Category: HunterBiden

Hunter Biden to Melania Trump: Bring it on

Posted on by Lisa Needham

Following her husband’s lead of threatening everyone with lawsuits, first lady Melania Trump is demanding that Hunter Biden retract his statement that accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein introduced her to Donald Trump. If he doesn’t, she’s going to sue him for over $1 billion because she has suffered “overwhelming financial and reputational harm” over the comments.

What reputation does Melania Trump think she has, anyway?

Hunter Biden’s short response to her threat was “Fuck that!” which he delivered during an interview with YouTuber Andrew Callaghan. But Hunter’s longer response is even more hilarious:

“If they want to sit down for a deposition and clarify the nature of the relationship between Jeffery Epstein, if the president and the first lady want to do that … I'm more than happy to provide them the platform to be able to do it,” he said.

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Per the BBC, Melania Trump’s threat was delivered by Alejandro Brito, who represents Trump in his lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal and Trump’s frivolous lawsuits against media companies.

But she’s got a few problems here as far as trying to extract a billion dollars—or even any dollars—from Hunter Biden, the son of former President Joe Biden. 

First, she doesn’t have the juice the president does. Donald Trump can leverage things like government approval of mergers. Melania Trump has no such direct leverage. What’s she going to do? Not invite him to be a volunteer to help decorate the White House for Christmas? No doubt Hunter Biden would be very sad not to have the opportunity to stroll among the blood-red trees that she thinks scream “Christmas!”

To be fair, Christmas decorations are very important for Melania Trump. But separating children from their parents, not so much. In a 2018 recording, she whined:

I’m working … my ass off on the Christmas stuff, that you know, who gives a fuck about the Christmas stuff and decorations? But I need to do it, right? … Okay, and then I do it and I say that I’m working on Christmas and planning for the Christmas and they said, ‘Oh, what about the children that they were separated?’ Give me a fucking break.

Indeed, why should Melania Trump waste her beautiful mind worrying about the effects of her husband’s immigration policies? She has other important things to do! Maybe she could revive “Be Best”—her vague well-being campaign from Trump’s first term—and demand that Hunter “donate” the customary Trump bribe of $16 million to the effort. 

These days, she is ostensibly keeping busy filming her Amazon documentary, focusing on her “day-to-day life, what I’m doing, what kind of responsibilities I have,” as she told “Fox & Friends” earlier this year. Honestly, it might be worth watching just to see what on earth she thinks are her responsibilities. Recall that the documentary is costing Amazon $40 million. Maybe she can threaten not to include Hunter in what is no doubt going to be a totally legit documentary and not just a payoff from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos to the president’s family. 

President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump arrive to view opening night of "Les Miserables" at the Kennedy Center on June 11.

Or maybe she could just write another book about how hard this all is for her and then have a robot read it.

Melania Trump may not have paid much attention to the endless defamation lawsuits that Trump has filed, but you’ll note that most do not reach the discovery stage, thanks to the whole payoff thing. Trump is still dodging being deposed in his own lawsuit against niece Mary Trump. That’s why Hunter’s comments are so perfect. Lawsuits require discovery and depositions, not just waving around a letter demanding $1 billion. And we know full well that both Melania and Donald Trump do not want to talk about Epstein.

The second problem for Melania Trump is that Hunter Biden is only repeating things that have been reported in the media. It’s tough to make a defamation claim stick in that event. This isn’t a situation where Hunter popped off with something no one had ever heard. 

Finally, it’s not clear that she realizes that Hunter honestly doesn’t have anything more to lose. He’s been dragged through criminal cases, and the House won’t stop investigating him. He doesn’t have a billion dollars, so good luck getting that.

In other words, bring it on, Melania. All you’ve really done is tee up a lawsuit that would require the deposition of your husband about Jeffrey Epstein. Masterful gambit, ma’am.

Former FBI informant to plead guilty to lying about the Bidens

Posted on by Associated Press

A former FBI informant is set to plead guilty on Monday to lying about a phony bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden and his son Hunter that became central to the Republican impeachment inquiry in Congress.

