the White House has neither disputed the authenticity of the message nor commented on the impression that Mr. Biden, as a former vice president, may have been used to keep things safe. to set.

When asked by a reporter on Monday whether he had lied when he said earlier that he had not discussed Hunter’s business dealings with him, the president simply said, “No.”

Hunter Biden has appeared with his father since the beginning of his presidency, including previous trips to Camp David or the family home in Delaware. Hunter attended the first state dinner of the Biden presidency in December and joined his father on a trip to Ireland this spring.

So in that sense it was perhaps not too surprising that he turned up for the state dinner for Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India last Thursday. But it quickly provoked Republicans and conservative media.

“Hunter and Merrick hanging out at Joe’s place?” Representative Andy Ogles, Republican of Tennessee, wrote on Twitter. “Classic Biden crime family.”

Representative Jason Smith, Republican of Missouri, said on Fox Business“We saw a fancy state dinner at the White House, and you have the person charged with these criminal allegations and also the department that has been slow to deal with these allegations, the leader of that department, sitting at the same table and dining. This all stinks.”

The tuxedo-clad Hunter Biden appeared in high spirits at dinner and made his way through the pavilion on the South Lawn. He put his arm around Bill Nelson, the NASA administrator and former Florida senator, and gave Andy Moffit, the husband of Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, a gentle shoulder grip. Mr. Garland resolutely remained on the other side of the pavilion, at least as long as there were reporters and photographers to watch.

While Mr. Garland was invited weeks in advance, some who know him suspected he was unaware that Hunter Biden would be there and would probably have been upset to be put in such an awkward position. A person familiar with the dinner said those who were not White House staff were not given the guest list in advance. Representatives from the White House and the Justice Department would not say whether the president’s staff notified the attorney general.

But even Democrats who would have preferred Mr Biden not to display his son so publicly in the immediate aftermath of the plea deal are resisting criticism from Republicans who have shown little interest in nepotism involving Mr Trump, who have daughter and son-in-law in the White House and whose children have benefited from his name for years.

David M. Axelrod, senior adviser to Obama, said the state dinner made clear what Biden wanted to make clear: that he was not going to walk away from his son. “That can cause him problems, but it also reinforces the truth about a man who has suffered great losses in his life and loves his children,” he said.

Richard W. Painter, who was the chief White House ethics attorney under President George W. Bush, later unsuccessfully ran for Congress as a Democrat and was critical of ethics decisions made by the Biden team. personal and campaign commitments.

“These are the president’s political calls,” said Painter, who media reports say has been consulted by Hunter Biden’s lawyers about setting up a legal defense fund. “He wants to protect his political position by running for re-election. He also wants to be a good father. That was his decision. You’re going to get heat. But I understand why he made the decision.”

Glenn Thrush reporting contributed.