For those of you who are Fox watchers and are titillated by the coverage of the Hunter Biden Affair, let me make this prediction: Hunter Biden will never see the inside of a federal prison cell.
I’m not going to call the Special Prosecutor biased but I do wonder why two of the lawyers he has on his team are acquaintances of Mr. Biden. One of them actually enters the realm of being a friend of the not yet accused. That the Special Prosecutor has been called out by two separate whistleblowers as having had the goods on Mr. Biden several years ago but allowed the statute of limitations to expire or the so-called plea agreement wherein the defense team asserted that the diversion on the gun possession charge immunized Mr. Biden against further prosecution are also unique situations. No, I’m not going to call the Special Prosecutor biased, I just don’t understand his actions.
The gun charge will be thrown out by the judge unless the charge of lying on the application is also made. This violation carries a potential $250,000.00 fine and up to ten years in jail. The law against possession of a firearm by a drug user was found to be unconstitutional last month by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. Previously, and in a separate case, a Federal Judge in Oklahoma also declared the law to be unconstitutional and a violation of the defendant’s right of self-protection under the 2nd Amendment. Thus, if the possession of a gun by a drug user is the only charge Mr. Biden faces there is doubt if it will actually result in a trial. Should he be charged with being an unregistered agent of a foreign government (Burisma is a government entity and the Chinese Communist Party and its partially and wholly-owned companies are also considered government entities) then there will be a trial which will probably not be held until well into the new calendar year. He may plead on that charge (penalty is up to five years in federal prison and a $250,000.00 fine) but I doubt. If there is a conviction it will be appealed and odds are Mr. Biden will be allowed to remain out of jail on bail.
Then the Joker in this deck is, of course, a Presidential pardon. If President Biden loses the election in November 2024 he will wait until the day before he leaves office and issue a blanket pardon, probably not just to Hunter but James and other family members who allegedly received funds from the Hunter Biden deals. He will pardon them for any and all crimes committed before January 20, 2025. The Supreme Court has ruled that the power of a Presidential Pardon is absolute, so there can be no challenge, even when it appears money may have changed hands in arranging the pardons. (See Marc Rich and Clinton pardon).
Although only one president has pardoned a family member there is precedent. Bill Clinton pardoned his brother Roger Clinton for previous drug offenses. He almost had to pardon Hillary’s brother Hugh who received $400,000 to lobby the White House for pardons for two felons. Luckily, wiser heads prevailed and he gave the money back. So the story goes.
Anyway, the prediction is: Hunter Biden will not spend a night in a federal prison cell. Now a pardon is tacit admission that crime(s) was/were committed, so pardoning Hunter at the wrong point may open the President to a direct impeachment proceeding based not upon the pardon, but the crimes for which the pardon was issued and his knowledge and participation therein. So while Hunter won’t go to jail the soap opera will continue.