Alexander Smirnov is expected to make the plea in Los Angeles to a felony charge in connection with the bogus story, along with a tax evasion charge stemming from a separate indictment accusing him of concealing millions of dollars of income, according to court papers.

Smirnov has been behind bars since his arrest in February on charges that he told his FBI handler that executives from the Ukrainian energy company Burisma had paid President Biden and Hunter Biden $5 million each around 2015.

Prosecutors and the defense have agreed to recommend a sentence of between four and six years in prison, according to the plea agreement.

Smirnov had been an informant for more than a decade when he made the explosive allegations about the Bidens in June 2020, after “expressing bias” about Joe Biden as a presidential candidate, prosecutors said.

But Smirnov had only routine business dealings with Burisma starting in 2017, according to court documents. An FBI field office investigated the allegations and recommended the case be closed in August 2020, according to charging documents.

No evidence has emerged that Joe Biden acted corruptly or accepted bribes as president or in his previous office as vice president.

While Smirnov’s identity wasn’t publicly known before the indictment, his claims played a major part in the Republican effort in Congress to investigate the president and his family, and helped spark a House impeachment inquiry into Biden. Before Smirnov's arrest, Republicans had demanded the FBI release the unredacted form documenting the unverified allegations, though they acknowledged they couldn’t confirm if they were true.

During a September 2023 conversation with investigators, Smirnov also claimed the Russians probably had recordings of Hunter Biden because a hotel in Ukraine’s capital where he had stayed was “wired” and under their control — information he said was passed along to him by four high-level Russian officials.

But Hunter Biden had never traveled to Ukraine, according to Smirnov's indictment.

Smirnov claimed to have contacts with Russian intelligence-affiliated officials, and told authorities after his arrest this year that “officials associated with Russian intelligence were involved in passing a story” about Hunter Biden.

The case against Smirnov was brought by special counsel David Weiss, who also prosecuted Hunter Biden on gun and tax charges. Hunter Biden was supposed to be sentenced this month after being convicted at a trial in the gun case and pleading guilty to federal charges in the tax case. But he was pardoned this month by his father, who said he believed “raw politics has infected this process and it led to a miscarriage of justice.”

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GOP congressman just won’t quit his war on the Bidens

Posted on by Walter Einenkel

House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer just can’t stop running to Newsmax to demand endless investigations on the Biden family. Just a week ago he was on “Rob Schmitt Tonight” to complain about President Joe Biden’s pardon of his son Hunter. On Tuesday he was on Newsmax’s “Wake Up America,” trying to again stir up trouble. 

Comer, whose 15-month investigation failed to reveal a shred of evidence proving President Joe Biden or his family participated in criminal activity, has been running to the less factually curious right-wing outlet to say his piece.

“The ball is now going to be in the Trump justice Cabinet’s court,” Comer told Newsmax. Despite his embarrassing failures, Comer remains insistent on accusing the Biden family of more crimes despite offering no evidence to support his allegations. 

“You can go forward, there's still avenues to hold Hunter Biden accountable,” he continued. “I believe that Kash Patel and Pam Bondi are serious about reforming what we all refer to as the deep state,” Comer added. 

Trump’s choices of deep state fetishist and fan-fiction writer Kash Patel to head the FBI and former corrupt government official-turned-foreign agent Pam Bondi for U.S. attorney general has given Comer a second chance at harassing GOP political opponents.

“I believe that we can use our investigation of Hunter Biden as the blueprint for how to hold these bureaucrats accountable,” Comer said in what may be his plea to the Trump administration to remain head of the Oversight Committee.

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During the House Oversight Committee investigation, the Republican lawmaker repeatedly accused Biden of doing things that it was later reported Comer himself had also done. Whether it was using pseudonyms in government correspondence, or paying his own brother under the umbrella of “loans” in land swap deals, the evidence that Comer might be involved in corrupt dealings was far more convincing than anything he dug up on Biden.

