Disillusioned Americans across the country are still expressing their disgust at President Joe Biden's decision to grant a universal pardon to Hunter, the son of a convicted criminal, but they are trying to distinguish between fact and fiction. So, the Hunter Biden pardon and the pardon have potential downsides for the president and his family. There is an uncertain answer as to how this power will be used in the future.
To understand this growing Biden family corruption scandal, you need to understand not only Hunter's crimes, but also how presidential pardons work and don't work. Media articles describing this scandal have been hit and miss, and it's still being debated how this pardon could actually open the door to any questionable events involving anyone with the last name “Biden.” do not have.
Hunter's sordid story reeks of corruption, political favoritism, and the worst practices of the deep state. David Weiss, the U.S. attorney for Delaware, tried to sneak a plea deal with his girlfriend to save Hunter from much of his self-inflicted legal troubles. (While Mr. Weiss was appointed by President Trump, U.S. attorneys are effectively chosen by their home state senators, so two Democratic senators from Delaware, who are Mr. Biden's staunch allies, are completely Even though he did not nominate Mr. Weiss, he congratulated him on his selection.)
But Judge Mariellen Noreika, also a Trump appointee, smelled a rat and closed the door on the possibility of additional criminal charges buried in secondary documents that judges don't often see. I discovered a phrase that blew the lid off the entire plan. She announced at the court hearing that she had never seen such a transaction and told federal prosecutors in front of her that she had seen such language hidden in such secondary documents. I asked him if he had anything to do with it. They admitted that was not the case.
Feeling humiliated, Weiss prosecuted Hunter in earnest and brought him to trial. Still, Weiss only charged Hunter with crimes unrelated to President Biden. For example, although there were no Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) charges, this could help explain why foreign powers paid large sums of money to Hunter and through him to the entire Biden family, ultimately leading to We'll probably go back to quiet access. Offered to super-powered father.
Nevertheless, federal prosecutors went after Hunter for these non-Joe crimes, and prosecutors nailed him. Hunter was scheduled to be sentenced on two separate charges this month.
First, he lied when he bought the gun. If you purchase a firearm at a gun store, you must fill out Form 4473, issued by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which specifically asks about illegal drug use. Lying on that document is a felony, and Hunter, a graduate of Yale Law School, knew that and did so.
He will then be charged with tax evasion and will also be sentenced this month. The judge in the case, Mark Scalsi, who was also appointed by President Trump, ended all proceedings citing a pardon. But before doing so, he retracted Joe Biden's statement that a sane person would not prosecute Hunter. write The current president reportedly said that the “corps of civil servants” at the Department of Justice (DOJ) involved in prosecuting his son were “unreasonable people.”
That explains the timing of Hunter's pardon. To prevent the hammer from falling on Hunter, it was necessary to issue it on December 1st rather than on the morning of January 19th or January 20th. Joe couldn't wait until he left home next month.
But the language of the pardon also raises eyebrows, as it covers any crimes Hunter may have committed over a nearly 11-year period, from January 1, 2014, to December 1, 2024. It's long. 18 USC § 3282 provides that the statute of limitations (meaning time limit) for federal charges is limited to five years, unless a specific criminal statute specifies a different number of years. The deadline for a pardon is highly unusual, in part because of this five-year default rule, and some may wonder why Joe would want to protect Hunter for so many years.
It is worth noting that Hunter joined the board of notorious Ukrainian energy company Barisma Holdings in April 2014. Mr. Hunter was given a seat on the board of directors at nearly $1 million a year for his no-show work, which is surprising. I had a background in the energy industry and didn't speak Ukrainian. The latest pardon covers the entire period, raising questions about what kind of backroom deals were taking place.
Another fact worth noting is that Joe was not involved with the Department of Justice's Office of Pardon Attorneys (OPA). As the president receives numerous requests for pardons, OPA manages the process and strengthens its recommendations to the White House. Apparently Joe wasn't confident that OPA would conclude that Hunter deserved a pardon, so he avoided further negative publicity by completely ignoring the Justice Department. He has every right to do so, but it only makes this seem even more overtly political.
Mr. Weiss has now publicly protested that the charges against Mr. Hunter should not be dismissed, but his claims are likely a combination of crocodile tears and rope-a-dope and should be viewed with skepticism. You should see it. Mr. Weiss is well aware that the president's power to pardon these charges is absolute in nature, and that a federal judge would be quick to throw out an active case in which a defendant has been pardoned. It should be.
Finally, Congress cannot limit the president's pardon power. Congress has no power to limit the president's use of it, since the Constitution gives it directly to the president and only says it can't be used to overcome impeachment.
However, presidential pardons have some limitations, and multiple members of the Biden family may find this development potentially controversial for the Biden family.
First, presidential pardons do not cover state crimes. (Or, at least, the courts have never held it that way, and from a federalism perspective, it would be a violation of state sovereignty if the president, a federal official, could unilaterally overturn state prosecutions of private citizens.) ) Criminals are often unable to contain their crimes. Lawlessness against separate categories. Depending on the statute of limitations for state crimes, it's possible — though unlikely — that a state crime could be imposed between Hunter's drugs, prostitutes, guns and shady associates.
Second, and this is a big one, Hunter could be required to testify in Congress or in court. So far, his only defense against the subpoena has been that he wants to invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to say anything under oath that could incriminate him. Now, because he cannot be charged with any federal crime, he can no longer meet the legal standard of showing a reasonable fear that answering the questions would provide evidence to convict him in court.
Ironically, the only risk of prosecution he would now face would be if he did not tell the truth in his testimony. If they refuse to testify, they could be charged with contempt and sent to prison. And if he does testify but lies under oath, it would be perjury, a felony punishable by five years in federal prison.
So the criminals at the center of all the Biden family corruption scandals cannot escape being interrogated under oath, which can last for hours. Peter Schweitzer – arguably the leading researcher on how the Biden family has lined their pockets for decades – told readers this week that the family's long history of misdeeds It reminded me of how bad it was. Therefore, readers may want to see what is finally revealed.
Although the Bidens are politically over, the American people still have a right to know the truth, and that truth could shed light on all sorts of things about all kinds of people that voters might want to know in the future. Perhaps other prominent Democrats will also be involved.
So Joe Biden has only one move left: pardon everyone involved in the Hunter Biden pardon scandal, including himself. He could now close the door on federal prosecution of all of these people.
However, there is one potential weakness for the current president under such a plan. That means it is unclear whether the president will be able to pardon himself. George Mason, the Constitution's “father of the Bill of Rights,” publicly worried that presidents would abuse their pardon power by conspiring to commit crimes and then pardoning everyone, including himself. Edmund Randolph, another framer of the Constitution, expressed similar concerns. They certainly believed the president could issue a self-pardon.
But no president has ever done this, and no court has ever considered it. There is serious debate on both sides as to whether the president's powers extend that far.
And the only way that theory can be tested is if he does, in which case the new Trump administration chooses to indict Joe Biden. It is unclear whether the new Justice Department will move there after the past four years of judicial proceedings. If this is not the case, a power that does not exist will actually exist if it is not challenged.
So President Joe Biden's main goal for his son will remain. That means Hunter won't be going to federal prison any time soon. But the Biden family may have to pay a price, and it remains to be seen what this new precedent means for the future.
Breitbart News senior legal contributor Ken Kurkowski is a lawyer who has worked in the White House and the Department of Justice. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @kenklukowski.
