Imagine that I’m a politician (granted, that will never happen, but play along). As a politician, I like attention and I like money. But much of the attention I’ve gotten over the years has been negative, and the straight salary of a politician is not very good. That’s always bugged me.
Imagine further that you’re someone who wants “access” to me, such as a corrupt foreign government official or corporation. For that access, you’re willing to pretend to respect me and, moreover, you’re willing to pay me that money I’ve always deserved.
Conscious of the appearance of impropriety and the reality of the bribery laws, I tell you not to send that money directly to me. I tell you to send it to my family.
This is a ruse used by mobsters for years. It doesn’t work.
The bribery laws prohibit the payment of “something of value” to the bribed official. Money sent to his family is considered a value to him personally.
That the Bidens tried to disguise their bribes with the mobster scheme of having the money sent to family rather than directly to Joe, and further tried to disguise the bribes by setting up a network of shell companies to launder the money, is just proof of their guilty state of mind – their mens rea in legal jargon. Why would they go to that trouble if not to hide the operation? And why would they want to hide it if it were legal?
Let’s review the Biden bidding. In 2020 while campaigning, Joe claimed he “never discussed” his son’s so-called business. Written evidence and sworn testimony have put the lie to that. Then they said he was “never in business” with his son. Irrefutable evidence that he spoke with and met his son’s foreign business “associates” dozens of times (where, they contend farcically, the topic of conversation was the weather) have put the lie to that.
He said his son never received money from China. How would he know if he’d never discussed his son’s business with him? In any event, bank records have put the lie to that, too.
Now they essentially admit that the Bidens got money from foreigners, that Joe talked with his son about it, and that Joe was involved through telephone and in-person meetings. Implicit in those admissions is that their earlier contentions to the contrary were lies.
In desperation, then they said that what the Bidens sold to these foreign agents was not real access to Joe but only the “illusion” of access – they say they took the money but never delivered the goods. (Query: How smart is it to cheat shady Eastern Europeans on a bribery deal?)
But cheating the briber is not a defense to a bribery charge – it’s enough that you make the promise, whether you deliver on it or not.
Nearing the end of their rope, they’re now left with this last losing argument that Joe personally never benefitted. Only his family did – a total of at least nine of them, including grandchildren. (Second query: What exactly were the services that the grandchildren performed for the Ukrainians and Romanians?)
Hunter is toast. The conventional wisdom that the special prosecution will be a whitewash is probably mistaken (more on that in another column).
The only question is whether the burnt toast that is Hunter Biden negotiates a new plea deal that rats out his dad – whether he pulls his dad into the bathtub with himself and the toaster. My bet is that he does.
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Biden continued his corrupt ways for 50 years, secure in the knowledge that as a certified Swamp Zombie – and a Democrat to boot – he would never be held to account. Why? Because everyone else around him was doing the same thing. The statute of limitations is running out on many of Hunter B’s past crimes and the inconvenient truth is that the Special Counsel laws have served mostly to hide evidence, prevent discovery, endlessly delay justice, and ultimately to guarantee that those being investigated never pay the price for any crimes uncovered. A total whitewash, especially if one is a Democrat.
Oh, you precious, precious, trusting soul! I love how you actually think that the appointment of the, (cough, cough) “special counsel” might actually be legitimate, rather than one more try by the cabal and its supporters to shield “the Big Guy” from any legal/political splash-back of the dirt flying off Hunter’s filthy hide, like a wet dog shaking himself off after a splash in a muddy pond. Your analysis of the situation is actually quite astute, but I fear that your conclusion is biased by your own sense of “truth, justice and the American Way,” to borrow a phrase. I was once like you, believing that the legal system in which I labored would, in its mysterious way, produce justice eventually. To my delight, it usually did (but only after huge amounts of effort on my part to place facts in evidence and cajole twelve strangers into seeing the light), although I certainly had my share of disappointments as well. Although I suspect that the system is, by-and-large still producing “justice,” albeit in some cases rougher than others, in places where it has been politicized or hijacked by leftist ideologues, what is produced is anything but “just.” Nonetheless, I try to remain optimistic, much like the little girl seen digging through a pile of manure in the hopes that a pony might be buried somewhere beneath it. We both know that her disappointment is inevitable, however.
I suppose it’s human nature to feel a certain satisfaction in expressing cynicism, as it makes the cynic believe he knows stuff that others don’t. And, on the other side, it’s also human nature to feel good in believing that the truth will come out and justice will be served.
But stripped of the self-satisfaction on one side and the feel-goodery on the other, the circumstances here suggest to me that Hunter is in very big trouble, and Joe is in quite a lot.
Hunter obviously violated the FARA law for which Paul Manford went to prison, and there’s a strong argument that both he and Joe were on the take. It will be hard politically to sweep this under the rug.
That any of this is even a debate is simply absurd. For example, if only 4 years ago had anyone remotely connected with the Trump family been receiving cash and gifts totaling over 8-figures from the same shadowing foreign sources that have been enriching the Biden family, Trump would already be in jail. For life. Along with most of his family.
But somehow, this is all (D)ifferent.
Hunter isn’t worried. He won’t have to turn on daddy. Even if this stuff gets beyond the phony investigation, he knows there’s a pardon on the other end of the rainbow. In the name of national “unity”, no doubt. He literally can get caught in bed with a dead girl, or live boy and most of the media will still ignore it. He’s officially an “untouchable”.
Sent from my iPhone
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Joe Biden during the debates in 2020: . My son did not make money from China..
Hunter Biden under oath in court : I made money from China…Romania, Ukraine, Russia, and ..
Hunter Biden received millions as an unregistered foreign agent, violating FARA.
WASH.D.C.IS JUST TOO DIRTY-EVERYONE UP THERE IS ON THE TAKE!
Hunter does not need a plea deal, he needs a pardon which he will get sometime after the election. I’d point out that if the Biden’s never intended to deliver whatever was requested then it was fraud and wire fraud. If the promised service was illegal then it was conspiracy to defraud the USA. Either way since it involved a phone and money transfers it was wire fraud. Also likely tax evasion and conspiracy to commit tax evasion. The list of possible chatges here is nearly endless and there is not a snowballs chance in Hades that some law was broken.
Here’s a question to make everyone’s heads go KOOOOSH!…Just for fun, let’s imagine, if you will, that by some miracle Trump DOES actually manage to win (for a third time, and not have it stolen out from under him this time) and Hunter has been convicted and has started serving a lengthy prison sentence. (Maybe this even finally puts Joe into the ground, Tango Uniform.)
And for some reason Slow Joe was too slow to push out a pardon before he (died?/ left office?)
WWTD? (What would Trump do?)
Does HE pardon this scum “for the sake of national unity?” and risk completely alienating all of his supporters in the futile attempt to try to win over the left and the MSM (but I repeat myself)?
Nahhhhhh.
At least I hope ‘yes’ to the first part, and ‘no’ to the second part.
P.S.
After seeing “The Sound of Freedom” I don’t like the picture you raised in my head about “what services the grandchildren performed” 😱
But I would not put ANYTHING beneath the levels to which the Biden syndicate would go. Hunter’s baby-mamma and their offspring dodged a bullet by not being “allowed” to take the Biden last name. (what happened to people being able to IDENTIFY however they want?)
At the end of the story, I surely hope the word “BIDEN” is synonymous for EVIL, DIABOLICAL DEPRAVED SCUM.