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GOP congressman runs to Newsmax with threats after Hunter Biden pardon

Posted on by Oliver Willis

As the pearl-clutching continues over President Joe Biden’s Sunday pardon of his son Hunter, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer said on Monday that he hopes to work with Donald Trump’s incoming Department of Justice to initiate new investigations into the Biden family and Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Appearing on Newsmax’s “Rob Schmitt Tonight,” Comer was asked how Biden’s decision to pardon his son would affect his future plans.

“I look forward to talking to Attorney General Bondi about this,” the Kentucky Republican said, referencing Trump attorney general nominee Pam Bondi, who still has to be confirmed by the Senate.

Without evidence, Comer went on to allege that the Biden White House is continuing to obstruct investigations into the Biden family. Comer accused Biden, as he has multiple times over the years, of engaging in a “money laundering scheme” with “the money from our adversaries from around the world.”

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Since Republicans took control of the House after the 2022 midterm elections, Comer has focused much of the Oversight Committee’s time and resources on investigating Biden and his family. That effort even involved committee member Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene displaying photos of Hunter Biden’s genitals during a committee hearing.

Before he was ousted in October 2023, then-Speaker Kevin McCarthy signed off on an impeachment inquiry into the president. But ultimately, the Comer-led effort sputtered and failed in August, with no articles of impeachment filed despite years of innuendo and threatening rhetoric.

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee noted in a fact sheet that despite the rhetoric about obstruction from Comer and other Republicans, the committee had received over 14,000 pages of bank records pertaining to the Biden family.

“Not a single transaction shows any wrongdoing by the President,” Democrats noted.

At the same time, reporting alongside the Comer probe showed that Comer himself engaged in ethically dubious financial transactions that echoed his accusations against the Bidens.

RELATED STORY: GOP congressman caught again doing same thing he accuses Biden of

And yet, Comer told Newsmax host Rob Schmitt that Sunday’s pardon of Hunter Biden was “the biggest public corruption scandal ever.”

Despite the chairman’s complaints about Biden’s son, Republicans were not as disturbed by Trump appointing his daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner to senior government roles–even when they couldn’t pass a standard security clearance.

The party also turned a blind eye to the massive influx of foreign dollars that was spent at Trump’s hotels and other properties while he was empowered to make decisions affecting those governments as president.

According to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), more than $13.6 million found its way into Trump’s hands just via this pathway.

But Comer isn’t calling on Bondi and Trump’s Department of Justice to address those concerns. Not yet, anyway—if ever.

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Biden has pardoned his son Hunter. What does that mean?

Posted on by Associated Press

President Joe Biden had long pledged that he would not pardon his son, Hunter, who was set to be sentenced this month for gun and tax convictions. But on Sunday, the president did just that.

The sweeping pardon covers not only Hunter Biden's convictions in two cases in Delaware and California, but also any other “offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014 through December 1, 2024.”

Biden is hardly the first president to deploy his pardon powers to benefit those close to him. But it was still a surprising reversal.

What's a pardon, anyway?

The U.S. Constitution says that a president has the power to grant clemency, which includes both pardons and commutations. A pardon forgives federal criminal offenses; a commutation reduces penalties but isn't as sweeping. The power has its roots in English law—the king could grant mercy to anyone—and it made it over the ocean to the American colonies and stuck around. The U.S. Supreme Court has found the presidential pardon authority to be very broad. And presidents use the power a lot: Donald Trump granted 237 acts of clemency during his four years in office and Barack Obama granted clemency 1,927 times in his eight years. Presidents have forgiven drug offenses, fraud convictions and Vietnam-era draft dodgers, among many other things.

But a president can only grant pardons for federal offenses, not state ones. Impeachment convictions also aren't pardonable.

What are the crimes Hunter Biden was accused of committing?

Hunter Biden was convicted in June of lying on a federal form when he purchased a gun in 2018 and swore that he wasn’t a drug user. Just months later, he pleaded guilty to charges accusing him of a scheme to avoid paying at least $1.4 million in taxes. Prosecutors alleged he lived lavishly while flouting the tax law, spending his cash on things like strippers and luxury hotels—“in short, everything but his taxes.”

Hunter Biden steps into a vehicle as he leaves federal court on Sept. 5, 2024, in Los Angeles, after pleading guilty to federal tax charges.

