Hunter Biden pleaded guilty on Thursday to federal tax charges, a surprise move meant to spare his family another painful and embarrassing criminal trial after his gun case conviction just months ago.
His decision to plead guilty to misdemeanour and felony charges without the benefits of a deal with prosecutors, caps a long-running saga over his legal woes that have cast a shadow over his father, Joe Biden’s political career.
Interesting bit of American legal trivia. A President usually announces a list of pardons and commutations on his last day in office. One of the rules about such is that only cases which are finally finished can be so pardoned or the sentences commuted.
Jus’ Sayin’
According to the NYT morning newsletter he will be sentenced mid-December and stay free on bail until then, which is quite convenient because AIUI he wouldn’t necessarily go straight to jail. That could be delayed a few weeks while he puts his affairs in order.
The Biden saga is yet another illustration of how blatant the politicians in the West are becoming. Of course. the American public looked at this senile old corrupt husk of a human being and thought Yes! At last! Someone who can rescue our country from the endless wars Trump got us involved in! and voted him in in record numbers…
He won’t go to jail – even if convicted the next president will pardon him (even if it’s Trump, which it won’t be).
These are sideshow charges anyway compared to the vast amount of Chinese, Russian and Ukrainian money which has been funnelled to the Biden family through him. Those matters won’t even be properly investigated.
There may be aspects of the Biden crime syndicate which we don’t know about and if we did might change our view to be a positive one.
The Big Guy could be an FBI informant for example, modelling himself on Irish contemporary and legitimate businessman Whitey Bulger?
Joe Biden promised not to pardon Hunter.
But we all know how much a politician’s promise is worth.
Joe Biden can legitimately claim he doesn’t remember and not be lying.
Joe Biden will sign whatever papers his handlers put in front of him. He might be signing Hunter’s pardon, or declaring war on China, he wouldn’t have a clue.
But he has not “pleaded guilty”. He has entered what is known as an ‘Alford plea’, a response in which he does not plead guilty or admit guilt, but acknowledges that the prosecution likely will prevail if the matter goes to trial. The court treats an Alford plea the same way it would treat a guilty plea. The difference is (and this is what matters) there is no trial, no testimony, and the prosecution only produces the most minimal evidence required to support each charge. The defendant is not required to perform ‘allocution’ (the specific acknowledgement of each criminal act) as he would be required to do if he pled ‘guilty’. Because if that were to happen, he would surely incriminate many, many other people, IYKWIM,AITYD.
In short, it’s a cover-up, a conspiracy between the defendant and the prosecution to keep secret, so far as possible, all of the defendant’s criminal acts. For why? Not for him – he’s toast, and anyway, with his father now out of the running for President, the younger Biden’s job as his father’s bag-man has become – redundant. The main goal here is to protect, so far as possible, the extended Biden crime family from prosecution based on evidence that would surely come to light if he should go to trial or plead ‘guilty’. The dirty money flowed down on the extended family like rain. This is a legal gambit to protect all of them. Hunter Biden has surely made a deal to do this now, either for a promise of a pardon or an absolutely-trivial sentence. Both he and his father have been trumpeting his complete and absolute innocence of all these charges for years now – to suddenly crumple like this, but in this specific way, tells you all you need to know about what’s actually going on here.
llater,
llamas
Well, I stand corrected. It’s early morning here and I wrote my post first, before scanning the news. Seems like the prosecution and the judge rejected Biden’s Alford plea, and so he decided to plead guilty instead. So he will have to allocute, and there will have to be some evidence brought forward.
Mea maxima culpa. Should have checked the overnight before posting.
Now it will be interesting to see just how the prosecution and the defence manage between them to expose as little evidence of these crimes as possible.
llater,
llamas
Thanks LLamas. Interesting thoughts, even if you had to correct, as I learned something.
Andrew again – thank you. Lesson learned.
mrs llamas watched a couple of news reports of the trial this morning, then looked at me over the marmalade pot and said ‘That man will not make old bones.’
She has a far-darker mind than I do . I think she may have a point.
llater,
llamas
Tony Blair is a very rich man from selling access to the UK government.
Wonder when we’re going to put him in jail, where he belongs.
Bliar belongs in a glass box at The Hague (with Alkie Campbell as his co-defendant). His war crimes are far worse than his simony.