What was expected to be about an hour-long routine hearing at a courthouse in Wellington, Delaware last Wednesday, 26 July turned out to be quite a twist in the legal drama surrounding incumbent President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.
Hunter Biden and his legal counsel had already had an agreement in place per which the defendant would plead guilty to two misdemeanour charges of tax evasion and accept two years of probation as punishment, in exchange for a felony gun charge being diverted for the duration of the probation. In addition to failing to pay a proper amount of federal income tax, Biden also lied about his drug use in an application for obtaining a firearm. However, through the legal process of ‘diversion’, that charge would have been off of his criminal record if he was able complete his two-year probation without any violation.
However, at the hearing, the prosecution and the defence were not able to agree on what this plea deal would entail for any potential further legal scrutiny Biden may face related to his suspicious business activities. The defence insisted that this agreement would also provide the President’s son immunity from any further prosecution related to the matter, while the prosecution vehemently disputed that claim.
Therefore, District Judge Maryellen Noreika presiding over the case had to make the rare call to not accept a plea agreement both the prosecution and the defence had already agreed on. While the two parties engaged in impromptu negotiations at the scene, they could not come to a solution that would satisfy the judge. Thus,
Hunter Biden had to enter a ‘not guilty’ plea, and his prosecution is still ongoing.
House Republicans have already requested more information from Attorney General Merrick Garland about the debacle. There is already an ongoing investigation into the Biden family’s dealings, conducted by GOP representatives in the House, so this is just the latest addition to that inquiry.
The Depths of the Hunter Biden Scandal
As far as the criminal wrongdoings by Hunter Biden go, what is undisputed per the plea agreement is that he failed to pay between $1.1 million and $1.5 million in federal taxes in 2017 and 2018. He also falsely claimed that he does not have any substance use issues on an application for a firearm.
However, what has been alleged in relation to his and his family’s dealings does not stop there.
Hunter Biden served on the board of the major Ukrainian oil and gas company Burisma Holdings from 2014 to 2019, making about $84,000 per month. The problem there is that he had no prior experience in the energy sector that would justify such a high position and salary. The implication (although one yet to be proven) is that then-Vice President Joe Biden used the political influence of the United States to hook up his son with a cosy job.
In December 2019, the first impeachment vote took place over Donald Trump’s alleged abuse of power in the US House of Representatives. President Trump allegedly used the power of the US government’s executive branch to try to solicit information from the Ukrainian government that would be harmful to his political opponent, Joe Biden. He was eventually acquitted by the Senate.
While those shenanigans were going on, a clip of Former VP Joe Biden surfaced, where he brags about getting a Ukrainian prosecutor removed from his position by threatening to withhold US aid to the country. The clip was taken from a Council on Foreign Relations discussion from January 2018. Again, the suspicion is that Joe Biden had a prosecutor removed who may have pursued criminal charges against his son in Ukraine.
Perhaps the most notorious case involving the President’s son is that of his laptop.
In October 2020, just ahead of that year’s presidential election, the New York Post reported on Hunter Biden’s personal laptop being retrieved after being abandoned at a Delaware computer repair shop. The device in question contained multiple images showing Hunter Biden in compromising positions, such as one with a ‘crack pipe’ in his mouth and one where he photographed himself nude. Furthermore, it contained communication with his father, Joe Biden, which contradicts the current President’s claims that he had never discussed his son’s business dealings in Ukraine with him.
Upon the news breaking, Facebook and Twitter, two of the biggest social media sites, censored or suppressed the story. Twitter went as far as suspending the Post’s account on their platform. Numerous former intelligence agents went on major news programmes to claim that the laptop story is just another misinformation campaign by the Russians.
About a year later, all major news outlets, such as The New York Times and CNN, conceded that the Post’s initial reportings about Hunter Biden’s laptop were accurate.
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