Do the crime. Do the time.
There is ample evidence that Hunter Biden is guilty of the crimes he was charged with.
President Joe Biden has already announced that he will not use the pardon power to allow his son to escape punishment if he is found guilty. Good.
Getting the full protection of the law is expensive, and both Hunter Biden and Donald Trump got the best defenses money could buy. If Hunter Biden is found guilty, it will be for the same reason that Trump was found guilty; there was sufficient evidence that both of them were guilty of the crimes charged.
Hunter Biden is a trophy for Republican politicians and conservative media. The intended message is that President Biden's life is messy and that Joe Biden is just as morally flawed as is Trump. Or worse! Just look at disreputable Hunter Biden!
Hunter Biden has the potential to send a very different message. It is that no one is above the law, not even the wealthy and well-connected.
There are laws on the books that forbid addicted people from getting guns. Normally we would expect Republican gun rights advocates to oppose these laws. The Second Amendment says the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. People who drink alcohol and use drugs are people. There is nothing in the amendment saying anything about government tests for good behavior. Gun rights advocates are silent just now because the law has ensnared Hunter Biden.
As yesterday's guest post described, Republicans are asserting that President Biden has weaponized the Justice Department against Trump. The Hunter Biden prosecution undermines that argument. President Biden's Justice Department is doing the prosecution against his own son.
In the aftermath of the Great Financial Crisis of 2008, guilty people were not prosecuted. Executives who oversaw fraudulent research and fraudulent pricing of fraudulent mortgages which they fraudulently resold to pension funds at fraudulent prices all got their bonuses and golden parachutes. The Justice Department decided that prosecutions would destroy the financial firms. The companies were too big to fail. One cannot have a financial system without financial institutions. Therefore, to save the system the government let the institutions’ leaders go unpunished.
That decision sent a message that big cheaters can get away with crimes. We are living with a legacy of that message. We are hearing it applied to politicians. Trump is too big to prosecute.
A guilty verdict and prison sentence for Hunter Biden would send a message of equal justice. Trump's crime is an analog of Hunter Biden's. Trump filed 34 false business records as part of a larger effort to break tax and election laws. False business records endanger our economy. The law is on the books for a reason. Hunter Biden is a small and pathetic man, but he is the president's son, and that makes him a highly visible symbol of privilege. He signed fraudulent documents, too.
If Hunter Biden is found guilty, some prison time would be good for America. It would set a visible precedent for other fraudsters who are found guilty by a jury but who consider themselves too educated, rich, or connected to worry about penalties. This includes the fake-electors, the many lawyers who participated in the scheme, and Trump himself. His big crime, of course, was attempting to overthrow the election, but on the way to that big crime he signed his name on fraudulent documents. A smaller crime. Just like Hunter Biden’s.
These crimes are not "too small to prosecute." They are crimes, and Hunter Biden and Donald Trump are too big not to prosecute. Hunter Biden and Donald Trump in detention would send a message. Don't do the crime.
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23 comments:
Prosecutors have been investigating Hunter Biden for six years, and this is all they could come up with? Republicans are obsessed with him because they’re under the illusion he could be used to bring down his father, but Joe isn’t making it easy. He’s lived too honorable a life and been too decent a president. Nonetheless, Republicans would probably have no trouble beating him if they had a better candidate.
I find myself agreeing, though it has a bad taste. Hunter will take one for the team.
The question will be penalties. Two judges and two different yet inextricably related cases.
It's not impossible that both will get probation and community service, maybe on the same litter crew.
Is there a mandatory sentence? I am not aware/have not heard that.
Both of these men, WHATEVER YOU THINK OF THEM PERSONALLY, deserve the same consideration as other criminals (if HB is found guilty).
As far as I know, their sentences will depend on several factors, including: any previous convictions (criminal record), the nature of the crimes (violent or not), whether the person takes responsibility, whether the person shows remorse, mitigating factors (ex. mental illness), other medical issues, what is the usual sentence, etc.
These cases are not made for TV movies. Unfortunately, the blogger is being overly emotional and making it a personal vendetta, which is disappointing but not surprising.
Not a lawyer, but house arrest, probation, mandatory drug treatment, community service, etc., could be on the table. Not everyone gets "locked up," especially if it is their first offense and no one got hurt.
The sentences for these crimes should Not be unduly harsh just because these are high profile individuals. That would be very unfair. This isn't Russia.
The spect of Hunter Biden that I care about is whether or how much Joe Biden participated in his son’s influence peddling scheme with Burisma in Ukraine.
Joe Biden is running to be reelected president of the United States. Hunter Biden is a pathetic and irrelevant loser.
