Bravo, Mr. President!
"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."
Hunter Biden said in a statement on Sunday:
"I have admitted and taken responsibility for my mistakes during the darkest days of my addiction – mistakes that have been exploited to publicly humiliate and shame me and my family for political sport. Despite all of this, I have maintained my sobriety for more than five years because of my deep faith and the unwavering love and support of my family and friends."
"In the throes of addiction, I squandered many opportunities and advantages. In recovery we can be given the opportunity to make amends where possible and rebuild our lives if we never take for granted the mercy that we have been afforded. I will never take the clemency I have been given today for granted and will devote the life I have rebuilt to helping those who are still sick and suffering."
44 comments:
President Biden did the right thing for all the right reasons.
Les... you, and Shaw may be right, but I don't like it.
Everyone who is prosecuted faces a level of "selective prosecution". The cops select whether or not to arrest, the DAs select whether or not to prosecute, offer an deal, what sentence to recommend, etc. The judge also has a host of selections to consider regarding evidence, witnesses and ultimately, a sentence, after a judgement has been rendered.
Hunter got a deal. Great. But what do we tell the other thousands of ppl who also faced a raw deal? What about them?
Would he have been prosecuted had his dad not been president? Maybe not, maybe so. Is he out of legal danger now because his dad is president? Yes he is. 100%
And it was totally Biden's prerogative.
But I don't like it, and I bet millions of Biden voters agree with me too, wondering about the non violent drug crimes their family members committed for which they continue to sit in jails nationwide.
We should also note that Hunter received a "full and unconditional" pardon, akin to the sort of blanket immunity that Nixon received from Ford during the Watergate years. It covers not only those charges of which he was convicted, but also potential charges brought by the Trump admin that have not been proffered as yet.
And again, while I'm not a fan of this, it will be interesting to see the MAGA folks say Pres Biden acted illegally in granting this...
I don't like the reality that You Know Who totally skated. A felon who should be behind bars rotting in a stinking prison somewhere. So there's that.
A criminal through and through skates after being responsible for an insurrection attempt that injured officers of the law and resulted in deaths.
A "man" who has raped and plundered many. And will continue to do so.
So, Bravo for Presidenr Biden.
In fact, the prison doors across America should be thrown wide open and all who are incarcerated should walk.
For when a felon can sit behind the Resolute Desk as President of the United States there is NO law and order in America any more.
We are, a Third World Shithole thanks to You Know Who and the corrupt scotus.
And yes, those sitting in jails nationwide due to the terribly misguided "war on drugs" should immediately be set free. Should have happened already. Long ago.
But we are not now,and never have been, a truly just society, have we?
No one's above the law... except Hunter.
Knee-jerk reaction. Expected, and laughed at!
Trump pardoned Felons Bannon, Kushner, Stone, Rod Blagojevich, Michael Milken, Dinesh D'Souza, and Bernard Kerik.
You didn't come running here to claim they were "above the law." LOL!
Trump himself is a convicted felon who has escaped his just punishment.
You comment is noted and ridiculed for the embarrassing hypocrisy you so willingly exposed about yourself.
Best course of action relative to the ignorant and deluded:
Simply ignore them. They are not serious people.
Nor or they very bright.
The Justice System has now proven to have been weaponized. Time to lock them all up. Paybacks are hell. :)
What I dislike the most about Biden pardoning his son Hunter was the necessity of his action. What do I mean? Hunter and his lawyers had negotiated a plea deal to address all the charges. Much of the prosecutions case was flimsy as all get out (for example the gun form had many errors on the seller's side) but Hunter negotiated in good faith.
Then it got political. Marcy Wheeler at emptywheel has been doing an amazing job unwinding the shenanigans which the MAGA crew threw at Hunter, including when Comer's stating meet with us anywhere anytime in media interviews but then went oops, only at this closed door deposition (because we want to control the narrative he didn't say out loud).
Legal analysts such as Glenn Kirschner broke down the charges, admitting the prosecution is allowed to bring any case they think they can win while also acknowledging Hunter was charged with crimes millions of Americans commit without charges every year. In fact it is not the IRS policy to go after those who pay back taxes plus penalties unless circumstances such as habitual no payment can be proved. Yet Hunter was charged. I wonder if politics had ANYTHING to do with it.
Joe Biden wasn't going to pardon his son.... Until #45's new cabinet announced on air they were going after every Biden (except a five year old granddaughter for reasons?). Hunter didn't deserve any of that. And for all who say if you do the crime you do the time? Hunter tried to live up to that but MAGA wouldn't let him. They tried to break him - a recovering drug addict. Think of that. The power of the USA government focused all it's might on one imperfect human because they were related to the president. Soooo - where was this focus when #45's kids stepped out of line? Anyone? Jared gets billions due to his positions at the White House and crickets? The fail son's sell access and nothing? I guess the Hatch Act wasn't "real" law.