Both cases stemmed from a period in Hunter Biden’s life in which he struggled with drug and alcohol abuse before becoming sober in 2019.

After the gun trial aired salacious and unflattering details about Hunter Biden’s life, the president’s son said he agreed to plead guilty to the tax charges to spare his family another embarrassing criminal trial.

The tax trial was also expected to showcase details about Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings, which Republicans have seized on to try to paint the Biden family as corrupt.

Hunter Biden was supposed to be sentenced this month in the two cases by judges in California and Delaware who were nominated to the bench by Trump.

Special counsel David Weiss’ office had not said whether prosecutors had planned to seek prison time. The tax charges carried up to 17 years behind bars and the gun charges were punishable by up to 25 years in prison, though federal sentencing guidelines were expected to call for far less time and it was possible the younger Biden would have avoided prison time entirely.

Didn’t Biden say he wouldn’t pardon his son?

Yes. Hunter Biden has been under federal investigation since 2020. He reached a deal with federal prosecutors and was supposed to plead guilty last year to misdemeanor tax offenses and would have avoided prosecution in the gun case as long he stayed out of trouble for two years.

But the plea hearing quickly unraveled when the judge raised concerns about unusual aspects of the deal. He was subsequently indicted in the two cases, and he’s claimed that he was singled out because he is the president’s son.

The president told reporters earlier this summer that he would not pardon his son.

“I’m extremely proud of my son Hunter. He has overcome an addiction. He is one of the brightest, most decent men I know,” he said. “I abide by the jury decision. I will do that and I will not pardon him.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said as recently as Nov. 8 that Biden would not pardon his son.

President Joe Biden speaks on the South Lawn of the White House during a ceremony to commemorate World AIDS Day with survivors, their families and advocates, Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024, in Washington.

Why did Biden change his mind?

In his statement Sunday, Biden said that his son had been “selectively, and unfairly, prosecuted.” Biden has been concerned—as Hunter Biden was—about his political adversaries.

Also, the president is no longer running for office. He made his no-pardon pledge before he dropped out of the presidential race in June.

In his statement, the president said it was clear that his son was treated differently from other defendants in similar predicaments. The plea deal unraveled and Biden’s political opponents took credit for pressuring the process, he said.

“No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son—and that is wrong. There has been an effort to break Hunter—who has been five and a half years sober, even in the face of unrelenting attacks and selective prosecution. In trying to break Hunter, they’ve tried to break me—and there’s no reason to believe it will stop here. Enough is enough.”

Have other presidents pardoned their family members or friends?

Yes. In his final weeks in office, Trump pardoned Charles Kushner, the father of his son-in law, Jared Kushner. He also pardoned multiple allies convicted in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. Trump over the weekend announced plans to nominate the elder Kushner to be the U.S. envoy to France in his next administration.

President Bill Clinton pardoned his half-brother Roger Clinton in 2001, after he had completed a prison term for drug charges. Clinton also pardoned his former business partner Susan McDougal, who had been sentenced to two years in prison for her role in the Whitewater real estate deal.

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Hunter Biden enters surprise guilty plea to avoid federal tax trial

Posted on by Associated Press

LOS ANGELES — Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to federal tax charges Thursday in a surprise move that spares President Joe Biden and his family another likely embarrassing and painful criminal trial of the president’s son.

Hunter Biden’s stunning decision to guilty plea to misdemeanor and felony charges without the benefits of a deal with prosecutors came hours after jury selection was supposed to begin in the case accusing him of failing to pay at least $1.4 million in taxes.

The president’s son was already facing potential prison time after his June conviction on felony gun charges in a trial that aired unflattering and salacious details about his struggles with a crack cocaine addiction. The tax trial was expected to showcase more potentially lurid evidence as well as details about Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings, which Republicans have seized on to try to paint the Biden family as corrupt.

Although President Joe Biden’s decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential election muted the potential political implications of the tax case, the trial was expected to carry a heavy emotional toll for the president in the final months of his five-decade political career.

