This wasn’t supposed to happen.
Back in June, after his son was found guilty on gun charges, President Biden said: “I will not pardon him.”
Now he’s saying “I believe in the justice system, but …”
Let’s remember the Conspiracy Theory floating around before the election.
Various cynical people, cynics I call them, declared that despite Biden’s pledge not to pardon his son, he was only waiting for the election. After the election, when the action could no longer hurt him or any Biden-substitute candidate, he would then pardon his son.
And so it has come to pass— as of last night.
I guess if you can’t get Al Capone on anything else, you get him on tax evasion. But I don’t care that much about the gun charges or the tax charges against Hunter Biden. I care about the corruption.
I care about the many millions of dollars funneled into the Biden family and the Big Guy, Joe Biden, in consequence of Hunter Biden’s influence-peddling deal-making with firms in Ukraine, Romania, and China. Millions that fell into his lap over the years only because of who his dad is. And what daddy could do — as in fire a Ukrainian prosecutor looking into Biden family corruption.
Riding high, Hunter Biden felt he could get away with anything, including massive tax evasion.
The son can, I take it, no longer be imprisoned for any of the law-breaking we know about. Or even suspect.So maybe, thus unencumbered, Hunter can now take the stand about his father’s role in all the graft and bribery.
Interestingly, Hunter’s pardon removes his ability to assert his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Because he can’t be incriminated, i.e. criminalized, he can be compelled to testify.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
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6 replies on “The Pardon We All Saw Coming”
Moreover, President Biden cannot pardon criminal acts before they occur, such as perjury in future testimony.
However, I expect President Biden to pre-emptively pardon other members of his family. He may even try to pardon himself; and, if Biden does not, then President Trump will probably do so. So the only sworn testimony Hunter Biden is likely to give would be at a Congressional hearing.
I further predict that, if President Trump pardons his predecessor, then mainstream journalists and talk-show hosts — and one commentator to this ‘blog — will initially pontificate that Trump did so only to create a misleading impression that Joe Biden needed a pardon.
While the courts seem to agree with your interpretation of the Fifth Amendment, the plain text of that Amendment isn’t:
“nor shall be compelled in ANY criminal case to be a witness against himself”
Emphasis mine. In order to testify about any criminality involving both his father and himself, he’d necessarily have to testify against himself, whether that testimony implies any penalties for him or not. “Any” means “any.”
Personally, I’d like to see the presidential pardon power explicitly changed to exclude the president pardoning himself, close family members, former business associates, and executive branch employees (with more specific definitions of those categories). But I suspect we’re past the point in the ongoing “national divorce” litigation where any constitutional amendment could get 2/3 of both houses of Congress and 3/4 of the state legislatures.
Pardoned for federal tax evasion. Still could be on the hook for not paying state income taxes for the same income. Does mean he can no longer plead the fifth if he is subpoenaed.
C’mon Paul, it’s tit for tat is all it is. You pardon Roger Stone and all those other criminal cronies of yours, I pardon my kid. And here’s my middle finger as I walk out the door.…
You’re so concerned to sterilized the scandal of the pardon that you’re missing the point that Hunter Biden can no longer successfully invoke the Fifth Amendment, so that a much greater scandal can be blown wide open.
But Trump did not issue any blanket pardons for uncharged crimes and did not issue any pardons that he’d repeatedly promised not to issue. Your cry of “Ilse quoque!” is a poor fit.
Hunter had associates who were also involved in this influence-peddling scheme. It wasn’t a one-man operation. If any of his former associates are tried on related charges, it’s not inconceivable that their attorneys would subpoena Hunter to testify. The pardon allows Hunter to testify without invoking the Fifth Amendment. To prevent that, Joe Biden might have to pardon anyone and everyone Hunter ever did business with, along with all members of the Biden family.