Hunter Biden Broke the Law

No space aliens, Chinese communists, or naked women were involved.

Jun 20, 2023

The BREAKING NEWS this morning is that the President's son has been charged in a case involving taxes and gun possession. He’s already negotiated a plea bargain, meaning he’ll plead guilty to misdemeanor tax charges and enter a rehab-type program in exchange for wiping out the gun charge.

This case is the result of a five-year-long investigation by the Department of Justice, directed by David Weiss, the Trump-appointed Delaware U.S. attorney.

From National Public Radio:

Weiss, the top prosecutor in the state, is one of just two U.S. attorneys who stayed on the job at the end of the Trump years, to continue to oversee the Hunter Biden probe. Republicans in Congress had pressed the Justice Department to name a special prosecutor in the case, but federal authorities resisted that idea, arguing that Weiss and his team had been working smoothly and free from political interference.
A grand jury in Delaware has been hearing from witnesses close to Hunter Biden for months. Biden's legal team had said publicly that he faced investigation on his tax practices and other business interests overseas.

I can already imagine the what-aboutism and whining from Republicans, disappointed because space aliens, Chinese communists, and/or naked women were not part of the charges.

Congresscritters who’ve been hot and bothered about anything with the name Biden attached to it contributed nothing, because their evidence turns out to be missing or non-existent.

From Real Clear Politics:

House Oversight Chairman James Comer said he has lost track of the whistleblower/informant that he claimed had evidence of influence-peddling and money laundering by the Biden family.
"We're hopeful that we can find the informant," Comer said, "Remember, these informants are now kind of in the spy business, so they don't make a habit of being seen a lot or being high-profile or anything like that."

From CNN:

Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa claimed on the Senate floor earlier this week that the foreign national who allegedly bribed then-Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter has 17 audio recordings of their conversations but questioned whether those tapes even existed in an interview with CNN days later.
“I don’t even know where they are. I just know they exist, because of what the report says. Now, maybe they don’t exist. But how will I know until the FBI tells us, are they showing us their work?” Grassley said Thursday.

Now we get to the fun part, where various Republicans bleat in response to the Dear Leader’s social media post saying "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!"

Of course, the appropriated argument about there being two systems of criminal justice is a big part of GOP responses being covered in the mainstream media.

Huh?

I wonder if they mean a system where a person admits to their crimes versus a system where every action by law enforcement is part of a conspiracy?

Or maybe it’s the difference between Democrats –who believe that if Hunter Biden broke the law, he should be punished, and Republicans who believe Donald Trump should be above the law.

This is about having principles and caring about the rule of law versus thinking some people are above the law.

What makes this situation astonishing are the words uttered by Trump during a Fox News interview by Bret Baier. Special counsel Jack Smith’s team must be thrilled about a defendant going on air and admitting to criminal behavior. And it wouldn’t be surprising to me if yet another Trump attorney resigns this week.

The former president admitted knowing the law about when and how documents are declassified. He admitted to hiding the documents in question, saying they were his personal possessions needing to be sorted through.

The response from the legal community was disbelief that an indicted person would actually say these things on air.

Via Salon:

"Keep confessing," wrote national security attorney Bradley Moss. "No criminal defense attorney worth their salt would ever advise their indicted client to do a media tour. That helps explain the problems Mr. Trump has had retaining qualified counsel," he added.
Even George Washington University Law Prof. Jonathan Turley, who previously defended Trump amid his legal woes, warned that "statements of this kind are generally admissible at trial."
"This is one more inculpatory statement," former U.S. Attorney Harry Litman told MSNBC. "Every time he opens his mouth, it gets worse.
"Mr. Trump, good luck with that defense," former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal told MSNBC.

Even More Interesting News Nuggets

Column: The truth about our homelessness crisis: As Californians age, they are priced out Via The Los Angeles Times. This study won’t be quoted by any of the Republicans advocating for treatment first over housing.

Public policy and common perception have long tied the road to homelessness with mental illness and drug addiction.
But a new study out Tuesday — the largest and most comprehensive investigation of California’s homeless population in decades — found another cause is propelling much of the crisis on our streets: the precarious poverty of the working poor, especially Black and brown seniors.
“These are old people losing housing,” Dr. Margot Kushel told me. She’s the lead investigator on the study from UCSF’s Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative, done at the request of state health officials.

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Federal Policy on Homelessness Becomes New Target of the Right Via the New York Times. Housing First is no panacea, but the alternatives the GOP wants are all about padding the pockets of religious groups with pre-conditions for assistance.

“Blaming Housing First for the rise in homelessness is like blaming aspirin for headaches,” said Jeff Olivet, head of the Biden administration’s Interagency Council on Homelessness.
Mr. Olivet noted that the Department of Veterans Affairs has used Housing First policies — with more generous funding — and cut veterans’ homelessness since 2010 by more than half.
“That’s a proof point for showing we can end homelessness and end it with a Housing First approach,” he said. “What we need to do is scale it up.”

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Amsterdam shows why the U.S. criminal justice system is a failure - Jennifer Rubin’s op ed at The Washington Post

We are very good at feeding a criminal justice system; we’re not so adept at eliminating crime. Regardless of what societal differences exist between the United States and the Netherlands, different criminal justice policies very likely could allow us to spend less money, lower incarceration rates, reduce the human and opportunity costs, and increase personal safety.
Understand, then, that we have our current criminal justice system because we have fetishized guns, criminalized addiction, neglected mental and emotional health, and resisted addressing social factors driving crime.
We could do it differently. We simply don’t want to.

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