“Enough is enough,” defense attorney Abbe Lowell told the judge before Hunter Biden entered his plea. “Mr. Biden is prepared, because of the public and private interest, to proceed today and finish this.”

Hunter Biden quickly responded “guilty” as the judge read out each of the nine counts. The charges carry up to 17 years behind bars, but federal sentencing guidelines are likely to call for a much shorter sentence. Sentencing is set for Dec. 16.

More than 100 potential jurors had been brought to the courthouse in Los Angeles on Thursday to begin the process of picking the panel to hear the case alleging a four-year scheme to avoid paying taxes while spending wildly on things like strippers, luxury hotels and exotic cars.

Prosecutors were caught off guard when Hunter Biden’s lawyer told the judge Thursday morning that Hunter wanted to enter what’s known as an Alford plea, under which a defendant maintains their innocence but acknowledges prosecutors have enough evidence to secure a conviction.

Prosecutors said they objected to such a plea, telling the judge that Hunter Biden “is not entitled to plead guilty on special terms that apply only to him.”

“Hunter Biden is not innocent. Hunter Biden is guilty,” prosecutor Leo Wise said.

Hunter Biden held hands with his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, as he entered the courtroom on Sept. 5.

Hunter Biden walked into the courtroom holding hands with his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, and flanked by Secret Service agents. Initially, he pleaded not guilty to the charges related to his 2016 through 2019 taxes and his attorneys had indicated they would argue he didn’t act “willfully,” or with the intention to break the law, in part because of his well-documented struggles with alcohol and drug addiction.

Hunter Biden had agreed to plead guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses last year in a deal with the Justice Department that would allow him to avoid prosecution in the gun case if he stayed out of trouble. But the agreement imploded after a judge questioned unusual aspects of it, and he was subsequently indicted in the two cases.

His decision to change his plea Thursday came after the judge issued some unfavorable pre-trial rulings for the defense, including rejecting a proposed defense expert lined up to testify about addiction.

Scarsi, who was appointed to the bench by former President Donald Trump, also placed some restrictions on what jurors would be allowed to hear about the traumatic events that Hunter Biden's family, friends and attorneys say led to his drug addiction.

The judge barred attorneys from connecting his substance abuse struggles to the 2015 death of his brother Beau Biden from cancer or the car accident that killed his mother and sister when he was a toddler.

The indictment alleged that Hunter Biden lived lavishly while flouting the tax law, spending his cash on things like strippers and luxury hotels — “in short, everything but his taxes.”

Hunter Biden’s attorneys had asked Scarsi to also limit prosecutors from highlighting details of his expenses that they say amount to a “character assassination,” including payments made to strippers or pornographic websites. The judge has said in court papers that he will maintain “strict control” over the presentation of potentially salacious evidence.

Prosecutors had said they want to introduce evidence about Hunter Biden’s overseas dealings, which have been at the center of Republican investigations into the Biden family often seeking — without evidence— to tie the president to an alleged influence peddling scheme.

The special counsel’s team had planned to have a business associate of Hunter Biden's testify about their work for a Romanian businessman, who prosecutors say sought to “influence U.S. government policy” while Joe Biden was vice president.

Sentencing in Hunter Biden's Delaware conviction is set for Nov. 13. He could face up to 25 years in prison in that case, though he is likely to get far less time or avoid prison entirely.

House GOP sure wasted a lot of America’s time and money on Biden

Posted on by Mark Sumner

Republicans have wasted so much: It’s not just the carloads of “Let’s Go Brandon!” merch now on its way to landfills, it’s a huge amount of time and money that is owed directly to Americans. As soon as they gained a small majority—and once they were past the first round of follies in naming a speaker—Republicans got right on their No. 1 priority.

That priority wasn’t passing legislation to help people. They've been one of the least effective Congress in history. Instead, they jumped right into the most important task of all modern Republicans: Showing their loyalty to Donald Trump by launching unfounded attacks on his opponents. 

In the House, that meant not one, not two, but three simultaneous investigations into everything Biden. A car loan, his son's private parts, anything was fodder for a mill meant to crank out a never-ending stream of Biden "scandal."

All of this is completely worthless to the country. Now it’s not even useful to Trump.