Here's a thing...
Whatever Hunter gets, shouldn't Trump get more, given fraud, defamatory and sexual verdicts?
Just sayin'...
Hunter Biden has been found guilty by the jury, and now the judge will play a crucial role in assessing and determining his sentence. The crime of falsifying an official document has been proven by the jury verdict, sending a clear message that gun crimes will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. This, of course, aligns with the original intention of the law. It's a reminder that gun owners can be regulated by law, regardless of the wording in the Second Amendment.
OK, Hunter illegally owned a gun for 11 days, but did Joe Biden participate in his alleged influence peddling scheme with Burisma? If there were any evidence of that, you can be sure prosecutors would be all over it, like stink on feces. Since there isn't, Republicans are all over it anyway, like flies on BS.
Not that what Hunter did was ok, but what was his intent or motive? Did he buy the gun for self-defense/protection, to commit a crime (such as robbery or murder) or to commit suicide?
Regarding Mike's comment
It’s crucial to note that there is no evidence linking Joe Biden to Burisma corruption, and there is no evidence linking Mike to the drug trade in Southern Oregon. This lack of evidence is significant, as it challenges the validity of these claims. It’s important to understand that real crimes must have substantial evidence to convict. After six years of Republican probing with their own investigators, the pile of evidence against Joe Biden is non-existent. So, we must be aware of these facts and not let baseless claims cloud our judgment.
“No evidence” on Joe other than as VP his leveraging American aid to Ukraine to get the prosecutor investigating Burisma fired.
The potential charges Hunter earned contemporaneously? Taxes, agent, etc.? The statute of limitations was allowed to expire.
I don't know if the "Anonymous" commenter was referring to Mike or Michael's comment but for the record, I agree with him, which is why I describe the allegations against President Biden as BS. Republicans want to believe Biden is guilty of something, so they do - just as they believe the election was stolen. They don't need no stinkin' evidence.
What I have never heard is a reason why Burisma would have paid so much money to Hunter Biden if he had not been trading on his relationship to his father. And we do not know what role Joe Biden played in making his son look worth so much money to Burisma.
Absence of evidence could be evidence of innocence; it could also be evidence of a cover-up.
It’s a common trope among conspiracy theorists: the lack of evidence for their baseless accusations just shows how good the cover-ups are. I wonder if the same could be said about MTG’s claim that Jewish space lasers are starting our forest fires.
No pardon, but possibly clemency nonetheless? No prison if commutation.
Re the “Jewish space lasers” thing, from Snopes:
What's True
In a now-deleted Facebook post, Greene suggested that laser beams from space may have started the 2018 California wildfires, and that among the entities behind this conspiracy were former California Gov. Jerry Brown, Pacific Gas & Electric, and Rothschild Inc., an investment firm frequently targeted by anti-Semitic conspiracy theorists.
What's False
Greene did not explicitly state that “Jewish space lasers” caused the fires.
OK, but is it a crackpot conspiracy theory like President Biden's alleged ties to Burisma, or a cover-up?
Have you any real proof of this insinuation, besides FAUX or Tuckio Rose ? Maybe Comer Fudd has the proof and just forgot to introduce it into his Comedic Hearings ?
I well recall a former R Representative from SW Medford tellingv an Assembly of Realtors that the Absence of Evidence concerning Voter Fraud was proof it was happening throughout Oregon.
Joe the Veep--as Veep--is on tape boasting about threatening on his own initiative during an official visit the withholding of a loan-aid package to Ukraine, contingent on the firing of a prosecutor who was investigating Burisma corruption. Hunter was already on the Burisma board, and had taken multiple trips abroad with Joe on Air Force Two.
It's far from conclusive evidence,, but also far from "no evidence".
It sounds like someone's been watching too much Fox Noise. LD is referring, of course, to the prosecutor Victor Shokin, but he wasn't prosecuting Burisma. While there had been an investigation of the company, Shokin's former deputy, Vitaliy Kasko, has said that it was dormant at the time of Joe Biden's intervention.
The former US ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, and the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, George Kent, testified in Trump's impeachment inquiry that Shokin was corrupt. The US and its allies had made a coordinated effort to oust him.
Reads like Mike copied CNN' "Facts First"! One view. But Devon Archer said Shokin was a "threat to Burisma", especially its corrupt owner, whose assets Shokin had seized, and Joe's own interest in Ukraine corruption began after Hunty made the Burisma board.
Ah, yes, Devon Archer - the guy convicted of securities fraud. I'm sure his testimony is more trustworthy than that of a U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine and a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State.
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