When one's opponent throws out the rules if behooves one to do likewise lest one gets shellacked. Either we all play by them or none of us have to. Yes, it's that binary for me.
btw - Didn't Steve Bannon just get out of jail?
How many indictments was Joe Biden's DoInJ responsible for against Trump? Pot, meet Kettle.
Steve Bannon is a convicted felon who was pardoned by the convicted felon, Trump.
I say "Good for him!!" In this new world where up is down, black is white, evil is good, again, I say GOOD FOR HIM!!! I support Biden all the way!
So you have proof Joe Biden colluded with Merrick Garland? Of course you don't because that's not the way Joe Biden rolls. Not carrying water for the guy just saying... a person is who they are and 'obey the letter of the law' precisely defines Joe Biden.
For someone who claims to be 'smart' how did you miss that JoeC?
You MAGA anti-democracy whiners choose to see the DoJ as an instrument of the POTUS, which Trump promises it to be when he becomes the tyrant-in-chief. One of Trump's indictments was handed down by the NY Atty. Gen., which has nothing to do with the DoJ.
You and your MAGA mobs will be seen as the anti-democracy, pro-authoritarian usurpers, not Joe Biden.
When the ignoramus' of MAGA wake up, and they will when they get theirs from You Know Who, it'll be, opps - too bad. Enjoy your rule by personality.
I have proof the Merrick Garland works for Joe Biden. He has no need to "collude" with him.
"The people most outraged about a father pardoning his son for crimes committed during his addiction are the same ones who voted for a felon, who then pardoned his own family member and made him a U.S. ambassador."
Well you'd better IMMEDIATELY give that information to the Felon-elect's thugs so they can hold tribunals and put Garland before a firing squad! Just like that maniac Kash Patel dreams of doing.
You may as well get going on turning America into a Banana Republic and rename our country El Donalador!
Jeffrey Gold, Attorney and Legal Analyst:
"The DOJ offered Hunter diversion on the gun application (which would have ended in dismissal) and there's rarely a tax prosecution if you already paid them. What happened after was a Republican special prosecutor reacting to a political MAGA backlash that had Hunter treated differently than anyone else in America."
Former federal prosecutor Harry Litman: "But in fact, President Biden’s pardon was justified and falls within the heartland of executive clemency cases. A clear-eyed analysis of the facts, the law, and, crucially, DOJ standard practice in Hunter Biden’s case establishes this."
I hope Trump pardon's the J6 hostages and then offers them all jobs in DoJ.
The blanket hypocrisy of the magats, as well as their blissful and willful ignorance to it causes me great amusement. I hope President Biden issues a blanket pardon to all Democrats on his last day in office. The thing that will really anger Trump was that he didn't do that on his last day. The low road is supposed to be the exclusive property of Trump and his deluded followers.
Which ones? The ones who smeared their feces on the walls of the Capitol as a example of their love of freedom? Or the ones who were looking for Nancy Pelosi and Mike Pence so they could murder them, as an example of their American patriotism?
Which of those sans culottes will, under the regime of the Felon-elect, deliver a purified state to the people?
Welcome back, JoMala, we missed your biting wit and acerbic insights into the coming recrudescent Trump regime!
Ron Filipkowski :
"Dems/media condemning Joe for pardoning Hunter right after a psycho who has spent 4 years ranting that he was going to go after him is the most toxic kind of phony virtue signaling imaginable. Don’t forget to pat yourselves on the back from your perches on the moral high ground."
·
Ana Navarro: "Joe Biden said he wasn’t going to pardon Hunter. But Donald Trump campaigned on retribution and vengeance. He has appointed people to law enforcement positions that have said ‘we are here for retribution and vindictiveness.’ Joe Biden could not leave Hunter, at the mercy of these people."
Of course you do jc. You're just another pea in a corrupt pod of criminally active mentalities.
This points to a bigger picture and a huge problem with the 70 million Trump followers. While there are plenty of Dems condemning the pardon, and they are misguided for doing so. I've always held Joe Biden in high regard. Had he not pardoned his son I would have thought he sold out for some ridiculous notion that righties would praise him. If your son is not a violent danger to society I would expect any parent to use an opportunity to help a son or daughter. I digress, what it shows is the magats are devoted to authority and checks and balances are their enemy. They vote for whomever kisses their deal leader's arse the most convincingly. They want a dictator in chief. Even here at PE, the righties basically parrot whatever nonsense they're told. Maybe JoeC and his multiple personalities are afraid the new FBI director might come after them if they post anything negative about Trump. Or God forbid, they actually post something true about him. It's a modern day inquisition for these kooks.
