OAN Guest Commentary – Kenin M. Spivak
Tuesday, December 3, 2024
To cut off any risk of investigation into his corrupt family influence-peddling syndicate and spare his weak son from an almost certain prison term, President Joe Biden unsurprisingly broke his solemn pledge to the American people and pardoned Hunter. By doing so, the president reveals the hypocrisy of Democrats who hector us about morality and equal application of the law, while they weaponized our justice system against those with whom they disagree.
After Hunter was convicted for illegally purchasing a gun, the president reiterated that he would not pardon him or commute his sentence. “I said I’d abide by the jury decision … I will do that.” Biden and White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre repeatedly reconfirmed that assurance before and after the election.
Biden not only pardoned Hunter for the gun and tax charges for which he was found guilty, but for any other illegal act he might have committed since 2014. In a formal statement, Biden disingenuously claimed that he had kept his word not to interfere in the Justice Department’s process because Hunter’s prosecution – by a Democrat Department of Justice – was purely political. He falsely asserted that people who incorrectly complete a gun application, or who are “late” paying their taxes, but ultimately do so, are almost never prosecuted on felony charges.
In reality, U.S. Sentencing Commission data shows that from 2019 through 2023, about 80% of first-time offenders convicted of similar firearms charges, and about 75% of second-time offenders convicted of tax felonies, were sentenced to prison.
In a separate statement, a still defiant Hunter said that he took “responsibility” for his “mistakes,” but that that his mistakes had “been exploited to publicly humiliate and shame me and my family for political sport.”
Special prosecutor David Weiss permitted the statute of limitations to expire on Hunter’s evasion of millions of dollars of taxes and violation of the Federal Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and Federal Agents Registration Act (FARA). Then he tried to wipe Hunter’s slate clean with a deceptively worded non-prosecution agreement notionally tied to his lies on the firearms application. The agreement included no jail time or fine, and would have given Hunter immunity from all remaining charges. Weiss’ plan also would have eliminated any potential for investigations to reach Joe. Highly regarded Federal District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika rejected the arrangement.
The pardon achieves all of the Biden family goals that would have been achieved by the non-prosecution agreement. Because of Noreika’s decision, Weiss finally indicted Hunter for lying on the application and illegally possessing a handgun, and then for three felony counts for failing to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes for 2016 through 2019, and filing a false return in 2018. In June, a jury found Hunter guilty on the gun charges, and in September, as jury selection was about to proceed in the tax case, Hunter pled guilty.
Biden’s duplicity is underscored by Weiss’ actions. Instead of prosecuting Hunter and investigating the Biden family, at every step he steered the investigation away from them, allowed statutes to run, and tried to immunize Hunter. Though nominally appointed a U.S. attorney by Donald Trump, Weiss was selected by Delaware’s Democratic senators, and he served at the direction and pleasure of Attorney General Merrick Garland and President Biden.
While Biden was vice president, he met more than 80 times with Hunter’s business partners, took pictures with Hunter’s business associates, and participated in phone calls during Hunter’s pitches to his marks. He traveled to Ukraine to lobby for increased fracking, a process he had long opposed but which benefited Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings. Promptly after that trip, Burisma added Hunter and a partner to its board and paid them more than $4,000,000. For good measure, Biden then pressured Ukraine into firing a prosecutor who had been investigating Burisma.
According to a report issued by multiple House committees, the Biden family created at least 20 companies that received at least $27 million from foreign nationals for no apparent services, including millions from the wife of the former mayor of Moscow, a government-connected Chinese energy company, and Romanian politicians. The report found that the Biden family also received at least $8 million in loans from Democrat benefactors that have not been repaid. At least nine Biden family members participated in the payments, and Hunter complained to his daughter about having to support his father.
It likely wouldn’t take much more investigating to tie Joe, Hunter, and other family members into a criminal RICO conspiracy that violates the FCPA, FARA, and federal bribery statutes.
Now, that won’t happen. Once Biden decided that he didn’t care about the optics, he went all in. Atypically for a pardon, he didn’t wait for sentencing. Hunter likely would have been sentenced to a federal penitentiary for 18 to 31 months, though a judge may reduce a sentence if the offender “clearly” accepts responsibility. That is something Hunter has never done. In the tax case, for example, he attempted to enter an Alford plea, acknowledging that he would be subject to sentencing, but denying guilt. When that failed, he entered a standard guilty plea, but claimed that he did so for his family, not because he was guilty.
Next time a Democrat lectures us about Trump ending democracy, or whines that Trump may seek to punish lawless prosecutors, let’s remember the crimes Hunter and Joe committed, Hunter’s insolence, the highly politicized Biden Justice Department, the lies Joe told before issuing the pardon, and the lies he told to justify it.
Kenin M. Spivak is founder and chairman of SMI Group LLC, an international consulting firm and investment bank. He is the author of fiction and non-fiction books and a frequent speaker and contributor to media, including The American Mind, National Review, the National Association of Scholars, television, radio, and podcasts.
(Views expressed by guest commentators may not reflect the views of OAN or its affiliates.)
