I read over Biden's statement, and it makes sense to me. Hunter was singled out for political purposes. It would seem weird if Biden didn't issue the pardon.
this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2024
244 points (90.1% liked)
politics
19165 readers
2694 users here now
Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!
Rules:
- Post only links to articles, Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.
Links must be to the original source, not an aggregator like Google Amp, MSN, or Yahoo.
Example:
- Articles must be relevant to politics. Links must be to quality and original content. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and rehosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
- Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
- No memes, trolling, or low-effort comments. Reposts, misinformation, off-topic, trolling, or offensive. Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
- Vote based on comment quality, not agreement. This community aims to foster discussion; please reward people for putting effort into articulating their viewpoint, even if you disagree with it.
- No hate speech, slurs, celebrating death, advocating violence, or abusive language. This will result in a ban. Usernames containing racist, or inappropriate slurs will be banned without warning
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
That's all the rules!
Civic Links
• Congressional Awards Program
• Library of Congress Legislative Resources
• U.S. House of Representatives
Partnered Communities:
• News
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Good decision. Trump and his gang promised all kinds of revenge. They don't play by the rules. So it makes sense to do whatever for your last son.
Agreed. If Hunter Biden’s issues hadn’t been politically weaponized so much, I doubt Biden would have done it, but the truth is, with Trump coming in to office and threatening retaliation, it makes sense to pardon him.
The crimes Hunter was charged with are rarely enforced and rarely involve jail time. The Republican's made this a political circus that would have certainly had Hunter doing time. If it wasn't for that, Joe would not have needed to pardon him.
load more comments
(2 replies)
Yeah even the president isn't going to stand behind the American justice system.
load more comments
(23 replies)
Trump committed treason on national television, Hunter was only ever charged because his dad was President of the party opposite of the Prosecutor.
If the former gets off scott free, so should the later.
If the republicans don’t like this, the democrats will happily support a supermajority legislature vote that starts limiting executive power.
load more comments
(1 replies)
I don't blame Biden for doing this. The qons will try to exact some extra-legal revenge on Hunter if they can get him into prison over his hard drive, er, I mean, "laptop".
I think he's concerned Trumps DOJ is going to come after them. Still super shady. But that'd be my guess as to why he did it, beyond the whole, he's my kid thing.
Should be illegal to pardon family members honestly. If there was ever an easy example of a conflict of interest, this is one.
You mean like Ivanka's father-in-law who Trump pardoned and named ambassador to France?
For Biden, it was the most difficult decision of his presidency. For Trump, it was Tuesday.
Yep, absolutely. Presidential powers should be used for the good of the country, not the good of your friends and family. There are many legitimate reasons to pardon people but them being related to you is not one of them.
A fair point but do you think Hunter would have been prosecuted to the same extent if he hadn't been related to Joe Biden?
However, it may work out better in the end for him that they went after him for ALL the crimes, because now he's pardoned for all of them and can't be tried for them again. We know Trump wants to go after Joe, but he'll have to come from a different direction.
load more comments
(11 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
Exactly.
load more comments
(8 replies)
ITT: people who ignored the persecution Hunter has faced and are judging this on only an extremely shallow level
load more comments
(2 replies)
Biden knows they will come after himself but he's too old so they will slam the hammer on his son with the maximum force they can get out of it, this is a good way to thwart that political attack.
Also, someone should remind Trump that he handled firearms after he was convicted of a felony and was not prosecuted for that ...
Though I don't think the importance of that fact will dawn on Trump, he never felt rules applied to him.
Old rich guy who has never had to face consequences for any action coming to a realization? Sure.
Sure wish anyfuckingbody with power cared about helping THE ACTUAL COUNTRY WHILE THERE'S STILL TIME
Despite what Biden may try and spin this as, this is not just about the (aggressively politicized and pursued) 4473 ‘unlawful user’ perjury charge - otherwise why include the years prior to that act?
President Joe Biden’s son is charged with lying about his drug use in October 2018 on a form to buy a gun that he kept for about 11 days in Delaware
Because Biden pardoned him from 2014 to present, it also includes the known tax evasion and FARA illicit lobbying concerns.
The Justice Department on Tuesday [June 18th 2023] said the investigation into Hunter Biden was “ongoing” even as it announced terms of a plea agreement [for gun and tax charges]
DoJ felt that there was more to investigate even if the tax and gun charges were covered in a plea deal. Read: there’s something there regarding Hunter’s lobbying efforts - and from internal Burisma emails he knew about the law and FARA concerns.
In the same April 2014 email, Hunter Biden indicated that Burisma’s officials “need to know in no uncertain terms that we will not and cannot intervene directly with domestic policymakers, and that we need to abide by FARA and any other U.S. laws in the strictest sense across the board.”
Biden is right that most 4473 charges would never get this far - what he’s cynically not pointing out (from the bully pulpit, lame duck or not) is the context of why prosecutors drop gun charges in plea deals or pursue maximal charges at trial, or the wider criminal case against his son.
The simple truth is, the entire case against Hunter Biden was politically motivated from the start.
He paid the back taxes and the gun charges are normally laughed out of court.
This was always a Republican prosecutor wanting to make a name for themselves, and with Trump taking power, well, we all know how vindictive Trump is.
I don't expect this pardon to matter much, Trump and the Republicans don't care about law or tradition or reality. They care about power, and are less than 2 months away from it.
load more comments
(2 replies)
Oh right, Republicans went after his family and he still picked Garland as his AG.
I'm not an American, and as such I don't think it's my thing to speak on so do not take this as an instructive comment, but I will reflect on it anyway. I believe that this was, on balance, a bad decision even if I understand it and can find good, honest reasons for Biden to do it. In the end, the POTUS has this power and is free to use it as the president wishes. I hope it will lead to something positive.
The fact that Trump has said that he might pardon Hunter and now is complaining about the fact that Biden did it himself shows once again how everything said by Donald is a convenient temporary truth. Even if this puts the light on Biden also being problematic with this behavior.
edit: a word
It's a poison pill for pardons. Either they are essentially absolute and irreversible, or they aren't and all of the ones Trump made and will make are up for debate. He can grumble all he wants but for Trump to call this pardon "such an abuse and miscarriage of justice" is absolutely laughable given the decade of insanity and illegal stuff coming out of his orange anus. The toilet photo of all the documents should have been enough to jail this man for life in a black site but I guess justice is a miscarriage after all.
load more comments
(1 replies)
So glad Biden is so concerned about following the law that protecting vulnerable people with his newly granted immunity is something he would never consider doing.
Nice. Hopefully Biden keeps doing more good shit in his remaining few weeks while the MAGAt snowflakes are triggered and distracted by Hunter's dick again.
load more comments
(1 replies)
view more: next ›