OPINION:
President Biden’s staff is terrified of talking to the Big Guy about what might happen if Hunter is sent to jail over his alleged gun crimes, Politico reports. The federal judge in the case, Maryellen Noreika, said Tuesday the first son’s federal trial in Delaware begins June 3.
A second case about federal taxes dodged in California has a hearing scheduled at the end of this month after Judge Mark Scarsi refused to dismiss the charges. This wasn’t supposed to happen.
The Department of Justice did its best to deep-six the investigation into the younger Biden’s questionable conduct. Fifty intelligence community members, including five former CIA directors, shredded whatever credibility they may have had to claim falsely that the laptop filled to the brim with remnants of Hunter’s misdeeds was “Russian disinformation.”
Federal prosecutors also concocted a sweetheart deal allowing Hunter to skate on the gun and tax accusations without spending a day behind bars. The unprecedented and complex agreement included a provision offering Hunter blanket immunity for conduct going far beyond the plea agreement itself — including possible foreign agent registration violations.
Judge Noreika torpedoed the deal once she realized lawyers in the Department of Justice were intentionally sandbagging the case to protect Hunter. Under the proposal, DOJ would charge Hunter with another offense only if the court made a formal determination that he had failed to abide by the agreement. The language applied to any crime, not just what was in the plea deal.
“What’s funny to me,” Judge Noreika said, “is you put me right smack in the middle of the Diversion Agreement that I should have no role in.” She asked if there was precedent for a deal of this scope. There was not.
In the Delaware case, Hunter Biden is accused of filling out Form 4473 at a gun dealer in 2018 so he could purchase a Colt Cobra .38 Special revolver. In so doing, he certified that he did not use illegal drugs, though a cursory look at the sordid content on his laptop proves otherwise.
Possessing the revolver while actively using those drugs, as alleged in the indictment, is another count. Conviction could carry up to a decade in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years’ probation — though sentencing guidelines would reduce those figures significantly.
In the California case, Hunter is charged with failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes from 2016 to 2019. The matter would have been swept under the rug if it weren’t for IRS whistleblowers who exposed the preferential treatment Hunter enjoyed from the feds.
Neither Judge Scarsi nor Judge Noreika is an activist Democrat, unlike the magistrates hounding former President Donald Trump in New York right now. That doubles the chance that Hunter Biden might be sent up the river.
Based on their conduct thus far, it’s unlikely federal prosecutors will do more than put on the appearance of seeking justice — but a just outcome is precisely what the situation demands. The first son’s alleged misconduct is so clear-cut that it puts the entire justice system on trial.
We’ll soon know whether no man is above the law is more than an empty platitude.
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