OP-ED: Biden’s ill-advised pardon of his son is the tip of the Iceberg
President Biden’s pardon of his son, Hunter Biden, has quickly become old news in the mainstream media. Nothing to see here, move along. That is definitely not true. There is much more to see and it all has the stench of corruption.
Hunter Biden is a narcissistic, sociopathic bum, saved in life by the fact his father was a senator, vice president and then president. He is also a convicted criminal.
The pardon, rather than being the empathetic act of a father for his son, is increasingly viewed as a desperate attempt to cover up a long history of misdeeds by not only Hunter Biden but also Joe Biden, his family and multitudes of other bureaucrats. It also highlights the weaponization, corruption and depravity of many core institutions such as the FBI, CIA and Department of Justice (DOJ). It lays bare a chronology of official lying and misrepresentation at the highest levels. Most seriously, the pardon reveals an emerging picture of a totally compromised president and the potential threats to national security that presents. This is a five-alarm fire.
The pardon is breathtaking in its scope, lack of specificity and time frame.
The president pardoned his son not only for his tax violations and gun charges, he pardoned him for, “all offenses against the United States which he has committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024….”
While the president, under Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution has plenary power to pardon, interpretation of this power still requires that specific crimes be enumerated.
Considering the applicable law, the president’s pardon of Hunter stinks even more of self-serving hypocrisy, obfuscation and favor. Hunter meets none of the normal pardon criteria and a pardon cannot be granted for “what ifs.”
President Biden denied he would pardon Hunter on 10 documented occasions going back to July 2023, with the latest being in November. The problem for Biden is that there are documented conversations contemplating the pardon as early as June.
The drama of Hunter Biden began in October 2019, when the FBI became aware of a laptop abandoned by him in a Delaware repair shop. The FBI was told the laptop may contain evidence of a crime. The authenticity of the laptop was verified by the FBI shortly after but that verification was not made public.
The laptop’s contents would ultimately prove cataclysmic. In addition to a great deal of very salacious material pertaining to the drug use, the laptop’s contents reveal possible financial crimes by Hunter, Biden’s brother James, and that those crimes could be linked to Joe Biden (the “Big Guy”, “Mr. 10%”) to his son’s very shady influence-for-sale dealings with China and Ukraine. Up to this point, Biden had denied on many occasions that he ever discussed business with his son or his brother.
The Biden administration, the FBI and various intelligence agencies peddled a tale that the information on the laptop appeared to be “Russian disinformation” only weeks before the 2020 election. Fifty-one former US Intelligence agency leaders signed a pre-election letter to this effect. All the while, the FBI knew the information was legitimate. It is reasonable to think most of the 51 signers must have, also. Election interference?
Whistleblowers revealed that the DOJ blocked an IRS investigation, and resulting charging recommendations, for Hunter because they assessed that such revelations could hurt Biden’s re-election chances. More election interference. Imagine that?
The corrupt DOJ allowed the statute of limitations to expire on an alleged tax evasion case against Hunter in 2014. It also has not yet charged either Hunter or James Biden with lying to Congress about Joe Biden’s role in their influence peddling scheme. Unbelievable. The president was the influence being peddled.
A House Oversight Committee reported a series of hugely damning revelations about Biden and his family dealings. In November 2022, they issued a report detailing Biden’s dealings with foreign countries. In May 2023, records show the Biden family created 20 shell companies to hide revenue from the influence-for-sale venture. In August 2023, bank memos show payments to Biden interests from Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. The August report also detailed 16 times the president lied about family business schemes. In September 2023, documents provide 22 examples of Biden’s involvement in the family influence-peddling business. The August impeachment Inquiry reported finding Biden committed numerous impeachable crimes.
So where does this sordid tale go from here? It is quite clear that many crimes have been committed by numerous people in and close to the Biden family.
Look for Joe Biden to pardon most of his family before he leaves office. He may well pardon himself. If he does so, he is confirming that the Biden crime family is real because a pardon requires that there is a crime to pardon.
Look for a plethora of pardons for political and agency cronies. Wouldn’t want them rolling over under questioning, would we?
Imagine that the Biden crime family is only the tip of the iceberg in unwinding the villainous deep state.
Dave Ball is the former chairman of the Washington County Republican Party.