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The interesting aspect of President Biden's pardon of his son Hunter is that it was completely predictable and expected, despite the president's repeated and exasperated claims that it would never happen. The pardon order must be thoroughly enforced.
Mr. Biden did not limit his son's insurance against future prosecutions to two cases in which he was convicted (in the former by a jury and in the latter by a judge who accepted a guilty plea): a criminal firearms charge and a tax charge. . The pardon covers all potential federal crimes for which he could be convicted between January 1, 2014 and Sunday night (December 1, 2024).
Why 2014?
Well, the most damning evidence of the Biden family's influence-spreading business occurred in the final years of Joe Biden's vice presidential term, specifically from 2014 to 2016. Of course, that's when Burisma's hijinks began. Indeed, Hunter's position on the corrupt energy company's board was clearly tied to his father's political influence, and as soon as Biden left office in 2017, Burisma cut Hunter's compensation in half. did.
Jonathan Turley: Joe Biden's son Hunter pardon cements his legacy as liar in chief
That's not all. Two lucrative schemes tied to the Chinese Communist Party, Bohai Harvest RST Investment Company and CEFC, from which the Biden family pocketed millions of dollars, also began between 2014 and 2016. So was the scheme in which Hunter collected large sums of money from Romanian businessman Gabriel Popoviciu.
Joe Biden's vice presidential inauguration phase also included a large Café Milano dinner in Washington, where the then vice president rubbed elbows with Hunter's many foreign business partners (Joe Biden told us again when he had not taken the oath of no pardon) and again, he had never discussed business with Hunter, so there was no relationship). The dinner guest list also included Eleana Baturina, the billionaire widow of Putin's henchman Yuri Luzhkov, a former Moscow mayor who also had a multimillion-dollar deal with Hunter.
As I have detailed, Romania's plan mirrors the Burisma plan. As vice president supporting the Obama administration's foreign policy, Joe Biden has publicly appealed to the governments in Bucharest and Kiev to step up efforts to fight corruption. This is because the enterprising son uses the political influence of the then vice-president to seek favorable treatment from the government and to target corruption targets in these governments (such as Mr. Popoviciu and Burisma's Mykola). This paved the way for millions of dollars to be made from companies such as Nikolai Zlochevsky. And then-Vice President Biden (at the time) withheld $1 billion in desperately needed U.S. funds unless Kiev fired the prosecutor who happened to be investigating Zlochevsky and Burisma. Who can forget the threat of
Naturally, among the questions raised by all of this is why Hunter and his co-conspirators were not prosecuted for failing to register as foreign agents; One example is the FARA Act.
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Moreover, if there was a one-tier judicial system in which everyone was treated equally, the facts of Biden's overseas business arrangements would be strikingly similar to those arising from President Paul Manafort's business activities in Ukraine. I couldn't help but notice what I was doing. He served only once, in 2016, as President Trump's campaign chairman.
Special Counsel Robert Mueller and his staff, which included several Democratic activists, charged Mr. Manafort not only with tax and FARA charges, but also with bank fraud and money laundering. Mr. Manafort was 69 years old at the time of his conviction. And the charges against him had nothing to do with the false claims of “collusion” between Trump and Russia that are the focus of Mueller's investigation. Prosecutors had been keeping him in a chokehold in hopes of giving him something — anything — about the then-president.
President Biden and Hunter Biden head to Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House on July 26, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
Because of that, and many other examples of our two-tier structure, there were some aggressive statements from the Trump campaign that his election meant the tide had turned. At least when it comes to the Biden family, I think this is hot rhetoric that will blow your mind. 2014 to 2016 was a long time ago. Even if the Trump Justice Department were interested in pursuing new charges, again, I doubt it, the relevant statute of limitations (5 years for most federal crimes, some 6 years for related tax offenses) have already expired.
Still, President Biden is not taking any chances. As it turns out, an aggressive and creative prosecutor (perhaps in the mold of Jack Smith, but this time an ardent Republican), Hunter and his allies (possibly including the President and his brother Jim) They were able to formulate a theory that they were involved in an ongoing conspiracy. It's been going on since 2016 and probably beyond 2020. The evidence may not be strong or even exist. But evidence, including evidence produced by the House Oversight Committee that revealed the Bidens extorted more than $27 million from foreign persons and entities from 2014 to 2019, suggests there is sufficient evidence for a criminal investigation. The evidence certainly exists.
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And as those in the Trump administration, pursued by Democratic prosecutors and committees, say, the investigation is disastrous. Litigation costs are enormous, business opportunities dry up, and suspects and their families experience great anxiety.
Mr. Hunter's breathtaking sweeping pardon (almost 11 years for a man the president has repeatedly told us has done nothing wrong) was clearly deliberately avoided by the Biden Justice Department. It is an effort to withhold further investigation into the president's son from 2014 to 2016. Those eyes.
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