President Biden’s hypocrisy on full display: Pardons his own son after making a point about ‘independent’ justice"
In a move that’s being hailed as a “full and unconditional” pardon, President Joe Biden has announced that he’s granting his son Hunter Biden a free pass for all federal charges related to his time between 2014-2024. Just 50 days before leaving office, Biden had previously declared that he wouldn’t be making the move, stating he’d abide by the jury’s decision. But now, it seems he was just playing a different tune.
TL;DR
President Biden pardoned his son Hunter Biden, who was facing up to 25 years in prison for lying on a federal form about his drug addiction. This comes after months of saying he wouldn’t make the move, and is being met with criticism from politicians and others who called him out on his earlier stance. A case of “my family is more important than I am” - how about keeping your promises for once?
I don’t blame Biden for doing this. The qons will try to exact some extra-legal revenge on Hunter if they can get him into prison over his hard drive, er, I mean, “laptop”.
Trump committed treason on national television, Hunter was only ever charged because his dad was President of the party opposite of the Prosecutor.
If the former gets off scott free, so should the later.
Tough on crime, except when it’s his nepobaby.
I read over Biden’s statement, and it makes sense to me. Hunter was singled out for political purposes. It would seem weird if Biden didn’t issue the pardon.
False. Hunter was charged and convicted of criminal acts that are generally unenforced for the rich and powerful. The fact that they are generally unenforced does nothing to offset the fact that his actions were ultimately criminal.
Not being given a “get out of jail free” card when all your friends got one for doing the same thing =/= being singled out for your political affiliation.
Found Ben Shapiro’ lemmy account.
But seriously this isn’t a rich and powerful thing. Practically no one, from any background is given felony charges over what Hunter did.
Selective enforcement is one of the justifications for jury nullification, so it seems that it should apply for pardons too.
It took them 8 years to find something with Hunter to be charged with. It was maybe the biggest political witch hunt ever. If you conduct a witch hunt, you’re going to find “witches”. Is this really what conservatives are scratching at? Because I would love for them to look at the last 5 year of dispensary ID logs and compare them to FID forms.
Again, not being extended a courtesy because you are rich and expect that courtesy to be extended is not the same thing as being the subject of a witch hunt. In EXACTLY the same way a lotto winner might have their old tax records reviewed, people in any kind of spotlight are going to be under increased scrutiny. People like Hunter have access to every resource imaginable to help them stay current on their taxes and avoid violating the law. Problem with people like hunter is that they expect to be treated with kid gloves so they take shortcuts. $1.3 million in back taxes isn’t a “whoopsie” most people get away with, and they shouldn’t. All Joe is showing America here is that the Biden’s are rich people first and American citizens second.
Good, now do Snowden.
Never gonna happen. Snowden did at least break some laws.
I want him pardoned but no president ever will.
a pardon requires an admission of guilt.
well he doesn’t deny he did it does he? He just claims he was justified in doing so.
the exact conditions for a pardon.
Despite what Biden may try and spin this as, this is not just about the (aggressively politicized and pursued) 4473 ‘unlawful user’ perjury charge - otherwise why include the years prior to that act?
President Joe Biden’s son is charged with lying about his drug use in October 2018 on a form to buy a gun that he kept for about 11 days in Delaware
Because Biden pardoned him from 2014 to present, it also includes the known tax evasion and FARA illicit lobbying concerns.
The Justice Department on Tuesday [June 18th 2023] said the investigation into Hunter Biden was “ongoing” even as it announced terms of a plea agreement [for gun and tax charges]
DoJ felt that there was more to investigate even if the tax and gun charges were covered in a plea deal. Read: there’s something there regarding Hunter’s lobbying efforts - and from internal Burisma emails he knew about the law and FARA concerns.
In the same April 2014 email, Hunter Biden indicated that Burisma’s officials “need to know in no uncertain terms that we will not and cannot intervene directly with domestic policymakers, and that we need to abide by FARA and any other U.S. laws in the strictest sense across the board.”
Biden is right that most 4473 charges would never get this far - what he’s cynically not pointing out (from the bully pulpit, lame duck or not) is the context of why prosecutors drop gun charges in plea deals or pursue maximal charges at trial, or the wider criminal case against his son.
The simple truth is, the entire case against Hunter Biden was politically motivated from the start.
He paid the back taxes and the gun charges are normally laughed out of court.
This was always a Republican prosecutor wanting to make a name for themselves, and with Trump taking power, well, we all know how vindictive Trump is.
I don’t expect this pardon to matter much, Trump and the Republicans don’t care about law or tradition or reality. They care about power, and are less than 2 months away from it.
You’re missing my point, Biden did not give his failson a targeted pardon nor a blanket universal pardon for his whole lifetime. The gun charge stems from a crime in 2018. The tax charge is from as early as 2015. The illegal lobbying/FARA investigation stretches to at least 2014. Witch hunt investigation or not, it was sustained into federal charges and was going to trial, out of a California circuit court - not Texas or Alabama.
If this pardon is just about the gun charge, as Biden alleges, why extend it back beyond 2018 and into 2014 when the alleged FARA/lobbying crimes were committed? Or if he’s so concerned about his son’s future unjust prosecution under a Trump DoJ, why is Biden blithely consenting to handing over power to Trump after the Supreme Court gave him near unlimited executive power?
Because Republicans will always just move the goal posts. Surprised he didn’t pardon all crimes he did, including that messy diaper at 18 months old… Republicans will stoop to anything
Sure wish anyfuckingbody with power cared about helping THE ACTUAL COUNTRY WHILE THERE’S STILL TIME
So glad Biden is so concerned about following the law that protecting vulnerable people with his newly granted immunity is something he would never consider doing.
Biden lied about not pardoning his son shocker. Guy is a lying scumbag.
It would have been nice if he could have used his presidential powers
to prevent the genocide…
Or anything he promised to do while in office
Or to change that stupid ATF form 4473 which basically requires anyone who smokes weed to either commit a felony by lying (checking the box for they don’t use illegal drugs) or tell the truth (checking the box that they do) and being unable to purchase a firearm. Unfortunately the war on law abiding gun owners had to continue so on a few occasions their position continued to be that marijuana users should not be allowed to buy or own firearms.
Hypocrisy+++++
That question is required by HR 1025 (“The Brady Act”). To get rid of weed as a factor, there would either need to be a change to the form requirement, or weed to be made federally legal and thus not an illegal substance. The requirement is not an ATF determination.
Joe Biden could theoretically pardon all people in violation of this, but I wouldn’t hold my breath for a blanket universal pardon involving guns and weed together.
Removed by mod
I think you miss the point. One person doing something bad does not make the bad actions of another suddenly better.
Oh right, Republicans went after his family and he still picked Garland as his AG.
Nice. Hopefully Biden keeps doing more good shit in his remaining few weeks while the MAGAt snowflakes are triggered and distracted by Hunter’s dick again.
Biden knows they will come after himself but he’s too old so they will slam the hammer on his son with the maximum force they can get out of it, this is a good way to thwart that political attack.
Also, someone should remind Trump that he handled firearms after he was convicted of a felony and was not prosecuted for that …
Though I don’t think the importance of that fact will dawn on Trump, he never felt rules applied to him.
Seems like nobody has faith in the American justice system.
Legal system.
Its not a justice system, its a legally system. Who has the money makes the legal.
Old rich guy who has never had to face consequences for any action coming to a realization? Sure.
didn’t we, i of course mean the people who showed up, vote for this very kind of behaviour in the last presidential election? what’s sauce for the goose…
