Lawyers on both sides were eager to close the case: Hunter Biden, the president’s son, had to plead guilty to two counts of tax evasion and gun violations to avoid jail time.
The “deal” seemed close when District Judge Maryellen Noreika refused to agree to it. She was right. The failure of the deal forced Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a special prosecutor to continue the criminal investigation. This could end very badly for Hunter. And maybe for his father too.
However, the Bidens were confident that they had solved the problem. According to the Washington Post, Hunter Biden had been in the White House for two weeks. The President had even invited him to attend the state dinner honoring the Indian Prime Minister. He also accompanied his father to the Presidential Residence at Camp David.
Joe Biden will defend his son no matter what
Joe Biden supports his 53-year-old son at all costs, despite his legal troubles and increased political scrutiny by Congressional Republicans: “My son has done nothing wrong,” Biden said in an interview with MSNBC. ” I trust him. I have faith in him. And that affects my presidency because it makes me proud of him.
His comments clearly contradict his policy of not commenting on federal criminal investigations so as not to appear to be influencing the Justice Department.
The President’s life was marked by traumatic deaths in the family. His first wife and 13-month-old daughter died in an accident shortly after he was elected to the Senate in 1972. His youngest son, Beau, died of brain cancer in 2015, when Biden was vice president.
Political pressure will mount as Republicans continue their investigation and use their findings to hurt the president’s re-election chances. A recent congressional hearing showed what appeared to be nude photos of the president’s son using drugs or in sexually explicit positions.
Hunters, women and drugs
In his February 2017 divorce filing, his ex-wife’s attorney said the couple’s unpaid debts were “shocking and crushing” and that they had $313,000 in back taxes. It has been alleged that he spent heavily on drugs, strip clubs, prostitutes and girlfriends “while the family had no money to pay legitimate bills”.
Sued by an Arkansas woman, Hunter initially denied fathering her child, whom he fathered in 2018, before finally agreeing to pay him child support. In his mistitled autobiography, Beautiful Things, he says money eased his slips and allowed him to spend “recklessly, dangerously, destructively.”
Hunter collects millions
President Biden has little opportunity to help his son as House Republicans probe Hunter’s business dealings. They want to show that he used his father’s name to make money. Which he most likely did.
According to an analysis of NBC News and documents released by Republicans on two Senate committees, Hunter Biden billed Ukraine-based Burisma about $11 million from 2013 to 2018 and served as a board member. Burisma is accused of paying bribes to a Ukrainian official to shut down a money laundering investigation into one of his top executives.
At the same time, Hunter Biden received $5.8 million from the Chinese company CEFC, whose president Ye Jianming was accused of fraud and corruption in China in 2018. The businessman has not been seen in public since then. Hunter Biden also received $1 million from Patrick Ho, a CEFC official who was sentenced to three years in prison in the US on corruption charges in March 2019 and was expelled from the country after serving his sentence.
The evidence against Hunter Biden is so overwhelming that it’s hard to imagine how the special prosecutor could avoid recommending harsh prison sentences against him. And in that case, will Joe Biden dare to use his presidential authority and forgive his son to avoid jail time?