Of course neo-Nazis like Joe Con want Trump's thugs pardoned. That's what all Nazis, neo and historic, would want. Words have no meanings for authoritarians, tyrants and autocrats.
And if Joe has a problem with being seen as a neo-Nazi, he's a hell of lot more like them than Trump's thugs are "hostages", or Democrats are "commies" and the "enemy within".
That is 100% Nazi rhetoric. Joe is showing us he's one of them.
MAGAts are at the pinnacle of followers. Their Fuhrer speaks and whatever stench spews from his gaping maw they praise and repeat at every opportunity.
Truth matters not. Integrity matters not. Decency matters not.
The stench of You Know Who will linger over this land long after his miserable filthy life is over. The effects of his planned disasterous governance will cripple this nation for years to come as well. Unless he's stopped by congress. Since he owns both house and senate the odds of that are slim to none.
Why would anyone be surprised by joey b's action. He lied about being a one term president and he had to be thrown to the curb for him to keep his word. He vowed on numerous times that no one is above the law and he would not pardon hunter for his felonies. He hasn't told the truth since long before he was president and that title didn't change him, he is either a serial liar or has had dementia longer than anyone thought.
Maybe what Joe could've done, ala splitting the baby, was to have let the current charge, and potential jail sentence stand. That way he could have upheld his promise to not pardon his son for the crimes "to which he had been tried", fairly, Biden said.
Then, he could have pardon him for anyone not charged, ala the Nixon pardon, to keep the Trump clan from a bunch of BS claims not in the interest of justice, but bankruptcy.
I get how upset mad some dems and commenters are about the double standard between Trump and Biden. But Biden did promise, multiple times, not to pardon his son.
Do we just excuse his words and in so doing, potentially sink to GOP levels?
It's a mess... But I do get why he did it.
We should have a pardon commission.
Dave Miller, Pres. Biden did not interfere with Hunter Bidens case until the GOP started to use Hunter again as a punching bag. And you are correct, he promised to not interfere. And until this week, the almost last minute, he kept his word. I wonder what changed?
Could it be the same bad actors who yanked the plea deal from under Hunter's feet announced on air that they intended to further persecute the presidents son? Could it be James Comer and his cohorts blabbing about how they were going to revitalize the absolutely embarrassing and failed investigation into the Biden 'crime family' once the DOJ was under Trumps control make him change his mind?
GOP knew where to hit Biden where it would hurt the most. Did I approve of a president pardoning anyone in his family? No I did not. But we aren't dealing with a governing body who recognizes and follows the norms. Any norms we once had were chucked out the door when an a felon won the presidency. All norms were null and void when the Supremes gave #45 full immunity.
For the record, I'm not 'sinking' to GOP levels, I'm simply adjusting my approach based on the rules the GOP set in place when they ignored all the crimes committed under #45. They tossed the rules such as the Hatch Act, the Johnson Act... these are rules and laws, not norms and they've been ignored since #45 took that historical escalator ride.
Dave, if a corrupt government promised retribution against someone who had acted in good faith but was tossed around for political points, what would you do to defend that person, familial ties not withstanding? The GOP/MAGA are a vengeful lot and do not play by the rules, well not the Constitution. They are playing by Project 2025 rules, you know, the game plan to take over the USA and turn it into a Christian Nation where every knee will bend, or else. They've told us repeatedly who they are. We The People ignore them to our own peril.
The double standard between Democrats and Republicans has existed for decades. This is double standard on steroids. This is the embodiment of 'All animals are created equal but some are more equal than others'.
And I concur, there should be more oversite, but shoulda/coulda/woulda. We are where we are.
What is laughable is the hypocrisy, the glaring hypocrisy of people supporting the goddamn lying YOU Know Who after literally thousands of lies and many ocrimes. Yet shifting their britches over the pardon of Hunter Biden.
The politically motivated filth of the trumpublican cult is sickening. Stomach churning sickening. And yet, there are people worried about Hunter Biden's pardon? Pathetic and sickening.
Hypocrits, liars, and theives of the trumpublican are working to destroy this democratic nation from within and we're talking about a pardon of a non violent recovering addict.
Maybe it's us who are nuts. Because Who Know Who did get reelected. A felon, a liar, and a totally and completely unethical pile of decaying human flesh and mind.
