It’s June 21—the first day of summer and the longest day of the year. All the days get shorter from here on out. If I was in charge of things, I’d make every day the longest of the year and sentence Hunter Biden to serve 12 years of them for his federal tax evasion and gun charges.
Chris Clark, an attorney who represented Hunter Biden in a recent criminal investigation, is insisting that prosecutors were thorough and that the case against the Democratic president’s son didn’t end with an overly lenient plea deal.
On Tuesday, Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss notified the U.S. District Court that Biden intended to plead guilty to two misdemeanor counts for willful failure to pay his taxes for two years. Weiss said Biden also agreed to enter a pretrial diversion agreement for obtaining a firearm at a time that he was actively using or addicted to a controlled substance, which is illegal.
The tax charges each carry a maximum penalty of 12 months in prison. The firearm charge carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, but the pretrial diversion agreement could allow him to avoid a criminal conviction and a related criminal punishment.
A couple of thoughts about this development. First, this is merely a slap on the wrist. It’s not even really a slap, more of a light finger tap on his arm saying, “Look, we can’t let you get away with what you’ve done because it’s too obvious that we’re prosecuting Trump on every and any possible charge we can dream up while ignoring the fact that your dad has done most of, if not more, of what we’re accusing Trump of doing. You can help us out by taking a small hit so that we can then say we are even-handed in our application of justice. Waddaya think?”
Tucker Carlson, who is now posting his commentary on Twitter, has thoughts that you should listen to.
“Above all there was no felony. Hunter Biden, who broke federal gun laws, can still carry a gun. It’s like it all never happened. In fact, the Justice Department just baptized Hunter Biden. A lifetime of sins washed away in an instant. It was a secular miracle.”
Second, these charges don’t even touch Hunter’s deals with the Ukrainians, the Russians, and the Chinese. The younger Biden was selling access to his father, who was vice-president of the United States. He was laundering money on behalf of his family. He was taking bribes on behalf of his father. These are the much more serious crimes that seem to have been committed by Hunter, and it doesn’t take a genius to see that by taking the fall for some misdemeanors, the DOJ can wipe its hands of the whole mess and say, “case closed.”
Speaker Kevin McCarthy thinks the “case closed” position makes the House’s investigation into the Biden’s self-dealings stronger.
Talking to reporters after the news that the president’s son plans to plead guilty to two misdemeanor tax charges and one felony gun possession charge, McCarthy said the investigation by the House Oversight Committee wouldn’t be swayed by the “sweetheart deal” Hunter Biden received from the Department of Justice, rather, it might help the investigation gather more information.
The Oversight Committee is investigating unverified information that came from a paid FBI informant through an FBI-generated FD-1023 tip sheet. The document alleges that Hunter Biden and President Joe Biden each took $5 million bribes from an executive at the Ukrainian energy giant Burisma, where Hunter sat on the board.
“This does nothing to our investigation,” McCarthy said. “It actually should enhance our investigation because the DOJ should not be able to withhold any information now saying that there’s a pending investigation. They should be able to provide Chairman Comer with any information that he requires.”
David Weiss, the U.S. attorney leading the Hunter Biden investigation, said: “The investigation is ongoing.” So, it will likely still be difficult for Comer to get the information he requests.
When asked about the DOJ saying the investigation is still ongoing, McCarthy said it was a ploy for them to continue withholding information from the House of Representatives under the pretext of an ongoing investigation.
“How can Hunter Biden plead guilty, no jail time, and the DOJ say there’s still an investigation, try to withhold information to the House? That’s unacceptable and will not stand,” McCarthy said. “You cannot plead guilty, say you’re not going to do jail time, and then say you can’t give papers to the U.S. House of Representatives. That’s not going to stand. That’s not going to work.”
Bless your heart. Of course the DOJ will continue stonewalling. Who’s going to make them give up the information? The FBI?
LOL.
Well, maybe Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) knows something we don’t.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) vowed action from her side of the aisle on the matter, saying in a statement: “It’s no coincidence that less than a week after President Trump is arraigned, Hunter Biden is pleading guilty to a sweetheart deal with no jail time. The DOJ is going for the low-hanging fruit by charging Hunter Biden with a gun felony and two tax misdemeanors, after years of slow walking their investigation.”
“For AG Garland to maintain his mantra that there is one standard of justice is pathetic,” she continued. “If the DOJ thinks this dismisses the $5 million alleged bribery scheme or the years of reported Biden family corruption, they are mistaken. We will not allow full accountability to fall by the wayside.”
Maybe. We are watching a two-tiered system of justice being applied in real time.