AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta
The jury in Donald Trump's New York 'hush money' trial will begin its deliberations today, following marathon closing arguments from both sides yesterday. As we await their verdict, if they can reach one, a federal trial featuring Hunter Biden is set to get underway soon. The Justice Department colluded with Hunter's lawyers to try to make the First Son's legal problems effectively vanish into thin air -- and they have succeeded in shielding Hunter (and quite possibly his father) from critical legal scrutiny by letting some key statues of limitations lapse -- but IRS whistleblowers and a federal judge exploded that accountability avoidance scheme last year. Having been effectively caught red-handed, the cornered DOJ special counsel has moved forward with various felony charges against the younger Biden.
The elder Biden has reportedly been very anxious about his son going to prison, which is why he tried to put his thumb on the scale and declare that Hunter had done "nothing wrong" on national television, even while a federal probe into the matter was still active. He made clear what the boss wanted, and he likely would have gotten his wish, absent the intervention of the whistleblowers. The gun case looks fairly open-and-shut, and entails various sordid elements that are characteristic of the defendant's deficient conduct and character. Joe, therefore, is reportedly tormented:
President Joe Biden will soon have to watch and wait as 12 jurors in his home state decide whether his son is guilty of felony gun charges...For the White House, the scenario of Hunter Biden’s first criminal trial, all but assured to start June 3, is an unprecedented event in American political history that they hoped never to face...While aides insist that the White House will have no involvement in the case, brought by special counsel David Weiss, some fear it could dramatically impact the president himself, more psychologically than politically...Three advisers granted anonymity to speak about private deliberations said they, and members of the First Family, are worried about the weight Hunter Biden’s trial will place on the president at an already difficult time for him politically. Biden has expressed fears to them about the possibility that his son will serve time in prison. “He worries about Hunter every single day, from the moment he wakes up to the moment he goes to sleep,” said one of the three advisers. “That will only pick up during a trial.”
With his son in some real peril here, plus with a tax crimes-related trial pending before the election, it feels like a slam-dunk prediction that the president will pardon Hunter if he's convicted on any of it -- likely after the election. It's unclear if Joe Biden will also have to wipe away any perjury-related charges that may arise from his son's newly-revealed apparent lies under oath. On the forthcoming trial, Rebecca covered some of the eyebrow-raising developments that certainly offer at least a whiff of corruption and special treatment (and no, the DOJ bringing these charges doesn't disprove the corruption, given the attempted but thwarted effort to make any or all charges magically disappear).
Biden aides leaked that the president has been consumed with worry about his son's legal woes. About a week later, his indicted son was an honored guest at a glitzy state dinner at the White House, also attended by the man who runs the Justice Department. That Attorney General, incidentally, has been targeted with other media leaks about Biden's dissatisfaction with the agency's handling of various politically-charged investigations. The pressure is on, and has been on. And the state dinner presented another opportunity for the defendant to rub elbows with Biden's top law enforcement officer, this time on the virtual eve of his first trial. At best, those are terrible optics. Worse, though, was the president's 11th-hour nighttime visit to Hunter's ex, who is on the witness list for the upcoming court proceedings. This has 'Loretta Lynch/Bill Clinton tarmac' vibes:
President Biden made a surprise nighttime visit to the Delaware home of Hallie Biden on Sunday — just before she’s due to serve as one of the most important witnesses at first son Hunter Biden’s federal trial for alleged gun crimes. Biden stopped by Hallie’s home around 8 p.m. for a brief private talk eight days before the 54-year-old first son’s trial is scheduled to stand trial beginning June 3. Hallie dated Hunter at the time of his alleged gun crimes and is one of a dozen expected witnesses...She was married to the president’s son Beau Biden, who died in 2015 of brain cancer, before her relationship with his troubled younger brother. Prosecutors allege Hunter lied about his drug use on gun purchase forms and then briefly illegally possessed at least one weapon — which Hallie disposed of in a public dumpster in 2018. White House spokesman Andrew Bates told The Post that the president didn’t discuss the trial with Hallie Biden during the visit. “No,” he replied. “He visited her because of the approaching 9th anniversary of Beau’s passing.”
Yes, this witness in the upcoming trial was married to Joe Biden's older son, who tragically died of cancer (not in Iraq as his father has bizarrely and falsely claimed), before she became romantically involved with her late husband's troubled brother. The White House insists that the president only dropped by her home last weekend to console her in advance of the anniversary of Beau's death (the president famously couldn't recall the year of that death, per the special counsel in a separate investigation into criminal mishandling of classified material), and that the two didn't discuss Hunter's case during the visit. That might be true, or it might not. It certainly could be seen as suspicious, and represents -- at best -- yet another a lapse in judgment. It's worth pointing out that the Bidens have exploited Beau's death as an excuse for dodgy conduct related their controversial family enrichment scheme. That's unseemly in the extreme, but 'unseemly in the extreme' seems to be pretty on-brand:
Hunter Biden used his dad’s appearance at a Sandy Hook shooting memorial event to coordinate a previously unknown planned meeting between the former vice president and a Chinese business partner, newly unveiled texts showed. On Dec. 12, 2017, Hunter messaged CEFC executive Liu Yadong on WeChat to arrange a meeting with his powerful dad, documents released this week by the House Ways and Means Committee revealed. “Can you meet this evening early,” Hunter wrote in the messages obtained by IRS investigators. “My father will be in New York also and he wants me to attend the Sandyhook [sic] memorial service with him and I would like him to meet you along with my uncle [Jim Biden] and then you and I can talk let me know if that works.” “No problem,” Liu replied. “Pls let me know where and when to meet.” ...Despite repeatedly insisting his family earned no money from China, the president featured prominently in first son Hunter and first bother James Biden’s multimillion-dollar relationship with CEFC, with most of his known alleged interactions happening in 2017 shortly after he left office as vice president. Joe Biden played a similar supporting role in Hunter’s dealings with Chinese state-backed fund BHR Partners, which was registered just days after the father-son duo landed in Beijing aboard Air Force Two in 2013.
