The second indictment of Hunter Biden brought nine new criminal charges and a host of problems for both him and his father. The indictment shatters past claims and denials related to the massive influence peddling operation by the Bidens. However, it is also a case study of the perils of legal gluttony.
Five months ago, exasperated Biden defense counsel Chris Clark snapped at federal prosecutors to “just rip it up” after a plea bargain hit a snag in a hearing before Judge Maryellen Noreika. They did and, for the first time, Hunter could be facing a real chance for jail time.
The six misdemeanor charges and three felonies carry a potential sentence of 17 years for alleged tax evasion and filing a false return. It could have been worse. The Justice Department inexplicably allowed the statute of limitations to run on the most serious allegations involving payments from years going back to 2013. Those are mentioned in the narrative of the indictment but not charged as separate offenses.
None of this would have happened if Judge Noreika did not ask a very simple question about the plea agreement and a sweeping immunity provision buried in its language. Many judges would have likely flagged through the agreement and given Hunter the sweetest of sweetheart deals.
Noreika noticed that the deal seemed to give Hunter immunity for any crime going forward and asked the prosecutor if he had ever seen any agreement like this one. He honestly answered “no.”
It was later learned that there was a push within the Justice Department to have no charges at all brought against Hunter in an investigation that was heavily laden with special treatment, according to IRS whistleblowers.
The investigation by the House has shown how Hunter and his counsel allowed their appetite for special treatment to turn into a raging disorder. The Justice Department reportedly gave Hunter a “heads up” about planned searches and interviews, scuttling those efforts. Even though the Justice Department had an agreement to “toll the statute” to prevent the early charges from expiring, the Special Counsel just let them die without any rational reason.
In this “all-you-can-eat” legal Smorgasbord, it is little surprise that the Biden team would demand an unprecedented immunity deal and just two misdemeanors after years of tax evasion covering millions from insider trading.
After all, Attorney General Merrick Garland had refused the calls of many of us to appoint a Special Counsel to look into the corruption scandal. The scandal was capped off legally and the media was running cover for Hunter.
The laptop was falsely denounced as Russian disinformation and the media largely dismissed influence peddling claims. Whenever new allegations surfaced, the President and the media would literally run to the nearest ice cream shop to discuss the President’s favorite flavors.
In other words, why ask for a sweeping immunity deal? The answer was why not.
That all came crashing down when Judge Noreika just cleared her throat in court.
As the prosecutors struggled to explain the absurd immunity provision, the Biden legal team was obviously shocked at the notion that they might have to exercise portion control. After all, the President himself has declared “no one f**ks with a Biden.”
That is when they told the prosecutors to “just rip it up.” Those are the four most dangerous words that a criminal defendant could utter in a hearing on a plea deal. They could have immediately narrowed the immunity deal and even added a few misdemeanors to salvage the deal. Instead, they shredded their client.
What followed was performative and frankly a tad pathetic. To the thrill of some in the media, the Biden team promised to get aggressive with witnesses and critics. They started to make demands as if they still controlled events, including saying that they would only comply with a congressional subpoena on their own terms.
It won’t work. A bill has come due. While Garland is still protecting President Biden from a Special Counsel, Hunter Biden is going to have to face these alleged crimes and corruption. Even the media is now admitting that he was influence peddling, though maintaining a final line of defense for the president. The last defense is that it was corrupt, but merely illusory because it did not actually influence Joe Biden.
In other words, Hunter is rapidly becoming expendable.
The lesson for lawyers should be lasting: even if you can secure a massive sweetheart deal, you may want to exercise a modicum of portion control. That “all-you-can-eat” option may not be the best course for your client. The Justice Department was clearly willing to give Hunter anything that he demanded, but maybe you need to demand less. Sometimes it is better to go for the more limited a la carte option. Your client will consume less but he may be able to get up from the table. In other words, you need to be careful what you ask for . . . you just might get it.