The Republican grovel fest, headed up by Reps. James Comer and Jim Jordan, was ridiculous from the outset. 

There was the fake FBI document produced by a Russian mole whose repeated claims were originally pushed in 2019 by Rudy Giuliani and were debunked almost as soon as they appeared. That hasn’t stopped Jordan from repeating these easily disproved lies and pretending to seriously investigate Biden’s actions in helping to get rid of a corrupt official. 

Meanwhile, Comer was busy trying to prove that Biden was the recipient of money from China, talking up a witness who could prove everything if Republicans could find him. Comer went after Hunter Biden for paying back a small loan when Biden wasn’t even in office. Then there was a small personal loan to his brother, also while Biden wasn’t in office. In the end, they turned on Attorney General Merrick Garland when they could find no reason to impeach Biden. 

That was the biggest problem for these Republicans: Biden hadn't done anything wrong. But that didn't stop them from crowing over every false claim as if it were proof that Biden was the godfather of the "Biden crime family." A crime family that is somehow so huge and corrupt and has netted Biden a beach home that isn’t even on the beach rather than towers full of golden targets. 

Efforts to generate support for a Biden impeachment ran out of steam last fall, so Republicans were never able to present to Trump that “see, he was impeached too!” present they were so anxious to deliver. By spring, Republicans were looking for some way to escape this whole pointless exercise.

And now ... all of it is a waste. Republicans loved to complain about how much former FBI Director Robert Mueller spent investigating Trump’s connections with Russia, but they haven’t been as quick to post how much they’ve spent investigating Biden to absolutely no purpose. 

Want to see how important it really was? Just watch how quickly Republicans drop these investigations for vital hearings over plastic straws and whether or not Harris was too tough on crime.

But, even before Biden withdrew from the election, this was already a waste. For everything they had done, House Republicans never laid a finger on Biden. Nothing stuck to Biden because it was all malarkey.

But they did show that they were completely under Trump's control so ... job well done.

RELATED STORIES:

Latest GOP conspiracy theory: Biden’s doctor is part of the ‘crime family’

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ICYMI: Why special elections should make the GOP squirm, and no, Biden never promised a single term

Posted on by Daily Kos Staff

New poll: Republicans say Trump's an even better candidate now than in 2020

How anyone can think Trump is a viable candidate, let alone a more viable candidate than in 2020 is truly mind-boggling.

Why special elections should have Republicans panicking 

Democrats are doing some serious overperforming.

Biden never promised a single term—and it would be stupid if he had 

Frankly, it doesn’t make sense for any president to announce they’re only seeking one lame-duck term.

Cartoon: Why I'm voting for Trump

It should always be based on payback.

'We will hunt you down': Steve Bannon heads to prison threatening revenge 

It seems lots of Republicans have revenge on the brain. 

Watch congressman nail GOP's double standard on Hunter Biden conviction 

It’s amazing how differently both sides of the aisle behave when only one believes in the rule of law.

Pennsylvania governor to Trump: 'Stop sh-t talking America' 

And less whining would be nice, too.

Hunter Biden is convicted, but the GOP is still big mad 

Nothing can satisfy these folks. (Well, maybe a Biden impeachment.)

DA who convicted Trump draws ire for daring to defend himself from GOP attacks 

So they forced the district attorney to defend his case and then attacked him for doing so? 

Paul Ryan still sucks 

He’s gone but we wish he was forgotten.

Biden wins again as Trump’s economic forecast turns out to be pure garbage 

Just another reason to not listen to a word Trump says.

Click here to see more cartoons.

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Hunter Biden is convicted, but the GOP is still big mad

Posted on by Joan McCarter

You might think that Republicans would be thrilled that there’s now a convicted felon in the Biden family, but it’s still not enough for them. From wanting to take down the rest of the “Biden crime family” to calling Hunter’s conviction a Justice Department ploy to make it look like there’s not a “two-tiered system of justice,” the GOP is still angry and thirsting for revenge for Donald Trump’s conviction on 34 felonies.

Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, who can’t stop hilariously failing to impeach President Joe Biden, kicks it off with a tweet:

🚨STATEMENT🚨 Hunter Biden’s sweetheart plea deal was smoked out after scrutiny by a federal judge. Today’s verdict is a step toward accountability but until the Department of Justice investigates everyone involved in the Bidens’ corrupt influence peddling schemes that generated…

— Rep. James Comer (@RepJamesComer) June 11, 2024

Comer’s commentary reflects the sentiments of the Trump campaign. 

“Crooked Joe Biden’s reign over the Biden Family Criminal Empire is all coming to an end on November 5th, and never again will a Biden sell government access for personal profit. As for Hunter, we wish him well in his recovery and legal affairs,” a Trump campaign spokesperson said in a statement. 

But it wasn’t long until the campaign retracted its statement and reissued it without the well wishes for Hunter.

The “Biden crime family” and demands for prosecutions are a major theme among the GOP. 

“Now, it’s time to bring Hunter and the Biden Crime Family to justice for the allegations of influence peddling,” Rep. Jeff Duncan of South Carolina tweeted.

“Hunter Biden’s firearm conviction is simply a smokescreen,” says Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana. “What I'm concerned about is how Joe, Hunter, and James Biden have been enriching themselves by trading away America's interests to our enemies.”

On the other hand, Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri is accusing the DOJ for not prosecuting Hunter hard enough. 

“Never forget DOJ tried to avoid this trial & verdict by giving Hunter a sweetheart plea deal. Until the judge exposed them,” he tweeted.

Then there’s the conspiracy theorists, like Stephen Miller, who accused the DOJ of “running election interference for Joe Biden.”

“That’s why DOJ did NOT charge Hunter with being an unregistered foreign agent (FARA) or any crime connected with foreign corruption. Why? Because all the evidence would lead back to JOE,” he tweeted.

Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, added to that, tweeting: “And yet Dems will now point to Hunter’s conviction as evidence that ‘there’s no lawfare.’” 

But Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia takes the cake for political paranoia: 

Hunter Biden’s guilty verdict is nothing more than the Left’s attempt to create the illusion of equal justice. Don’t fall for it.

— Rep. Andrew Clyde (@Rep_Clyde) June 11, 2024

There’s no small amount of cognitive dissonance about the rule of law in this crowd. Like Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri, who intoned that “today’s verdict is a step towards ensuring equal application of the law, regardless of one's last name.”

Except, of course, for the equal application of the law to someone named Trump. 

“The fix was in for this fake ‘trial’ - the George Soros-backed DA and a leftist judge worked to tilt the scales of justice against President Trump,” Smith tweeted. 

Then there’s the pathetic toadying for Trump from Freedom Caucus Chair Bob Good. 

“Hunter Biden is convicted of an actual crime. Donald Trump was railroaded by a political prosecutor and a biased judge,” Good tweeted. 

Trump has endorsed Good’s primary opponent. 

Yet no one in the GOP is complaining about a "rigged jury" or a “corrupt judge” in Hunter’s conviction. And neither are the Democrats.

“I've not heard a single Democrat anywhere in the country cry fraud, cry, fixed, cry, rigged, cry, kangaroo court or any of the many epithets that our colleagues have mobilized against the U.S. Department of Justice and our federal court system,” Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland said. 

Similarly, Biden has responded to the conviction with a dignified and loving statement in support of his son. 

"Jill and I love our son, and we are so proud of the man he is today,” Biden said. “So many families who have had loved ones battle addiction understand the feeling of pride seeing someone you love come out the other side and be so strong and resilient in recovery.”

As for the verdict? 

“I will accept the outcome of this case and will continue to respect the judicial process as Hunter considers an appeal,” Biden said.

Donald Trump was convicted on 34 counts of falsifying business records on May 30. What are potential voters saying about this historic news? And what is the Biden-Harris campaign doing now that the “teflon Don" is no more?

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Hunter Biden convicted of all 3 felonies in federal gun trial

Posted on by Associated Press

Hunter Biden has been convicted of all three felony charges related to the purchase of a revolver in 2018 when, prosecutors argued, the president’s son lied on a mandatory gun-purchase form by saying he was not illegally using or addicted to drugs.

