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I have reviewed the new Hunter Biden indictment. As a former federal prosecutor, and someone who has followed the Hunter saga quite closely for years, here are my initial reactions:
(1) Hunter is in a lot of trouble.
With the sweetheart deal previously offered to him now off the table, Hunter is in an awful lot of trouble.
He is facing four counts of willfully failing to pay his taxes for tax years 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019, and two counts of failing to file a tax return for tax years 2017 and 2018, all in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7203.
He is also charged with one count of tax evasion and two counts of filing false and fraudulent tax forms for tax year 2018, in violation of § 7201 and § 7206, for chalking up hundreds of thousands of dollars of fake business expenses. These fake expenses included payments for: hotel rooms that he turned into crack dens, payoffs for his girlfriends, strippers, escorts, luxury cars, a sex club membership, porn sites. He also tried to claim his daughter's law school tuition as business-related legal expenses. He tried to hide income, and made numerous false statements under penalty of perjury.
If he were to go to trial and be convicted of all of these counts, based on my calculations, the advisory federal sentencing guidelines range for him could easily reach 4–5 years' imprisonment. Even if he were to plead guilty to these counts, his guidelines range sentence would likely be around 3 years. That is a lot of prison time for the son of a sitting president.
(2) Weiss appears to be playing this straight
I said after David Weiss's appointment as special counsel that this was going to go in one of two directions:
Either Weiss was going to continue the concerted effort to cover up and clean up Hunter's long history of criminal activity to protect Joe Biden and the Biden family.
Or Weiss was going rogue, and would hammer Hunter with the full force of the law.
My assumption was cover up, but based on this indictment and the previous firearms indictment, I can't find fault with his actions thus far. He is appropriately and vigorously prosecuting the tax and gun crimes that we already knew about.
The real test will be what comes next.
Will Hunter be offered a new sweetheart plea deal to sweep this all under the rug?
Most importantly, will more indictments follow? Foreign money laundering? Failure to register as a foreign agent? Bribery?
Only time will tell, but I am hopeful that maybe—just maybe—we will see some justice here.
(3) Joe Biden is a liar
If the facts in the indictment are proven, and based on Hunter's previous abortive plea deal I believe they can be and will be, this indictment is further proof (as if we needed more) that Joe Biden lied repeatedly to the American people during the 2020 election.
"My son has not made money in terms of this thing about, what are you talking about, China." That was Joe Biden at the presidential debate on October 22, 2020. That was a lie.
Biden denied that Hunter had made "a fortune in China, in Moscow and various other places" at the presidential debate on September 29, 2020. That was a lie.
I could go on, but the point is made. Joe Biden needs to answer to the American people for his lies. They implicate him in criminal conspiracies abroad involving the shadiest of foreign actors, and cut to the heart of his fitness for office.
(4) More egg on the media's face
As if mainstream media credibility could fall even lower . . . .
The mainstream media was an active participant in Joe Biden's lies in 2020. The media actively ran cover, burying Hunter Biden stories, showing a startling lack of interest in the Biden family's web of foreign business interests, and insisting — insisting! — that there was nothing to see here.
The blackout on reporting about Hunter's now-validated laptop was the pinnacle of this all hands on deck effort.
I want to hear from the journalists who participated in burying these stories, who wrote fake "explainer" pieces on how the Republicans were conspiracy theorists, who lashed out at Trump for attacking Joe over the Hunter scandals.
Who decided that getting Joe elected was more important than uncovering the truth.
Is that what they taught you in journalism school?
(1) Hunter is in a lot of trouble.
With the sweetheart deal previously offered to him now off the table, Hunter is in an awful lot of trouble.
He is facing four counts of willfully failing to pay his taxes for tax years 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019, and two counts of failing to file a tax return for tax years 2017 and 2018, all in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7203.
He is also charged with one count of tax evasion and two counts of filing false and fraudulent tax forms for tax year 2018, in violation of § 7201 and § 7206, for chalking up hundreds of thousands of dollars of fake business expenses. These fake expenses included payments for: hotel rooms that he turned into crack dens, payoffs for his girlfriends, strippers, escorts, luxury cars, a sex club membership, porn sites. He also tried to claim his daughter's law school tuition as business-related legal expenses. He tried to hide income, and made numerous false statements under penalty of perjury.
If he were to go to trial and be convicted of all of these counts, based on my calculations, the advisory federal sentencing guidelines range for him could easily reach 4–5 years' imprisonment. Even if he were to plead guilty to these counts, his guidelines range sentence would likely be around 3 years. That is a lot of prison time for the son of a sitting president.
(2) Weiss appears to be playing this straight
I said after David Weiss's appointment as special counsel that this was going to go in one of two directions:
Either Weiss was going to continue the concerted effort to cover up and clean up Hunter's long history of criminal activity to protect Joe Biden and the Biden family.
Or Weiss was going rogue, and would hammer Hunter with the full force of the law.
My assumption was cover up, but based on this indictment and the previous firearms indictment, I can't find fault with his actions thus far. He is appropriately and vigorously prosecuting the tax and gun crimes that we already knew about.
The real test will be what comes next.
Will Hunter be offered a new sweetheart plea deal to sweep this all under the rug?
Most importantly, will more indictments follow? Foreign money laundering? Failure to register as a foreign agent? Bribery?
Only time will tell, but I am hopeful that maybe—just maybe—we will see some justice here.
(3) Joe Biden is a liar
If the facts in the indictment are proven, and based on Hunter's previous abortive plea deal I believe they can be and will be, this indictment is further proof (as if we needed more) that Joe Biden lied repeatedly to the American people during the 2020 election.
"My son has not made money in terms of this thing about, what are you talking about, China." That was Joe Biden at the presidential debate on October 22, 2020. That was a lie.
Biden denied that Hunter had made "a fortune in China, in Moscow and various other places" at the presidential debate on September 29, 2020. That was a lie.
I could go on, but the point is made. Joe Biden needs to answer to the American people for his lies. They implicate him in criminal conspiracies abroad involving the shadiest of foreign actors, and cut to the heart of his fitness for office.
(4) More egg on the media's face
As if mainstream media credibility could fall even lower . . . .
The mainstream media was an active participant in Joe Biden's lies in 2020. The media actively ran cover, burying Hunter Biden stories, showing a startling lack of interest in the Biden family's web of foreign business interests, and insisting — insisting! — that there was nothing to see here.
The blackout on reporting about Hunter's now-validated laptop was the pinnacle of this all hands on deck effort.
I want to hear from the journalists who participated in burying these stories, who wrote fake "explainer" pieces on how the Republicans were conspiracy theorists, who lashed out at Trump for attacking Joe over the Hunter scandals.
Who decided that getting Joe elected was more important than uncovering the truth.
Is that what they taught you in journalism school?
This is absolutely right. The whistleblowes are the heroes here.
https://twitter.com/tristanleavitt/status/1732966653544087879
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