Our family once respected the FBI and CIA as the “elite” LE agencies in USA. Not anymore. NEVER AGAIN. They are compromised. Beyond repair.
It is already been determined that the cover up of Hunter’s laptop and the actual criminal evidence it contains was enough alone to change the election results in Biden’s favor over Trump. The most damning fact besides the intentional suppression of this evidence of the Biden family influence peddling and acceptance of bribes, by the FBI was the letter signed by almost every existing intelligence officer attesting with out reservation that the laptop was
Russian misinformation. Something the FBI knew for a fact to be false.
Unless you are totally brain dead, it is beyond a reasonable doubt that total corruption, is in charge of the federal investigative and executive branches of our government. This treasonious cabal, that hates both the Constitution, and the rights of Americans to choose who runs the government by lawful elections by the People is a disgraceful testimony of just how EVIL and CORRUPT they have become.
Their tyranny exceeds Epstein flights to the islands with all the customers, and every bit of filth recorded on
Hunter’s lap top. Our own government has become the scum of the earth, and it is small consolation that Hunter might actually have to pay for some of his crimes on behalf of the “Big Guy” because his defense attorneys screwed up.
This indictment also shows how and where the millions of dollars funneled in to Hunter’s laundromat was coming from and where it was going to. Ask yourself, if you were the washing machine and sending money to the Big Guy, would you want to pay his tax bill on it too? I pray that this will open the door to Obama’s grift and crimes also. If Biden was getting as VP, Obama had to know about it and get his cut too. That to me is the immediate connection behind the head of the snake!
HB channeling the “spies who lie.”
The prosecutions and allegations have “literally every earmark of what the Russians did.”
Remind me again which is the party of conspiracy theories.
What this entire process has taught the American People is that the Law no longer represents Justice. It is now a game played by elite lawyers before too powerful, often questionable, judges with virtually unlimited power. When Law no longer has Justice as its objective, it becomes a joke to the People and is not deserving of respect or obedience. Ironically, the legal system has destroyed itself in the eyes of Americans. This will not end well.
This is going to be simple and boring. Joe Biden will pardon Hunter after The Big Guy loses re-election to Trump.
The media organs of the Democrat Party (aka “News”) will say “Aww isn’t that so sweet? Isn’t that touching? A loving father sacrifices the last of his credibility and his legacy to keep his one remaining living son out of jail. Oh, I could just hug poor Joe Biden right now”
Arlen Specter bragged that he got Frank Purdue off on a charge of vehicular homicide by ignoring the deadline to prosecute the case.
One of the biggest scoops (by our founding editor, Bob Hall) was discovering that Perdue, an incorrigibly reckless driver, had been charged with involuntary manslaughter in 1974 when he “ignored or overlooked warning signs and red lights” on the Pennsylvania Turnpike and collided with two cars, killing one person. But Perdue’s expensive lawyer got the charges dropped and the court records expunged; as one court official told Southern Exposure, “There was a lot of grease on the wheel of this one.”
Perdue’s lawyer? None other than Arlen Specter,
Frank Purdue committed manslaughter one day on the Pennsylvania Turnpike during a drunk driving accident. He hired the guy who was going to become the new District Attorney, Arlen Specter, who was just a defense lawyer then. Once he became District Attorney, Specter buried the whole incident by waiting until the day after the statute of limitations ended to bring the case up in a quiet fashion.
When justice department officials are found to be guilty of negligence to perform their duty of care, they should face legal consequences. What is most disturbing about ruptures of justice along these lines, is that Professor Turley is fully aware of them and thousands more, and yet he fails to raise public awareness in a meaningful fashion. Our judicial system IS THE MOST CORRUPT entity in the U.S. No one holds them accountable.
Who was Uncle Ted’s Chappaquiddick Attorney?
The President is always out there telling everyone that they have to pay their taxes, well that goes for Hunter to. I don’t care if the statute is over HE has to pay or no body does.