Jurors found Hunter Biden guilty of lying to a federally licensed gun dealer, making a false claim on the application by saying he was not a drug user and illegally having the gun for 11 days.

He faces up to 25 years in prison when he is sentenced by Judge Maryellen Noreika, though first-time offenders do not get anywhere near the maximum, and it’s unclear whether she would give him time behind bars.

Now, Hunter Biden and presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, the chief political rival of President Joe Biden, have been convicted by American jurors in an election year that has been as much about the courtroom as it has been about campaign events and rallies.

Joe Biden has steered clear of the federal courtroom in Delaware where his son was tried and said little about the case, wary of creating an impression of interfering in a criminal matter brought by his own Justice Department. But allies of the Democrat have worried about the toll that the trial — and now the conviction — will take on the 81-year-old, who has long been concerned with his only living son’s health and sustained sobriety.

Hunter Biden and Trump have both argued they were victimized by the politics of the moment. But while Trump has continued to falsely claim the verdict was “rigged,” Joe Biden has said he would accept the results of the verdict and would not seek to pardon his son.

Hunter Biden’s legal troubles aren’t over. He faces a trial in September in California on charges of failing to pay $1.4 million in taxes and congressional Republicans have signaled they will keep going after him in their stalled impeachment effort into the president. The president has not been accused or charged with any wrongdoing by prosecutors investigating his son.

The prosecution devoted much of the trial to highlighting the seriousness of Hunter Biden’s drug problem, through highly personal testimony and embarrassing evidence.

Jurors heard Hunter Biden’s ex-wife and a former girlfriend testify about his habitual crack use and their failed efforts to help him get clean. Jurors saw images of the president’s son bare-chested and disheveled in a filthy room, and half-naked holding crack pipes. And jurors watched video of his crack cocaine weighed on a scale.

Hunter Biden did not testify but jurors heard his voice when prosecutors played audio excerpts of his 2021 memoir “Beautiful Things,” in which he talks about hitting bottom after the death of his brother Beau in 2015, and his descent into drugs before his eventual sobriety.

Prosecutors felt the evidence was necessary to prove that Hunter, 54, was in the throes of addiction when he bought the gun and therefore lied when he checked “no” on the form that asked whether he was “an unlawful user of, or addicted to” drugs.

Defense attorney Abbe Lowell had argued that Hunter Biden’s state of mind was different when he wrote the book than when he bought the gun — when he didn’t believe he had an addiction. Lowell pointed out to jurors that some of the questions on the firearms transaction record are in the present tense, such as “are you an unlawful user of or addicted to” drugs.

And Lowell suggested Hunter Biden might have felt he had a drinking problem at the time, but not a drug problem. Alcohol abuse does not preclude a gun purchase.

Hunter Biden had hoped last year to resolve a long-running investigation federal investigation under a deal with prosecutors that would avoided the spectacle of a trial so close to the 2024 election. Under the deal, he would have pleaded guilty to misdemeanor tax offenses and avoid prosecution in the gun case if he stayed out of trouble for two years.

But the deal fell apart after Noreika, who was nominated by Trump, questioned unusual aspects of the proposed agreement, and the lawyers could not resolve the matter.

Attorney General Merrick Garland then appointed top investigator David Weiss, Delaware’s U.S. attorney, as a special counsel last August, and a month later Hunter Biden was indicted.

Hunter Biden has said he was charged because the Justice Department bowed to pressure from Republicans who argued the Democratic president’s son was getting special treatment.

The reason that law enforcement raised any questions about the revolver is because Hallie Biden, Beau’s widow, found it unloaded in Hunter’s truck on Oct. 23, 2018, panicked and tossed it into a garbage can at Janssen’s Market, where a man inadvertently fished it out of the trash. She testified about the episode in court.

Hallie Biden, who had a romantic relationship with Hunter after Beau died, eventually called the police. Officers retrieved the gun from the man who inadvertently took the gun along with other recyclables from the trash. The case was eventually closed because of lack of cooperation from Hunter Biden, who was considered the victim.

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