Andrew Grossman
On December 1, President Biden pardoned his son Hunter Biden, who was facing sentencing this month for federal gun and tax charges. The junior Biden was facing potential prison time of 24 years after being convicted in June of three federal charges for purchasing a handgun while addicted to illegal drugs. He was also facing 9 charges related to tax evasion, carrying up to 17 years, in relation to $1.4 million in taxes the indictment claims he failed to pay and which he covered up with false filings in 2018.
Through his press secretary, President Biden had stated that he would not pardon his son as recently as November 7. In fact, Biden has followed in the tradition of outgoing presidents pardoning family members, including Bill Clinton pardoning his brother retroactively of drug charges and Donald Trump pardoning real estate capitalist Charles Kushner for tax evasion and witness tampering. Kushner is set to be Trump’s ambassador to France.
Biden’s pardon covers all potential federal crimes committed over a ten year period during which he was working a lucrative advisor position for the Ukrainian energy firm Burisma. The junior Biden’s defense up until the pardon hinged on his addiction to drugs during the time of the charges—his lavish spending which was backed up by the tax evasion, according to prosecutors, included stays at luxury hotels and escort fees while attending strip clubs. More recent filings accused the junior Biden of accepting bribes from Romanian businessmen in exchange for political favors.
In his announcement, President Biden cited his love for his family and his belief that the charges were politically-motivated. The judge overseeing the tax case is a Trump-appointee, as was special counsel David Weiss, who filed both indictments against Hunter Biden.
“No reasonable person who looks at the facts of Hunter’s cases can reach any other conclusion than Hunter was singled out only because he is my son—and that is wrong,” Biden said in his statement. Indeed, it was Hunter Biden’s overseas work on behalf of the imperialists his father represents in the White House that forms the backdrop for the courtroom drama, making this a case of the Republican ruling class mafia trying to undercut the Democrat ruling class mafia.
Picking up on this, Democrat lawmakers have expressed concern that the pardon will weaken people’s faith in “democracy” and strengthen the impression of a two-tier justice system—one for the wealthy and one for the poor.
While Hunter Biden walks free thanks to his father’s pardon, 1.9 million people are incarcerated in the US across the various state and federal detention facilities in its bloated prison system, which disproportionately locks up Black, Hispanic, and poor people. Nepotism proves a durable commonality between the imperialist gangs.
image: Hunter Biden at a Center for Strategic and International Studies (an imperialist think-tank) conference on combining US government and private sector “development efforts” in the third world in 2013
