Rough Guy
You know; Hunter Biden is a “rough” guy. He’s been addicted to drugs. He ignored a “one night stand” child. Hunter’s played “fast and loose” with his income taxes, his law degree (Yale), and his connections to one of the most powerful men in the country. But Hunter Biden’s father loves him and stands by him, regardless of the addiction or the behaviors. Hunter, in fact, is the definition of the “black sheep” of the Biden family, and not in a “good” way.
The younger Biden pled guilty to misdemeanor counts of tax evasion and falsification on a gun permit. This “deal” was offered by the US Attorney for Delaware, David Weiss, a Republican appointed to office by Donald Trump. The Biden Administration specifically left Weiss in his position so that there would be no questions of bias. Weiss himself said that he had all the power he needed to complete the investigation and bring the appropriate charges.
Lots of Smoke
There is a tremendous amount of “smoke” around the Hunter Biden fire. Much of it was created by Rudy Giuliani. He spent part of 2018 fishing in the murky politics of Ukraine/Russian relations trying to find “dirt” to use against Joe Biden in 2020. One of Giuliani’s aides was Lev Parnas, a Ukrainian-born businessman who served as a conduit for Ukrainian politicians to the former Mayor. Parnas was later convicted in the US of campaign finance fraud, and is serving a twenty month federal prison sentence.
In 2016, then-Vice President Biden went to Ukraine to talk to officials about $1 Billion in US aid. According to Biden himself, he told then-Ukrainian President Poroshenko to replace the state prosecutor, Lutsenko, who wouldn’t prosecute public corruption. When Poroshenko said that the Vice President didn’t have that authority, Biden threatened to call President Obama. The prosecutor was replaced.
At the same time, Hunter Biden took a lucrative position as a board member of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company. Several US diplomats involved in Ukraine warned that Hunter’s actions “looked bad”, an apparent use of his father’s position for profit. It was in the United States’ interest and policy that the $1 Billion not be stolen by corruption in the Ukrainian government, and Hunter Biden didn’t help. It soon didn’t matter though, as Joe Biden left office in January of 2017.
Alternate Theory
Mayor Giuliani created an “alternate theory” of the Bidens’ actions. This theory was political storytelling, encouraged by sources connected to Russian intelligence. Giuliani claimed that the Vice President demanded the removal of Lutsenko because the prosecutor planned on charging Hunter Biden. (Much later, Lutsenko backed Giuliani’s charges, and a successor prosecutor said he was fired for NOT investigating him).
And then, miraculously, Giuliani found Hunter Biden’s laptop computer, abandoned at a Delaware computer repair shop. The nearly blind shop owner, John Paul Mac Isaac, copied the hard disc and found all sorts of “evidence” of Hunter’s involvement in Ukrainian corruption, as well as nude pictures of Hunter and women. According to Mac Isaac, he tried to turn the laptop over to the FBI, but they showed little interest. So he gave it to Giuliani who ultimately gave it first to the New York Post, and then to the Justice Department.
There is a legal principle about evidence (like the laptop) called “chain of custody”. Evidence of a crime needs to be traceable back to its origins, without gaps. Otherwise, the evidence might be altered. The Hunter laptop has several “breaks in the chain”, and it’s likely none of that information could be used by Justice in Court.
Parnas this week wrote a letter from prison to the Republican Chairman of the House Committee investigating Hunter, telling them that he never found any real evidence of Hunter’s involvement.
Fact and Fiction
So what we have is Joe Biden’s story, backed by US diplomats (even those who warned about Hunter’s involvement). Or we have Giuliani’s story, backed by rumors and information (disinformation) from Russian intelligence and a disgraced former Ukrainian Prosecutor. And discredited by Giuliani’s aide, Mr. Parnas.
The Trump-supporting Republicans in the House of Representatives are hooked on Giuliani’s story as a line of attack on President Biden. They hope to weaken him in the 2024 election in the same way they weakened Hillary Clinton with the Benghazi hearings. But there is a critical difference. The House Republicans attacked Clinton’s lack of action during Benghazi. But they are only indirectly attacking Joe Biden in the “Hunter hearings” today. They are instead attacking his son.
It’s more as if there were hearings about Chelsea Clinton, or even Donald Trump Jr. The full power of the House of Representatives is being brought against a private citizen of the United States.
Where’s the Fire
The “Hunter Hearings” are a “payback” for the Democratic House Trump investigations of the past six years. But the difference is, the Democrats were investigating the duly elected President of the United States: first for connections to Russia during the 2016 election, then for withholding aid from Ukraine for political purposes, then for fomenting election fraud and insurrection. It’s politics: “…all’s fair in love, war, and politics”. But it’s not “fair” to attack the children of the President, even the failed ones: it’s not “equivalent”.
So we’ll watch the “Hunter Hearings” today. We will listen to the “whistleblowers” (hopefully they will show up this time). But in the end, we aren’t talking about government corruption. The Republicans can’t get to the President, so they are hitting his “weak spot”, his troubled youngest son. And they are hitting him with what they know is weak and even falsified evidence. But it doesn’t matter; they’re getting the “smoke” they want.
Even though there’s no fire.