Sloe Joe will pardon Hunter – if he lives long enough. Kamala Harris will certainly throw him and the rest of the Biden clan under the bus if she becomes President. That is the big risk Hunter runs.
So as the evidence of the Biden family corruption, collusion and conspiracy unfolds and leads to impeachment Old Grifting Joe won’t be pardoning anyone except himself as he soils his pants.
It seems Joe foolishly showered his son with love so blind nothing was considered illegal, loving parents with their heads properly affixed would give proper advice to a wayward child, but Joe used his son for his benefit also and that’s why he allowed the permissiveness to fester. I hope real justice prevails.
I just saw one of the banking alert reports and the 5 million dollar “loan” with no loan papers to Hunter – which is of course the oligarch Burisma payoff, well half of it, joe pops got the other 5 million I guess that’s a super secret you never know bank account because it’s the top demoncrat clown.
It’s all so amazing – I watched that chinese elite Xi intel guy talk to that chinese audience and outline how they have biden on the bribe extortion pay racket so they have him in their pocket the whole crowd cheered – so that’s probably the other 20 million they don’t talk about much making the 40 million total that was quoted.
You are correct. China and Soros money backed all sorts of sinful acts of sedition. Including paying the nice girls from Georgia to scan ballots for BIDEN over and over and over and over again to the tune of big win for the big guy. It’s all such a pathetic scam. The biggest scam ever.
Could it be that the charges are part of a ploy to keep Hunter from being compelled to testify in Congress. Farfetched, I know, but anything can happen with this corrupted system. Reliably, what you are led to think you see is not what you are actually seeing.
I think you’ve nailed it.
They need to get Hunter convicted before Trump takes office so he can be pardoned by the corrupt “Big Guy”..
No conviction is required for a pardon. Joe could pardon him right now.
Wouldn’t that be dangerous? Hunter could be compelled to testify against his father, and he couldn’t take the fifth in refusing to answer a question that might incriminate him, since there is no legal jeopardy.
This is what I read. The only reason the charges were filed at this time was to keep Hunter from testifying before congress. Hunter will receive no penalty, and will not do any jail time. If by some stretch some of the charges stick, biden will just pardon him.
So did Hunter pay his State taxes over same income? If not then he may be prosecuted and convicted at the State level where grifting Joe Biden cannot pardon him. Which States did he reside in while running the shake down earning Millions from foreign entities, Virginia, Delaware, California?
While all of this is important.
The FACTs – which appear to be lost on everyone – including Prof. Turley, is that none of this leads anywhere.
The prosecutions of Trump will end – with near certainty – the moment the issue of he being the next president is irrevocably resolved.
Win or lose it does not matter – the idiotic prosecutions will end.
The same is True regarding the Biden’s. DOJ may or may not prosecute Hunter – at this point I beleive Garland is merely trying to save face. Republicans in the house have made it clear that the DOJ under Biden is corrupt. Garland had supreme court aspirations, now it looks like we all dodged a bullet there. Frankly an impeachment investigation of Garland is more important than one of Joe.
All roads on everything questionable go through Garland.
Regardless, Hunter might be prosecuted. If the stars align perfectly he might even be convicted – though not likely by any of the juries he is likely to appear in front of. But he will never spend a day in jail. Joe will pardon him first.
Garland knows that. Weis knows that, House Republicans know that. Virtually everyone knows that.
The rules that Prof. Turley refers to – DO NOT APPLY to the Hunter Biden (or Trump cases).
Hunter and his lawyers goal – and that of DOJ is to avoid a pardon until after the 2024 election.
Trump’d id to avoid an actually damning revalation untile after the election.
Right now – Biden is losing badly.
What if Joe Biden doesn’t make it to the election? Will a jury be his only hope? Do you think VP Harris would pardon him? Garland may be taking a big chance on Hunters future.
Trump will pardon him and expect they leave him alone, but they never will.