You know; Hunter Biden is a \u201crough\u201d guy.\u00a0\u00a0He\u2019s been addicted to drugs. He ignored a \u201cone night stand\u201d child. Hunter’s\u00a0played \u201cfast and loose\u201d with his income taxes, his law degree (Yale), and his connections to one of the most powerful men in the country.\u00a0 But Hunter Biden’s father loves him and stands by him, regardless of the addiction or the behaviors.\u00a0\u00a0Hunter, in fact, is the definition of the \u201cblack sheep\u201d of the Biden family, and not in a \u201cgood\u201d way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The younger Biden pled guilty to misdemeanor counts of tax evasion and falsification on a gun permit.\u00a0\u00a0This \u201cdeal\u201d was offered by the US Attorney for Delaware, David Weiss, a Republican appointed to office by Donald Trump.\u00a0\u00a0The Biden Administration specifically left Weiss in his position so that there would be no questions of bias.\u00a0\u00a0Weiss himself said that he had all the power he needed to complete the investigation and bring the appropriate charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is a tremendous amount of \u201csmoke\u201d around the Hunter Biden fire.\u00a0\u00a0Much of it was created by Rudy Giuliani. He spent part of 2018 fishing in the murky politics of Ukraine\/Russian relations trying to find \u201cdirt\u201d to use against Joe Biden in 2020.\u00a0\u00a0One of Giuliani\u2019s aides was Lev Parnas, a Ukrainian-born businessman who served as a conduit for Ukrainian politicians to the former Mayor.\u00a0\u00a0Parnas was later convicted in the US of campaign finance fraud, and is serving a twenty month federal prison sentence.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2016, then-Vice President Biden went to Ukraine to talk to officials about $1 Billion in US aid.\u00a0\u00a0According to Biden himself, he told then-Ukrainian President Poroshenko to replace the state prosecutor, Lutsenko, who wouldn\u2019t prosecute public corruption.\u00a0\u00a0When Poroshenko said that the Vice President didn\u2019t have that authority, Biden threatened to call President Obama.\u00a0\u00a0The prosecutor was replaced.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the same time, Hunter Biden took a lucrative position as a board member of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company.\u00a0\u00a0Several US diplomats involved in Ukraine warned that Hunter\u2019s actions \u201clooked bad\u201d,\u00a0\u00a0an apparent use of his father\u2019s position for profit.\u00a0\u00a0It was in the United States\u2019 interest and policy that the $1 Billion not be stolen by corruption in the Ukrainian government, and Hunter Biden didn\u2019t help.\u00a0\u00a0It soon didn\u2019t matter though, as Joe Biden left office in January of 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mayor Giuliani created an \u201calternate theory\u201d of the Bidens\u2019 actions.\u00a0\u00a0This theory was political storytelling, encouraged by sources connected to Russian intelligence.\u00a0\u00a0Giuliani claimed that the Vice President demanded the removal of Lutsenko because the prosecutor planned on charging Hunter Biden. (Much later, Lutsenko backed Giuliani\u2019s charges, and a successor prosecutor said he was fired for NOT investigating him).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And then, miraculously, Giuliani found Hunter Biden\u2019s laptop computer, abandoned at a Delaware computer repair shop.\u00a0\u00a0The nearly blind shop owner, John Paul Mac Isaac, copied the hard disc and found all sorts of \u201cevidence\u201d of Hunter\u2019s involvement in Ukrainian corruption, as well as nude pictures of Hunter and women.\u00a0\u00a0According to Mac Isaac, he tried to turn the laptop over to the FBI, but they showed little interest.\u00a0\u00a0So he gave it to Giuliani who ultimately gave it first to the\u00a0New York Post,\u00a0<\/em>and then to the Justice Department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is a legal principle about evidence (like the laptop) called \u201cchain of custody\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Evidence of a crime needs to be traceable back to its origins, without gaps.\u00a0\u00a0Otherwise, the evidence might be altered.\u00a0\u00a0The Hunter laptop has several \u201cbreaks in the chain\u201d, and it\u2019s likely none of that information could be used by Justice in Court.<\/p>\n\n\n\n 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\u2019s involvement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So what we have is Joe Biden\u2019s story, backed by US diplomats (even those who warned about Hunter\u2019s involvement). Or we have Giuliani\u2019s story, backed by rumors and information (disinformation) from Russian intelligence and a disgraced former Ukrainian Prosecutor. And discredited by Giuliani\u2019s aide, Mr. Parnas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Trump-supporting Republicans in the House of Representatives are hooked on Giuliani\u2019s 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\u2019s lack of action during Benghazi. But they are only indirectly attacking Joe Biden in the \u201cHunter hearings\u201d today. They are instead attacking his son.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s more as if there were hearings about Chelsea Clinton, or even Donald Trump Jr.\u00a0\u00a0The full power of the House of Representatives is being brought against a private citizen of the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The \u201cHunter Hearings\u201d are a \u201cpayback\u201d 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\u2019s politics: \u201c\u2026all\u2019s fair in love, war, and politics\u201d. But it\u2019s not \u201cfair\u201d to attack the children of the President, even the failed ones: it\u2019s not \u201cequivalent\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So we\u2019ll watch the \u201cHunter Hearings\u201d today. We will listen to the \u201cwhistleblowers\u201d (hopefully they will show up this time). But in the end, we aren\u2019t talking about government corruption. The Republicans can\u2019t get to the President, so they are hitting his \u201cweak spot\u201d, his troubled youngest son. And they are hitting him with what they know is weak and even falsified evidence. But it doesn\u2019t matter; they\u2019re getting the \u201csmoke\u201d they want. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Even though there\u2019s no fire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fact and Fiction<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Where’s the Fire<\/h3>\n\n\n\n