Truth, the enemy of all Tyrants.
And soon, as surely as the rain will fall, this nation will become its leader and it's leaders party as our national integrity and respect is fritters away by You Know Who.
I agree with your reasoning, Grey One talks sass. Here's Heather Cox Richardson's reasoning that supports it:
"As legal commentator Asha Rangappa noted: “People criticizing the Hunter Biden pardon need to recognize: For the 1st time, the FBI and Justice Department could literally fabricate evidence, or collaborate with a foreign government to ‘find’ evidence of a ‘crime,’ with zero accountability. That’s why the pardon goes back to 2014.”
And yet, much of American media today has been consumed not with the story that Trump has appointed a deeply problematic candidate to run what could be considered the nation’s most important department, overseeing about 3 million personnel and managing a budget of more than $800 billion, or with the reality that Biden’s distrust of our legal system under Trump is a profound warning for all of us.
Instead, they have focused on President Biden’s pardon of his son, many of them condemning what they say is Biden’s rejection of the rule of law.
Some have suggested that Biden’s pardoning his son will now give Trump license to pardon anyone he wants, apparently forgetting that in his first term, Trump pardoned his daughter Ivanka’s father-in-law, Charles Kushner, who pleaded guilty to federal charges of tax evasion, campaign finance offenses, and witness tampering and whom Trump has now tapped to become the U.S. ambassador to France.
Trump also pardoned for various crimes men who were associated with the ties between the 2016 Trump campaign and the Russian operatives working to elect Trump. Those included his former national security advisor Michael Flynn, former campaign manager Paul Manafort, and former allies Roger Stone and Steve Bannon. Those pardons, which suggested Trump was rewarding henchmen, received a fraction of the attention lavished on Biden’s pardon of his son.
In today’s news coverage, the exercise of the presidential pardon—which traditionally gets very little attention—has entirely outweighed the dangerous nominations of an incoming president, which will have profound influence on the American people. This imbalance reflects a longstanding and classic power dynamic in which Republicans set the terms of public debate, excusing their own objectionable behavior while constantly attacking Democrats in a fiery display that attracts media attention but distorts reality."
This is the quote that should terrify all honest Americans:
"Biden’s distrust of our legal system under Trump is a profound warning for all of us."
It is a very easy to understand, unless ones eyes have been closed, ones ears have been plugged, and one's independent thinking has ceased to function.
Which thoroughly and accurately describes the cult of You Know Who.
“Biden didn’t pardon Hunter until Trump said he would appoint Kash Patel as head of the FBI.
Kash Patel has openly admitted he would abuse the power of law enforcement to go after Trump’s enemies.
Why doesn’t anybody recognize that the person who is breaking norms and abusing power is TRUMP?” Mikel Jollet
ABJECT IGNORANCE. Deep and very dangerous.
You Know Who stated he loves the uneducated. And now, all independently thinking people are absolutely certain just why that is.
The 21st century produced two Tyrants of no conscience in western political ideology, You Now Who and Benjamin Netanyahu.
A fake Christian and a fake Jew.
Hunter was found guilty under the current administrations DOJ not trump so joey b said he doesn't trust his own DOJ. Of course I doubt he remembers saying he will not pardon his son because of mental decline and of course the truth has evaded him for decades. It is impossible to condone his action so the left just turns everything back to it's trumps fault.
Bla, bla, bla. Reifird ignorance is a stubborn nut to crack. Keep working at it skud. We're pulling for ya.
There he goes again.
Skud thinks Trump's DOJ wouldn't go out of its way to persecute the Biden family. The Corrupt Supreme Court gave Trump the unaccountable power to send his DOJ to interfere in elections and fabricate false charges against those he hates. Skud has no opinion, or even awareness, of this being a factor.
Obviously, Skud ignored this:
"As legal commentator Asha Rangappa noted: “People criticizing the Hunter Biden pardon need to recognize: For the 1st time, the FBI and Justice Department could literally fabricate evidence, or collaborate with a foreign government to ‘find’ evidence of a ‘crime,’ with zero accountability. That’s why the pardon goes back to 2014.”
Keep doing you, Skud. Trump thanks you for your vote.
How thoughtful of you to point out that President Biden might be a "serial liar" or demented because he did what any father would do for a son who'd been mercilessly hounded and pilloried by partisan hacks while going through recovery from addiction -- one of the most difficult and fraught times in any person's life.
I mean, without folks like you -- the kind of people who live pure and untainted lives -- whom would we be able to point to as a contrast to the wretches who stumble, fall, and then strive to recover their humanity?
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